Precautionary Principle

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Precautionary Principle

• Joe Hess Biogen Idec
• 760.231.2491
• Patti Krebs IEA
• 619.544.9684

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IEA Public Policy Role

• Air
• Water
• Hazardous Materials
• Solid Waste
• Energy
• Sustainability/ISO 14001/EMS
• Environmental Justice

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Agenda

• Definitions
• Use in Public Policy
• What it Means
• Alternatives
• Path Forward

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Precautionary Principle Examples
Tobacco Smoke Genetically Modified Foods Ban
of DDT Monarch Butterflies Potatoes Chlorine
disinfecting drinking water Medical Devices
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What is the Precautionary Principle?

• "An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure"
• "Better Safe than Sorry"
• "Do No Harm"
• "Look Before you Leap"

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Precautionary Principle General Definitions

• Society should guard against potentially harmful
  activities even if some cause and effect
  relationships have not been fully established.
• Take action now as individuals and as a society
  to prevent harm to human health and the
  environment before it happens.
• When the potentially adverse effects of a
  proposed activity are not fully understood, the
  action should not be allowed to proceed.

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Precautionary Principle 92 Rio Summit
1992 Rio Declaration "Where there are threats
of serious or irreversible damage, lack of
full scientific certainty shall not be used as a
reason for postponing cost-effective measures
to prevent environmental degradation."
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Precautionary Principle Wingspread
1998 Wingspread Statement "When an
activity raises threats of harm to human health
or the environment, precautionary measures
should be taken even if some cause and
effect relationships are not fully established
scientifically."
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Precautionary Principle and Government
RolePublic Trust Doctrine 1st Ever
"Where scientific evidence is preliminary and not
yet conclusive regarding resources which are part
of the public trust, it is prudent to
adopt precautionary principles in protecting the
resource. - Hawaii Supreme
Court, 2003
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San Francisco's Precautionary Principle 1st
City to Adopt Ordinance, 2003

• There is a duty to take anticipatory action to
  prevent harm
• The community has a right to know complete and
  accurate information
• Decisions must be transparent, participatory and
  informed by the best available information
• There is a duty to examine a full range of
  alternatives, including the alternative of doing
  nothing
• Decisions makers must consider the full range of
  cots, including costs outside the initial price

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Common Elements Precautionary Principle
- Plausible threats of harm -
Lack of scientific certainty -
Precautionary action to prevent harm
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Options for Use of the Precautionary Principle
- Ethical Directive, Belief or Philosophical
Guide Treaty Preambles
German word for precautionary principle means
"forecaring" Presidential
Commission on Sustainable Development -
Regulatory Tool Risk management
(rather than prevention)
Administrative agency activity - Overarching
principle guiding the research agenda,
legislative, regulatory and judicial actions
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Current vs Proposed Approaches
Current Framework Risk Assessment What is
acceptable level of harm(o.e., of cancers in
1000 people) Does this activity/product fall
within that level?
Precautionary Principle Alternatives Analysis Is
this potentially hazardous activity/product
necessary? What less hazardous options are
available? How little damage is possible?
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Definition Precautionary Approach
U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy To ensure the
sustainability of ecosystems for the benefit of
future as well as current generations,
decisionmakers should follow a balanced
precautionary approach, applying judicious and
responsible management practices based on the
best available science and on a proactive rather
than a reactive policy. Where threats of serious
or irreversible damage exist, lack of full
scientific certainty shall not be used as a
justification for postponing action to prevent
environmental degradation. Management plans and
actions based on this precautionary approach
should include scientific assessments, monitoring
mitigation measures to reduce environmental risk
where needed and periodic reviews of any
restrictions and their scientific uses.
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Industry Position

• Precautionary measures are wise and necessary
• Laws and regulatory programs already contain
  precautionary measures
• Concerned with extreme interpretation
• Want Science Based approach vs it Might Cause
  Harm

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PP Examples of Industry Activities

• Strong commitment to pollution prevention,
  continuous process improvement
• Environmentally preferable purchasing policy
• Raw Material/Product/Chemical Substitution
  (I.e., using less toxic formulations)
• Green Chemistry
• Recycling/Take-back programs

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CalEPADefining Environmental Justice Industry
recommendation Protect public health and the
environment of a reasonable threat of serious and
irreversible harm, based on the best available
scientific evidence and considering the risk of
potential harm, societal benefit, the level of
scientific uncertainty and the consequences of
both action and inaction.
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Chemical Regulation -- Challenges
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Fear of Chemicals

• Fear of chemicals is increasing Chemo-phobia
• Fear of products, manufacturing processes
• Groups pushing Body Burden Chemical
  Trespass campaigns
• Detection of chemicals in biomonitoring data
  perceived as equaling health impacts
• Regardless of at what levels.
• Biomonitoring information is personal and
  emotional.

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UC Berkeleys California Center for Policy
Research

• UC Berkeleys California Center for Policy
  Research conducted a closed process study to
  assess Californias capacity to monitor chemicals
  in the environment and human health.
• Report is expected to be released in early April.
  

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Berkeley Report Expected Recommendations

• New CA chemical agency.
• Remove from market synthetic chemicals that have
  been identified in humans.
• Assess new fees based on the volume of chemicals
  in commerce.
• Establish product substitution as the primary
  means of control.

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Political Venue

• Abandoning federal venue
• Focusing instead on state and local levels
• Legislation based on the Precautionary
  Principle
• Using global regulation, particularly the
  European Unions REACH and other policies as the
  standard for environmental policies
• CA represents a challenging political environment.

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Pending Legislation

• AB 319 (Chan)
• Bans the use of Bisphenol-A and phthalates in
  toys and products intended for children under the
  age of 3.
• Completely ignores weight of the evidence in
  favor of the precautionary principle.
• Set for hearing in Assembly Health, 4/5/05
• SB 490 (Lowenthal)
• Requires CalEPA to contract with the Netherlands
  to develop a list of substances that country has
  deemed hazardous to human health and report back
  to the legislature by 2006 the actions taken by
  the Netherlands to protect their citizenry.
• Outsourcing?

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Pending Legislation

• AB 289 (Chan)
• Requires chemical manufacturers to provide a
  test method to the state for thousands of
  chemicals imported or sold.
• Ignores wealth of information already available
  through ACCs High Production Volume Challenge
  program.
• Requests information on all chemicals, regardless
  of whether they are likely to be released
• Estimated costs to manufacturers 15 billion
• SB 600 (Ortiz)
• Healthy Californians Biomonitoring Program to
  measure chemical exposures in people.
• ACC supports science-based biomonitoring programs
  CDC is a good example.
• Biomonitoring data indicates an exposure has
  occurred but not when, where, or for how long.