Identifying and Evaluating Impacts - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 452

FIGURE 9.16
Decreasing Marginal Returns to
Investment in Physical Mitigation

Risk
(in$)

At some point it may be more cost
effective to transfer the remaining
risk or to fi nd alternative ways to man-
age or to fi nance it than to attempt to
mitigate it completely.

Residual
risk

Remaining risk best reduced e.g. by insurance
Expenditure on Mitigation
(in $)

TABLE 9.13
Some Key Non-damage Attributes of Risk

Involuntary Risks voluntarily assumed are ranked differently from those imposed by others

Uncontrollable The inability to personally make a difference decreases a risk's acceptability

Immoral Pollution is often viewed as a consuminate evil. And statements that hazards are `too low to

worry about' can engender suspicion

Unfamiliar Generally speaking, more familiar risks are regarded as more acceptable

Dreadful Risks that cause highly feared or dreaded consequences are viewed as more dangerous

Uncertain Scientifi c uncertainty about the effect, severity, or prevalence of a hazard tends to escalate

unease

Catastrophic Large-scale disasters such as aircraft crashes weigh more seriously in the public's mind than

individual events such as exposure to radon gas in a neighbour's basement

Memorable Risks embedded in remarkable events have greater impact that risks that arise in less promi-

nent circumstances.

Unfair Substantial outrage is a more likely result if people feel they are being wrongfully exposed

Untrustworthy The level of outrage is higher if the source of the risk is not trusted.

Source:
Foundation for American Communications and National SEa Grand
College Program. Reporting on Risk: A Handbook for Journalists and
Citizens; The Annapolis Center, 1995. pp 84-86

fact that a tailings dam may fail within the next thousand years, than that the dam is designed
to last for one thousand years. Doctors, as another example, are much more likely to prescribe
a new medication that saves 50 percent of its patients than one that loses 50 percent of them.
On a i nal note the following rules-of-thumb should be considered when dealing with
uncertainty. (1) Make conservative conclusions (i.e. assume that an effect is more, rather