Risk rationalization

Most of the foods we consume are beneficial some foods, however, may have risks. Rational assessment of these risks and benefits is an extremely difficult area of research and, too frequently, an emotional issue. 

Explore risk rationally, rather than responding to your own anxiety... 

Quantitative risk analysis (QRA) is a powerful analysis approach used to help manage risk and improve safety in many industries. When properly performed with appropriate respect for its theoretical and practical limitations, QRA provides a rational basis for evaluating process safety and comparing improvement alternatives. However, QRA is not a panacea that can solve all problems, make decisions for a manager, or substitute for existing safety assurance and loss prevention activities. Even when QRA is preferred, qualitative results, which always form the foundation for QRA, should be used to verify and support any conclusions drawn from QRA. 

When used to identify and evaluate significant risk contributors, as well as to assess the consequences of accident sequences, the PSA provides a comprehensive framework for making many types of decisions regarding reactor design, operation, and siting. These and other appi ications can be facilitated by the rational evaluation of the risks associated with a particular installation. 

After obtaining the prototypes, tests must be made to determine the utility. Generally these include a short time destructive test to determine the strength and to check out the basic design. Another test that is done is to use the product in the projected environment with stress levels increased in a rational manner to make for an accelerated life test. Other tests may include consumer acceptance tests to determine what instructions in proper use are required, tests for potential safety hazards, electrical tests, self-extinguishing tests, and any others that the product requires. In the case of high risk products, the test program is continued even after the product enters service. 

The potential severity of anaphylaxis during anesthesia underscores the interest of developing a rational approach to reduce its incidence by identifying potential risk factors before surgery. Recommendations concerning the identification of population at risk of peroperative anaphylaxis, who would benefit from preoperative investigation, have been proposed [10]. 

This policy seems to be rational and would be of tremendous help to registrants in getting more uses registered for their products. This would be especially useful when new uses (worth millions of dollars to the registrant) were to be added to the label in cases where no detectable residues were found in the food product and the risk cup (cumulative exposure risk) was nearly full. The following example highlights this point ... 

The effect of diet on vulnerability to lead makes interpretation of published information on experimental lead poisoning in waterfowl extremely difficult (Chasko et al. 1984). For example, many mallards on a diet of com die within 10 to 14 days after ingesting a single lead shot, whereas similar birds on a balanced commercial duck ration appear outwardly normal after ingesting as many as 32 pellets of the same size (Wobeser 1981). Also, multiple nutritional deficiencies may have additional effects in potentiating the toxicity of lead in mallards (Carlson and Nielsen 1985). Under conditions of reduced dietary calcium availability, such as can occur in acid-impacted environments, birds risk increased uptake of lead (and other metals) and may accumulate toxic concentrations more rapidly (Scheuhammer 1996). Enhanced accumulation of lead was accompanied by an increased synthesis of metallothioneins and a greater inhibition of ALAD activity (Scheuhammer 1996). 

Raloxifene is a SERM devoid of stimulating effects on the uterus as is known from the initial studies (Delmas et al. 1997). Eliminating one of the major concerns raised by the experience gained with tamoxifen studies, both in prevention and adjuvant treatments, puts raloxifene in a place of privilege to be a rational alternative agent. At the same time it improves bone density, prevents osteoporosis and vertebral fracture, and reduces cardiovascular events in a subset of high-risk patients (Silverman et al. 2004). The evidences on the effects of raloxifene on the uterus are explained in detail in Chap. 10 of this book. 

Often contrasted in conceptual terms, EIA and RA have a common ultimate goal— the rational reform of policy-making (Andrews 1990). Both assessment tools are intended to provide reasoned predictions of possible consequences of planned decisions to facilitate wiser choices among the alternatives. To link risk assessment and impact assessment paradigms one can suggest a definition of environmental impact as any change in the level of risk undergone by receptors of concern that are reasonably attributable to a proposed project (Demidova, 2002). 

In general, risk reduction is accomplished by implementing one or more protective layers, which reduce the frequency and/or consequence of the hazard scenario. LOPA provides specific criteria and restrictions for the evaluation of protection layers, eliminating the subjectivity of qualitative methods at substantially less cost than fully quantitative techniques. LOPA is a rational, defensible methodology that allows a rapid, cost-effective means for identifying the protection layers that lower the frequency and/or the consequence of specific hazard scenarios. 

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