| Code of Conduct, policies and principles |
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AstraZeneca is committed to the application of the Precautionary Principle as defined at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio, 1992) and exemplified by the Council of the European Union in the Treaty of Nice in 2000. The Rio Declaration states that: “Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.” It should be noted that the Precautionary Principle requires cost-effective measures to be taken in those circumstances where there is a scientific basis to suspect that serious or irreversible damage might be caused even when the scientific justification is still uncertain. The precautionary principle is often described as having no negative consequences, and phrases such as ‘better safe than sorry’ are frequently used. Indeed a European Environment Agency report – “Late lessons from early warnings: the precautionary principle 1896–2000” published in 2001 by Gee et.al. implies that the principle is essentially benign in its application. However, practical application of the principle is more complicated and can sometimes lead to disastrous consequences for human health. For example the Peruvian authorities decided in 1991, on the basis of the Precautionary Principle, to abandon chlorination of all drinking water abstracted from groundwater sources to avoid exposure of the population to chlorination by-products which had the potential to be carcinogenic. This decision was reversed after several thousand Peruvian citizens had died of cholera as a consequence. In practice, the precautionary principle frequently results in an immediate reduction in the social welfare of an identifiable group in order to promote the possible prevention of a potentially larger reduction in social welfare of a more generalised, but potentially different group, at some, unspecified, point in the future. As a consequence, such decisions are rarely simple or obvious. Indeed, the European Council in their resolution on the principle attached to the Treaty of Nice stressed that “the measures adopted presuppose examination of the benefits and costs of action and inaction. This examination must take account of social and environmental costs and of the public acceptability of the different options possible, and include, where feasible, an economic analysis, it being understood that requirements linked to the protection of public health, including the effects of the environment on public health, must be given priority” Nevertheless, AstraZeneca is committed to minimising the use of hazardous chemicals where this can be achieved without compromising our ability to deliver valuable therapies to patients. As such we have an active green chemistry programme including hazardous chemical avoidance and substitution strategies. |