THE ROLE OF THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE IN THE AGRICULTURAL REUSE OF SEWAGE SLUDGE FROM URBAN WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS

The precautionary principle Society is constantly striving to achieve a high enough level of protection for human health and the environment, including animal and plant health (COM, 2000). In most cases, policies making it possible to achieve this high level of protection can be determined on a satisfactory and acceptable scientific and technical basis. However, when there are reasonable causes for concern that potential hazards may directly or indirectly affect ecosystems and, at the same time, the scientific information is insufficient, inconclusive, or uncertain, the precautionary principle has been politically accepted as a risk management strategy in the EU and USA (Silva and Jenkins-Smith, 2007). The precautionary principle is now manifesting as the founding rule of the "law of uncertain science" (Rosario, 2020): uncertainty, relativization and the intrinsic nature of scientific acquisitions, combined with the incessant (and even sometimes "out of control") evolution of technologies, has led to an increase in the instances in which the application of the precautionary principle is seen as the only solution to analyze the problem. At the international level, the precautionary principle is recognized and enshrined in a number of legal acts, including the Rio Declaration, the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Climate Convention (UNFCCC) (Lavrik, 2022). At the EU level, the importance of applying the precautionary principle is also emphasized to uphold a high level of environmental protection (Art. 191 of Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, TFEU), and the principle is explicitly expressed in most of the environmental Directives. Guidance as to when, i.e., in what situations, the precautionary principle is applicable is provided by the European Commission: “Recourse to the precautionary principle presupposes that potentially dangerous effects deriving from a phenomenon, product or process have been identified, and that scientific evaluation does not allow the risk to be determined with scientific certainty” (COM, 2000). In the current column, the precautionary principle is analyzed in relation to the very “hot topic” of the management of sewage sludge.