Safety is the antonym of risk for some perspectives of risk

Safety and safe are terms closely related to risk, but do they extend beyond the realm of risk? Is safety/safe just the antonym of risk, or the same as acceptable risk? This issue has been given due attention in the literature and in this paper we explore how different perspectives of risk affect the relationship between safety/safe and risk. If risk is defined as an expected value or as a measure of the probability and severity of adverse effects, the conclusions would be different than if the essential component of risk is uncertainty. For risk understood as uncertainty about and severity of the consequences of an activity we argue that safe means acceptable risk. Three dimensions of safety are discussed; events and consequences (harm), probability and uncertainty. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.