Precautionary principle and health at work

Abstract

The precautionary principle (PP) is a guideline in health that has become more relevant in the last the 20 years. Its intention is to guide measures in situations where the scientific knowledge is still incomplete, demonstrating uncertainty. The conditions of market-oriented economy stimulate the use of innovative products and processes, dependent on the scientific development and the new ongoing discoveries. Its implications to health are not always completely assessed, exposing workers to uncertainties. Assessment of the literature shows that the use of PP is still an object of intense debate in the scientific community even though there is consensus by regulating agencies in different countries. According to the basic proposals, it has been used several times for environmental protection however; there are few recommendations of its use for occupational exposure. Among these, the PP has been understood as inadequate to the specialist scope and more indicated to the protection of vulnerable populations. Historical investigations show that the notion of precaution was almost always used in an inverse sense, using doubt to restrain the possible improvements in work protection. One concludes that the use of the PP depends on the assumed scientific uncertainty, characterized by the notion of risk, to detriment of the determinism of the cause, a condition that still has not been overcome by the work relations.