ABSTRACT
In Chapters 2 and 4, definitions of risk assessment and risk management were introduced and I discussed the two major documents, one from the UK Royal Society and the other from the US National Academy of Science, which have influenced risk assessment throughout the world. Although the two approaches are not incompatible, they are very different. It is possible to produce a synthesis, the process shown in Figure 6.1. Chapters 2, 4 and 5 emphasise the contribution of society to the framing of questions about risk and to risk evaluation and management, as well as the importance of the risk evaluation to the overall risk assessment. Chapters 7-12 concentrate on the technical aspects of toxicological risk assessment, but from time to time will refer back to these societal contributions to the process.
