ABSTRACT
Hazard is something with the potential for creating undesired adverse consequences; exposure is the vulnerability to hazards; and risk is the probability or likelihood of an adverse effect due to some hazardous situation. The availability of the best possible information is a prerequisite to sound hazard, exposure, and risk assessments. In a generic sense, risk assessment is defined as a systematic process for making estimates of all the significant risk factors that prevail over an entire range of failure modes and/or exposure scenarios due to the presence of some type of hazard. Risk assessment is a powerful tool for developing insights into the relative importance of the various types of exposure scenarios of potentially hazardous situations. Information developed in the assessment could help in making decisions about the allocation of resources for safety improvements and hazard/risk prevention by directing attention and efforts to the features and exposure pathways that dominate the risks.
