Risk Assessment in Setting National Priorities

The growing perception of the public and politicians that life is extremely risky has led to a dramatic and increasing interest in risk analysis. The risks may be very diverse­ as demonstrated by the range of subjects covered at the annual meetings of the Society for Risk Analysis. There is a need to pause and see how well the present approaches are serving the nation. The theme, "Setting National Priorities," which was chosen for the 1987 SRA Annual Meeting, reflects the concern that in dealing with individual kinds of risks, society may be more concerned with the trees than the forest. It is surprising how little attention is being given to the holistic aspects of risk. Who, for instance, is responsible for a national strategy to manage the reduction of health or other risks? Individual agencies have the responsibility for specific patterns of exposure, but these are not integrated and balanced to determine how the nation as a whole can obtain the greatest benefit for the very large investment which is made in risk-related research and analysis.

Science and Sociology: The Transition to a Post-Conservative Risk Assessment Era.- The Use of Focus Groups in Risk Communication.- Development of Cleanup Criteria for the Port Hope Remedial Program.- Combining Physiology, Carcinogenic Mechanism, and Interindividual Variation in Cancer Dose-Response Extrapolations.- On Basing Extrapolation of Risk for a Chemical Carcinogen on Total Dose (Constant Dose Rate × Continuous Exposure Duration): Implications and an Extension.- The Approach to Risk Analysis in Three Industries: Nuclear Power, Space Systems, and Chemical Process.- An Epidemiologic Approach to Dealing with Multimedia Exposure to Multiple Related Chemicals.- Incorporating Risk into the Development of Soil Cleanup Guidelines for Trace Organic Compounds.- Quantifying and Comparing the Benefits of Risk Reduction Programs to Prioritize Expenditures.- Assessment of Risk from Short-Term Exposures.- Societal Risk from a Thermodynamic Perspective.- Risk in Defense Policy Decisions.- The Strategic Defense Initiative and Nuclear Proliferation from a Risk Analysis Perspective.- The Hazardous Air Pollutant Prioritization System.- Air Emission Risk Assessment Sensitivity Analysis for a Coal-Fired Power Plant.- A Systematic Approach for Environmental Risk Assessment.- The Use of Risk Index Systems to Evaluate Risk.- Probabilistic Seismic Risk to Non-Nuclear Facilities.- Catastrophic Damage from Dam-Break Floods.- Risk Reduction Strategies for Setting Remedial Priorities: Hazardous Waste.- Educating the Public About Toxicological Risk.- Upper-Bound Estimates of Carcinogenic Risk: More Policy Than Science.- Risk Communication: The Need for Incentives.- An International Approach to Health, Safety and Environmental Risk Management for a Diversified Corporation.- Risk Perception of Technologies: The Perspective of Similar Groups in Portugal and the United States.- Policy Lessons from Risk Communications Practice.- History of the Impurities Policy: Risk Assessment for Food and Color Additives.- Establishing a Threshold of Regulation.- The Use of Pharmacokinetics in Food Safety Evaluation.- Consideration of Cell Proliferation and Adduct Formation as Parameters Affecting Risk Outcome.- Global Risk Assessment.- Cost Benefit and Environmental Risk Aspects in the Context of European Air Pollution Control Strategies.- Health Effects of Occupational Exposures of Welders: Multicenter Study Using a Uniform Core Protocol.- Comparative Risk Assessment of Transportation of Hazardous Materials in Urban Areas.- Drinking-Age Laws: An Evaluation Synthesis of Their Impact on Highway Safety.- Fatality Incidence Stratified by Driver Behavior: An Exploratory Analysis with FARS Data.- An Assessment of the Risks of Stratospheric Modification.- Quality Assurance in Risk Models for Regulatory Decision Making.- Risk Assessment Issues in Implementing Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Legislation.- System Unavailability Monitoring Study.- The Influence of the Climate of Risk Perception on the Process of Risk Management: Quantification, Evaluation, Decision Making.- The Nation-State in Societal Evaluation of Risk: Ambiguity Meets Reality.- Setting Risk Priorities in Environmental Policy: The Role of Women.- Comparison of Tumor Incidence for Short-Term and Lifetime Exposure.- Benzene and Leukemia: What Are the Risks and What Do the Data Reveal?.- Analysis of Individual Risk Belief Structures.- Sources of Common Cause Failures in Decision Making Involved in Man-Made Catastrophes.- Game Strategic Behavior Under Conditions of Risk and Uncertainty.- Conventional Wisdom on Risk Communication and Evidence from a Field Experiment.- Managing Uncertain Risks Through ‘Intelligent’ Classification: A Combined Artificial Intelligence/Decision-Analytic Approach.- Managing Fire Safety Problems Through Decision Analysis to Evaluate Fire Safety Hazards.- Can Risk Assessment and Risk Prioritization Be Extricated from Risk Management?.- Application of Risk Assessment Principles in Environmental Epidemiology.- A Comparison of the Remedial Priorities Determined Using More Likely Case and Worst Case Risk Estimates.- Cancer Incidence Among Welders Due to Combined Exposures to Elf and Welding Fumes: A Study in Data Pooling.- Role of Risk Assessment in New Hampshire State Government.- A Method for Estimation of Fish Contamination from Dioxins and Furans Emitted by Resource Recovery Facilities.- The Importance of the Hazard Identification Phase of Health Risk Assessments: Illustrated with Antimony Emissions from Waste Incineration Facilities.- The Utility of a National Food Survey in Assessing Dietary Risk and Exposure.- The Carcinogenic Risk of Some Organic Vapors Indoors: A Theoretical Survey.- Risk Assessment and National Standards: Philosophical Problems Arising from the Normalization of Risk.- The Use of Pharmacokinetic Models in the Determination of Risks for Regulatory Purposes.- Ethylene Oxide Residues on Sterilized Medical Devices.- Tetrachloroethylene Metabolism Resulting from Domestic Respiratory Exposure: Pharmacokinetic Considerations Relevant to Risk Assessment.- The Role of Speciation and Pharmacokinetics in Risk Assessment.- Assessing Risks of Cholinesterase-Inhibiting Pesticides.- Nuclear Power Safety Goals in Light of the Chernobyl Accident.- PRA-Based Inspection for Oconee Unit 3.- Environmental Radiation Standards and Risk Limitation.- The Anatomy of Safety Evaluations.- The Impact of Non-Drinking Water Exposures on Drinking Water Standards: A Problem of Acceptable Levels of Risk.- Estimating Exposures and Health Risks for Alternative Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards.- The Definition of Risk and Associated Terminology for Risk Analysis.- Author Index.