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RISK ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT: FRAMEWORK FOR DECISION MAKING
Citation:
RISK ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT: FRAMEWORK FOR DECISION MAKING. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/9-85/002 (NTIS PB85170157), 1985.
Description:
The risk assessment and risk management initiatives described in this report are tools which will help make possible more efficient protection of the environment and human health. e expect to gain the following specific management advantages: isk assessment and risk management help set priorities. here are thousands of chemicals in commerce and an unknown number of contaminants and unintended by-products. ome of these could be important as pollutants, and as such, are proper targets for regulation if they pose significant risks to health or the environment. e do not have the budget, nor will we ever have the time to test each chemical exhaustively. creening by estimates of potential risk reduction is an attractive basis for comparing regulatory priorities. e can use risk analytic methods to help sort problems in terms of the likelihood that the Agency can do something constructive and effective to improve public health and the environment. isk management provides a context for balanced analysis and decision making. oxic chemicals are legitimately frightening: they can and do cause cancer and other diseases. he trouble is that we are exposed to a complex, highly dilute mixture of chemicals, taken in through air, water, and food. hen disease strikes, cause and effect are seldom clearly linked. he Agency can contribute to rational discussion by exposing the scientific basis for the risk, including the confidence we have in the estimate; placing the risk reduction expected from the regulation in context with other risk and other opportunities for risk reduction; and explaining the values on which the balancing judgments have been made. isk assessment and management produce more efficient and consist risk reduction policies. PA's patchwork of authorities for controlling pollution needs to be woven together more coherently, beginning at the analytical level and continuing through to the regulatory decision. ome important differences - defined by statute - in the ways the laws manage risk will always remain, but a risk management approach can use our remaining administrative flexibility to make more efficient use of the Agency's and society's resources to reduce risk and to make the Agency's actions more consistent.