Richard Wilson, a pioneer of risk as- sessment, notes that its essence "is the application of ... knowledge of past mistakes in an attempt to prevent new mistakes in new situations" (1), Put this way, risk assessment sounds as natural as breathing. William Ruckleshaus, a former adminis- Trator of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and strong proponent of risk analy- Sis, characterized it as "the attempt to quan- Tify the degree of hazard that might result From human activities; a kind of pretense to Avoid the paralysis that would result from Waiting for definitive data; somewhat of an Intellectual orphan" (2).
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