ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses hazard and risk reduction, the politics of disaster and how the regulatory approach to risk control and management has developed in the United Kingdom and Europe. In today's global economy, companies large and small are operating across continents, in diverse cultures and regulatory regimes. Some disasters we ought never to forget because they point the way towards a safer world, for which many people have paid a price with their lives. While the reasons for structural collapses such as the Tay Bridge over a hundred years ago, and some of the countless air, marine and railway accidents in recent decades, all deserve a place in our corporate memory. Major pollution incidents have severely harmed our environment; great economic and social damage has been caused by the spread of animal diseases.
