Author: William Leiss
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 9780773528178
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 478
Book Description
The first case study deals with the mad cow fiasco of 1996, one of the most expensive and tragic examples of poor risk management in the last twenty-five years. For ten years the British government failed to acknowledge the possibility of a link between mad cow disease and Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human equivalent, until increased scientific evidence and public pressure forced them to take action, resulting in the slaughter of more than one million cattle. The second study looks at what is commonly known as hamburger disease, caused by a virulent form of the E. coli bacterium, which has struck thousands and killed over thirty people in the last few years. Despite its widespread effects, it is unclear whether scientific knowledge on preventing the disease is reaching the public. Other case studies include the use of a genetically engineered hormone to increase milk production in cows, health risks associated with silicone breast implants, public controversies surrounding dioxins and PCBs, and the introduction of agricultural biotechnology. These case studies show that institutions routinely fail to communicate the scientific basis of various high-profile risks. These failures to inform the public make it difficult for governments, industry, and society to manage risk controversies sensibly and often result in massive costs. With its detailed analyses of specific risk management controversies, Mad Cows and Mother's Milk will help us avoid future mistakes.
Mad Cows and Mother's Milk, Second Edition
Author: William Leiss
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 9780773528178
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 478
Book Description
The first case study deals with the mad cow fiasco of 1996, one of the most expensive and tragic examples of poor risk management in the last twenty-five years. For ten years the British government failed to acknowledge the possibility of a link between mad cow disease and Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human equivalent, until increased scientific evidence and public pressure forced them to take action, resulting in the slaughter of more than one million cattle. The second study looks at what is commonly known as hamburger disease, caused by a virulent form of the E. coli bacterium, which has struck thousands and killed over thirty people in the last few years. Despite its widespread effects, it is unclear whether scientific knowledge on preventing the disease is reaching the public. Other case studies include the use of a genetically engineered hormone to increase milk production in cows, health risks associated with silicone breast implants, public controversies surrounding dioxins and PCBs, and the introduction of agricultural biotechnology. These case studies show that institutions routinely fail to communicate the scientific basis of various high-profile risks. These failures to inform the public make it difficult for governments, industry, and society to manage risk controversies sensibly and often result in massive costs. With its detailed analyses of specific risk management controversies, Mad Cows and Mother's Milk will help us avoid future mistakes.
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 9780773528178
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 478
Book Description
The first case study deals with the mad cow fiasco of 1996, one of the most expensive and tragic examples of poor risk management in the last twenty-five years. For ten years the British government failed to acknowledge the possibility of a link between mad cow disease and Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human equivalent, until increased scientific evidence and public pressure forced them to take action, resulting in the slaughter of more than one million cattle. The second study looks at what is commonly known as hamburger disease, caused by a virulent form of the E. coli bacterium, which has struck thousands and killed over thirty people in the last few years. Despite its widespread effects, it is unclear whether scientific knowledge on preventing the disease is reaching the public. Other case studies include the use of a genetically engineered hormone to increase milk production in cows, health risks associated with silicone breast implants, public controversies surrounding dioxins and PCBs, and the introduction of agricultural biotechnology. These case studies show that institutions routinely fail to communicate the scientific basis of various high-profile risks. These failures to inform the public make it difficult for governments, industry, and society to manage risk controversies sensibly and often result in massive costs. With its detailed analyses of specific risk management controversies, Mad Cows and Mother's Milk will help us avoid future mistakes.
Mad Cows and Mother's Milk, Second Edition
Author: William Leiss
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773572406
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
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.
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773572406
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 464
Book Description
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.
Mad Cows and Mother's Milk
Author: Douglas Powell
Publisher: MQUP
ISBN: 9780773516182
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
The first case study deals with the mad cow fiasco of 1996, one of the most expensive and tragic examples of poor risk management in the last twenty-five years. For ten years the British government failed to acknowledge the possibility of a link between mad cow disease and Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human equivalent, until increased scientific evidence and public pressure forced them to take action, resulting in the slaughter of more than one million cattle. The second study looks at what is commonly known as hamburger disease, caused by a virulent form of the E. coli bacterium, which has struck thousands and killed over thirty people in the last few years. Despite its widespread effects, it is unclear whether scientific knowledge on preventing the disease is reaching the public. Other case studies include the use of a genetically engineered hormone to increase milk production in cows, health risks associated with silicone breast implants, public controversies surrounding dioxins and PCBs, and the introduction of agricultural biotechnology. These case studies show that institutions routinely fail to communicate the scientific basis of various high-profile risks. These failures to inform the public make it difficult for governments, industry, and society to manage risk controversies sensibly and often result in massive costs. With its detailed analyses of specific risk management controversies, Mad Cows and Mother's Milk will help us avoid future mistakes.
