A framework for making decisions about risks, with recommendations for research, public policy, and practice.

Risk analysis, risk evaluation and risk management are the three core areas in the process known as 'Risk Assessment'. Risk assessment corresponds to the joint effort of identifying and analysing potential future events, and evaluating the acceptability of risk based on the risk analysis, while considering influencing factors. In short, risk assessment analyses what can go wrong, how likely it is to happen and, if it happens, what are the potential consequences. Since risk is a multi-disciplinary domain, this book gathers contributions covering a wide spectrum of topics with regard to their theoretical background and field of application. The work is organized in the three core areas of risk assessment.

Discussions of science and values in risk management have largely focused on how values enter into arguments about risks, that is, issues of acceptable risk. Instead this volume concentrates on how values enter into collecting, interpreting, communicating, and evaluating the evidence of risks, that is, issues of the acceptability of evidence of risk. By focusing on acceptable evidence, this volume avoids two barriers to progress. One barrier assumes that evidence of risk is largely a matter of objective scientific data and therefore uncontroversial. The other assumes that evidence of risk, being "just" a matter of values, is not amenable to reasoned critique. Denying both extremes, this volume argues for a more constructive conclusion: understanding the interrelations of scientific and value issues enables a critical scrutiny of risk assessments and better public deliberation about social choices. The contributors, distinguished philosophers, policy analysts, and natural and social scientists, analyze environmental and medical controversies, and assumptions underlying views about risk assessment and the scientific and statistical models used in risk management.

Written by a committee of safety professionals, this book creates a foundation document for the development and application of risk tolerance criteria Helps safety managers evaluate the frequency, severity and consequence of human injury Includes examples of risk tolerance criteria used by NASA, Earthquake Response teams and the International Maritime Organization, amongst others Helps achieve consistency in risk-based decision-making Reduces potential liabilities in the use of quantitative risk tolerance criteria through reference to an industry guidance document