The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #71220

Jared Blumenfeld, Department of the Environment, City of San Francisco, 11 Grove St., San Francisco, CA 94102, 415-355-3701, Jared_Blumenfeld@ci.sf.ca.us

The City and County of San Francisco has been working for the past two years with community groups, businesses, and residents to work a practical approach to apply the Precautionary Principle within our jurisdiction. Using the best available science, the Precautionary Principle requires the selection of the alternative that presents the least potential threat to human health and the City's natural systems. Critical to finding and selecting appropriate alternatives are complete information, full cost accounting, public participation and an open and transparent decision making process. We want to see a shift from risk analysis to alternatives assessment. San Francisco's five main tenets of the Precautionary Principle are:

1. There is a duty to take anticipatory action to prevent harm.

2. The community has a right to know complete and accurate information on potential human health and environmental impacts associated with the selection of a products, services, operations, or plans.

3. Decisions applying the Precautionary Principle must be transparent, participatory, and informed by the best available information.

4. An obligation exists to examine a full range of alternatives and select the alternative with the least potential impact on human health and the ecological system, including the alternative of doing nothing.

5. When evaluating alternatives, there is a duty to consider the full range of costs of the products, services, or plans.

The discussion will focus on how we have operationalized these concepts in a new Environment Code which incorporates environmental legislation on issues from integrated pest management to the procurement of commodities.

Learning Objectives:

• List three strategies for working with a broad base of actors to implement the precautionary principle at the local level.
• Describe how a city's policy with regard to procurement of commodities can help to protect public health.
• Give specific examples of alternatives assessment at the local level, and describe how this approach differs from risk analysis.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.