J. Environ. Monit., 1999, 1 69N Forum Living with risk The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is inviting public consultation on an important new document setting out its approach to the control of risk arising from workplace activities. Reducing Risks, Protecting People explains the decision-making approach adopted by HSE in judging whether risks from work activities are unacceptable, tolerable or negligible.It explores some of the inherent diYculties in balancing ethical, social, economic and scientific considerations, and the values of society at large and impact on individuals. This important policy paper is HSE’s response to the recommendation for public agencies to formulate and publish their frameworks for the regulation and management of risks made by the Interdepartmental Liaison Group on Risk Assessment (ILGRA) in December of last year. It is essentially an exposition of what HSE does when fulfilling its own statutory responsibilities and when advising the Health and Safety Commission in carrying out its standard setting functions.Launching the consultation exercise, HSE Director-General Jenny Bacon said ‘Questions about how much risk people accept in their lives in return for benefits underlie the recent debates on the use of mobile phones or the growing of genetically modified crops’.She added that there was a ‘need to improve the way risk is handled as one of the key principles for developing a new and creative approach to policy-making’. Propositions fundamental to the document include the following: (1) People are generally prepared to live with a risk so as to secure certain benefits in the confidence that the risk is one that is worth taking and that it is being properly controlled.(2) The concept of risk must encompass more than physical harm. It needs to take account of other factors such as ethical and social considerations. (3) The pursuit of zero risk is a chimera with the result that decisions about risks are mainly concerned with whether the risks from an activity can be controlled to a level that is tolerable, and with the distribution and balancing of the detriments and benefits from undertaking the activity.(4) Decision-making on the basis of individual interest alone is not a workable proposition since that might expose others to unacceptable risks and also give rise to the prospect of individuals being able to veto measures that are of benefit to the wider community.(5) To succeed, a decision-making process on riskmust follow the principles of good regulation. Thismeans itmust result in decisions that are: $ targeted—by focusing on the most serious risks or where the hazards are less well controlled; $ consistent—by adopting a similar approach in similar circumstances to achieve similar ends; $ proportional to the risks—by requiring action that is commensurate to the risks; $ transparent—by being open on how decisions are arrived at and what are their implications.It also requires the regulator to be accountable. (6) Stakeholders need to be involved in the decision-making process if they are to accept the decisions as valid and contribute to their implementation. Comments by 15 December 1999 to: Dr Jean Le Guen, Head of Risk Assessment Policy Unit, Health and Safety Executive, Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HS; or via e-mail to: jean.le.guen@hse.gov.uk Copies of Reducing Risks, Protecting People, are available free from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, SuVolk, CO10 6FS, tel: +44 (0)1787 881165 or fax:+44 (0)1787 313995. Mike Sharpe