Draft, Comparison Essay

Draft , Comparison Essay - Comparison Essay

The of debate is whether the precautionary principle provides a sound approaches to risk analysis . The precautionary principle is applicable in certain situations in which human activities may lead to damage that is morally not acceptable , but which is scientifically reasonable but unsure . In such a situation action should be taken to reduce the extent of harm rather than completely stop the human activities . A precautionary principle would not apply to protect against known risk factors , but from anticipating and preventing unknown risk factors that can

cause damage (whose extent and seriousness cannot be estimated . In defining such risks the chances of the event occurring and the extent of seriousness of the event needs to be determined . This is where preventive action would come into place However , if the damage or the risk cannot be estimated with a reasonable amount of preciseness or certainty , the precautionary principle would be applicable . The harm intended would refer to harm threatening life or health of human beings , threat to serious and irreversible damage to humans that may be present over generations and also the chances of affecting human rights . One of the first instances in which the precautionary principle was successfully utilized was to demonstrate the ill-effect of leaded petrol . This was a case between the oil industry and the EPA in which the EPA was unable to demonstrate that lead present in petrol was causing damage but did not have the scientific evidence that it actually...