By Mary O'Brien
For the earlier quarter-century, govt and the personal zone have relied seriously on probability review for making judgements, permitting frequent environmental deterioration. during this e-book, Mary O'Brien recommends an easy but profound shift to a different decision-making strategy: "alternatives assessment." rather than asking how a lot of a harmful task is secure (which interprets into how a lot harm the surroundings can tolerate), possible choices evaluate asks how we will stay away from or reduce harm whereas attaining society's targets. possible choices evaluate is a straightforward, common sense replacement to hazard overview. it's in line with the basis that it's not applicable to wreck human and nonhuman overall healthiness or the surroundings if there are moderate choices. The technique demands taking precautionary measures whether a few cause-and-effect relationships haven't been absolutely validated scientifically. the method needs to contain an exam of the total diversity of possible choices, together with no motion in any respect. both very important, it has to be democratic and contain in all probability affected events. O'Brien not just makes a persuasive case for replacement review; she tells the best way to enforce it. She additionally indicates how this method has profound implications for public future health, for our stewardship of our environment, and for a really democratic govt. released in organization with the Environmental study origin.
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Additional info for Making Better Environmental Decisions: An Alternative to Risk Assessment
Example text
On December 13, the Times noted that the two different risk assessments might be colored by financial interests: “But some analysts said yesterday that IBM might have mixed motives in criticizing the Pentium. , inaccurate). 8 billion worth of their Pentium chips. If it caused an error once per 24 days (IBM’s risk-assessment conclusion), maybe IBM would have captured a chunk of the desktop computer market for its Power PC chips. Financial interests are involved in most risk-management decisions, which supposedly are based on objective, scientific risk assessments derived independent of these financial considerations.
Less than 50 percent of the wetlands that once flourished in the lower 48 states remain (Noss et al. 1995). The ability of numerous children to remember numbers and words has been damaged because, prior to pregnancy and/or while breast feeding, their mothers ate some fish (about two to three salmon or lake trout meals per month) from the Great Lakes, which have become polluted with toxic chemicals. Among the toxic chemicals these mothers ingested by eating these fish were PCBs,5 which can damage the brains of developing embryos.
Most risk assessors do not stay clear of risk-management considerations during the process of estimating risk. Since there is a wide choice of which numbers will be plugged into a risk assessment, and since no one usually knows for sure what is the “right” number to use, the pressure on a risk assessor to use numbers that will fulfill the wishes of the company or agency by which she or he is employed becomes tremendous. The bottom line in most (if not all) risk assessments is that if someone wants to continue some activity or to get a permit or approval for some activity, and if the outcome of the risk assessment will get in the way of that activity, there will be pressure to use optimistic numbers in the risk assessment.
