Join us at next year's RCSG mixer, to be held as part of the 26th
Annual SRA meeting in Baltimore, Maryland
Risk communication is constantly in the news.
Click here to read
about the latest issues and relevant links. Today's
highlights include
An outbreak of avian
influenza would undoubtedly
present numerous
communication challenges. Risk communication, moreover, is a part of
the recently-released National
Strategy for Pandemic Influenza
The latest information on
avian flu can be found at Pandemicflu.gov
and via the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Avian Flu website.
A February 6th article
published on The National
Academies website
states that chronic wasting disease (CWD - a degenerative neurological
disease found in deer) has been found in deer in 11 U.S. states and 2
Canadian provinces. CWD is similar to Mad Cow Disease (both are caused
by misshapen brain proteins, caused prions), which causes substantial
risk communication challenges in the 1980s and 1990s as humans
contracted the disease via contaminate beef. Although the article
emphasizes that there is no evidence that deer meat can transmit the
disease, this developing story is nonetheless interesting to risk
communicators, as it may become an issue at some point in the future.
Global
Climate Change
Communicating the risk of natural
disasters/hazards is
at the forefront of environmental risk communication. Furthermore, the
issue of global climate change represents one of the most challenging
communication issues, given intense media coverage, political
involvement and a spirited advocacy movement on both sides. A January
29th article in The Washington Post further ads another
communication issue - not just what the causes and impacts may be, but
whether we may reach a point in which the effects (should they
materialize) could become irreversible.
To view the article, please
click here
