Precautionary Governance and the Limits of Scientific Knowledge: A Democratic Framework for Regulating Nanotechnology

Abstract

I. INTRODUCTION II. A PRINCIPLE IN SEARCH OF MEANING: THE NORMATIVE FLUIDITY OF THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE A. Introduction: On the Pragmatic Nature of the Precautionary Principle B. The Normative Fluidity of the Precautionary Principle: A Close Look 1. The Hazard Condition 2. The Knowledge Condition 3. The Prescriptive Dimension III. FROM AMBIVALENCE TO POLITICS: THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE AS A POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR REGULATING RISKS A. Why Politics: Legitimacy, Reflexivity and Creativity B. The Politics of Precaution: Generic Building Blocks 1. The Hazard Condition 2. The Knowledge Condition 3. The Prescriptive Dimension IV. RE-POLITICIZING THE GOVERNANCE OF RISK: FIVE CHALLENGES IN THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF RISK REGULATION IN THE CONTEXT OF NANOTECHNOLOGY A. Extending the Horizon of Civic Participation: From the Regulation of Risks to the Governance of Innovation and Scientific Policy B. Changing the Institutional Framework of Doing Nanoscience: Science Shops Mediating Agents C. E-deliberation 1. Multi-layered Participation--Confronting the Attraction Problem 2. Using Computer Supported Argumentation and Collaborative Decisionmaking Systems D. Risk Visualization E. De-Biasing the Decisionmaking Process V. BRINGING DEMOCRACY INTO THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE: CONCLUDING REMARKS I. INTRODUCTION Nanotechnology presents regulators with a difficult challenge. Nanomaterials and nanoprocesses involve deep uncertainties regarding their potential benefits and health and environmental risks, reflecting the embryonic state of the underlying science. These uncertainties are exacerbated by the fact that nanotechnology is not a uniform domain, but encompasses a broad range of technologies and products, including bionanotechnology, supramolecular chemistry, nanostructured materials, and self-assembly nanoprocesses. (1) Given these uncertainties, there have been various calls to use the precautionary principle (PP) a governing principle in the regulation of nanotechnology. Thus, for example, the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) recommended in September 2008 that the precautionary principle be used as one of the general principles of risk management throughout the life cycle of manufactured (2) A recent joint statement by several environmental NGOs notes similarly that It]he Precautionary Principle must be applied to nanotechnologies because scientific research to-date suggests that exposure to at least some nanomaterials, nanodevices, or the products of nanobiotechnology is likely to result in serious harm to human health and the environment. (3) Drawing on the PP, many environmental groups have called for a moratorium on the sale (and even research) of products containing nanomaterials, arguing that the research to date is insufficient to guarantee the safety of nanoproducts, and that whatever safety research has been conducted has not been properly disseminated to the public. (4) The need to apply a precautionary strategy in the regulation of nanotechnology has also been recognized by legal scholars, (5) advisory bodies (6) and 'regulators. (7) These calls rest on several assumptions: * There is plausible support for the claim that nanotechnology is possibly risky, and is risky in novel and non-uniform ways. (8) * There is an expanding gap between the pace at which new products containing nanomaterials are being developed and the generation of relevant environmental, health and safety data. This gap also reflects the fact that current methods of risk assessment are not necessarily appropriate for the evaluation of nanomaterials. …