![]() Empirical-Bayes and semi-Bayes approaches to occupational and environmental hazard surveillance. Bayes offers a 'new' way to make sense of numbers. Health risks posed by use of Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) in PVC medical devices: a critical review. Tickner JA, Schettler T, Guidotti T, McCally M, Rossi M.Precautionary principle stifles discovery. Breast-feeding exposure of infants to environmental contaminants-a public health risk assessment viewpoint: chlorinated dibenzodioxins and chlorinated dibenzofurans. Breast-feeding exposure of infants to cadmium, lead, and mercury: a public health viewpoint. Fifty-Hertz magnetic field exposures of premature infants in a neonatal intensive care unit. Aasen SE, Johnsson A, Bratlid D, Christensen T.This may not be the complete list of references from this article. The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (66K). The precautionary principle highlights this tight, challenging linkage between science and policy. While maintaining their objectivity and focus on understanding the world, environmental scientists should be aware of the policy uses of their work and of their social responsibility to do science that protects human health and the environment. ![]() There is a complicated feedback relation between the discoveries of science and the setting of policy. We argue that a shift to more precautionary policies creates opportunities and challenges for scientists to think differently about the ways they conduct studies and communicate results. In this complicated and contested terrain, it is useful to examine the methodologies of science and to consider ways that, without compromising integrity and objectivity, research can be more or less helpful to those who would act with precaution. In this paper we examine the implications of the precautionary principle for environmental scientists, whose work often involves studying highly complex, poorly understood systems, while at the same time facing conflicting pressures from those who seek to balance economic growth and environmental protection. The precautionary principle, proposed as a new guideline in environmental decision making, has four central components: taking preventive action in the face of uncertainty shifting the burden of proof to the proponents of an activity exploring a wide range of alternatives to possibly harmful actions and increasing public participation in decision making. Environmental scientists play a key role in society's responses to environmental problems, and many of the studies they perform are intended ultimately to affect policy.
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