Risk vs Risk

Tradeoffs in Protecting Health & the Environment

We see the stories in the newspaper nearly every day: a drug hailed as a breakthrough treatment turns out to cause harmful side effects; controls implemented to reduce air pollution are shown to generate hazardous solid waste; bans on dangerous chemicals result in the introduction of even more risky substitutes. Could our efforts to protect our health and the environment actually be making things worse? In Risk versus Risk, John D. Graham, Jonathan Baert Wiener, and their colleagues at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis marshal an impressive set of case studies which demonstrate that all too often our nation's campaign to reduce risks to our health and the environment is at war with itself.

At the heart of this volume is a series of nine case studies illustrating the complexities of risk tradeoffs, ranging from personal medical choices to toxic substances to prevention of global crises. In each case, authors with specific expertise in the field dissect the multidimensional risk consequences of choices facing decisionmakers. Some of these cases reveal utter folly in risk-reduction efforts; others show decisionmakers recognizing and dealing with risk tradeoffs. Risk versus Risk offers not just a critique of counterproductive risk-reduction efforts, but a method of analysis that is designed to illuminate and help resolve risk tradeoffs. The book concludes by suggesting constructive reforms in government institutions, medical care, and risk decisionmaking to help solve the conundrum of risk tradeoffs.

Contents: Confronting risk tradeoffs, John D. Graham and Jonathan Baert Wiener; estrogen therapy for menopause, Evridiki Hatziandreu et al; clozapine therapy for schizophrenia, Miriam E. Adams et al; licensing the elderly driver, Constance Williams and John D. Graham; saving gasoline and lives, John D. Graham; eating fish, Paul D. Anderson and Jonathan Baert Wiener; seeking safe drinking water, Susan W. Putnam and Jonathan Baert Wiener; recycling lead, Katherine Walker and Jonathan Baert Wiener; regulating pesticides, George M. Gray and John D. Graham; protecting the global environment, Jonathan Baert Wiener; resolving risk tradeoffs, Jonathan Baert Wiener and John D. Graham.

John Graham is Professor of Policy and Decision Sciences and Director, Center for Risk Analysis, Harvard School of Public Health.
Jonathan Baert Wiener is Associate Professor in the School of Law and the School of Environment, Duke University.

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