Prudent avoidance principle
Prudent avoidance is a precautionary principle in risk management. It states that reasonable efforts to minimise potential risks should be taken when the actual magnitude of the risks is unknown. The principle was proposed by Prof. Granger Morgan of Carnegie Mellon University in 1989 in the context of electromagnetic radiation safety.
A report for the Office of Technology Assessment of the US Congress described prudent avoidance of power line fields as:
The principle has been adopted in a number of countries, for example Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Australia and New Zealand. While not adopted by any regulatory body at the national level in the USA, the principle has been adopted in some form by a number of local regulatory bodies, for example the public utility commissions in California, Colorado, Connecticut and Hawaii. The Colorado Public Commission states:
The prudent avoidance principle is seen as a better alternative than other proposed approaches to risk management, such as ALARP, because it makes reasonable efforts to reduce possible risk without creating a specific numeric standard that is not supported by strong scientific evidence.
