In the Chamber of Risks

An incisive look at how governments and industry must both protect the public by managing risks effectively and engage responsibly with citizens in controversies about risks and risk management

Shows that both risk management and risk communication, when properly constructed, require an elaborate process; because the very things that can cause harm are in most cases the same things that bring us great benefits, such as paper mills, electricity from nuclear power generating stations, or wireless telecommunications.The essential problem is the failure to recognize that controversies over risks are "normal events" in modern society and as such will be with us for the foreseeable future. Three key propositions define these events: risk management decisions are inherently disputable; public perceptions of risk are legitimate and should be treated as such; the public needs to be intensively involved in the processes of risk evaluation and management. Leiss and his collaborators chronicle these organizational risks in a set of detailed case studies on genetically modified foods, cellular telephones, the notorious fuel additive MMT, pulp mill effluent, nuclear power, toxic substances legislation, tobacco, and the new type of "moral risks" associated with genetics technologies such as cloning. Contributors include Debora L. Van Nijnatten (Sir Wilfred Laurier University), Michael D. Mehta (University of Saskatchewan), Stephen Hill (University of Calgary), Eric Darier (Greenpeace), Greg Paoli (Decisionalysis Risk Consultants, Inc.), and Peter V. Hodson (Queen's University).