A view on risk management

The world at large has enjoyed the benefits of industrial technology for almost two centuries. The managers of industrial facilities as well as members of the public focused on the benefits and typically ignored or underestimated the inherent risks entailed in deployment of these technologies. Two examples will be given for the sake of illustration. In the chemical industry, the impacts of various chemicals on humans are insufficiently understood. In addition, it was not even known that some hazardous chemicals could be formed in the chemical reactions taking place in various chemical reactors. This is equivalent to not knowing that Cesium-iodide compound can be formed within nuclear fuel nor the impact it might have on humans if released, which is inconceivable in the nuclear industry. In the era of risk recognition, many industrial managers proclaimed that safety is everybody's business. The basic premise behind this was that since everyone is responsible, no one can be blamed for accidents. This is, however, shifting because both economics and litigation are now compelling industrial managers to consider risk in conjunction with the benefit. The government managers in many cases interpreted their charter to reap benefits first and pay the price of risks later; e.g., the case of nuclear weapons production facilities seriously contaminated by radioactive and other hazardous materials. Cost of clean-up was estimated at more than $100 billion. Of course, the authors have similar examples in many other industries, e.g., Superfund project of chemical waste sites. The challenge for the technologists is to maximize the benefit/risk ratio, keeping the risks, real or perceived, acceptably small. This brings us to the issue of acceptable risks, the topic of this paper