2.9 Approaches to Pollution Control Preventative controls and the precautionary principle The approaches described above are mostly attempts to control pollution rather than to anticipate and so prevent it. Community preventative controls include one Directive, known as the ‘seventh amendment’ ( see Section 7.3), which requires the potentially toxic effects of chemicals to be identified before they are marketed so that if necessary restrictions can be placed on their use under another Directive ( Section 7.5). Another, known as the ‘Seveso’ Directive ( Section 7.6), requires manufacturers to identify and take steps to forestall the risks to the environment from a major accident. A Directive on the environmental assessment of development projects ( see Section 11.2) requires systematic identification of the environmental effects from a planned development, including pollution, before consent for the development is given. The EC Treaty (Article 174(2)) states that Community policy shall be based on the precautionary principle as well as on the principle that preventative action shall be taken, thereby emphasizing that there is a distinction between the two although the distinction is often hard to make. The precautionary principle was first developed in Germany 4 under the name of the vorsorgeprinzip. There has been considerable discussion about its meaning 5, but it is usually understood to mean that when there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing action. The distinction between precautionary and preventive action is that action is precautionary if scientific certainty is lacking. Thus the early action to restrict the use of CFCs was precautionary because it was not then certain that CFCs were depleting the ozone layer. Now that there is a scientific consensus on the subject, the ban on the production of CFCs is better described as a preventative measure ( see Section 6.12). In 2000 the European Commission published a Communication on the Precautionary Principle, setting out the Commission’s interpretation of the principle’s use in policy development ( see Section 7.2). | 
