This morning I had the good fortune to chair a small roundtable discussion on applying the precautionary principle in the context of large business projects such as those undertaken by the extractives industries and agriculture.

FORBES: Operationalizing the Precautionary Principle for Biodiversity

Perhaps there is now also a need for an international standard on how to use the precautionary principle in decision-making.

FORBES: Operationalizing the Precautionary Principle for Biodiversity

By contrast, the African countries, with Malaysia and some Latin American countries, favour a restrictive protocol based on the so-called precautionary principle.

ECONOMIST: Genetically modified free trade

Furthermore, in practice invocation of the precautionary principle focuses attention solely on the possibility of harm, often ignoring information about the dose to which people are exposed, avoiding consideration of benefits of the agent in question and whether safer substitutes are available, and giving greater weight to studies that appear to indicate a hazard, even when these studies may be of poorer quality.

FORBES: How Activism Distorts The Assessment Of Health Risks

Among Lib Dem demands is that the precautionary principle should be used so beams from masts do not fall on schools, playing fields or hospitals.

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