The Precautionary approach to safety of new products

The burden of proof has been on the victim

In practice this means that every release of a new product has been a blind experiment with the environment and with the health of mankind. The industry has been successful in defending its "right" to conduct such "experiments" until it has been scientifically rigorously proven that a product is harmful. So the burden of proof has been on the victim, without any demands on the "culprit" to pay the costs. In some cases, like DDT, dioxin and fluorocarbons, extensive damage on a global scale has occurred before scientists have been able to confirm that the chemicals are harmful.

Appalling global consequences of present policy

We are already witnessing the beginning of global consequences of this policy. Experts are warning for extensive world hunger due to climatic changes and damage to the ozone shield. The health of people has been affected with increasing allergies, asthma, cancers and other diseases caused by chemical pollution. And much more. For a brief overview, see UNEP study of Global Environmental Crisis (a summary of GEO-2000, a United Nations Environmental report). The effects are so extensive and complex that it is yet difficult to foresee all that may happen. But the experts warn that the result may be large scale damage to the ecology and to the health of people, including the death of many millions and a considerable increase of the already unprecedentedly fast extinction of all kinds of species. If anything, the consequenes are likely to be worse than foreseen because of combined effects that are yet not apparent.

The Rio Declaration about the precautionary principle

Ecological experts have foreseen this since several years and their warnings resulted in the Rio Declaration from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. The Rio Declaration says, "In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States [meaning nations--P.M.] according to their capabilities. 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." The Declaration was signed by most countries in the world.

The burden of proof shifted to the producer

The precautionary principle shifts the burden of proof from the victim to the producer. When there are reasons to believe that harmful effects might ensue from a new technology, the industry has to establish scientifically that the technology or product is safe.

Unfortunately powerful industrial lobbies have so far been able to dilute or nullify the application of this principle, not the least in the case of genetic engineering. One reason is that it is very expensive and often takes several years to prove that a new product is harmless.

Growing world wide recognition

But there is a growing world wide recognition now that we cannot continue to let the global ecology and the whole mankind be the test ground for new products with unknown and possibly irreparable effects. We can only hope that this insight will lead to concrete results soon enough to prevent even more serious damage than we are witnessing today.

Jaan Suurkula

For more about the precautionary principle, see: