Environmental justice and harm to humans - Environmental Harm: An Eco-justice Perspective - page 39

have a right to be protected from environmental degradation) and harm
prevention (the focuses on eliminating a threat before harm occurs).
Each of these areas requires considerable resources be devoted to
measuring things such as human exposure to environmental chemicals,
and sociological analysis of harm and risk distributions among diverse
population groups.
An important part of the environmental social justice framework is
ideological and practical support for the adoption of the precautionary
principle . The precautionary principle refers to the idea that official
action be taken to protect people and environments in cases where
there is scientific uncertainty as to the nature of the potential damage
or the likelihood of risk. Two definitions of the precautionary principle
are frequently mentioned in the literature. The first is from a United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in 1992
in Brazil. The second is from the Wingspread conference dealing
specifically with the precautionary principle held in 1998 (National
Toxics Network Inc., no date).
1992 Rio Declaration
In order to protect the environment, the precautionary
approach shall be widely applied by states 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.
1998 Wingspread Conference on the Precautionary Principle
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. In this context the proponent of
an activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden
of proof. The process of applying the precautionary
principle must be open, informed and democratic and must
include potentially affected parties. It must also involve an
examination of the full range of alternatives, including no
action.