ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses some issues concerning the comparison and combination of information on value judgments that may become part of the risk assessment process. As the method by which value judgments are measured is critical to their accurate incorporation into risk assessment, it focuses on the selection of the metric and methods of combining information. The explicit introduction of values and ethics into risk assessments rapidly expands the amount of information that could be included in the evaluation. Such an abundance of data raises additional issues. The effect of a nonlinearity between changes in circumstance and differences in the level of concern on the use of a common metric can be substantial. Converting all issues into a common metric inherently assumes a linear ratio between the issues over the entire region of potential concern. To ease combination and comparisons among different situations, all of the measurements may be converted into one set of units, i.e., a common metric.
