Links to Risk Analysis Resources & Organizations
Academic Institutions and Other Organizations
Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Engineering and Public Policy http://www.epp.cmu.edu
"The graduate program in Engineering and Public Policy educates technically skilled men and women at the doctoral level to be leaders in policy-focused research. EPP works on policy problems in which the technology matters--problems in which technology cannot be treated as a black box. Policy-focused research differs from policy analysis in three important ways: it takes a longer term perspective; it takes a more fundamental perspective; and it may focus on the development of theory and of analytical tools and techniques as well as on solving specific problems."
Center for Risk Communication, (mailing address) 545 Eighth Avenue, Suite 401, New York, NY 10018. Director and founder, Dr. Vincent Covello. http://www.centerforriskcommunication.com/.
Public perceptions and opinions often determine the resolution of high concern, high stress, or emotionally charged issues. They have a profound impact on an organization's success. Trust and credibility are central to effective communication about topics of high concern.
The Center for Risk Communication is a pioneer in the development and use of advanced communication methods based on decades of university-level behavioral-science research and practice. Research and experience clearly prove that one of the most important keys to communication success is an organization's ability to establish, maintain, and increase trust and credibility with key stakeholders, including employees, regulatory agencies, citizen groups, the public and the media.
Columbia University, Center for Hazards and Risk Research http://doherty.ldgo.columbia.edu/CHRR/
"The mission of the Columbia Center for Hazards and Risk Research is to advance the predictive science of natural and environmental hazards and the integration of science with hazard risk assessment and risk management."
Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. Harvard School of Public Health. 718 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115-5924. Phone: (617)432-4497. http://www.hcra.harvard.edu/
The Harvard Center for Risk Analysis was launched in 1989 with the mission to promote reasoned public responses to health, safety, and environmental hazards. Research programs are in the economic evaluation of medical technology, motor vehicles and public health, environmental science, food safety and agriculture. Publish Risk in Perspective newsletter.
International Association for Food Protection. 6200 Aurora Avenue, Suite 200W, Des Moines, IA 50322-2864 USA. Phone: (515) 276-3344. Fax: (515) 276-8655. E-mail: info@foodprotection.org. http://www.foodprotection.org/
Mission Statement: "To provide food safety professionals worldwide with a forum to exchange information on protecting the food supply."
" The International Association for Food Protection, founded in 1911, is a non-profit association of food safety professionals. Comprised of a diverse membership of over 3,000 Members from 50 nations, the Association is dedicated to the education and service of its Members, as well as industry personnel. Through the Association, Members are able to keep informed of the latest scientific, technical, and practical developments in food safety and sanitation. The Association provides its Members with an information network through its two scientific journals, Dairy, Food and Environmental Sanitation and Journal of Food Protection, its educational Annual Meeting, and interaction with other food safety professionals.
Johns Hopkins University, Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute, School of Hygiene and Public Health. 615 N. Wolfe Street--Room 6033, Baltimore, Maryland 21205. http://www.jhsph.edu/Research/Centers/rsppi
"The Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health is dedicated to the protection of health through education,service, and research in risk and policy. The Institutes activities are designed to provide practitioners, scientists, and decision makers with the tools necessary to ensure that environmental health policies lead to improved public health. From an educational perspective, the Institute seeks to enhance the infrastructure for training risk assessors and managers. The Institutes flagship programs provide multi-disciplinary academic and continuing education opportunities designed to increase awareness of the scientific knowledge underlying risk assessment and provide a bridge between environmental health science and policy. Research and service activities of the Institute are designed to improve the science base of risk assessment, cultivate better risk assessment methods, and enhance the risk management process by insuring consideration of a broad array of management options for improving public health. Together, these education, research, and service activities serve the Institutes goal of providing discipline to the science-policy debate."
Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN). University of Maryland, 0220 Symons Hall, College Park, MD 20742 . http://www.jifsan.umd.edu/
"JIFSAN is the foundation of public and private partnerships that will provide the scientific basis for ensuring a safe, wholesome food supply as well as provide the infrastructure for contributions to national food safety programs and international food standards. JIFSAN was established between the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the University of Maryland (UM) in April 1996. The Institute is a jointly administered, multidisciplinary research and education program and includes research components from the FDA Centers for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and Veterinary Medicine (CVM), and UM." The JIFSAN website hosts a Food Safety Risk Analysis Clearing House http://www.foodriskclearinghouse.umd.edu/
Resources for the Future, Center for Risk Management. Terry Davies, Director. http://www.rff.org/methods/risk.htm
"RFF is a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank located in Washington, DC that conducts independent research rooted primarily in economics and other social sciences on environmental and natural resource issues.
Founded in 1952, RFF was created at the recommendation of then-CBS Chairman William Paley, who had just chaired a presidential commission that looked into whether the U.S. was becoming overly dependent on foreign sources of important natural resources. Paley was one of the first to recognize the importance of an organization devoted exclusively to natural resource and environmental issues.
Today, RFF has more than 40 researchers working on a variety of issues, ranging from climate change to electric utility restructuring to sustainable forestry. Most researchers have Ph.D.s in economics, but we also have researchers who hold advanced degrees in engineering, ecology, city and regional planning, American government, and public policy and management, among other disciplines."
Rutgers University, Center for Environmental Communication (CEC). Cook College Campus, 31 Pine Street, New Brunswick NJ 08901-2883. Phone: (732)932-8795, Fax: (732)932-7815, email: cec@aesop.rutgers.edu. http://aesop.rutgers.edu/~cec/
CEC "brings together university investigators to provide a social science perspective to environmental problem-solving." Formerly the Environmental Communication Research Program, CEC "has gained international recognition for responding to environmental communication dilemmas with research, training, and public service. Established in 1986, CEC is now jointly sponsored by the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station and the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy."
Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) Advisory Group. http://www.setac.org/era.html
The mission of the SETAC ERA Advisory Group is to advance the science, practice and application of ecological risk assessment; to reduce uncertainty in the process; to promote the institutionalization of its use in environmental planning and assessments and to encourage the harmonization of assessment methods worldwide. The group has written Ecological Risk Assessments of Contaminated Sediments and Ecotoxicological Risk Assessment of the Chlorinated Organic Chemicals.
Society for Risk Analysis. http://www.sra.org/index.htm
SRA is a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, scholarly, international society that provides an open forum for all those who are interested in risk analysis. Risk analysis is broadly defined to include risk assessment, risk characterization, risk communication, risk management and policy relating to risk, in the context of risks of concern to individuals, to public and private sector organizations, and to society as a local, regional, national, or global level. Publish the journal Risk Analysis; sponsor the RiskAnal email discussion group.
US Department of Energy. Center for Risk Excellence (CRE) http://riskcenter.doe.gov
CRE was established in 1997 to help the US DOE address risk issues associated with their environmental management activities. CRE provides field-based risk expertise and resource coordination to those in DOE Headquarters, in the Field/Operations Offices (CRE is located in the Chicago Operations Office), and outside the Agency. Publish bi-monthly newsletter: Risk Excellence Notes. The CRE website with information about risk assessment tools and resources: http://risk.lsd.ornl.gov/cre_tools.htm.
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Office of Research and Development. National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) http://www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/
NRMRL conducts research into ways to prevent and reduce risks from pollution that threaten human health and the environment. The laboratory investigates methods and their cost-effectiveness for prevention and control of pollution to air, land, water, and subsurface resources; protection of water quality in public water systems; remediation of contaminated sites, sediments and ground water; prevention and control of indoor air pollution; and restoration of ecosystems. The goal of this research is to provide solutions to environmental problems by:In addition, NRMRL collaborates with both public and private sector partners to foster technologies that reduce the cost of compliance and to anticipate emerging problems.
