During this period, the incidence of childhood cancers increased at the rate of about 1 percent per year. Immune system disorders in children, such as asthma, increased even more rapidly. In the early 1960s, true pollution prevention was born. The U.S. banned above-ground nuclear weapons tests to eliminate radioactive fallout. By the mid-1970s, the atomic fallout precedent was being applied to banning DDT, PCBs, leaded gasoline and several other dangerous toxicants.
Bans are the essence of pollution prevention.
But bans leave no wiggle room for the polluters. The precautionary principle. The precautionary principle moves the burden of proof of safety onto the proponents of a new project, a new technology or a new chemical. Instead the polluters have to convince the public and the government that the number of dead bodies in future will be acceptably small. Corporate polluters resent this innovative approach because now they must bear the burden of proof of safety.