Precautionary Principle

[Nina Powers <npowers@home.com>]

This from a message posted by James Cooper;
"Regarding the Precautionary Principle, I think one of the confusing things is that there are two different versions. The original version, the language of which was derived from a United Nations meeting in Rio, and agreed to by the international community, calls for precaution when "there are threats of serious and irreversible damage." The second version, which is not officially endorsed by any government, softens the usage requirements to "when an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment." Clearly, there is a difference between serious threats and other threats. I think the second version is very difficult to interpret because there is no definition of what type of threat is appropriate for the Precautionary Principle."

Hi James, thank you for the opportunity to comment further on the importance of a sane,civilized society to use the precautionary principle. Perhaps EPA wouldn't have to struggle with how to increase the ability of the public affected by environmental assaults to participate if they used the precautionary principle in decisions and rule making. That is most certainly not the case now. The EPA mission statement could evolve from that of 30 years ago: To Protect Human Health And The Environment Through The Precautionary Principle.

This link on the Precautionary Principle is interesting;

	http://www.islandpress.org/ecocompass/prevent/