Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

1. Risk: Life’s Question Mark 1

2. Measurement: The Alchemist’s Base 15

3. Statistics: Numbers Looking for an Argument 41

4. The Value of Life and Limb, Statistically Speaking 69

5. The Evolution of Risk 93

6. Frequency and Severity: Weighing the Risk 107

7. What’s in a Risk? Perception Creates Risk Reality 128

8. Risk, Regulation, and Reason 151

9. Earth, Air, and Water: The Not-So-Bare Essentials 176

10. Food . . . for Thought 210

11. Flying: The Not-So-Wild Blue Yonder 249

12. Risk on the Roads 278

13. An Incomplete List of Life’s Risks 315

Index 337

About the Author

Richard B. Jones has spent the past thirty years applying risk analysis and management techniques to industrial and business problems. He is the author of many articles, has presented at numerous conferences, and is the author of two previous books on risk management.