"Risk Assessment," Science. April 17, 1987. Vol. 236. Pages 267-300. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C. In its April 17 issue, Science published six lead articles on health risk assessment. Although none of the articles carefully defines the subject term, all of them use it to mean structured estimation of probability and severity of harm. Actually, the articles focus more on social risk management than on the science of risk assessment. The topics covered are

Averting Catastrophe: Strategies for Regulating Risky Technologies. Joseph G. Morone and Edward J. Woodhouse. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1986. 215 pp. $17.95 The year 1986, which began as we were still reeling from Bhopal, brought Chernobyl's reminder of the international potential of major technological accidents, Challenger's reminder of the fallibility of even the most sophisticated engineering management systems (and human hubris), Lake Nyos' reminder that nature itself is not