10.2190/1MW4-26D9-2PHL-0W1F 1MW426D92PHL0W1F 4 A Decision Model for the Regulation of Hazardous Wastes 335 348 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 1MW426D92PHL0W1F.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=1MW426D92PHL0W1F 4 Jonathan F. Bard University of Massachusetts-Boston, Harbor Campus This paper presents a systematic procedure that can be used by regulatory agencies to establish guidelines and standards for the disposal of hazardous industrial wastes. A general economic-decision model has been developed to provide an operational framework for weighing the risks, benefits, and costs associated with the underlying process. To begin, the concepts of utility (benefit) and probability (risk) are made explicit, and then, whenever possible, converted into common units. In performing this conversion, it was necessary to draw upon the criteria that society has evolved for accepting risks. The problematic and uncertain nature of the data has been dealt with through a secondary reliability analysis. D. Okrent (Ed.), <i>Risk-Benefit Methodology and Application: Some Papers Presented at the Engineering Foundation Workshop</i>, UCLA-ENG-7598, 1975. C. Starr, Social Benefits vs. Technological Risk, <i>Science, 165</i>, pp. 1232-1238, 1969. A. J. Van Horn and R. Wilson, The Status of Risk-Benefit Analysis, Informal Report BNL-22282, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, 1976. W. Baldweicz, G. Haddock, Y. Lee Prajoto, R. Whitley, and V. Denny, <i>Historical Perspectives on Risk for Large Scale Technological Systems</i>, UCLA-ENG-7485, 1974. L. Slesin and J. Ferreira, Jr., <i>Social Values and Public Safety: Implied Preferences Between Accident Frequency and Severity</i>, MIT Laboratory of Architecture and Planning, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1976. N. Kogan and M. A. Wallach, Risk Taking as a Function of the Situation, The Person, and The Group, <i>New Direction in Psychology III</i>, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, New York, 1967. H. S. Diehl, <i>Tobacco and Your Health</i>, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1969. C. M. Fletcher and D. Horn, Smoking and Health, WHO <i>Chronology, 24</i>, pp. 345-370, 1970. S. G. Selevan, J. M. Devent, J. K. Wagoner, and J. R. Froines, Mortality Patterns Among Miners and Millers of Non-Asbestiform Talc, <i>J. Environmental Pathology and Toxicology, 2</i>:5, pp. 273-284, 1979. S. S. Epstein, Control of Chemical Pollutants, <i>Nature, 228</i>, p. 816, 1970. M. W. Oberle, Lead Poisoning: A Preventable Childhood Disease of the Slums, <i>Science, 165</i>, p. 991, 1969. L. B. Lave and E. P. Seskin, Air Pollution and Human Health, <i>Science, 169</i>, pp. 723-732, 1970. L. B. Lave and E. P. Seskin, Does Air Pollution Shorten Lives?, 1971 Conference, Committee on Urban Economics, Chicago, 1971. J. L. Dillon, An Expository Review of Bernoulian Decision Theory, <i>Review of Marketing and Agricultural Economics, 39</i>:1, 1971. H. Raiffa, <i>Decision Analysis</i>, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1968.