Health and Safety Risk Analyses: Information for Better Decisions

Knowing the nature and magnitude of health and safety risks is helpful in setting priorities as well as in making decisions about pursuing recreational activities, foods, jobs, and other aspects of everyday living. ``Risk-risk'' situations require a choice among risky alternatives. ``How s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 1987-04, Vol.236 (4799), p.291-295
Main Author: Lave, Lester B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accident Prevention
Accidents
Analysis
Asbestos
Carcinogens
Cigarette smoking
Death
Decision Making
Food additives
Food Additives - adverse effects
Forecasting
Health
Health hazards
Health services administration
Humans
Lifestyles
Physical trauma
Physiological aspects
Probability
Risk
Risk analysis
Risk assessment
Risk management
Rodents
Safety
Surgical specialties
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Summary:Knowing the nature and magnitude of health and safety risks is helpful in setting priorities as well as in making decisions about pursuing recreational activities, foods, jobs, and other aspects of everyday living. ``Risk-risk'' situations require a choice among risky alternatives. ``How safe'' situations involve a more general choice as to how much of other desired activities to sacrifice for increased safety. ``How safe'' situations are inherently more difficult to manage, because they are subject to fuzzy thinking and rhetoric. The large uncertainties of current estimates must be conveyed explicitly to arrive at sensible decisions.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.3563509