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Mary O'Brien

Making Better Environmental Decisions: An Alternative to Risk Assessment First Edition

by Mary O'Brien (Author)

4.2 4 ratings

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For the past quarter-century, government and the private sector have relied heavily on risk assessment for making decisions, allowing widespread environmental deterioration. In this book, Mary O'Brien recommends a simple yet profound shift to another decision-making technique: alternatives assessment. Instead of asking how much of a hazardous activity is safe (which translates into how much damage the environment can tolerate), alternatives assessment asks how we can avoid or minimize damage while achieving society's goals. Alternatives assessment is a simple, commonsense alternative to risk assessment. It is based on the premise that it is not acceptable to damage human and nonhuman health or the environment if there are reasonable alternatives. The approach calls for taking precautionary measures even if some cause-and-effect relationships have not been fully established scientifically. The process must involve an examination of the full range of alternatives, including no action at all. Equally important, it must be democratic and include potentially affected parties. O'Brien not only makes a persuasive case for alternative assessment; she tells how to implement it. She also shows how this technique has profound implications for public health, for our stewardship of the environment, and for a truly democratic government. Published in association with the Environmental Research Foundation.

ISBN-10

0262650533
ISBN-13

978-0262650533
Edition

First Edition
Publisher

MIT Press
Publication date

May 15, 2000
Language

English
Dimensions

6 x 0.77 x 8.94 inches
Print length

352 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Risk assessments are a recipe for the continued degradation of our environment. People who want to leave a healthier planet for our children will find Dr. O'Brien's book an invaluable resource, a ray of hope, and a call to action."--Bern Johnson, Executive Director, U. S. Office, Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW)

& quot; Risk assessments are a recipe for the continued degradation of our environment. People who want to leave a healthier planet for our children will find Dr. O'Brien's book an invaluable resource, a ray of hope, and a call to action.& quot; -- Bern Johnson, Executive Director, U. S. Office, Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW)

" Risk assessments are a recipe for the continued degradation of our environment. People who want to leave a healthier planet for our children will find Dr. O'Brien's book an invaluable resource, a ray of hope, and a call to action." -- Bern Johnson, Executive Director, U. S. Office, Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW)

-- Bern Johnson, Executive Director, U. S. Office, Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW)

Review

Risk assessments are a recipe for the continued degradation of ourenvironment. People who want to leave a healthier planet for our childrenwill find Dr. O'Brien's book an invaluable resource, a ray of hope, and acall to action.

―Bern Johnson, Executive Director, U. S. Office, Environmental LawAlliance Worldwide (E-LAW)

This book reads like an extended conversation with a knowledgeable scientist. The thinking is highly original and the scholarship is deep and original.

―Richard Clapp, Boston University School of Public Health

Scientifically and ethically irrefutable. Mary O'Brien pulls back the curtain of wizardry that surrounds risk assessment and shows us the tembling little men behind it. Even better, she offers us a way out of our current hazard-filled existence. Speak plainly, O'Brien urges us, and, chapter after chapter, she does.

―Sandra Steingraber, author of Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment

Fresh clean air blows through Mary O'Brien's book, and takes 'risk assessment' away with it. O'Brien argues persuasively risk assessments cannont be improved because they are defective to the marrow. Her alternative is provocative and will win many new adherents. A landmakr book.

―David Ozonoff, Professor of Environmental Health and Chair, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health

Mary O'Brien has produced a compelling treatise on why and how we must shift our attention from assessing problems to devising solutions to environmental, health, and safety threats. Commonsense technology options analysis―or alternatives assessment―transcends value-laden and limited classical risk assessment and is essential for achieving sustainable industrial transformations.

―Nicholas Ashford, Professor of Technology and Policy, MIT, and co-author, Chemical Exposures: Low Levels and High Stakes

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ MIT Press; First Edition (May 15, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0262650533
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0262650533
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.77 x 8.94 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #835,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #56 in Environmental Engineering (Books)
- #175 in Environmental Studies

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Amaze-Zone Addict

Fantastic book.

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2013

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I am working on my PhD and my research is social risk assessment (let's leave it at that and not get too complicated for Amazon). I used this in a lit review after seeing the number of citations that it had on Google Scholar. it was interesting and informative even if I didn't agree with everything- I cited it several times so I must have thought it was something good!

