What is Environmental Risk and Risk Analysis?
Decisions are made all the time which affect public health and prioritize the use, possible misuse and/or protection of resources and biota.
Risk Analysis is an approach and a set of tools for systematically comparing the social, economic, human health and other environmental costs and benefits of decision options. Risk Analysis includes problem definition, hazard and exposure assessment, risk characterization, risk communication and decisions affecting risk management.
Risk Analysis can add transparency and inclusiveness to the decision-making process. Risk Analysis is multi-disciplinary, drawing on a range of basic scientific skills to generate data, and a wide array of other skills to communicate, evaluate, interpret, and act on the assessment. Risk Analysis is integrative.
Risk Analysis provides an ideal framework for bridging among the research, teaching and outreach mandates at Cornell.
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.
Family History, Inheritance, and Breast Cancer Risk. Barbour Warren and Carol Devine. July 2003. Cornell University Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors. http://envirocancer.cornell.edu/FactSheet/General/fs48.inheritance.cfm
