A risk and safety science perspective on the precautionary principle

Abstract

The precautionary principle is strongly debated as a policy for handling risk and safety concerns. It is commonly claimed that the principle is paralyzing, unscientific and promotes a culture of irrational fear. The risk and safety literature contains considerable work providing support for such claims but also argumentation backing the principle. The present paper aims at contributing to this discussion by investigating the principle in view of what is here referred to as contemporary risk and safety science. Common beliefs about the principle are revisited. New insights are obtained by clarifying the risk and safety fundamentals necessary to understand the principle’s motivation, applicability and limitations. The paper concludes that the precautionary principle is only relevant when the uncertainties and risks are considerable and scientific. Confusion arises, as the principle is mixed with the basic idea of risk management to give weight to uncertainties, in order to prudently handle risk. Properly understood and implemented, the precautionary principle can be aligned with decision analysis and other scientific methods.