We live in a dangerous world. Numerous hazards can strike us down, from infectious diseases and genetic disorders to food poisoning and car crashes. As part of the opinion-forming sector (as a think tank researcher and opinion editorial writer) Roger Bate has contributed to the information exchange. His writing, as reflected in this book, focuses on five key themes: hazards are as likely to come from natural as from man-made substances; the linear no-threshold hypothesis is rubbish (in other words, the dose makes the poison); an entire industry has developed to scare us into stopping certain activities, or making us feel guilty for continuing them, or lobbying to have them banned by the government; the public are quite capable of making decisions that involve complex trade-offs if only we would let them - indeed, not letting them causes enormous problems as government bodies do not have the dispersed knowledge to do this, and are subject to interest group pressure; and there are innumerable benefits, as well as costs, from risk taking.
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