Acceptable Risk


Book Description

A framework for making decisions about risks, with recommendations for research, public policy, and practice.




Acceptable Risk Processes


Book Description

Prepared by the Council on Disaster Reduction and the Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering of ASCE. This TCLEE Monograph provides engineers and decision makers with tools to help them better understand acceptable risk processes and then develop risk reduction strategies and implement mitigation actions to reduce lifeline losses from future earthquakes. The disruption of lifelines from natural hazards has a direct impact on the world's regional economies and the health of their citizens. Therefore, it is important to understand what natural hazards are, how they can affect infrastructure lifelines, and what can be done to minimize their impact. These three elements, in turn, influence decisions that involve acceptable risk processes. The topic of "acceptable risk" provides one way of bringing integrated systems risk evaluations for disaster explicitly into a decision-making context. Topics include technical issues; risk criteria issues; and communication, administration, and regulation issues.




Acceptable Risk


Book Description

The bestselling “master of the medical thriller” (The New York Times) confronts one of the most compelling issues of our time: personality-altering drugs and the complex moral questions they raise. When neuroscientist Edward Armstrong begins dating Kimberly Stewart, a descendant of a woman who was hanged as a witch at the time of the Salem witch trials, he takes advantage of the opportunity to delve into a pet theory: that the “devil” in Salem in 1692 had been a hallucinogenic drug inadvertently consumed with mold-tainted grain. In an attempt to prove his theory, Edward grows the mold he believes responsible with samples from the Stewart estate. In a brilliant designer-drug transformation, the poison becomes Ultra, the next generation of antidepressants with truly startling therapeutic capabilties. But who can be sure the drug is safe for consumers? Who defines the boundaries of “normal” human behavior? And if the drug’s side effects are proven to be dangerous—even terrifying—how far will the medical community go to alter their standards of acceptable risk?




Water Quality


Book Description

The quality of water, whether it is used for drinking, irrigation or recreational purposes, is significant for health in both developing and developed countries worldwide. This book is based on a programme of work undertaken by an international group of experts during 1999-2001. The aim was to develop a harmonised framework of effective and affordable guidelines and standards to improve the risk assessment and management of water-related microbial hazards. This book will be useful to all those concerned with issues relating to microbial water quality and health, including environmental and public health scientists, water scientists, policy makers and those responsible for developing standards and regulations.




Acceptable Risk?


Book Description

Organizations and modern technology give us much of what we value, but they have also given us Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Bhopal. The question at the heart of this paradox is "What is acceptable risk?" Based on his examination of the 1981 contamination of an office building in Binghamton, New York, Lee Clarke's compelling study argues that organizational processes are the key to understanding how some risks rather than others are defined as acceptable. He finds a pattern of decision-making based on relationships among organizations rather than the authority of individuals or single agencies.




On the Practice of Safety


Book Description

The completely revised and updated Third Edition of the benchmark On the Practice of Safety thoroughly covers subjects that must be mastered by anyone seeking to attain professional status in the practice of safety. Like its predecessors, the Third Edition provides a solid foundation for the study of the practice of safety in degree programs. Additionally, it serves as a basis for self-analysis by those safety professionals who seek to improve their performance, gain recognition from management for providing value, and achieve professional status. On the Practice of Safety’s distinctive essay format provides a penetrating exploration of a variety of subjects not possible in a standard reference. The Third Edition expands on the content of the former edition, adding updated statistics to reflect recent trends and developments in the field. In addition to a greatly extended chapter on quality and safety, author Fred Manuele contributes four new chapters: Heinrich Revisited: Truisms or Myths Addressing Severe Injury Potential Acceptable Risk Behavior-Based Safety Each chapter is a self-contained unit that offers comprehensive coverage of a particular topic. All of the chapters in the Third Edition reflect the increasing professional incidence of safety, occupational health, and environmental affairs falling under a common management, and address each issue accordingly.