- developing and promoting effective environmental technologies;
- developing scientific and engineering information to support regulatory and policy decisions; and
- providing the technical support and information transfer to ensure implementation of environmental regulations and strategies at the national and community levels.
University of California, Berkeley. Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health. Berkeley, California 94720-7360. Phone: 510-643-5160. http://ehs.sph.berkeley.edu
"INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES: Environmental factors are estimated to be responsible for 25-40% of the burden of human ill-health around the world and often most seriously affect the most vulnerable members of society, such as young children, pregnant women, and the poor. The EHS curriculum prepares students to assess the health impacts of physical, chemical, and biological agents in the environment and workplace and to explore means for their measurement and control.
EHS integrates several disciplines with emphasis in assessment of exposures to environmental contaminants, toxicology, environmental and occupational epidemiology, risk assessment, and policy analysis. Students learn to apply tools in these disciplines to problems in both the U.S. and other parts of the world.
Graduate programs are offered for both professional degrees (MPH and DrPH) and academic degrees (MS, PhD and joint MS/PhD). The EHS Division in the School of Public Health is the administrative home for the MPH and academic degree programs.
The EHS Division is affiliated with the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH) which links the EHS program with clinically oriented programs at the Davis and San Francisco campuses. The COEH is also an Educational Resource Center of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) which provides student support at Berkeley in the areas of industrial hygiene and ergonomics. Additionally, the COEH sponsors community outreach to labor groups through the Labor Occupational Health Program.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Biological Effects of Low Level Exposures (BELLE). Phone: 413-545-3164. Director: Edward J. Calabrese, Professor of Toxicology and Director of the Northeast Regional Environmental Public Health Center, School of Public Health. http://www.BelleOnline.com/
The focus of BELLE encompasses dose-response relationships to toxic agents, pharmaceuticals, and natural products over wide dosage ranges in in vitro, and in vivo systems, including human populations. While a principal emphasis of BELLE is to promote the scientific understanding of low-level effects (especially seemingly paradoxical effects), the initial goal of BELLE is the scientific evaluation of the existing literature and of ways to improve research and assessment methods.
In May 1990, a group of scientists representing several federal agencies, the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, the private sector, and academia met to develop a strategy to encourage the assessment of the biological effects of low level exposures (BELLE) to chemical agents and radioactivity. The meeting was convened because of the recognition that most human exposures to chemical and physical agents are at relatively low levels, yet most toxicological studies assessing potential human health effects involve exposures to quite high levels, often orders of magnitude greater than actual human exposures. Consequently, risks at low levels are estimated by various means, frequently utilizing assumptions about which there may be considerable uncertainty.
University of Virginia Center for Risk Management of Engineering Systems http://www.virginia.edu/%7Erisk/
The mission of this Center is to develop technology to assist in the management of risk for a variety of engineering systems. Areas of expertise include: (1) environmental impacts, (2) water resources and technology management, (3) electronic, safety-critical systems, (4) computer-based systems, including hardware and software performance and reliability, and (5) reliability modeling of multiple failure modes in complex systems.
University of Waterloo, Institute for Risk Research. http://irr.uwaterloo.ca
"The Institute for Risk Research (IRR) was established in 1982 to conduct research on risk management and to establish a knowledge base to assist Canadian governments, public organizations and industry in risk management decisions and policies. Research and development on measures of safety, risk management of dangerous goods, safety of blood systems, etc., provision of membership services for risk experts in Canada, risk publications and educational programs have all contributed to the mission."
Objectives include: Promoting safety in Canada by presenting information on how lives can be saved, and health and safety maximized, with the resources available; Developing methods of measuring risk, assessing risks and improving the process of making risk decisions; Disseminating to Canadian industry, government, labour and the public, information on risks and techniques for balancing risks, benefits and costs; Providing a source for independent study and development of recommendations on risk policy; Providing education and training in risk analysis, risk assessment and risk management.
