Yes, sure, I'm happy to do that, and thank you. I'm not a lawyer, obviously.
I guess the fact that the precautionary principle is built into the bill is something we're particularly pleased to see. In one way, again, it sort of integrates something we support, again, from an occupational health and safety perspective. Something we sort of push towards when looking at workplace hazards is that a precautionary principle approach be taken. Instead of taking a risk assessment view, which basically asks how much risk is acceptable, the precautionary principle tells us that we should act to do as little harm as possible, and in doing so, to consider a full spectrum of alternatives to prevent and minimize harm.
I was thinking about the precautionary principle this morning, actually, in a sort of philosophical way. You could look at it this way. If you were considering a development project or some sort of business venture, you wouldn't enter into a business venture only when you had 100% proof-positive evidence that your venture would be profitable. You would have a pretty good idea that your venture might be profitable. I was wondering why we can't use the same sort of reasoning to apply to environmental harm. I think that's exactly what the precautionary principle does. If you have a pretty good idea that some harm will result from the action, you should stop that action to mitigate it and minimize the harm as much as possible by looking at various alternatives.
I alluded to the occupational health foundation behind the precautionary principle. It actually goes back much further than that. There is actually a public health genesis behind the precautionary principle. If you'll allow me, I'll give a bit of a history lesson.
I don't know if anyone knows the story of the public health doctor Dr. Percival Pott, in London, England, in the late eighteenth century. This is the genesis behind what we call the precautionary principle, which is typically associated with environmental actions but was actually adopted from public health.
There was a cholera outbreak in London in the late eighteenth century in a particular neighbourhood where this one doctor worked. It was in industrial London. House after house was affected, with the exception of one building in this one neighbourhood in all of London, which was a brewery. Dr. Pott didn't have the benefit of 21st century medical technology at his disposal, but he saw that all of the residents of this neighbourhood were drawing their water from one public well. There was actually a tap or fountain or whatever they had back then. So he actually intervened, without knowing that this was the cause, and he physically removed the water supply from this neighbourhood. And subsequently, the cholera cases dropped off considerably. That's considered the birthplace of the precautionary principle.
It also sort of suggests that you should drink beer instead of water, I suppose.
