The Processes Evaluation and Management

The main purpose of the evaluation stage is to judge the tolerability or acceptability of a given threat and, if deemed necessary, to initiate a management process. The chief purpose of the stage of management, closely related to the stage of evaluation, is to decide on intervention measures which will range in each case from strict prohibition (such as bans and phase outs) to unrestricted permission. In between, there lies a wide range of measures, including legal requirements (such as exposure standards, engineering regulations, and best practice), financial instruments (such as mandatory insurance, assurance bonds, or tradable licenses), private self-regulations (such as in-house quality control) and information and educational strategies (such as consumer information, labelling, and classroom curricula). Following a regulatory impact assessment of the possible measures, investigating their feasibility to and acceptability by stakeholders, one or more appropriate measures are selected and implemented, and enforcement details and options for review are determined. The various key features of evaluation and management are illustrated in Fig. 5.1 below.