Assingment
vzjefvsc
RiskCommunicationWeek9-2-5.ppt
Conflict and Communication
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Week 10 -
- Breathing exercise
- Final Activity Log Weeks 6-10 – April 9
- Mind Map – April 4
Bring a copy (hard or on laptop) to class to display
- Acts of Reconciliation – April 9
Will be sharing with class
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Today…
- What do health and environmental risks look like?
- Why risk conflicts are so complex?
- What are the parts?
- Why is it so important we learn how to deal with risk conflicts?
- What are ways to deal with risk conflicts?
- What are the ethical issues?
What are the environmental or health risks that you worry about?
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Radio Frequency of Smart Meters, Wi Fi, Cell phone towers
Global Warming
Genetically modified food
Pesticides
Chemical Weapons
Vaccinations
Sitting
Flu
What are environmental and health risks?
The probability of something happening that poses a hazard or other undesirable consequence to someone or something.
Involves doses, exposures, chance of occurrence, distribution of exposures, sensitivities, interactions, qualities and populations, costs, benefits and choice.
Can be measured (quantified)
Can be socially constructed (interpreted)
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Alar (Daminozide) – plant growth regulator - chemical sprayed on apples to keep them on the tree until they are ripe and make transporting them without damage easier. Began use in 1963; voluntarily withdrawn in 1989 because of concern that it would cause cancer.
Cancer risk is based on how much we are exposed to, how we are exposed to it (skin/ swallow), how often we are exposed, how the chemical interacts with other chemicals, how it affects people with particular sensitivities, what the impacts actually are, in how many people, etc.
A study done by an organization called the National Resources Defense Council claimed that the risk of Alar to children was “Intolerable” as it was ingested at legal levels “the average pre-schooler's exposure was estimated to result in a cancer risk 240 times greater than the cancer risk considered acceptable by E.P.A. following a full lifetime of exposure.
60 min coverage – Meryl Streep
Apple/ Fruit growers filed suit against ABS, NRDC and a public relations firm that headed up the protest claiming the scare cost the $100 million
Another org. American Council on Science and Health did another study that claied that Alar did not constitute a carcinogen when broken down. They received $25,000 fro Alar producers
Most recent studies suggest that the lab tests that prompted the scare required an amount of Alar equal to over 5,000 gallons (20,000 L) of apple juice per day.[
Consumers Union ran its own studies and estimated the human lifetime cancer risk to be 5 per million, as compared to the previously-reported figure of 50 cases per million. Generally, EPA considers lifetime cancer risks in excess of 1 per million to be cause for action.[13]
Among those who think the Alar response was overblown, the term "Alar scare" has been used as shorthand for an irrational, emotional public scare based on propaganda rather than facts.
Problems with risk…
- Public fear vs. scientific evidence
- Science used by all sides (with varying success)
- Who do we trust?
- How do we understand the science?
- Whose interests are being served?
Problem vs Perceptions?
The potential lose created by risk does not necessarily relate to the amount of concern it receives.
Low probability risks can elicit very high levels of concern
High probability risks can elicit very low levels of concern
Examples?
High consequence, low probability
Vaccines – autism
Plane Crash –
Earthquake
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What is Risk Communication?
The interactive process of exchange about how to best assess and manage risk that includes individuals, interest groups, regulators, and institutions.
It involves multiple messages about the nature of risk including opinions, concerns, reactions, experiences, and scientifically based data and recommendations.
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Examples of Risk Communication
“Smart meters are safe, as confirmed by health and science authorities including B.C.'s Provincial Health Officer, Health Canada and the World Health Organization.
Smart meters communicate for a total average of less than one minute a day. In fact, exposure to radio frequency during a 20-year life span of a smart meter is equivalent to the exposure during a single 30-minute cell phone call.
BC Hydro's smart meters are well below Health Canada's exposure limits and the precautionary limits set by Switzerland, the country with the most rigorous standards in the world.” (BC HYDRO FAQ)
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Why is understanding Risk Communication important?
- We want to make safe decisions about risk;
- We want to make cost effective decisions about risk;
- We want to take advantage of scientific knowledge but it can’t give us all the answers;
- We need to recognize the value of experience, but it can be wrong;
- We know that both experts and the rest of us have a role to play in decision making
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http://www.stopsmartmetersbc.ca/html/?p=6896
Examples of Risk Communication
May 2011 “As children’s physical, mental and emotional health continues to deteriorate, the commonly occurring symptoms of these deficits e.g. allergies and asthma, learning disabilities, hyperactivity and aggression tend to become viewed as normal.