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Adrian Fox

The Dangerous 'Game' of Risk Assessment

Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2000

This brilliant little book should be made compulsory reading for all politicians, environmental health officers, and officials from environmental agencies. It completely debunks the idiocies of the 'game' of 'risk assessment' in a comprehensible, readable and intelligent way and comes up with a realistic, sane alternative.
If you've ever been involved in a campaign against against a polluting industry, as I have, you'll recognise the following tactics used by them: Downplay estimates of hazard: Discount harmful effects experienced and reported by local communities as 'anecdotal'. Downplay estimates of exposure: Use complicated mathematical models or formulas that can only be analysed in a complicated computer program, that community groups cannot easily gain access to or understand. Downplay risks: Compare the risks to other 'voluntary' activities like smoking. Do not discuss whether the risks are necessary or whether they could be avoided entirely through reasonable alternative behaviours.
It is on this common sense latter point that the book really concentrates. Mary O'Brien gives the example of a woman standing besides an icy river that she needs to cross. Four 'experts' are advising her. The toxicologist tells her the water is probably free of chemicals; the cardiologist says she is at little risk as her heart is sound; the hydrologist states that the currents are probably safe; and the EPA specialist tells her she will probably survive the crossing as it is a low risk compared to many other environmental problems. They are amazed when she continues to refuse to wade the river. Until, of course, she points to the bridge a few yards away which they all had conveniently ignored or failed to notice!
O'Brien also emphasises the public right to know; after all, it is those living in a community who will suffer the impact of pollution. If we could actually name those individuals who will die from the effects of pollution, we could accuse agencies and businesses of premeditated murder. But why is it any different when they talk of a 0.1% increase in the likely number of premature deaths resulting from a process? Even though we can't name the people who will die, death is still death. And the polluting process still killed them.
O'Brien calls for all government agencies and businesses to put their options in understandable language, and to consider ways of creating the least possible environmental damage. She argues that all citizens should be given easy access to relevant information, especially on health effects, and that we should have access to legal and financial resources to enforce environmental laws.
For those campaigning on these issues, take a really close look at Chapter 16, 'Getting Started'. Here O'Brien gives step-by-step advice on how 'Alternatives Assessment' could be carried out, forcing regulators and industries to evaluate the real impact of their actions and forcing them to find the environmentally best options, not a statistical justification for the harm they are already doing.
For campaigners, don't get swallowed up in the 'Risk Assessment' game. At the end, however much scientific expertise and statistical skill you acquire, you will probably be defeated. And in the process, you are helping to justify a fundamentally flawed approach. Instead, ask the basic questions, and try to get the local politicians, regulators and bureaucrats to take on board the real issues of 'should we be doing this at all' and 'what could we do instead'.
Certainly the most helpful, and practical book of this kind that I have read in ten years of environmental campaigning.
Adrian Fox Chair of Environmental Working Group, West Wiltshire District Council, United Kingdom

7 people found this helpful

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Saleem Ali

Some good points are raised but then lost in emotionalism

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2000

I began reading this book with great expectation given the bold title and the accolades that are printed on its back cover. However, I was soon disappointed. While she raises some important points about the limitations of risk assessment, her argument is occluded by a rash sentimentalism about environmental concerns that is removed from the real economic choices that risk-takers may CHOOSE to make. There are indeed many problems with sole reliance on risk assessment and the author raises some good methodological points. However, her alternative to risk assessment is a somewhat ad hoc and feel-good process which she calls "alternative assessment." I think it is somewhat disingenuous for Ms. O'Brien to suggest that risk assessors do not consider alternatives -- risk assessment is a further step by which each alternative is subsequently analyzed with analytic rigor to make sure all factors of hazard and exposure are accounted for. Perhaps we should heed Ms. O'Brien's advice and further institutionalize the consideration of alternatives. However, that alone cannot substitute the subsequent assessment and comparison between the alternatives. Ms. O'Brien, in my opinion, is presenting a sort of pseudo-methodology, that is predicated on a belief that the right to a clean environment should be placed before all other criteria. I agree with her completely that de facto, all communities have a right to a clean environment and pollution should never be inflicted upon them. However, individuals and communities, inevitably make choices about their lifestyles and may CHOOSE to tolerate a certain measure of environmental harm for other benefits. In this case they should have measurable indicators by which those choices are made -- hence the need for risk assessment. My fear is that in her aversion for risk assessment Ms. O'Brien has thrown away the proverbial baby with the bathwater.

7 people found this helpful

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Making Better Environmental Decisions: An Alternative to Risk Assessment First Edition

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