Publisher: MQUP
ISBN: 9780773516182
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
The first case study deals with the mad cow fiasco of 1996, one of the most expensive and tragic examples of poor risk management in the last twenty-five years. For ten years the British government failed to acknowledge the possibility of a link between mad cow disease and Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human equivalent, until increased scientific evidence and public pressure forced them to take action, resulting in the slaughter of more than one million cattle. The second study looks at what is commonly known as hamburger disease, caused by a virulent form of the E. coli bacterium, which has struck thousands and killed over thirty people in the last few years. Despite its widespread effects, it is unclear whether scientific knowledge on preventing the disease is reaching the public. Other case studies include the use of a genetically engineered hormone to increase milk production in cows, health risks associated with silicone breast implants, public controversies surrounding dioxins and PCBs, and the introduction of agricultural biotechnology. These case studies show that institutions routinely fail to communicate the scientific basis of various high-profile risks. These failures to inform the public make it difficult for governments, industry, and society to manage risk controversies sensibly and often result in massive costs. With its detailed analyses of specific risk management controversies, Mad Cows and Mother's Milk will help us avoid future mistakes.
Mother's Milk
Author: Andrew Thomas Breslin
Publisher: ENC Press
ISBN: 0975254006
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
A young, emphatically non-idealistic attorney finds herself in Washington, DC, working for a group of radical nutrition advocates with a passionate distaste for cow milk. Little does she suspect that their militant intolerance for lactose is a reaction to a secret global conspiracy orchestrated by the dairy industry, itself a puppet of alien masters from a distant planet orbiting the star Vega.
Publisher: ENC Press
ISBN: 0975254006
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
A young, emphatically non-idealistic attorney finds herself in Washington, DC, working for a group of radical nutrition advocates with a passionate distaste for cow milk. Little does she suspect that their militant intolerance for lactose is a reaction to a secret global conspiracy orchestrated by the dairy industry, itself a puppet of alien masters from a distant planet orbiting the star Vega.
In the Chamber of Risks
Author: William Leiss
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773522387
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 405
Book Description
In In the Chamber of Risks William Leiss demonstrates that case studies of risk controversies show that those instincts are unreliable guides to effective risk management and that in all cases the opposite position is a far better guide. As risk management is inherently disputable, public perceptions of risk should be seen as legitimate and treated as such and the public should always be involved in discussions about risk evaluations made by scientists and risk managers. ; Leiss chronicles the erratic course of risk management and communication in environmental management in Canada, discussing the notable controversies that have arisen over pesticides and breast cancer, vinyl toys, genetically engineered food crops, cellular telephones, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, among many others. He focuses on risk management - how we make decisions about and assess hazards in the environment - and on risk communication - social dialogue that deals with both our intuitive feelings of concern about substances or activities that might hurt our health or the environment, and the scientific and probabilistic description of them. ; Leiss shows that both risk management and risk communication, when properly constructed, require an elaborate process because the very things that can cause harm are in most cases the same things that bring us great benefits, such as paper mills, electricity from nuclear power generating stations, or wireless telecommunications. ;
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773522387
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 405
Book Description
In In the Chamber of Risks William Leiss demonstrates that case studies of risk controversies show that those instincts are unreliable guides to effective risk management and that in all cases the opposite position is a far better guide. As risk management is inherently disputable, public perceptions of risk should be seen as legitimate and treated as such and the public should always be involved in discussions about risk evaluations made by scientists and risk managers. ; Leiss chronicles the erratic course of risk management and communication in environmental management in Canada, discussing the notable controversies that have arisen over pesticides and breast cancer, vinyl toys, genetically engineered food crops, cellular telephones, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, among many others. He focuses on risk management - how we make decisions about and assess hazards in the environment - and on risk communication - social dialogue that deals with both our intuitive feelings of concern about substances or activities that might hurt our health or the environment, and the scientific and probabilistic description of them. ; Leiss shows that both risk management and risk communication, when properly constructed, require an elaborate process because the very things that can cause harm are in most cases the same things that bring us great benefits, such as paper mills, electricity from nuclear power generating stations, or wireless telecommunications. ;
Calculating Political Risk
Author: Catherine Althaus
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317973151
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
Calculating Political Risk is rich and illuminating, and much more than a political science treatise. Althaus draws on diverse literature, extensive interviews and intriguing case studies to offer interdisciplinary, practical and nuanced insight. This book provides new perspectives and more precise language for making sense of a critical dimension of politics, policy-making and public management. Evert Lindquist, Director and Professor, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria, Canada This powerful new book is the first ever examination of the hard edge of how political risk - something faced by all political actors innumerable times every day - is calculated and used in decision-making. It opens with an outline of the historical and linguistic origins of risk, the various disciplinary understandings of risk, the risk society concept, and how risk has come to be so prominent in the context of environmental disaster and terrorism. The book then defines political risk and looks at its manifestations in the public sector, from project to high-level political risk. It also looks at risk identification versus risk management and compares the concept of political risk with the private sector practice of risk management. Unique research findings from interviews with over 100 risk practitioners and politicians provide a detailed look at how political actors calculate political risk. Case study-based chapters look in-depth at neat and discrete examples: risk calculation in state development plans in Australia; political risk identification and management in the UK during the mad cow crisis; and US government risk calculation in the post-September 11 context. The final chapters draw together the experiences and lessons learned from the case studies and practitioner insights to formulate a better understanding of what political risk is and what its calculation means in political practice. The author shows how political risk calculation provides a fresh perspective on policy analysis and identifies how political risk is relevant to a broader understanding of politics and political science, as well as policy formulation and implementation on the ground.