Capabilities:
Product Safety & Risk

• Statistical risk assessment
• Comparative risk analysis
• Safety database development
• Product safety survey research
• Claims analysis and forecasting

Statistical Risk Assessment

Risk analysis examines the hazards arising from product use and workplace exposure that may cause accidents, injuries, or fatalities. Heiden Associates has extensive experience in developing quantitative hazard and risk assessments for use in regulatory proceedings, product liability lawsuits, and corporate risk management evaluations.

A critical element in these assessments is the underlying data. We have a comprehensive knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of hazard data, and of how they can be used (and abused) in various circumstances. This knowledge is a foundation of our own analysis, and permits us to critically evaluate the risk assessment work of others.

We have extensive experience in developing and collecting hazard data from both public sources and from our own surveys. Over the years these activities have resulted in an extensive and comprehensive library of databases on accidents, injuries, and exposure for hundreds of products.

We have developed and tested statistical models of accident risk and the factors associated with it for a large number of consumer and industrial products. We are especially experienced at integrating product, use, incident, and engineering test data into reliable fault tree and failure modes and effects analyses.

Comparative Risk Analysis

Often it is useful to examine the injury and risk potential for a product or activity in comparison to the injuries and risks associated with other products and activities. Heiden Associates has prepared a large number of these comparative risk assessments, which have been used successfully in:

• Product liability litigation
• Recall negotiations
• Regulatory proceedings
• Congressional testimony

Our comparative risk evaluations cover a wide range of products. Depending on the needs and the data available, we can compare incident, fire, injury, fatality, or property damage rates across a wide range of products and activities. These comparisons can be done on a product, usage, per capita, and, in some cases, a brand-specific basis.

An important component of our expertise is our extensive library of product- and activity-related incident, hazard, and usage databases that we have maintained over the years. These include, for example, all of the major product-related incident databases of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, as well as the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) database of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Product Safety Survey Research

Frequently it is necessary to collect data directly from firms or consumers on an important health, environmental, or safety issue. We have access to large national market panels consisting of several hundred thousand households, comprehensive nation-wide listings of firms in hundreds of product categories, as well as smaller balanced samples, demographically or geographically stratified where needed.