Unrecognized, concealed, or forgotten – the case of absent information in risk communication

There are differing and partially incompatible views about what kind of issues should be included into risk discussions and what kinds of risks should be emphasized and dealt with. While the emergence of new risks has been extensively studied, relatively little attention has been paid to the roles that the absence of information can play in risk debates. Potentially relevant information may be downplayed or omitted and less relevant overemphasized when actors with varying interests, knowledge bases, and risk frames interact. Multiple and cumulative environmental and health risks caused by chemicals and other stressors pose particular challenges for risk communication. We identify and discuss different forms of unrecognized, hidden, and forgotten information by using chemical risks as a case. A widely applicable typology of absent information in risk communication is outlined.

[1]  Ortwin Renn,et al.  Big pictures, close-ups, roadmaps and mind-maps: perspectives on integrated treatment of multiple risks , 2009 .

[2]  C. D. de Wit.  An overview of brominated flame retardants in the environment. , 2002, Chemosphere.

[3]  E. Harmon-Jones,et al.  Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology. , 1999 .

[4]  D. Sarewitz.  How science makes environmental controversies worse , 2004 .

[5]  M. Douglas,et al.  Risk and Culture: An Essay on the Selection of Technological and Environmental Dangers , 1983 .

[6]  Holger Schütz,et al.  The Precautionary Principle and Risk Perception: Experimental Studies in the EMF Area , 2005, Environmental health perspectives.

[7]  E. Fisher.  The ‘perfect storm’ of REACH: charting regulatory controversy in the age of information, sustainable development, and globalization , 2008 .

[8]  L. Sjöberg,et al.  Neglected and overemphasized risks: the opinions of risk professionals , 2005 .

[9]  Michael G. Harvey,et al.  A historic perspective on organizational ignorance , 2001 .

[10]  Alison Anderson,et al.  Media, Culture And The Environment , 1997 .

[11]  Ortwin Renn,et al.  The role of risk perception for risk management , 1998 .

[12]  D. Lanska.  The Mad Cow Problem in the UK: Risk Perceptions, Risk Management, and Health Policy Development , 1998, Journal of public health policy.

[13]  A. Gunther,et al.  The Influence of Presumed Influence , 2003 .

[14]  D. Therkelsen,et al.  Message to desired action: A communication effectiveness model , 2001 .

[15]  G. W. Fischer,et al.  Preferences for separating or combining events. , 1991, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  J. Lyytimäki,et al.  Communicating Chemical Risks for Social Learning: Findings From an Expert Opinion Survey , 2009 .

[17]  Allan Mazur.  True Warnings and False Alarms: Evaluating Fears about the Health Risks of Technology, 1948-1971 , 2004 .

[18]  B. Münier,et al.  What do experts and stakeholders think about chemical risks and uncertainties? – An Internet survey , 2007 .

[19]  Ronald Hitzler,et al.  Literaturbesprechung zu: Beck, Ulrich: Risikogesellschaft: auf dem Weg in eine andere Moderne. Frankfurt: Suhrkarnp 1986 , 1988 .

[20]  A. Mazur.  Risk Perception and News Coverage Across Nations , 2006 .

[21]  Allan Mazur.  True warnings and false alarms , 2004 .

[22]  Stuart Allan,et al.  Environmental risks and the media , 2000 .

[23]  U. Beck,et al.  Environmental Risks and the Media , 2002 .

[24]  Chauncey Starr,et al.  The Precautionary Principle Versus Risk Analysis , 2003, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[25]  Sven Ove Hansson,et al.  Five charges against the precautionary principle , 2002 .

[26]  R. Hurt,et al.  Turning free speech into corporate speech: Philip Morris' efforts to influence U.S. and European journalists regarding the U.S. EPA report on secondhand smoke. , 2004, Preventive medicine.

[27]  P. Grandjean.  Implications of the Precautionary Principle for Public Health Practice and Research , 2005, International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health.

[28]  A. Tversky,et al.  Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases , 1974, Science.

[29]  Jana Fromm.  Experts' Views on Societal Risk Attention , 2006 .

[30]  Alison Anderson,et al.  Framing risk: nanotechnologies in the news , 2010 .

[31]  M. Hilden,et al.  Beyond REACH: roadblocks and shortcuts en route to integrated risk assessment and management of chemicals. , 2010, The Science of the total environment.

[32]  S. Satya‐Murti.  False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear , 2005 .

[33]  Christopher Pollitt,et al.  Institutional Amnesia: A Paradox of the 'Information Age'? , 2000 .

[34]  Communicating about environmental indicators , 2005 .

[35]  U. Beck.  Risikogesellschaft auf dem Weg in eine andere Moderne , 1986 .

[36]  Jeffrey B. Henriques,et al.  The Effect of Graphics on Environmental Health Risk Beliefs, Emotions, Behavioral Intentions, and Recall , 2009, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[37]  A. Finkel.  Comparing Risks Thoughtfully , 1996 .

[38]  Rolf Lidskog,et al.  Scientised citizens and democratised science. Re‐assessing the expert‐lay divide , 2008 .

[39]  L. Frewer.  The public and effective risk communication. , 2003, Toxicology letters.

[40]  J. Gutteling,et al.  Information needs and risk perception as predictors of risk information seeking , 2008 .

[41]  P. Slovic.  Perception of risk. , 1987, Science.

[42]  E. Carlson.  :Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in Europe and the United States , 2008 .

[43]  Michael J. Lenox,et al.  Industry Self-Regulation Without Sanctions: The Chemical Industry's Responsible Care Program , 2000 .

[44]  G. Mythen,et al.  Reappraising the Risk Society Thesis , 2007 .

[45]  J. Garner,et al.  It's Not What You Know: A Transactive Memory Analysis of Knowledge Networks at NASA , 2006 .

[46]  J. Overhage,et al.  Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences , 2001, Annals of Internal Medicine.

[47]  O. O’neill,et al.  A question of trust. , 2000, Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987).

[48]  K. Bickerstaff.  Risk perception research: socio-cultural perspectives on the public experience of air pollution. , 2004, Environment international.

[49]  Ortwin Renn,et al.  The Social Amplification of Risk: A Conceptual Framework , 1988 .

[50]  U. Beck.  Living in the world risk society , 2006 .

[51]  B Fischhoff,et al.  Risk perception and communication unplugged: twenty years of process. , 1995, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[52]  Christian G. Daughton.  Literature Forensics? Door to What Was Known but Now Forgotten☆☆☆ , 2001 .

[53]  D. O'Rourke,et al.  Reinventing Environmental Regulation from the Grassroots Up: Explaining and Expanding the Success of the Toxics Release Inventory , 2000, Environmental management.

[54]  Mikael Hildén,et al.  The significance of information frameworks in integrated risk assessment and management , 2008 .

[55]  J. Farman,et al.  Late lessons from early warnings: the precautionary principle 1896-2000 , 2002 .