Benefits and risks: Their assessment in relation to human needs

Attempts have been made, particularly during the last ten or fifteen years, to use numerical methods for setting priorities in safety matters. These attempts, known as ''hazard analysis'', have used two distinct methods. Weighing in the balance. In this method, sometimes known as the trade-off, the benefits and disadvantages of various courses of action are expressed in common units, usually money, so that they can be offset against each other and the course of action giving the biggest net benefit identified. Standard or target setting. A company, industry, or government sets a standard which must be achieved, or a target which should be aimed for. Such standards or targets cover widely diverse hazards. The paper introduced describes some methods that have been developed, using this second approach, to help us allocate our resources rationally in safety matters. They have been developed mainly to deal with problems arising from acute, or immediate hazards such as fires, explosions, and large releases of toxic gas, but attempts are now being made to apply them to chronic, or long-term, hazards