Month: September 2022

CRITIC OF PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE. "Attempts to apply this concept to "proof of safety" for new food ingredients or products has led to the impossible demand of establishing the "absence of harm," with a level of evidence that avoids uncertainty. Any requirement to establish safety with no uncertainty will increase costs unnecessarily, and will prove futile." http://www.agbioforum.org/v3n4/v3n4a13-hathcock.htm View in LinkedIn

UNSCIENTIFIC? "U.S. industry representatives see the EU regulations as a pure trade obstacle and criticize the European arguments as unscientific. They claim there is no proof that the amounts of chlorine used to sanitize chicken meat harms the consumer. They point out that 120 other countries around the world accept the U.S. practice." http://lnkd.in/dDwxBBi View in LinkedIn

RISK MANAGEMENT. "Business groups contrast the precautionary principle to "a science-based approach to risk management." The presumptions built into our current legal decision-structure are profoundly unscientific. The basic assumption is that the planet has an infinite capacity to absorb harm from human economic activities." http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/mm2009/032009/interview-montague.html View in LinkedIn

POLITICIZATION OF SCIENCE in the aid of trade agreements. "Disputes over food safety suggest the outline of a new stage or scale of politicization," and the enormous increase in the stakes involved in the institutionalizations of science and risk assessment. http://lnkd.in/dtDvEdx View in LinkedIn

ACTUAL QUOTE. "Upon initial consideration, it might seem that the only alternative to precaution is recklessness but, in fact, excessive precaution leads to paralysis of actions resulting from unjustified fear. In many cases, the slight but non-zero risk associated with a product or process is far safer than the alternative of doing nothing." http://www.agbioforum.org/v3n4/v3n4a13-hathcock.htm View in LinkedIn

EXCESSIVE PRECAUTION. "Excellent examples include the outbreak of cholera resulting from fear of chlorinated water." ( I.e., "unjustified fear"). http://www.agbioforum.org/v3n4/v3n4a13-hathcock.htm View in LinkedIn

BILGE PURGING BAN IS RECKLESS PARALYSIS. "An early environmental application of the precautionary principle involved the prohibition of the purging of ship bilge contents and other wastes into the oceans. This requirement was justified by the paucity of data on the effects of the purged substances. Hence, a scientific risk assessment on this practice was not possible." http://www.agbioforum.org/v3n4/v3n4a13-hathcock.htm View in LinkedIn

PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE USED IN DRUG APPROVALS. "When a drug company wants to market a new drug, we ask them to provide reasonable evidence of no harm and we ask them to show that their new product will do some good (they must show "efficacy"). The assumption is that a new drug will be harmful or useless (or both) and it's up to the company to prove otherwise." http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/mm2009/032009/interview-montague.html View in LinkedIn

DRUG PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE is alive and well at the FDA and other drug regulatory agencies worldwide. The proponent of a new product undertakes the cost and responsibility of proving, to an objective statistical criterion, that the drug is both safe and effective. Obviously, safety is tempered by cost-benefit analysis, but efficacy (read "need" here) is held to the highest standards. View in LinkedIn

THE FDA "is the oldest comprehensive consumer protection agency in the U. S. federal government. The FDA and its responsibilities have undergone a metamorphosis since 1906. Yet the core public health mission of the agency remains now as it did then." The EU food agencies adopt the same mantra of consumer protection. http://lnkd.in/dZ7RaBU View in LinkedIn