1.
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this write-up is to provide a brief, readable guide to riskassessment and risk identification. Risk is widely recognized as preciselywhat it implies—a possibility. Within the context of risk analysis, it refersto the possibility of injury, harm, or other adverse and unwanted effects.Risks are commonplace in all of our lives.
Risk analysis, risk assessment,
and
risk management
are relatively newterms in public debate; however, they are practices with lengthyhistories.According to historians, the first professional risk assessors were fromancient Babylon (3200 B.C.); they were a special sect of people whoserved as consultants offering advice on risky, uncertain, or difficultdecisions in life—such as marriage proposals or selecting building sites.For more than a century now, risk assessment and risk managementhave been everyday activities of banking, insurance, and businessoperations in the world’s industrialized economies. Serious applicationsin human health and safety emerged in the early decades of thiscentury; research on natural hazard risks and disaster managementfollowed.Presently, risk analysis is being used to evaluate and manage thepotential of unwanted circumstances in a large array of areas: industrialexplosions; machine part and other mechanical and process failures;workplace injuries; injury or death from diseases, natural causes,lifestyles, and voluntarily
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