Risk Communication and Public Health - Softcover

This book is packed with information. It has been well constructed by the editors and brings together a wide variety of perspectives from a very impressive list of authors... it is highly readable, densely packed and valuable source of reference and learning... It comes highly recommended as an addition to the bookshelf for all public health practitioners. (Teri Knight, Health Services Management Centre in the Royal Society of Medicine 15, 67-70)

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 new paperback edition of Risk Communication and Public Health brings together a wide variety of perspectives on risk communication, from the health professions, academia, campaigning organisations, government and its advisory committees, 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 bit 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.