Risk: A Practical Guide for Deciding What's Really Safe and What's Dangerous in the World Around You

By David Ropeik and George Gray

Book Overview

An indispensable and timely guide, Risk is the authority for assessing threats to your health and safety.

We continually face new risks in our world. This essential family reference will help you understand worrisome risks so you can decide how to stay safe and how to keeps risks in perspective. Expert authors David Ropeik and George Gray include information on:

- 50 top hazards - your likelihood of exposure - the consequences - ways to reduce your risk

They cover topics such as:

- cancer - biological weapons - indoor air pollution - pesticides - radiation

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618143726
• ISBN13: 9780618143726
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The antidote to media scares

Though its prose style is deliberately dry, this wonderful reference work is the perfect antidote to the "scare of the week" that the media continually inflict upon us. Has short sections on each of 48 risks (e.g. indoor air pollution; pesticides; firearms; X-rays; caffeine; breast implants) containing data and the relevant scientific knowledge, summarized by two scales of "likelihood of being affected" and "seriousness of being affected". Even those who consider themeselves knowledgeable about risk will learn something; I recommend it for my undergraduate seminar course at Berkeley.

Easy to read and comprehend

This publication brings more complex concepts of risk management to a common level of understanding for many college students. It helps create a foundation for proper risk communication and arms students with the knowledge to address a large variety of issues affecting our lives today.

This is the scientific facts without the hype.

This is an excellent book on the subject of risk analysis focused on 48 specific risks we encounter in everyday life. The book is divided in three parts. Part I describes mainly discretionary or behavioral risks. These consist mainly of risks we choose to incur such as smoking, drinking alcohol, and drinking coffee. Part II focuses on environmental risks. These are risks that we bear, and for the most part can't avoid such as water and air pollution. Part III describe Medical related risks. As the authors specify these are often more outcomes than risks. For instance, cancer and heart disease are not direct risks, they are outcome of a combination of deficient nutrition, bad lifestyle habits (lack of exercise), and inherited genes. The authors make an excellent effort to come up with the most current and objective scientific knowledge. They avoid all the hype in the media that may exaggerate or understate various risks. After reading this excellent book, it is interesting to notice that by far the biggest risks to our health and survival are the behavioral risks or the risks we choose to undertake. These include smoking, drinking, obesity, and also sun tanning. These risks are far greater than pesticides, water pollution, air pollution, electro magnetic fields, and radiation from cellular phones. Thus, the authors do a good job to strengthen our common sense based on scientific evidence instead of going crazy due to misinformation by the media. The book is excellent for several reasons. First, the authors have a solid scientific background themselves. Second, they fully recognized that no matter how smart you are, you just can't be the number one expert in everything. Thus, each of the chapters (dedicated to any one of the specific 48 risks) has been fully reviewed by one or more of the top authorities in the relevant field covered. Therefore, the book does not reflect just their opinions. In essence, each of their risk analysis has been peer-reviewed by the top specialists. Third, they provide excellent reference at the end of each section to credible websites where you could further research specific issues if you cared too. Fourth, they came up with a self explanatory Risk Meter that is a visual representation of the specific exposure to a certain risk, and severity of consequence if you are exposed to this same risk. Thus, very quickly you can get a read on how serious a specific risk is right at the beginning of each chapters. Fifth, in the Appendix 2, the authors summarize their opinions on all 48 risks. So, if you just wanted to know the bottom line on a series of rather complex risks, you could quickly refer to this Appendix, and in seconds you can figure how material these risks are to yourself. This is definitely an excellent reference book. It is probably not the type of book you read in a sequential fashion cover to cover. Only the Ben Stiller character (a neurotic risk assessment specialist working for

Sounds dry, but it really isn't

Did you know that when you read about cancer rates, skin cancer is not included because it occurs so frequently it skews the statistics? That is the sort of information you need to know, and will find in RISK.This is an excellent book which really puts things in perspective. It's a MUST HAVE book that should be on everyone's bookshelf.

A Must Buy! Science Made Easy and Interesting.

FINALLY a book that translates hard science into concise, interesting, and readable text that anyone (even a child) can understand. This book is full of surprises too. I found comfort in understanding that some things I'm afraid are actually quite UNLIKELY to affect me while others I pay no attention to are REAL risks. From "accidents" to "x-rays", 48 chapters include other topics like: Air bags, articificial sweeteners, Bad Backs, Caffeine, School Buses, Mad Cow Disease, biological weapons, indoor air pollution, lead, pesticides, Radon, breast implants, mammography, sexually transmitted disease, and a an eye-opening one on medical errors. A necessary home reference guide with valuable basic knowledge.