Individual Risk Management Decisions

Abstract

The goal of applied risk assessment is usually more than just to identify hazards or to quantify health risks for individuals and populations from different exposures. A successful quantitative risk assessment (QRA) usually quantifies the probabilities of different consequences for various alternative decisions. It provides information to improve action. While QRA may also produce intermediate information, such as decision-to-exposure or exposure-to-response-probability relations, its main goal is to assess the risks (determined by consequence probabilities) and uncertainties for risk management decision alternatives that decision-makers must choose among. In this context, information from a QRA has value if it helps to identify or make decisions that increase the probabilities of more-preferred consequences and reduce the probabilities of less-preferred outcomes.