Risk assessments are a recipe for the continued degradation of ourenvironment. People who want to leave a healthier planet for our childrenwill find Dr. O'Brien's book an invaluable resource, a ray of hope, and acall to action.
Bern Johnson, Executive Director, U. S. Office, Environmental LawAlliance Worldwide (E-LAW)
This book reads like an extended conversation with a knowledgeable scientist. The thinking is highly original and the scholarship is deep and original.
Richard Clapp, Boston University School of Public Health
Scientifically and ethically irrefutable. Mary O'Brien pulls back the curtain of wizardry that surrounds risk assessment and shows us the tembling little men behind it. Even better, she offers us a way out of our current hazard-filled existence. Speak plainly, O'Brien urges us, and, chapter after chapter, she does.
Sandra Steingraber, author of Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment
Fresh clean air blows through Mary O'Brien's book, and takes 'risk assessment' away with it. O'Brien argues persuasively risk assessments cannont be improved because they are defective to the marrow. Her alternative is provocative and will win many new adherents. A landmakr book.
David Ozonoff, Professor of Environmental Health and Chair, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health
Mary O'Brien has produced a compelling treatise on why and how we must shift our attention from assessing problems to devising solutions to environmental, health, and safety threats. Commonsense technology options analysis—or alternatives assessment—transcends value-laden and limited classical risk assessment and is essential for achieving sustainable industrial transformations.
Nicholas Ashford, Professor of Technology and Policy, MIT, and co-author, Chemical Exposures: Low Levels and High Stakes
