Management of risk in the public interest

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Abstract
There is no Canadian policy for the management of health and safety in the public interest. Both lives and resources are lost as a result. Limited life-saving resources ought to be spent efficiently in the public interest. If the life expectancy at birth is the measure of safety overall, then account must be given of the efficiency of any safety program, policy, project, or regulation in terms of the years of life in good health saved and the cost incurred. A comparison is made of 26 programs implemented in the United States, and it is shown that they collectively waste several thousand lives per year; 95 cents on the dollar is wasted. An absolute upper cost limit is established, which no life-saving program can exceed without consuming more human time than it returns. Some elements of a rational safety policy, and some concrete steps that ought to be taken now towards its implementation, are suggested. Key words: risk, management, public interest, health, safety, life, human development, index, efficiency, ethics, profession, accountability.

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