Public Safety and Risk Assessment Improving Decision Making [Hardcover]

This book aims to encourage a more reflective, multidisciplinary approach to public safety, and the 'reenfranchisement' of those affected by this new phenomenon. Over the past decade health and safety has become a major issue of public interest. There are countless stories of health and safety activities interfering with public life, preventing some beneficial activity from taking place  even creating absurd or dangerous situations. On the one hand, risk assessment, properly conducted, is highly beneficial  it saves lives and prevents injuries. But on the other, it can damage public life. Why has this come about, and does it have to be like that? The authors examine the origins of the problem, look critically at the tools used by safety assessors and their underlying assumptions, and consider important differences between public life and industry (where the approaches largely originated). They illuminate the whole with an analysis of legal requirements, attitudes of stakeholders, and recent research on risk perception and decision making. The result is a profound and important analysis of risk and safety culture and a framework for managing public safety more effectively.

Preface 1. Clear and Foreseeable Danger 2. Risk Assessment - A Simple Tool? 3. Is Safety Paramount? 4. Risk and Safety - A National Philosophy 5. What Works in Public Life? 6. Legal Matters 7. Advice - Whose Advice? 8. A Closer Look at Decision Making 9. Adventure Activities - A Hard Case 10. Risk-benefit Assessment 11. In Search of a New Agenda 12. Final Thoughts and R?sum?

'Many myths focus on issues where health and safety is apparently responsible for curtailing beneficial public activities. This has been reflected in the evidence I received. Some are concerned that health and safety law is now being applied to situations for which the origl$