Acceptable
Risk
Acceptable Risk is a voluntary initiative of Dow to safely
predict the precise point at which profitability is threatened by
danger to the public.
Using our new Acceptable Risk Calculator
(ARC), we weigh profits against costs in human life or health, thereby
involving the public in the decision-making process about whom to
put at risk, and where to locate risk globally. The ARC is available
free for industry use; log on below to test-run it for yourself.
Acceptable Risk and the ARC were launched on April 28, 2005
at the International Payments 2005 conference, London, in solemn commemoration
of the April 30 anniversary of the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam.
Dow owes a debt of gratitude to the people of Vietnam for helping
Dow define the limits of Acceptable Risk. Dow's contribution
to the War effort was very profitable, and recent appeals for damages
by Vietnamese people who received coatings of special Dow herbicides
were rejected by US courts two weeks ago, proving the Dow adage: "A
skeleton in the closet is quite often golden."
Acceptable Risk is practiced by Dow all over the world. While
Acceptable Risk goes above and beyond what is legally required for
doing business in most countries, we hold ourselves accountable by
making Acceptable Risk a "condition of membership" in the most modern
way of doing business.
|