Going Beyond the Red Book: The Sociopolitics of Risk

The National Research Council's 1983 study Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process, known as the “Red Book,” sought “institutional mechanisms that best foster a constructive partnership between science and government” for informing contentious public decisions about hazards from exposure to toxic substances. More than a decade later, a new National Research Council committee was formed to reexamine the process of risk characterization, which played a central role in the framework developed in the Red Book. In seeking to understand why risk management often breaks down at the stage of risk characterization, this new committee broadened the charge to improve risk characterization in ways that better inform decision-making and resolution of controversies over risk. This led to a report (Understanding Risk: Informing Decisions in a Democratic Society) that carefully examined social, behavioral, economic, and ethical aspects of risk that were not made explicit in the Red Book. This paper will describe some of the research that led to a greater recognition of the importance of these “sociopolitical” factors and discuss the implications of these factors for designing an analytic-deliberative process that informs decision-making and improves the ability of interested and affected parties to participate in the decision process.