Better Sorry than Safe

Common Sense and Scientific and Technological Evidence Act 

This legislation broadly bans the use of statistical correlation to be admitted as scientific evidence in trials. 

The “precautionary principle” is a common sense guideline based on the  idea of “better safe than sorry”.  It states that when we are making laws about an activity that threatens harm to children’s health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken, even if a direct scientific cause and effect relationship is not yet fully established.  For example, schools should disclose use of dangerous chemicals and pesticides before we have direct proof that our children are already sick.

ALEC’s “model” Scientific and Technical Evidence Act argues that statistical science should not be allowed as evidence in a courtroom.  This “sorry before safe" principle means we have to wait for damage to occur before we have “direct scientific evidence” needed to stop the harm.  If we found a statistical correlation that dangerous chemicals in certain schools were hurting children in those schools, ALEC’s model legislation would not allow that information to become evidence in a lawsuit.  ALEC’s bill mandates direct evidence of a specific pollutant hurting a specific child before we’d be forced to stop using dangerous chemicals. 

It’s not using common sense to wait for a child to get sick before we act.

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