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317973151
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
Calculating Political Risk is rich and illuminating, and much more than a political science treatise. Althaus draws on diverse literature, extensive interviews and intriguing case studies to offer interdisciplinary, practical and nuanced insight. This book provides new perspectives and more precise language for making sense of a critical dimension of politics, policy-making and public management. Evert Lindquist, Director and Professor, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria, Canada This powerful new book is the first ever examination of the hard edge of how political risk - something faced by all political actors innumerable times every day - is calculated and used in decision-making. It opens with an outline of the historical and linguistic origins of risk, the various disciplinary understandings of risk, the risk society concept, and how risk has come to be so prominent in the context of environmental disaster and terrorism. The book then defines political risk and looks at its manifestations in the public sector, from project to high-level political risk. It also looks at risk identification versus risk management and compares the concept of political risk with the private sector practice of risk management. Unique research findings from interviews with over 100 risk practitioners and politicians provide a detailed look at how political actors calculate political risk. Case study-based chapters look in-depth at neat and discrete examples: risk calculation in state development plans in Australia; political risk identification and management in the UK during the mad cow crisis; and US government risk calculation in the post-September 11 context. The final chapters draw together the experiences and lessons learned from the case studies and practitioner insights to formulate a better understanding of what political risk is and what its calculation means in political practice. The author shows how political risk calculation provides a fresh perspective on policy analysis and identifies how political risk is relevant to a broader understanding of politics and political science, as well as policy formulation and implementation on the ground.
States of Global Insecurity
Author: Daniel Béland
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780716771876
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
Discusses the collective threats faced by the United States in the early twenty-first century and how political sociology seeks to understand these matters.
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780716771876
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
Discusses the collective threats faced by the United States in the early twenty-first century and how political sociology seeks to understand these matters.
Risky Business
Author: G. Bruce Doern
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802082626
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 412
Book Description
The essays in this volume ask what risks Canadians might be exposed to as fiscal pressures strain the capacity of regulators in areas such as food, drugs, pesticides, fisheries, and the environment.
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802082626
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 412
Book Description
The essays in this volume ask what risks Canadians might be exposed to as fiscal pressures strain the capacity of regulators in areas such as food, drugs, pesticides, fisheries, and the environment.
Nature's Experts
Author: Stephen Bocking
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813557666
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Book Description
"With clarity and grace, Stephen Bocking tackles the complicated question of the role of scientific expertise in environmental policy making. Nature’s Experts is a timely and important book."—David H. Guston, author of Between Politics and Science: Assuring the Integrity and Productivity of Research "This book by Stephen Bocking is as much about deliberative democracy as it is about science and the environment. Stephen Bocking’s treatment is deep, perceptive, and profoundly wise. He has caught the heart of present and future environmental science, politics, and democratic governance."—C. S. Holling, The Resilience Alliance and emeritus professor, Arthur R. Marshall Jr. Chair in Ecological Sciences at the University of Florida "If knowledge is power, how should expert advice be deployed by a would-be democratic society? This perennial question is newly illuminated by this timely and wide-ranging review of the role played by science in the making of environmental policy."—William C. Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy, and Human Development, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government It seems self-evident that science plays a central role in environmental affairs. Regulatory agencies, businesses, and public interest groups all draw on scientific research to support their claims. Some critics, however, describe science not as the solution to environmental problems, but as their source. Moreover, the science itself is often controversial, as debates over global warming and environmental health risks have shown. Nature’s Experts explores the contributions and challenges presented when scientific authority enters the realm of environmental affairs. Stephen Bocking focuses on four major areas of environmental politics: the formation of environmental values and attitudes, management of natural resources such as forests and fish, efforts to address international environmental issues such as climate change, and decisions relating to environmental and health risks. In each area, practical examples and case studies illustrate that science must fulfill two functions if it is to contribute to resolving environmental controversies. First, science must be relevant and credible, and second, it must be democratic, where everyone has access to the information they need to present and defend their views.
