Risk Communication and Public Health (Oxford Medical Publications)

Controversies about risks to public health regularly hit the news, whether about food safety, environmental issues, medical interventions, or "lifestyle" risks such as drinking. To those trying to manage or regulate risks, public reactions sometimes seem bizarre. To the public, the behaviour
of those supposedly "in charge" can seem no less odd. Trust is currently at a premium. This volume brings together a wide variety of perspectives on risk communication, from the health professions, academia, campaigning organisations, government and its advisory committees, and independent
consultancies and think tanks. It should be of interest not only to those involved in risk assessment or communication but to anyone interested in the role of science and the media in the political process, and how one sector of "the system" is responding to demands for greater openness and
participation. While each chapter is self-contained, the discussion moves progressively through an introduction to risk communication as a topic of research; studies of prominent cases and the lessons to be drawn from them; contributions to the wider debate about procedures, power and institutions;
proposals for promoting "good practice" in risk communication, in government, the Health Service and elsewhere.