Science and Policy: Their Separation and Integration in Risk Analysis

A progress report is given on some of the deliberations of the Committee on Risk and Decision Making of the National Academy of Sciences.The final report, addressed to the Division of Technology Assessment and Risk Analysis of the National Science Foundation, suggests researchable topics in risk analysis that should be funded.This presentation concentrates on a part of the report's prologue that examines how our society generates and copes with adverse risks to health, safety, and the environment, and that identifies pressures that may distort value-neutral risk assessments.