Primers and General Readings on Risk Analysis
The Role of Risk Analysis in Decision Making. American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 2002. [pdf - 15KB ][html]
Chemical Risk: A Primer. American Chemical Society, Department of Government Relations and Science Policy. 1996, 2nd ed. Electronic copies available at: http://www.acs.org/govt/pubs/5st44c.htm.
Glossary of Risk Analysis Terms. Society for Risk Analysis. Website: http://www.sra.org/glossary.htm.
Introducing Environmental Risk Assessment. National Centre
for Risk Analysis and Options Appraisal, United Kingdom's Environment
Agency.
Contact: The Environment Agency Head Office
Rio House, Waterside Drive, Aztec West, Almondsbury, Bristol BS32
4UD.
Tel: 01454 624 400, Fax: 01454 624 409
www.environment-agency.gov.uk
Reporting on Risk: A Journalist's Handbook on Environmental
Risk Assessment. Foundation for American Communications and
National Sea Grant College Program. Published at:
http://www.facsnet.org/report_tools/guides_primers/risk/main.html [Free Regristration Required].
Topics: Risk assessment basics, exposure assessment basics, toxicity
assessment basics, epidemiology: the science of people, assessing
a study's validity, and risk communication basics.
The Median Isn't the Message. Stephen Jay Gould. June 1985. Discover 40-42. http://www.cancerguide.org/median_not_msg.html
Understanding Risk Analysis: A Short Guide for Health, Safety and Environmental Policy Making. American Chemical Society and Resources for the Future. 1998. Washington DC. 39 pp. http://www.rff.org/misc_docs/risk_book.htm. Written by Mark Boroush, formerly of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and published jointly by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and Resources for the Future (RFF), the booklet is the output of a research project that sought to educate legislators about risk issues and facilitate communication among the three branches of government about risk.
Risk Journals
Journal of Risk Research. http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/13669877.html. E & FN Spon.
"The Journal of Risk Research is the official journal of the Society for Risk Analysis Europe and the Society for Risk Analysis Japan. It is a quarterly international journal which publishes peer reviewed theoretical and empirical research articles within the risk field from the areas of engineering, physical, health and social sciences, as well as articles related to decision making, regulation and policy issues in all disciplines. Articles will be published in English. The main aims of the Journal of Risk Research are to stimulate intellectual debate on risk within Europe, Japan and elsewhere, to promote better risk management practices and to contribute to the development of risk management methodologies. The journal consists of letters to the Editor, viewpoints, theoretical and empirical research articles, commentaries, research notes, book reviews and news of upcoming risk conferences and SRA membership news."
Risk Analysis. An Official Publication of the Society for Risk Analysis. http://www.wkap.nl/journalhome.htm/0272-4332. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York NY.
"Risk Analysis publishes rigorous scientific research dealing with the full range of actual, possible, and potentialhazards facing humans and the environment today. It covers such topics as health risks, and the engineering, mathematical, theoretical, social, and psychological aspects of risks. An eminent international editorial board ensures the high quality of accepted scientific articles. The journal also features informative software listings and reviews, workshop reports, comments, book reviews, and letters to the editor."
Risk, Decision and Policy. Cambridge University Press.
"Established in 1994, Risk, Decision and Policy is an interdisciplinary journal with an emphasis on decision and risk research. The journal considers applications of descriptive, prescriptive and normative decision research in a wide variety of areas. These could range from political concerns (such as voting issues, and collective choice problems) to peace and security, to long-term sustainability, to issues of interest to the private sector, such as research and development. The central core is an emphasis on decision research as a means to useful insight for practical issues, drawing on theory and applications. The journal will be particularly valuable to social scientists and economists whose work might also be of relevance to policy-makers in international and national organizations, especially in the health and environment areas. As well as technical and occasional survey articles, the journal carries regular symposia edited by Guest Editors which cover a variety of topics including AIDS, BSE, Imprecise Probabilities and Risk Communication."
