Risk Management

Environmental risk assessment and environmental risk management may sound similar, but they are two vastly different terms. Environmental risk management is far more political and involves policy makers. On the other hand, environmental risk assessment is scientific, and relies on data recorded by scientists and their research. There is an established tension between the two, and this tension can vary, depending where you are. Historically, the United States and Europe have adopted different models of regulation. Americans have a reputation for being self-assertive and having a complex series of checks and balances, which calls for more “adversarial trial procedures”, than European countries, when it comes to environmental regulations. (Kelman). The United States formally believed that risk assessment and risk management should be separate processes, in their respected fields. This was until the National Research Council published a report that argued to combine the two processes, stating that this would generate continuous feedback from all actors involved. This report received considerable attention on the academic and non-governmental risk community. In Europe however, quite the opposite happened. They originally the two were considered the same area, with a focus on determining the criteria for the process, while accounting for social values. In 1998 the Royal Commission for Environmental Pollution pushed for separating risk assessment from risk management, arguing scientists should not be the ones making policies. In Europe, throughout the 1990’s, public distrust towards regulators and agencies increases, for multiple reasons. There have been numerous scandals in Europe related to food and public health, most notably being Mad Cow Disease. This undermines the public trust in science and causes distrust in governmental officials.