Mad cows and mother's milk : the perils of poor risk communication / / William Leiss and Douglas Powell

• Autore: Leiss William <1939->
• Pubblicazione: Montreal ; ; Ithaca, : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004
• Edizione: 2nd ed.
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (471 p.)
• Disciplina: 363.1/072
• Soggetto topico: Health risk communication; Health risk assessment; Risques pour la sante - Communication; Risques pour la sante - Evaluation
• Altri autori: PowellDouglas Alan <1962->
• Note generali: Order of authors reversed on previous ed.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. [413]-442) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front Matter -- Contents -- Preface to the First Edition -- Preface to the Second Edition -- Waiting for the Science -- Mad Cows or Crazy Communications? -- A Diagnostic for Risk Communication Failures -- Dioxins, or Chemical Stigmata -- Hamburger Hell: Better Risk Communication for Better Health -- Silicone Breasts: The Implant Risk Controversy -- Waiting for the Regulators -- Lost in Regulatory Space: rBST -- Gene Escape, or the Pall of Silence over Plant Biotechnology Risk -- Mother’s Milk: Communicating the Risks of PCBS in Canada and the Far North -- Ten Lessons -- New Perils for Risk Managers -- Two Stinking Cows: The Mismanagement of BSE Risk in North America -- A Night at the Climate Casino: Canada and the Kyoto Quagmire -- Life in the Fast Lane: An Introduction to Genomics Risks -- Appendix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: Communicating the nature and consequences of environmental and health risks is still one of the most problematic areas of public policy in Western democracies. "Mad Cows and Mother's Milk" outlines the crucial role of risk management in dealing with public controversies and analyses risk communication practice and malpractice to provide a set of lessons for risk managers and communicators. This second edition adds new case studies on mad cow disease in North America, climate change, and genetics technologies. The first of the new case studies brings the story of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak in the United Kingdom in the 1980s up-to-date. Mad cow disease is still being discovered in UK herds and cases of mad cow disease have been found in twenty countries across the European continent and as far away as Japan with devastating consequences for the food industry. BSE has now been discovered on the North American continent in two cows born in Canada. The original cause of these two new cases is almost certainly importation of infected cattle, cattle feed, or both from Britain. Canadian government regulators and those in the cattle industry have failed to correctly assess the risks of the disease in the Canadian herd, take the precautionary measures needed to prevent the spread of disease, and communicate risks and precautionary measures to the public. The second new study deals with global warming. Not only is every aspect of this risk debate both contentious and difficult for the public to understand but the potential consequences of the risks extend all the way to global catastrophe for human civilization. A new chapter outlines the many dimensions of risk debate in the context of the need for effective and sustained dialogue by an informed public. The last new case study provides an introduction to genomic science, which is placed in the context of both the health benefits expected from genetic manipulation and some of the risk factors associated with it. One example is gene therapy, which can be used to eliminate inherited genetic diseases (i.e. cystic fibrosis), enhance human traits (i.e. athletic performance), and perhaps double life-spans. Gene technologies are relevant to some of the most fundamental human values. This new chapter suggests that we must think about the range of new risks introduced by these technologies as well as the potential benefits - and that we should do this collective thinking soon, since, given the furious pace of genomics discoveries, the possibilities will be with us sooner than we imagine. All of the case studies emphasize the need for effective communication about risks to allow effective dialogue by informed publics on health and environmental risks.
• Titolo autorizzato: Mad cows and mother's milk
• ISBN: 1-282-86308-8; 9786612863080; 0-7735-7240-6
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910807782303321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II