The San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted the precautionary principle as city and county policy June 17, 2003, a stunning and unprecedented breakthrough in the management of environmental matters in the U.S. The vote carried 8 to 2.

The long political road to the June 17 vote began when San Francisco mayor Willie Brown hired Jared Blumenfeld to head the city’s Department of the Environment.[1] Under Blumenfeld’s guidance, San Francisco government spent more than 2 years studying and debating how to integrate the precautionary principle into city- and county-wide policy. It was Blumenfeld who corraled the political resources to put precaution on the agenda in San Francisco.

But the dream of a city guided by the precautionary principle originated with a breast cancer activist — Joan Reinhardt Reiss of the Breast Cancer Fund (San Francisco). At least three years ago, she phoned Carolyn Raffensperger of the Science and Environmental Health Network (Ames, Iowa), the leading proponent of precautionary thinking in the U.S. Reiss also contacted attorney Sanford Lewis (Waverly, Mass.), who drafted preliminary language for an ordinance. Seeds were planted.

Early on, Katie Silberman of the Center for Environmental Health (Oakland) joined Reiss in the drive for precaution in San Francisco. In 2001, Reiss and Silberman introduced Raffensperger to Blumenfeld. Wheels began turning. Reiss and Silberman were joined by Davis Baltz of Commonweal (Bolinas and Oakland). Together they developed the Bay Area Precautionary Principle Working Group.[2]

Other key actors were Randall Hayes and Francesca Vietor. Hayes, the founder of Rainforest Action Network, is now a member of Commission on the Environment for the City and County of San Francisco. He headed up an ad hoc committee on the precautionary principle for the Commission. Vietor used to hold the job now held by Blumenfeld, directing the San Francisco Department of the Environment. She now works for Commonweal, which is run by Michael Lerner and Sharyle Patton. Vietor used her political skills and knowledge to keep things moving.