ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction and overview of the symposium, highlighting the topics discussed and adding some more detail concerning the scope of the problem and its place in the emerging area of quantitative risk assessment. Quantitative risk assessment is a new, emerging, and potentially useful method for comparing the risks to human health and environmental degradation due to natural and anthropogenic contamination. The chapter presents some background thoughts and ideas concerning some of the issues, problem areas, and an overview of the data and information that are missing for a comparative risk assessment of environmental problems. In some cases environmental information and data exist and can be used for quantitative risk assessment. A number of problems occur in comparing risks due to different environmental contaminants. In the area of human health, a problem in comparative risk arises between mortality and morbidity.
