ABSTRACT
This chapter explores a logical sequence of topics from the identification and description of Risk, through to understanding how to estimate its significance and understand possible control measures. Risk Evaluation is the process of deciding if the Risk is acceptable and, if not, what will be done about it. There are two ways in which evaluation can be understood, based on the existence or not of moral and ethical obligations. There is another way of dealing with Risk in this situation and that is to consider the cost-effectiveness of improvements to Risk controls. Obviously, Risk evaluation is essentially a decision-making process and it is possible to critically assess every aspect of it according to decision-making theory. In the industrial world, the way in which moral and ethical requirements are expressed depends on the relationship between the body responsible for the Risk and the people or environment potentially suffering the Consequences of it.
