The Fate of Environmentally Relevant Chemical Compounds

KronoScope ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-229
Author(s):  
Jean M. Smolen
Keyword(s):  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Marcellus Shale ◽  
Chemical Compounds ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Chemical Substances ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Sources Of Pollution

Over the last few generations, our quality of life has improved with the development of specialized chemical compounds that have led to new products and new sources of pollution. Time is of the essence as we consider the prevalence of these compounds in the natural environment well past their intended lifetimes. The scientific community has gained insights into the reactivity and persistence of organic pollutants, insights that ought to allow society to make better decisions regarding the use and disposal of chemical substances in the future. History illustrates many examples of how using poorly understood substances can result in unintended consequences, reinforcing the need for the Precautionary Principle for decision-making under uncertainty. A case study examining drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale of the eastern United States exemplifies how a new use of multiple chemicals may have such consequences, a situation calling for application of the Precautionary Principle.

Balancing benefits and potential risks of vaccination: the precautionary principle and the law of unintended consequences

2021 ◽  
pp. bmjebm-2021-111773
Author(s):  
David Robert Grimes
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Life Saving ◽  
Potential Risks ◽  
Risk And Benefit

Vaccination is a life-saving endeavour, yet risk and uncertainty are unavoidable in science and medicine. Vaccination remains contentious in the public mind, and vaccine hesitancy is a serious public health issue. This has recently been reignited in the discussion over potential side effects of COVID-19 vaccines, and the decision by several countries to suspend measures such as the AstraZeneca vaccine. In these instances, the precautionary principle has often been invoked as a rationale, yet such heuristics do not adequately weigh potential harms against real benefits. How we analyse, communicate and react to potential harms is absolutely paramount to ensure the best decisions and outcomes for societal health, and maintaining public confidence. While balancing benefits and risks is an essential undertaking, it cannot be achieved without due consideration of several other pertinent factors, especially in the context of vaccination, where misguided or exaggerated fears have in the past imperilled public health. While well meaning, over reactions to potential hazards of vaccination and other health interventions can have unintended consequences, and cause lingering damage to public trust. In this analysis, we explore the challenges of assessing risk and benefit, and the limitations of the precautionary principle in these endeavours. When risk is unclear, cautious vigilance might be a more pragmatic and useful policy than reactionary suspensions.

The Precautionary Principle in the Twenty-First Century: A Case Study of Noise Pollution in the Ocean

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Gillespie
Keyword(s):  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Contemporary Problem ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
First Century ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Current State ◽  
Twenty First Century

AbstractThe precautionary principle is one of the most discussed ideas in international environmental law. However, despite over 20 years of dialogue, both its status and its aplication remains uncertain. This article attempts to rectify part of this difficulty by displaying the current state of play on the principle, and how it may be applied to a specific contemporary problem. The selected problem is noise pollution

scholarly journals Can Principals Promote Teacher Development as Evaluators? A Case Study of Principals’ Views and Experiences

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 711-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Kraft ◽  
Allison F. Gilmour
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Evaluation ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Evaluation System ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Urban District ◽  
Evaluation Systems ◽  
Primary Responsibility

Purpose: New teacher evaluation systems have expanded the role of principals as instructional leaders, but little is known about principals’ ability to promote teacher development through the evaluation process. We conducted a case study of principals’ perspectives on evaluation and their experiences implementing observation and feedback cycles to better understand whether principals feel as though they are able to promote teacher development as evaluators. Research Method: We conducted interviews with a stratified random sample of 24 principals in an urban district that recently implemented major reforms to its teacher evaluation system. We analyzed these interviews by drafting thematic summaries, coding interview transcripts, creating data-analytic matrices, and writing analytic memos. Findings: We found that the evaluation reforms provided a common framework and language that helped facilitate principals’ feedback conversations with teachers. However, we also found that tasking principals with primary responsibility for conducting evaluations resulted in a variety of unintended consequences which undercut the quality of evaluation feedback they provided. We analyze five broad solutions to these challenges: strategically targeting evaluations, reducing operational responsibilities, providing principal training, hiring instructional coaches, and developing peer evaluation systems. Implications: The quality of feedback teachers receive through the evaluation process depends critically on the time and training evaluators have to provide individualized and actionable feedback. Districts that task principals with primary responsibility for conducting observation and feedback cycles must attend to the many implementation challenges associated with this approach in order for next-generation evaluation systems to successfully promote teacher development.

