Index of harm: a measure for comparing occupational risk across industries

This areport explores the implications of an index-of-harm methodology that compares occupational risks among workers exposed to radiological and nonradiological harms. It extends the work of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) by considering American rather than European and Japanese industry groups, by treating the relative importance of various occupational harms as a parameter rather than an arbitrary constant, and by identifying several ways in which both the methodology and the data base could be improved. Unfortunately, the data base is too fragmented, and radiological risk estimates are too imprecise for quantitative comparisons across industries. Inclusion of subjective risk preferences is one way to make policy-relevant judgments based on a limited data base. Our study agrees with known accidental fatality rates by showing the riskiest industries to be mining; agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; construction; transportation; and manufacturing - roughly in that order. Using a factor of five times the ICRP dose/risk parameter suggests that the index of harm for radiological workers exposed to 0.35 Rem/yr is still below that of the five riskiest industries. However, the rankings re altered considerably at the regulatory dose level of 5.0 Rem/yr. At that level, the nuclear industry would be significantly more risky, particularly when upper risk estimates are used. (PCS)