Precautionary principle

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-021857",
  "term": "Precautionary principle",
  "field": "Environment",
  "term_source": "Precautionary Principle",
  "definition": "1. When information about potential risks is incomplete, basing decisions about the best ways to manage or reduce risks on a preference for avoiding unnecessary health risks instead of on unnecessary economic expenditures.\n\n2. Approach to decision-making which holds that we should take reasonable measures to prevent, minimize, or mitigate harms which are plausible and serious. Some countries have used the PP to make decisions concerning environmental protection or technology development.\n\n3. Tool used by decision makers to determine if an action or policy has the potential to cause harm to communities or the environment. If sound scientific information does not exist that the action or policy is harmful, then the obligation that it will not cause harm is the responsibility of those implementing the policy or action. The spirit of the principle indicates a social responsibility to protect communities and the environment from potential harm when science indicates a possible risk.",
  "subject": "Social and economic factors",
  "references": [
    "Terms of Environment",
    "NIH National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Glossary of Commonly Used Terms in Research Ethics",
    "Recommendations for Integrating Environmental Justice into the EPA's Research Enterprise June 30, 2014 A Report of Recommendations of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council A federal advisory committee to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-02/documents/nejac-research-recommendations-2014.pdf"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/precautionary-principle/"
}