ABSTRACT
The introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses how risk and safety are produced, about the fact that they are intertwined, and about what, therefore, should be done to make the search for better combinations both efficient—devoting resources to the worst hazards—and effective—actually improving safety. It contains examples drawn from controversies over risk—regulation of chemical carcinogens, efforts to reduce pollution of different kinds, safety on the job, and so on—that appear to have reached an impasse in terms of productive thinking. The book explains the nonhuman life forms, the inspection of nuclear power plants, the human body, and the law of personal injuries. It seeks to set out principles that reduce harm and increase safety. Hypotheses about global resource potential do not dispose of the question of how safety might best be achieved at any stipulated level of global resources.
