Policies that Use Precaution to Make Decisions

San Francisco Adopts Precautionary Principle Ordinance

On July 31, 2003, San Francisco's new environment code and Precautionary  Principle policy became law. San Francisco is the first city in the nation to adopt a precautionary approach when developing new environmental policies.

The Precautionary Principle is a way of thinking that aims to protect  the health of the public by preventing harm rather than responding after harm has occured. The Precautionary Principle shifts the burden of proof. Rather than asking, "How much harm is acceptable?", it asks us to consider, "How little harm is possible?" The Principle holds that proponents of an activity or product are responsible for assessing the safety before it is undertaken or introduced and that alternative ways of accomplishing the same goal be considered in order to avoid causing undue harm to human health or ecosystems.

In San Francisco, if a practice poses a threat to human health or the possibility of serious environmental damage, the Department of the Environment employs a precautionary approach to use the best available science to identify cost-effective alternatives that present the least potential threat to human health and the city's natural systems. The Precautionary Principle policy stresses that public participation and a transparent decision-making process are critical to finding and selecting alternatives. When science cannot yet fully establish a cause-and-effect  relationship, but can provide reasonable plausibility of harm, this principle urges taking precautionary measures in order to avaoid harm before it occurs.

For more information, go to www.sehn.org.

At National Convention, American Nurses Association Approves Precautionary Principles

In June 2004 the American Nurses Association (ANA) approved two resolutions: One centers on the need for ANA to define how nurses and the profession can assume leadership in reducing the burden of environmentally associated disease and calls on ANA to provide that leadership by developing environmental health principles  based on the Precautionary Principle. The other urges the phase out of the non-therapeutic use of medically important antibiotics as feed additives in order to protect their efficacy in human medicine.

See www.nursingworld.org for more information.

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