On Tuesday July 28, 2009, CHE hosted a call exploring a cornerstone of CHE’s original consensus statement, the precautionary principle. Speakers discussed various ways the precautionary principle is currently being implemented, focusing primarily on a new report from the Science & Environmental Health Network (SEHN) examining the role of the precautionary approaches across sectors and the report, "Advancing The Precautionary Agenda," which draws a picture of shared ideas, challenges and hopes for integrating precaution in a broad-based fashion. Also highlighted was the Endocrine Society’s recent and seminal report on endocrine disruptors, which also evokes the precautionary principle—an extraordinary step for a major medical society.
Featured Speakers
- Patrice Sutton, MPH, Research Scientist, University of California San Francisco Program on Reproductive health and the Environment and consultant to the Science and Environmental Health Network, author of SEHN's report "Advancing the Precautionary Principle"
- Tom Zoeller, PhD, Professor, Biology Department, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, co-author of the Endocrine Society's "Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: An Endocrine Society Scientific Statement"
- Carolyn Raffensperger, Executive Director, Science and Environmental Health Network
The call was moderated by Elise Miller, CHE Director. Pete Myers, founder, CEO and Chief Scientist of Environmental Health Sciences provided a science update at the start of the call.