Risk Assessment


Book Description

Introduces risk assessment with key theories, proven methods, and state-of-the-art applications Risk Assessment: Theory, Methods, and Applications remains one of the few textbooks to address current risk analysis and risk assessment with an emphasis on the possibility of sudden, major accidents across various areas of practice—from machinery and manufacturing processes to nuclear power plants and transportation systems. Updated to align with ISO 31000 and other amended standards, this all-new 2nd Edition discusses the main ideas and techniques for assessing risk today. The book begins with an introduction of risk analysis, assessment, and management, and includes a new section on the history of risk analysis. It covers hazards and threats, how to measure and evaluate risk, and risk management. It also adds new sections on risk governance and risk-informed decision making; combining accident theories and criteria for evaluating data sources; and subjective probabilities. The risk assessment process is covered, as are how to establish context; planning and preparing; and identification, analysis, and evaluation of risk. Risk Assessment also offers new coverage of safe job analysis and semi-quantitative methods, and it discusses barrier management and HRA methods for offshore application. Finally, it looks at dynamic risk analysis, security and life-cycle use of risk. Serves as a practical and modern guide to the current applications of risk analysis and assessment, supports key standards, and supplements legislation related to risk analysis Updated and revised to align with ISO 31000 Risk Management and other new standards and includes new chapters on security, dynamic risk analysis, as well as life-cycle use of risk analysis Provides in-depth coverage on hazard identification, methodologically outlining the steps for use of checklists, conducting preliminary hazard analysis, and job safety analysis Presents new coverage on the history of risk analysis, criteria for evaluating data sources, risk-informed decision making, subjective probabilities, semi-quantitative methods, and barrier management Contains more applications and examples, new and revised problems throughout, and detailed appendices that outline key terms and acronyms Supplemented with a book companion website containing Solutions to problems, presentation material and an Instructor Manual Risk Assessment: Theory, Methods, and Applications, Second Edition is ideal for courses on risk analysis/risk assessment and systems engineering at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also an excellent reference and resource for engineers, researchers, consultants, and practitioners who carry out risk assessment techniques in their everyday work.




Process Risk and Reliability Management


Book Description

In the last twenty years considerable progress has been made in process risk and reliability management, particularly in regard to regulatory compliance. Many companies are now looking to go beyond mere compliance; they are expanding their process safety management (PSM) programs to improve performance not just in safety, but also in environmental compliance, quality control and overall profitability. Techniques and principles are illustrated with numerous examples from chemical plants, refineries, transportation, pipelines and offshore oil and gas. This book helps executives, managers and technical professionals achieve not only their current PSM goals, but also to make the transition to a broader operational integrity strategy. The book focuses on the energy and process industries- from refineries, to pipelines, chemical plants, transportation, energy and offshore facilities. The techniques described in the book can also be applied to a wide range of non-process industries. The book is both thorough and practical. It discusses theoretical principles in a wide variety of areas such as management of change, risk analysis and incident investigation, and then goes on to show how these principles work in practice, either in the design office or in an operating facility. The second edition has been expanded, revised and updated and many new sections have been added including: The impact of resource limitations, a review of some recent major incidents, the value of story-telling as a means of conveying process safety values and principles, and the impact of the proposed changes to the OSHA PSM standard. Learn how to develop a thorough and complete process safety management program. Go beyond traditional hazards analysis and risk management programs to explore a company's entire range of procedures, processes and management issues. Understand how to develop a culture of process safety and operational excellence that goes beyond simple rule compliance. Develop process safety programs for both onshore facilities (EPA, OSHA) and offshore platforms and rigs (BSEE) and to meet Safety Case requirements.




Acceptable Risk (Danger Never Sleeps Book #2)


Book Description

Sarah Denning is a military journalist with the Army in the Middle East when her convoy is attacked and she's taken hostage. When former Army Ranger Gavin Black is asked by his old unit commander--Sarah's imposing father--to plan an extremely risky rescue, he reluctantly agrees and successfully executes it. Back in the US, Sarah is livid when she's discharged on a false psychiatric evaluation and vows to return to the Army. Until she learns of her brother's suicide. Unable to believe her brother would do such a thing, she puts her plans on hold and enlists Gavin to help her discover the truth. What they uncover may be the biggest story of Sarah's career--if she can survive long enough to write it. Strap in for another breakneck nail-biter from bestselling romantic suspense author Lynette Eason that will have you up turning pages long into the night.




Human-System Integration in the System Development Process


Book Description

In April 1991 BusinessWeek ran a cover story entitled, "I Can't Work This ?#!!@ Thing," about the difficulties many people have with consumer products, such as cell phones and VCRs. More than 15 years later, the situation is much the same-but at a very different level of scale. The disconnect between people and technology has had society-wide consequences in the large-scale system accidents from major human error, such as those at Three Mile Island and in Chernobyl. To prevent both the individually annoying and nationally significant consequences, human capabilities and needs must be considered early and throughout system design and development. One challenge for such consideration has been providing the background and data needed for the seamless integration of humans into the design process from various perspectives: human factors engineering, manpower, personnel, training, safety and health, and, in the military, habitability and survivability. This collection of development activities has come to be called human-system integration (HSI). Human-System Integration in the System Development Process reviews in detail more than 20 categories of HSI methods to provide invaluable guidance and information for system designers and developers.