ABSTRACT
Statisticaldecisiontheorycanbeavaluabletoolwhenconsideringthe resultsofastatisticalanalysisforhealthpolicydecisions.Inthischapter wereviewbrieflythehistoryofdecisiontheoryinstatisticsandintroduce methodsforelicitinglossfunctionstobeusedwhentwopartieswith possiblyconflictinginterestsneedtoreachadecision.Weillustratethe methodswithexamplesconcerningpublicexposuretopotentialhealth risksfromenvironmentalcontamination.