1st Edition

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

Edited By C. Richard Cothern Copyright 1995
    432 Pages
    by CRC Press

    426 Pages
    by CRC Press

    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.

    Introduction
    Values and Value Judgments in Ecological Health Assessments, W. Cooper
    Strange Chemistry: Environmental Risk Conflicts in a World of Science, Values, and Blind Spots, W.R. Freudenburg
    Issues in Environmental Risk Decision Making
    An Overview of Environmental Risk Decision Making: Values, Perceptions, and Ethics, C.R. Cothern
    Introduction to Issues in Environmental Risk Decision Making, S.R. Baker
    Industry's Use of Risk, Values, Perceptions, and Ethics in Decision Making, P.J. Hakkinen and C.J. Jeep
    Regulating and Managing Risk: Impact of Subjectivity on Objectivity, S.R. Baker
    Back to the Future: Rediscovering the Role of Public Health in Environmental Decision Making, T.A. Burke
    Telling the Public the Facts-or the Probable Facts-About Risks, V. Cohn
    The Urgent Need to Integrate Ethical Considerations into Risk Assessment Procedures, D.A. Brown
    The Problem of Intergenerational Equity: Balancing Risks, Costs, and Benefits Fairly Across Generations, B.L. Catron, L.G. Boyer, J. Grund, and J. Hartung
    Values and Value Judgments
    Introduction to Quantitative Issues, D.W. Schnare
    Ecological Risk Assessment: Toward a Broader Analytic Framework, B.G. Norton
    Environmental Ethics and Human Values, D. MacLean
    Moral Values in Risk Decisions, J.A. Nash
    Values and Comparative Risk Assessment, C.J. Paterson and R.N.L. Andrews
    Risk and Rationality in Decision Making: Exposing the Underlying Values Used When Confronted by Analytical Uncertainties, D.W. Schnare
    Comparing Apples and Oranges: Combining Data on Value Judgments, R.M. Putzrath
    The Ethical Basis of Environmental Risk Analysis, D.J. Crawford-Brown
    Ethical Theory and the Demands of Sustainability, V.A. Sharpe
    The Cardinal Virtues of Risk Analysis: Science at the Intersection of Ethics, Rationality, and Culture, D.J. Crawford-Brown and J. Arnold
    Value Judgments Involved In Verification and Validation of Risk Assessment Models, K. Shrader-Frechette
    The Stewardship Ethic-Resolving the Environmental Dilemma, D.W. Schnare
    Commentary
    Introduction to the Commentary Section, C.R. Cothern
    Awakenings to Risk in the Federal Research and Development Establishments, R.D. Hollander
    The Citizenship Responsibilities of Chemists, M. McCormack
    Global Bioethics: Origin and Development, V.R. Potter
    Ethics and Values in Environmental Risk Assessment-A Synthesis, B.L. Catron
    The Contributors
    Index

    Biography

    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.