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813557666
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Book Description
"With clarity and grace, Stephen Bocking tackles the complicated question of the role of scientific expertise in environmental policy making. Nature’s Experts is a timely and important book."—David H. Guston, author of Between Politics and Science: Assuring the Integrity and Productivity of Research "This book by Stephen Bocking is as much about deliberative democracy as it is about science and the environment. Stephen Bocking’s treatment is deep, perceptive, and profoundly wise. He has caught the heart of present and future environmental science, politics, and democratic governance."—C. S. Holling, The Resilience Alliance and emeritus professor, Arthur R. Marshall Jr. Chair in Ecological Sciences at the University of Florida "If knowledge is power, how should expert advice be deployed by a would-be democratic society? This perennial question is newly illuminated by this timely and wide-ranging review of the role played by science in the making of environmental policy."—William C. Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy, and Human Development, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government It seems self-evident that science plays a central role in environmental affairs. Regulatory agencies, businesses, and public interest groups all draw on scientific research to support their claims. Some critics, however, describe science not as the solution to environmental problems, but as their source. Moreover, the science itself is often controversial, as debates over global warming and environmental health risks have shown. Nature’s Experts explores the contributions and challenges presented when scientific authority enters the realm of environmental affairs. Stephen Bocking focuses on four major areas of environmental politics: the formation of environmental values and attitudes, management of natural resources such as forests and fish, efforts to address international environmental issues such as climate change, and decisions relating to environmental and health risks. In each area, practical examples and case studies illustrate that science must fulfill two functions if it is to contribute to resolving environmental controversies. First, science must be relevant and credible, and second, it must be democratic, where everyone has access to the information they need to present and defend their views.
Patterns In Safety Thinking
Author: Geoffrey R. McIntyre
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351912585
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 193
Book Description
Safety is more than the absence of accidents. Safety has the goal of transforming the levels of risk that are inherent in all human activity, while its interdisciplinary nature extends its influence far into most corporate management and government regulatory actions. Yet few engineers have attended a safety course, conference or even a lecture in the area, suggesting that those responsible for the safe construction and operation of complex high-risk socio-technical systems are inadequately prepared. This book is designed to meet the expressed needs of aviation safety management trainees for a practical and concise education supplement to the safety literature. Written in a highly readable and accessible style, its features include: ¢ detailed analysis of the forward-looking System Safety approach, with its focus on accident prevention; ¢ classification of transportation safety literature into distinct schools of thought (Tort Law, Reliability Engineering, System Safety Engineering); ¢ real world, practical, illustrations of the theory; ¢ the history, theory and practice of safety management ; ¢ inter-disciplinary thinking about safety . The flying public is faced with a bewildering array of aviation safety data from a diverse and ever increasing number of sources. This book is an essential guide to the available information, and a major contribution to the international public debate on aviation safety.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351912585
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 193
Book Description
Safety is more than the absence of accidents. Safety has the goal of transforming the levels of risk that are inherent in all human activity, while its interdisciplinary nature extends its influence far into most corporate management and government regulatory actions. Yet few engineers have attended a safety course, conference or even a lecture in the area, suggesting that those responsible for the safe construction and operation of complex high-risk socio-technical systems are inadequately prepared. This book is designed to meet the expressed needs of aviation safety management trainees for a practical and concise education supplement to the safety literature. Written in a highly readable and accessible style, its features include: ¢ detailed analysis of the forward-looking System Safety approach, with its focus on accident prevention; ¢ classification of transportation safety literature into distinct schools of thought (Tort Law, Reliability Engineering, System Safety Engineering); ¢ real world, practical, illustrations of the theory; ¢ the history, theory and practice of safety management ; ¢ inter-disciplinary thinking about safety . The flying public is faced with a bewildering array of aviation safety data from a diverse and ever increasing number of sources. This book is an essential guide to the available information, and a major contribution to the international public debate on aviation safety.