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An open systems approach to risk assessment
Author(s) -
Samuels Sheldon Wilfred
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.4700250312
Subject(s) - confusion , medicine , betrayal , risk assessment , risk analysis (engineering) , social psychology , computer security , computer science , psychology , psychoanalysis
The development of risk assessment in occupational and environmental cancer control is outlined, with emphasis on the differing assumptions of Doll and Selikoff. These differences are explained by philosophic perspectives from which closed and open system approaches to assessment were respectively chosen. Open systems, with negative entropy and progressive organization, are characteristic of living systems and, heuristically, should be characteristic of risk assessment models. The abuse of either approach occurs when the ‘habit of truth’ is overcome by consciously contrived confusion, a betrayal of society by les clercs . © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.