Integrating Insurance and Risk Management for Hazardous Wastes

A challenge facing society today is how to develop a meaningful strategy for integrated hazardous waste management. Meeting this challenge was the principal motivation for the conference on "Risk Assessment and Risk Management Strategies for Hazardous Waste Storage and Disposal Prob- lems," held at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania on May 18-19, 1988. The conference brought together representatives from the major interested parties - environmentalists, government, insurance, law, manufacturing, and the university community - who have been con- cerned with the waste management process. The conference was the third cosponsored by the Wharton Center for Risk and Decision Processes addressing the knotty problem of hazardous waste. The first, held at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in 1985, examined the transportation, storage, and disposal of hazardous materials. It suggested steps that industry, insurers, and gov- ernment agencies could take to improve the safety and efficiency with which hazardous materials are produced and controlled in industrialized societies. Specifically, it focused on the risk-management tools of insurance, com- pensation, and regulation. xv xvi PREFACE The second conference, held at the Wharton School, University of Penn- sylvania in 1986, concentrated on the role of insurance and compensation in environmental pollution problems. It characterized a set of problems related to the environmental pollution liability insurance crisis as presented by key interested parties and proposed a set of research needs for providing a sound basis for constructing socially appropriate measures to deal with the problem.