Calculating Risks?

Hazardous wastes often head the public's list of environmental concerns.
Exaggerated estimates of cancer epidemics arising from waste sites generate a sense
of alarm, but little is known about the real extent of the health threats. In this
book James T. Hamilton and W. Kip Viscusi present the first comprehensive analysis
of the magnitude of hazardous waste risks and of the efficacy of the Environmental
Protection Agency's Superfund program.

By matching agency decision
data to detailed census information using geographic information systems (GIS)
technology, the authors show that most hazardous waste sites do not pose sufficient
risk to merit the most stringent cleanup options. Those sites that do pose
considerable risk to exposed populations often receive inadequate attention, because
government decisions to target cleanups are based more on political factors than on
actual risks. The authors propose policy reforms that could significantly reduce
cleanup costs without sacrificing the protection of human health. Beyond its
analysis of a particular risk policy, the book serves as a general model for
comprehensive risk analysis.