Abstract
The purpose of this article is to focus on the appropriate use and development of risk assessment and to point out that many of the perceived shortcomings, in fact, represent limitations imposed by the framework in which it is being used and failure to understand the situations for which risk assessment is suited. Risk assessment/risk management is really a three-step not a two-step process. The first step, preceding risk assessment, is science policy, in which the guidelines for the generic performance of risk assessments are established. The benefits of risk assessment to appropriate environmental regulation not only are direct, in terms of improved decision making and priority setting, but also they have the major indirect value of focusing research efforts on crucial uncertainties in a manner that has not been possible in the past.