Insuring and Managing Hazardous Risks: From Seveso to Bhopal and Beyond

This book is the Proceedings of the International Conference on Trans- portation, Storage, and Disposal of Hazardous Materials, which was held at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), 1-5 July 1985. The Conference brought together representatives of academia, business, and government from East and West to discuss the nature of current problems in the area of hazardous materials. An important objective of the Conference was to suggest steps that could be undertaken by industrial firms, the insurance industry, and govern- ment agencies to improve the safety and efficiency with which hazar- dous materials are produced and controlled in industrialized societies. Conference sponsors were IIASA, the Geneva Association, and the Center for Risk and Decision Processes of the University of Pennsyl- vania. Additional financial support was received from the US Environ- mental Protection Agency, the Monsanto Corporation, the Center for Organizational Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Canadian IIASA Committee. We are grateful to all of these institutions for their generous support of this Conference. Within IIASA, a long history of research in risk activities is evi- dent. This owes much to the vision of IIASAs founding Director, Howard Raiffa, and program leaders who have promoted risk research at IIASA. The present Conference continued this tradition with the strong support of IIASAs current Director, Thomas H. Lee, and Deputy Director, Vitali Kaftanov.