Changing Risks Require RM Vigilance One eveninglast week, the anchorperson on a local news station opened with astory on how the world has changed: people are now concerned withSARS, West Nile virus and even monkey pox.

Elaborating on the need for personal risk management, theanchorperson mentioned that a later report would feature medicalexperts discussing how individuals could manage their own risks inthe changing landscape of global dangers.

This seemed contradictory to other newscasts that featuredstories about injured parties who allege that everyone else isresponsible for the troubles they caused themselves. There arestories, for example, about suits against the fast-food industryalleging complicity in making so many people fat. We also hearreports about rising health care costs that are, at leastpartially, caused by unhealthy lifestyles, and reports about thenumber of highway deathsdeaths that might have been averted ifdriver and passengers had been wearing seatbelts.