Topix.Net, August 24, 2008

THE RIGHT TO HEALTHY INDOOR AIR: WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

[Rachel's introduction: "Principle 7 -- Under the precautionary principle, where there is a risk of harmful indoor air exposure, the presence of uncertainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent such exposure."]

[Introduction: This anonymous blog posting offers an interesting set of principles aimed at establishing a human right to clean indoor air. It is derived from a report on indoor air published by the World Health Organization in 2000. The blog post says there is a longer article available on the web at http://twusea.org/blog/2008/08/2 2/the-right-to-healthy-indoor-air/ but the server at twusea.org does not respond. In any case, it's an interesting set of principles.]

The principles below derive from the fundamental principles in the fields of human rights, biomedical ethics and ecological sustainability, and focus on interactions among them.

Principles

Principle 1 -- Under the principle of the human right to health, everyone has the right to breathe healthy indoor air.

Principle 2 -- Under the principle of respect for autonomy ("self- determination"), everyone has the right to adequate information about potentially harmful exposures, and to be provided with effective means for controlling at least part of their indoor exposures.

Principle 3 -- Under the principle of non-maleficence ("doing no harm"), no agent at a concentration that exposes any occupant to an unnecessary health risk should be introduced into indoor air.

Principle 4 -- Under the principle of beneficence ("doing good"), all individuals, groups and organizations associated with a building, whether private, public, or governmental, bear responsibility to advocate or work for acceptable air qualityfor the occupants.

Principle 5 -- Under the principle of social justice, the socioeconomic status of occupants should have no bearing on their access to healthy indoor air, but health status maydetermine special needs for some groups.

Principle 6 Under the principle of accountability, all relevant organizations should establish explicit criteria for evaluating and assessing building air quality and its impact on the health of the population and on the environment.

Principle 7 -- Under the precautionary principle, where there is a risk of harmful indoor air exposure, the presence of uncertainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent such exposure.

Principle 8 -- Under the "polluter pays" principle, the polluter is accountable for any harm to health and /or welfare resulting from unhealthy indoor air exposure(s). In addition, the polluter is responsible for mitigation and remediation.

Principle 9 -- Under the principle of sustainability, health and environmental concerns cannot be separated, and the provision of healthy indoor air should not compromise global or local ecological integrity, or the rights of future generations.

Document -- http://www.euro.who.int/document/e69828.pdf