Risk taking is the essence of life itself. Balancing risk and
reward is a biological, intellectual and emotional imperative.
Yet few of us devote much, if any, rational thought to the
subject – even when our own lives are at stake. Instead, we
tremble over newsworthy but often insignificant threats,
while blithely accepting – and even inviting – real health and
safety risks in our daily lives.
This myth-shattering new book rigorously examines
how we, as individuals and as a society, think about dangers
to our health by exploring:
- How we measure and express risk
- How we distinguish high risk from low risk
- How we cope with premature death
- How health risks have changed since the turn of the century
- How the media distort public perceptions of risk.
Risk watch proposes a totally new, rational and comprehensive
method for measuring health risks – a method
that will radically change the way we perceive and evaluate
risk by showing how to separate distortions from truths.