Research Product

Environmental risk assessment can be characterized as the use of scientific data to define the probability of some harm affecting a portion of the environment under stated circumstances. This differs from risk management, which can apply the risk assessment in conjunction with economic and social considerations. My workshop colleague suggested that scientists are best equipped to make technical and judgmental analyses of the uncertainty of a given data base and should provide such analyses to those making environmental decisions. I agree with the suggestion, but believe strongly that scientists must clearly separate expressions of uncertainty based on statistics from those based on judgment in order to retain credibility and contribute to risk assessment in a positive manner.