Vincent T. Covello

Risk communication, the West Nile virus epidemic, and bioterrorism: responding to the communication challenges posed by the intentional or unintentional release of a pathogen in an urban setting.

The intentional or unintentional introduction of a pathogen in an urban setting presents severe communication chanllenges. Risk communication—a science-based approach for communicating effectively in high-concern situations—provides a set of principles and tools for meeting those challenges. A brief overview of the risk communication theoretical perspective and basic risk communication models is presented here, and the risk communication perspective is applied to the West Nile virus epidemic in New York City in 1999 and 2000 and to a possible bioterrorist event. The purpose is to provide practical information on how perceptions of the risks associated with a disease outbreak might be perceived and how communications would be best managed.

The perception of technological risks: A literature review

Abstract In response to rising concern about technological risks, a concerted effort is being made to improve risk analysis methods and risk management approaches. As part of this effort, behavioral and social scientists have produced a substantial body of knowledge of value to risk analysts and decision makers. This paper focuses on behavioral and social science studies of human intellectual limitations in thinking about the risks, factors influencing risk attitudes and perceptions, and factors contributing to social conflicts and disputes about technological activities. A basic assumption of the paper is that analysts and decision makers can benefit from a better understanding of how experts and nonexperts think and make decisions about technological risks. Without such understanding, well-intended policies may be ineffective or even counterproductive.

Best Practices in Public Health Risk and Crisis Communication

The World Trade Center tragedy of September 11, 2001, the subsequent anthrax attacks, and other recent events have heightened public health agencies’ awareness of the need to enhance their risk and crisis communication skills. The threat of chemical and biological weapons, and the risk posed to human populations, presents a unique opportunity for public health agencies to assess and elevate their level of communication preparedness for all risk and crisis scenarios. Following is a checklist of best practices that should be included in any public health risk and crisis communication plan.

Communicating Scientific Information About Health and Environmental Risks: Problems and Opportunities from a Social and Behavioral Perspective

Risk communication takes place in a variety of forms, ranging from product warning labels on cigarette packages and saccharin bottles to interactions between officials and members of the public on such highly charged issues as Love Canal, AIDS, and the accident at Three Mile Island. Recent experience has shown that communicating scientific information about health and environmental risks can be exceedingly difficult and is often frustrating to those involved. Government officials, industry executives, and scientific experts often complain that laypeople do not understand technical risk information and that individual and media biases and limitations lead to distorted and inaccurate perceptions of many risk problems. Individual citizens and representatives of public groups are often equally frustrated, perceiving government and industry officials to be uninterested in their concerns, unwilling to take immediate and direct actions to solve seemingly simple and obvious health and environmental problems, and reluctant or unwilling to allow them to participate in decisions that intimately affect their lives. In this context, the media often play the role of transmitter and translator of information about health and environmental risks, but have been criticized for exaggerating risks and emphasizing drama over scientific facts.

Risk evaluation and management

This book presents the cooperative efforts of political scientists, philosophers, policy analysts, and other specialists from many fields, in the social and behavioral study of issues in risk management and risk evaluation. Topics covered include the psychometric study of risk perception, risk, rationalism, and rationality, methods for comparing the risks of technologies, improving risk analysis, alternative risk management policies for state and loval governments, the management of risk, and science and analysis: roles in risk and decision making.

Women's Perceptions of the Risks of Age-Related Diseases, Including Breast Cancer: Reports from a 3-Year Research Study

Misperceptions of health risks lead many women to misunderstand their risks and fail to take appropriate measures to prevent or treat many diseases. This article analyzes the impact of various sources of information on the perceptions and misperceptions of women regarding the risks of age-related diseases. This article shows that most of the women respondents held incorrect beliefs about their risk of heart disease, breast and lung cancer, and osteoporosis; half held inaccurate beliefs about disease-related statistical correlation and causation, and about dose-response relations; and many lacked the skills necessary to evaluate media reports about health and medicine. This article indicates that information and education related to health issues, focused on improved public understanding and decision making related to health risks, is needed to achieve improved health outcomes.

Low-Probability High-Consequence Risk Analysis

J. W. Minarick Science Application, Inc. 800 Oak Ridge Turnpike Oak Ridge, Tennessee and C. A. Kukielka Pennsylvania Power and Light Co. 2 North 9th Street Allentown, Pennsylvania One hundred sixty-nine operational events reported as Licensee Event Reports (LER) , which occurred a~ commercial lightwater reactors during 1969-1979 and which are considered to be precursors to potential severe core damage, have been identified. The paper summarizes work in (1) the initial screening of approximately 19,400 LER abstracts to determine which should be reviewed in detail for potential precursors, (2) the detailed review of those selected LERs that yielded the 169 events, (3) the calculation of function failure estimates based on precursor data, (4) the use of probability of severe core damage estimates to rank precursor events and estimate the frequency of severe core damage, (5) the identification of 52 events considered significant, and (6) trends analyses of those selected events. KEY WORDS; precursor; core damage; Licensee Event Report; energy risk; probability *The work described was performed under a subcontract with the Nuclear Safety Information Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Principles and Guidelines for Improving Risk Communication

In response to rising public concerns about health and environmental risks, government agencies have increasingly sought improved means for communicating risk information to individual citizens and public groups. Part of this increased interest in risk communication stems from current difficulties and frustrations (Ruckelshaus, 1983, 1987; Sandman, 1986; Thomas, 1987; Press, 1987; Covello and Allen, 1988; Slovic, 1987; Davies et al., 1987). Government officials are often frustrated by what they perceive to be inaccurate public perceptions of risk and unrealistic demands by the public for risk reduction. Citizens are often equally frustrated by the government’s seeming disinterest in their concerns, unwillingness to take action, and reluctance or unwillingness to allow them to participate in decisions that intimately affect their lives.

Technology-based environmental health risks in developing nations

Abstract This paper addresses two questions: 1) To what extent are developing nations vulnerable to technology- related environmental health risks? 2) To what extent does the export of hazardous technologies and products contribute to overall levels of environmental health risk in developing nations? The paper focuses on three major types of environmental health risks: the failure of large-scale technological systems; the use or misuse of consumer goods, mechanical devices, and chemicals; and industrial emissions of toxic substances. In addition, three categories of hazardous exports are examined: hazardous products (e.g., pesticides), hazardous production processes (e.g., asbestos processing), and hazardous wastes (e.g., chemical and radioactive waste). The paper concludes that technology-based environmental health risks pose a significant public health problem in most developing nations, even when compared to much larger public health problems such as tropical and gastrointestinal diseases. Technology-based risks are growing in number and frequency. If developing and developed nations continue their current policies, these risks will grow at a significantly greater rate.

Introduction to Risk Assessment

Health and environmental risk assessment is a relatively new field. It is being developed along diverse fronts by experts in distinct disciplines including epidemiology, toxicology, engineering, and statistics. Each of these disciplines has generated at least a few books about risk assessment. However, nearly all such books focus narrowly on specific subsets of available risk assessment methods: namely, those methods that have been developed specifically to address the types of risks with which the author’s discipline is most concerned. Thus, risk assessment literature has become specialized and fragmented.