Where an action risks serious or irreversible harm, absence of scientific consensus does not justify delaying prevention.
From the German Vorsorgeprinzip and the 1992 Rio Declaration. Its criticism is that strong forms are self-defeating, since inaction also carries risk that the principle does not weigh.
In practice
- A council delays a cycle lane pending a full safety study, and the junction keeps the collision rate the lane was meant to cut.
- A regulator that refuses a treatment pending certainty has chosen the harm of the untreated condition, which the principle does not weigh.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Risk & Reliability
- Essay
- How much caution, and the jokes about its limits