Making decisions in the 21st century: Scientific data, weight of
evidence, and the precautionary principle
J. Burger
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute,
and Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation, Division
of Life Sciences, Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Rutgers University,
Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
Abstract: Traditionally, science has progressed by slow steps
involving the accumulation of studies showing particular effects, leading
eventually to a general consensus. However, with increasing development
and industrialization, environmental problems have escalated faster
than the ability to collect sufficient data to form clear consensus
among scientists. Since managers require scientific information to make
decisions about management, regulation, and public policy, the gap has
been partially filled by two approaches: weight of evidence and the
precautionary principle. I suggest that both are useful for making decisions
about endocrine active substances, although few papers in the refereed
literature link the precautionary principle with endocrine active substances.
As with most public policy decisions, these involve an iterative process
whereby scientific inquiry must continue to fill data gaps, and to determine
if the decisions made by these processes are still appropriate and protective
of human and ecological health. The precautionary principle is most
useful when it continues to inform and help direct research to fill
data gaps in our understanding of environmental problems, such as the
effect of endocrine active substances on endocrine disruption.
*Report from a SCOPE/IUPAC project: Implication of
Endocrine Active Substances for Human and Wildlife (J. Miyamoto and
J.Burger, editors). Other reports are published in this issue,
pp. 1617-2615.
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