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About the Project
The Precautionary Principle Project seeks to refine and enhance understanding of the precautionary principle, and to investigate ways in which the precautionary principle supports sound science as well as social and economic well-being. LCSP has taken a leading position in the effort to develop a strong implementing structure for precaution in science and in policy while addressing potential limitations to its application. The goal is to apply a vision of precaution that links science to anticipate hazards with policy to find the safest alternatives to meet our needs. The approach includes working with multiple constituencies to develop a clear understanding of precaution and its application. By working on both science and policy, the hope is to be able to develop a vision for precaution that is both practical and profoundly different from the current science and policy paradigms.
Over the past few years, LCSP researchers have been able to develop and promote a vision for the precautionary principle that integrates rigorous science and common-sense public policy. The project has worked with advocates, scientists, economists, and lawyers to develop this vision.
In 2001, the Lowell Center hosted the International Summit on Science and the Precautionary Principle, bringing together some 85 scientists, philosophers, legal scholars, and other environmental and health professionals from 17 countries to explore the relationship between science and the precautionary principle, and to develop a vision for scientific methods and policies that would more effectively support precautionary decision-making. An edited volume of presentations and discussions from the Summit, Precaution, Environmental Science, and Preventive Public Policy, has been published by Island Press. The Lowell Center has produced several articles on the precautionary principle for publication in peer-reviewed journals including Environmental Health Perspectives and The American Journal of Public Health. The US Department of Health and Human Services invited the Lowell Center to guest edit a special issue of its journal Public Health Reports on science, precaution, and public health, published in 2002.
The Lowell Center has provided technical support on the precautionary principle to the Austrian Ministry of Environment, Environment Canada, the Environmental Health Section of the Mexican Secretary of Health, the European Environment Agency, the European Union Joint Research Centers, and the World Health Organization, among others.
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