Handbook for Environmental Risk Decision Making: Values, Perceptions, and Ethics

ISBN-13: 9781566701310 / Angielski / Twarda / 1995 / 432 str.

C. Richard Cothern

Opis

This handbook describes the broad aspects of risk management involving scientific policy judgment, uncertainty analysis, perception considerations, statistical insights, and strategic thinking. This book presents all the important concepts to enable the reader to "see the big picture." This ability is extremely important - it allows the decision maker or strategic environmental planner to understand and cope with a wide variety of complex and interlinked pieces of information and data.
The text presents environmental problems and, whenever applicable, the methodology required to reach a successful solution. Decisions and policies are examined. The book covers numerous objective and subjective components of environmental risk decision making. It details quantitative and comparative risk, and investigates the cost and feasibility of different decisions. Social pressures, safety, and political, religious, ethical, and psychological issues are addressed. How to evaluate the potential impact on the quality of life also is discussed.
Any company doing risk assessment, risk management, or risk communication, as well as those doing environmental decision making will find this reference to be invaluable. It is also suitable as a text for courses in environmental management, environmental science, and risk assessment in the areas of risk management and strategic environmental planning.

Spis treści

Introduction: Values and Value Judgments in Ecological Health Assessments. Strange Chemistry: Environmental Risk Conflicts in a World of Science, Values, and Blind Spots.
Issues in Environmental Risk Decision Making: An Overview of Environmental Risk Decision Making: Values, Perceptions, and Ethics. Introduction to Issues in Environmental Risk Decision Making. Industry's Use of Risk, Values, Perceptions, and Ethics in Decision Making. Regulating and Managing Risk: Impact of Subjectivity on Objectivity. Back to the Future: Rediscovering the Role of Public Health in Environmental Decision Making. Telling the Public the Facts-or the Probable Facts-About Risks. The Urgent Need to Integrate Ethical Considerations into Risk Assessment Procedures. The Problem of Intergenerational Equity: Balancing Risks, Costs, and Benefits Fairly Across Generations.
Values and Value Judgments: Introduction to Quantitative Issues. Ecological Risk Assessment: Toward a Broader Analytic Framework. Environmental Ethics and Human Values. Moral Values in Risk Decisions. Values and Comparative Risk Assessment. Risk and Rationality in Decision Making: Exposing the Underlying Values Used When Confronted by Analytical Uncertainties. Comparing Apples and Oranges: Combining Data on Value Judgments. The Ethical Basis of Environmental Risk Analysis. Ethical Theory and the Demands of Sustainability. The Cardinal Virtues of Risk Analysis: Science at the Intersection of Ethics, Rationality, and Culture. Value Judgments Involved In Verification and Validation of Risk Assessment Models. The Stewardship Ethic-Resolving the Environmental Dilemma.
Commentary: Introduction to the Commentary Section. Awakenings to Risk in the Federal Research and Development Establishments. The Citizenship Responsibilities of Chemists. Global Bioethics: Origin and Development. Ethics and Values in Environmental Risk Assessment-A Synthesis.
The Contributors. Index.

O autorze

C. Richard Cothern, Ph.D., is presently with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Center for Environmental Statistics Development Staff. He has served as the Executive Secretary of the Science Advisory Board at the U.S. EPA and as their National Expert on Radioactivity and Risk Assessment in the Office of Drinking Water. In addition, he is a Professor of Management and Technology at the University of Maryland’s University College and an Associate Professorial Lecturer in the Chemistry Department of the George Washington University. Dr. Cothem has authored over 80 scientific articles including many related to public health, the environment, and risk assessment. He has written and edited 14 books, including such diverse topics as science and society, energy and the environment, trace substances in environmental health, lead bioavailability, environmental arsenic, environmental statistics and forecasting, risk assessment, and radon and radionuclides in drinking water. He received his B.A. from Miami University (Ohio), his M.S. from Yale University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba.