They agreed that the risk analysis has three separate components but they disagreed on how to integrate these components in a complementary way. The difference between the proposed approaches in the risk analysis and risk assessment among different disciplines stems from the confusion in the taxonomy. The term risk has been defined differently by different scientists in different disciplines and sometimes within the same discipline. Furthermore, the traditional approaches in risk analysis has been identified to have several pitfalls including ignoring variability, uncertainty, and science. On the other hand, the discipline of Epidemiology has been poorly understood by a variety of scientists.
Epidemiology is the study of determinants of health in a population.
The epidemiological approaches have always emphasized understanding, prediction, and evaluation. This process entails systematic data collection, coalition and analysis. These are three complementary approaches that were designed to address a scenario objectively and constructively. As such, the epidemiological approach accounts for the variability and addresses the uncertainty in the occurrence of the risk. The proposed approach has several similarities with the epidemiologic approach.