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The processes of Risk Assessment, Risk Management, and the setting of Environmental policy have tended to carefully avoid any direct consideration of the value of human life. A criticism is that if we allow some level of risk to persist in return for economic benefits, this is putting a value on human life (or at least health) and that this is inappropriate because a human life is invaluable¨Cits value is infinite. The criticism is indeed valid; these processes sometimes do implicitly put a finite, if un-stated, value on human life.

A bit of reflection, however, reveals that in fact we put a finite value on human life in many aspects of our society. One example is the automobile. Each year, hundreds or thousands of US citizens are killed in car accidents. This is a significant risk. Yet we allow the risk to continue, although it could be substantially reduced or eliminated by banning cars or through strict, nation-wide speed limits of 15 or 20 mph. But we do not ban cars and......

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Approximate Word Count: 405
Approximate Pages: 2 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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