Integrating risk assessment into management systems

There is a move within regulatory agencies and standards making bodies towards incorporating the concepts of risk assessment into rule making. This follows a more generalized trend within many local jurisdictions and public and private corporations to utilize risk assessment in process risk management decision making. Most risk assessment language and proposed standards are subjective by definition, lending a perception that these efforts covet junk science and statistical manipulation as they are applied to risk management decisions. Environmental, health and safety (EHS) professionals have always been challenged with maintaining compliance to prescriptive standards, and now face additional challenges in determining effective methods of organizing and implementing risk management programs driven by risk assessment requirements. This paper presents several methods that are being used to successfully meet the challenges of these regulations and standards relative to their risk assessment requirements. The paper also presents a discussion of the integration of risk assessment into the design and development phase of complex equipment and systems.