scholarly journals The effect of applying the accounting reservation on the quality of the accounting information for the published financial statements – An analytical study of the " Basu" model –: أثر تطبيق التحفظ المحاسبي في جودة المعلومات المحاسبية للقوائم المالية المنشورة – دراسة تحليلية لنموذج " Basu" –

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (15) ◽  
pp. 103-84
Author(s):  
Zakia Seid Benzerrouk, Imane Ahmed laamari Zakia Seid Benzerrouk, Imane Ahmed laamari
Keyword(s):  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Analytical Study ◽  
Accounting Information ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Bad News ◽  
Good News ◽  
Timely Manner ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
The Status

  In his interpretation of the precautionary principle, Basu believes that Conservatism in accounting leads to adverse expectations in most cases, as "bad news" affects profits faster than "good news". He concluded that the precautionary principle implies inconsistent differences between bad news and good news in a timely manner and impedes normally the continuity of the flow of profits. To prove his theory, Basu did a field study based on a study of the sensitivity of the profits of shares of economic companies, to measure the reality of bad news from and good news on the status of profits and the rate of. He found that the return on interest or negative gains are twice to six times greater than the returns of Positive earnings. He emphasized I expect and feel that the sensitivity of profits is greatly influenced by bad news.

scholarly journals To Save Lives: The Ethical Precedent set by South Africa’s Leadership during Lockdown

Phronimon ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Anthony Pittaway
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Government Interventions ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Large Numbers

None of the lockdown decisions made by governments in response to the Covid-19 pandemic can be considered to be self-evident outcomes of objective data. Executive members of each nation’s government considered the particular pandemic circumstances that they deemed to be important and relevant, and decisions were made based on limited epidemiological data in combination with a variety of contingent socio-political and economic variables. These kinds of decisions fall partly into the philosophical category of ethics, and they can be summarised under the umbrella question: What should we do? The precautionary principle must have played a large role in the decision-making process, considering the conspicuous lack of reliable data on which to base decisions. In this article, I turn to South Africa as a case study, and I tease out some of the precautionary factors that may have, in part, driven many major decisions prior to and during the South African lockdown. I argue that if the precautionary principle can be used as part of the justification for large-scale government interventions to save an unknown number of lives, then consistent use of the principle should warrant concerted responses by government to a variety of potential threats and problems in South Africa. I also argue that for government’s focus on saving lives to be consistent, preventative action in response to phenomena that take worryingly large numbers of lives annually, is necessary.

Engineering Ethics, Global Climate Change, and the Precautionary Principle

2017 ◽  
pp. 254-264
Author(s):  
Robin Attfield
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Engineering Ethics ◽  
Common Morality ◽  
Energy Extraction ◽  
The Precautionary Principle ◽  
Principles Of Justice

Besides respecting relevant codes of professional ethics, engineers should heed the principles of common morality and international law, including the Precautionary Principle, which requires action to prevent serious or irreversible harm in advance of scientific consensus, when reasons exist to credit such harm. In this chapter, this principle is shown to be applicable to many kinds of technology. An objection that seeks to assimilate it to policies of Maximin is shown to miscarry. The principle is further interpreted as concerning avoidable reductions of future quality of life. The phenomenon of anthropogenic climate change is then shown to involve challenges for engineers. In addition to principles of justice and of benevolence, the Precautionary Principle is found to be relevant once again to such decision making. Finally, considerations of humanity's limited carbon budget are adduced to indicate, in the light of these principles, the inappropriateness of extreme forms of energy extraction.

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