Should We Risk It? Exploring Environmental, Health, and Technological Problem Solving [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

by Daniel M. Kammen (Author), David M. Hassenzahl (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Should We Risk It?, an exciting new text, explores the nature and the methods of risk analysis through a set of carefully selected, critically analyzed and clearly explained problems. . . . [A] fascinating tour of the field." -- John S. Evans, Science

"This book will be very useful as a text in a risk-analysis class. It will also be a valuable reference for practitioners of risk assessment in industry, government, and consulting. . . . The organization of the book is logical and effective." -- James K. Hammitt, Harvard University

Should We Risk It?, an exciting new text by Daniel Kammen and David Hassenzahl, explores the nature and methods of risk analysis through a set of carefully selected, critically analyzed and clearly explained problems. An introductory chapter provides an overview of the history and philosophy of the field. Nine substantive chapters cover the scientific and analytic foundations of risk assessment: modeling, statistics, uncertainty, toxicology, epidemiology, exposure assessment, technological risk, decision analysis, and communication. -- John S. Evans, Science, September 17th, 1999

This book starts off slowly, picks up speed, and quickly hits a very impressive tempoIn a tour de force of a chapter, they discuss among many other things biologically based, one-hit, two-hit and multistage cancer as well as noncancer models, maximum likelihood methods, safety factors and species extrapolation. And they do it in a way that is uniformly interesting and challenging, and with an awareness of the practical implications of the theory (for example, by discussing how the quality of data that can be expected is affected by the cost of lifetime rodent experiments). Successive chapters deal with epidemiology and exposure assessment in the same charged and entertaining manner. This book isfor anyone who wants to be provoked into thinking about the real world of the environment, health and technology. -- Risk Analysis, October, 1999

This is a truly innovative and timely book that addresses the concepts of risk and its management from a problem-solving perspective. . . . It leads the reader step-by-step through many of the dimensions of risk management. -- Review

This statistician found the book quite intriguingAlmost all of the examples are "real-world" in the truest sense. [T]he book is not a bunch of formulas and models. They [the authors] "seek to bridge the gap between the qualitative 'discussion' books" and the "advanced modeling books and journal papers. -- Mathematics Association of America, November 1999

Review
Daniel M. Kammen and David M. Hassenzahl have written a book that is essentially a well-annotated, comprehensive problem set for coursework or other training in risk assessment. . . . [The authors] note that 'many people who . . . must informally make decisions about risk . . . learn the tools of the trade on the fly.' Should We Risk lt? goes a long way to provide training in problem solving for risk assessment.
(Rebecca A. Efroymson Endeavour )

This book is highly recommended for those who practice risk analysis, and perhaps even more so, for those who earn their living making decisions based on risk analysis. It is especially recommended for anyone who wants to be provoked into thinking about the real world of the environment, health, and technology.
(Jay Turim Risk Analysis )

Should We Risk It?, an exciting new text, explores the nature and the methods of risk analysis through a set of carefully selected, critically analyzed and clearly explained problems. . . . [A] fascinating tour of the field.
(John S. Evans Science )

This is a truly innovative and timely book that addresses the concepts of risk and its management from a problem-solving perspective. . . . It leads the reader step-by-step through many of the dimensions of risk management.
(Simon Gerrard Environment ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press; 1 edition (April 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691004269
• ISBN-13: 978-0691004266
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,615,055 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Introductory Text on Risk Assessment, August 18, 2000

By A Customer

Written in a straightforward and almost conversational style, this book provides an introductory text on the topic of risk assessment. The book describes complex concepts in simple language and is thus effective in presenting the subject matter, Moreover, the exercises within each chapter are clearly designed to reinforce understanding of the topics covered. Overall, an excellent book for a student of risk assessment.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but more explanation needed., March 21, 2000

By A Customer

This book provides a lot of good example problems in the field of environmental risk assessment. However, it seems to lack follow-up discussion of the case studies. It is intended, perhaps, that the reader would work through the problems and then perhaps discuss them as in a class situation. There are questions following the problems that might be considered adequate to lead the reader to the point the authors were trying to make. Nonetheless, it would help the cohesiveness if there were some discussion of the problems rather than just going from one to the next.

3.0 out of 5 stars unsolved problems, January 25, 2009

By	Riley (Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Should We Risk It?: Exploring Environmental, Health, and Technological Problem Solving (Paperback)

This was a good book, but I was disappointed in the number of unsolved problems. If I knew how to solve them I wouldn't need to buy the book, so it seems like it would have been a much better educational opportunity had there been some sort of answer key or guidelines following the questions. To be fair, there are some questions followed by solutions, but the harder ones are left to the reader to deal with on their own. The authors suggest that "additional unsolved problems reinforce the presentation", as if it should be a positive thing to leave people hanging in midair. However, like I wrote, it is a good book, it's just a shame that they didn't make it better by providing solutions to their very interesting questions. The authors themselves pointed out that it is hard to find the opportunity to study risk analysis, so they must be aware that at least some of the readers would not be in a classroom setting to take part in discussions on the unsolved problems.

If the authors ever read this, then I would highly recommend/beg making the solutions available on the internet.