A challenge facing society today is how to develop a meaningful strategy for integrated hazardous waste management. Meeting this challenge was the principal motivation for the conference on "Risk Assessment and Risk Management Strategies for Hazardous Waste Storage and Disposal Prob lems," held at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania on May 18-19, 1988. The conference brought together representatives from the major interested parties - environmentalists, government, insurance, law, manufacturing, and the university community - who have been con cerned with the waste management process. The conference was the third cosponsored by the Wharton Center for Risk and Decision Processes addressing the knotty problem of hazardous waste. The first, held at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in 1985, examined the transportation, storage, and disposal of hazardous materials. It suggested steps that industry, insurers, and gov ernment agencies could take to improve the safety and efficiency with which hazardous materials are produced and controlled in industrialized societies. Specifically, it focused on the risk-management tools of insurance, com pensation, and regulation. xv xvi PREFACE The second conference, held at the Wharton School, University of Penn sylvania in 1986, concentrated on the role of insurance and compensation in environmental pollution problems. It characterized a set of problems related to the environmental pollution liability insurance crisis as presented by key interested parties and proposed a set of research needs for providing a sound basis for constructing socially appropriate measures to deal with the problem.

Hazardous Waste Risk Assessment provides a concise yet comprehensive examination of concepts and techniques in risk assessment that can be applied to hazardous waste problems. The book emphasizes the use of health risk assessment to support management decisions on hazardous waste disposal and site remediation programs. Methods discussed include those for developing strategies for health and environmental assessment and site restoration tasks, evaluating corrective action programs, determining the effects of risk assessment results on risk management decisions in hazardous waste programs and general risk management and prevention programs, and performing safety evaluations of hazardous waste facilities. Step-by-step numerical case evaluations are used to help present the book in an easy-to-follow, realistic manner. Features

This book discusses the need for a regulated and informed forum for international trade in hazardous waste. The authors argue that with careful planning, health and ecological risks can be minimized and net economic benefits realized fairly. The book examines the key parameters that should be considered by potential trading nations to ensure an optimally safe and mutually beneficial partnership. The authors provide comprehensive coverage of the political, environmental, industrial and economic issues involved in this complex and increasingly controversial practice.

Can insurance be used as a means to obtain compliance with environmental policy? Answering this question requires examination of a broad mosaic of academic issues, including current systems available for providing compensation and deterrence, use of contracts (including insurance) as substitutes for tort law, limitations of regulatory policy-making by government agencies, pre-conditions for creation of insurance products, and market mechanisms necessary for insurance to be purchased or sold. The purpose of Managing Environmental Risk Through Insurance is to highlight the potential role that insurance and performance standards can play in managing environmental risk. Insurance can play a significant role in dealing with one of the most problematic issues facing society today - how to compensate for environmental exposures. This book analyzes the ability of insurance to play a role in managing environmental risk. It begins by outlining the role insurance plays in society in contrast to other societal tools for addressing risk: government benefit programs and imposition of involuntary liability using the court system. By so doing, the book describes the comparative advantages of insurance. The book then analyzes the insurability of the risks. Finally, the book applies the insurability analysis to three concrete environmental examples.

This report focuses on the role of insurance and reinsurance companies in the management of environmental risks - environmental pollution risk and natural catastrophe risk in particular.

Two related trends have created novel challenges for managing risk in the United States. The first trend is a series of dramatic changes in liability law as tort law has expanded to assign liability to defendants for reasons other than negligence. The unpredictability of future costs induced by changes in tort law may be partly responsible for the second major trend known as the `liability crisis' - the disappearance of liability protection in markets for particularly unpredictable risks. This book examines decisions people make about insurance and liability. An understanding of such decision making may help explain why the insurance crisis resulted from the new interpretations of tort law and what to do about it. The articles cover three kinds of decisions: consumer decisions to purchase insurance; insurer decisions about coverage they offer; and the decisions of the public about the liability rules they prefer, which are reflected in legislation and regulation. For each of these three kinds of decisions, normative theories such as expected utility theory can be used as benchmarks against which actual decisions are judged.