And when health authorities increasingly suppress evidence of vaccine harm, it’s no wonder some parents don’t consider it possible that these previously rare conditions could be caused in whole or in part by vaccinations.”
(Vaccination Risk Awareness Network Website)
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Examples of Risk Communication
Vaccines are safe. Vaccines are safe, effective and necessary, with huge benefits to children’s health all through their lives.
Vaccines are among the safest tools of modern medicine. The vast majority of side effects from vaccines are minor and temporary, like a sore arm or mild fever.
In Canada, serious side effects occur very rarely. For example, the risk of a severe allergic reaction is one in a million doses of vaccine given. If this happens, it is most likely to occur within minutes after the vaccine is given.
http://immunizebc.ca/facts-on-immunity/vaccine-safety
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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/oct/04/global-warming-debate-not-about-science
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We do a very poor job of communicating about risks:
Probabilities hard to understand
Science and experts sound “elitist”
Science is often uncertain, incorrect; constructed from values
Lay values are also NB (aesthetics, quality of life, nature)
We don’t trust companies to act on our behalf
Viewed as self-serving (pipelines)
We are all vulnerable to heuristical errors (experts too.)
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Heuristical Errors in Risk
- Neglect complex information;
- Overestimate the importance of data when it’s in short supply;
- Seek out causation when it may not exist;
- Overestimate our control over familiar risks;
- Overestimate our control over voluntary risk;
- Overestimate the negative consequences of risks that are imposed on us;
- Overestimate the probability of unfamiliar risks;
- We interpret the same data differently.
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Consider your pet risk…
- Pick one cognitive bias that could be at play when understanding your risk
What bad risk communication cost us…
- Bad decisions (accepting unacceptable risk and rejecting acceptable risk)
- Time
- Money
- Health and safety
- Community relationships
- Culture (eg.Aboriginal Rights)
- Environmental Damage
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Alar or DDT – to reject some risk means accepting others
Rachel Carson – Silent Spring – impact of DDT spraying – impact on birds and other wildlife
Malaria – 20 million children – alternatives? DDT resistance
Why is Risk Communication important?
- Cost of Mad Cow Crisis 1996
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association estimates that, all told, the BSE crisis cost the industry between $6 billion and $10 billion.
British Agriculture Minster Angela Browning put the cost to her country at 715 million pounds
Mass slaughter of cattle 4.4 million in Britain
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-Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) linked to a human disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
- 222 people are believed to have lost their lives; a slow progressing, fatal nervous disorder (30 years)
- Overnight, the beef market collapsed; spread was believed to be linked to consuming beef but has also been detected after the use of
unsterilized surgical instruments and injections of human growth hormone from cadavers
- Unclear if the disease could jump from one species to another
- Panic insued after the government of Britan claimed there was no risk, then faced questions from the scientific community
- Dramatic stories emerged in news coverage.
- In North America, Food and Drug Admin reported a possible risk; Agriculture and Agrifood Canada did not issue a public
statement claiming there was no risk.
The infectous agent is naturally occuring in the body
Risk and Conflict
- Despite the fact we are
exposed to far fewer risks,
have stricter health and environmental standards,
and are demonstrably healthier…
we are more concerned, and angry, about risk than ever before…
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Risk and Conflict
- Risk conflict is typically the result of public outrage resulting from the perception that unacceptable levels of risk have been imposed on them by untrustworthy companies, organizations, and regulators.
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Trust is complicated –
trust is an emotion and a behaviour that is that is determined by your relationship to someone, your emotional response to them, power and expectations of them.
It does not develop through information and the uptake of knowledge but through emotional involvement and sense-making.
Trust in scientists (who can do the studies) is at an alltime low.
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“Deeper ties to corporate cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher”
- NYT Feb 21, 2015 page 1
- Wei-Hock Soon, Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics
- Accepted more than $1.2 million in payments from the fossil-fuel industry, which has not been disclosed and violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work.
“Wei-Hock Soon, known as Willie, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who claims that variations in the sun’s energy can largely explain recent global warming. He has often appeared on conservative news programs, testified before Congress and in state capitals, and starred at conferences of people who deny the risks of global warming.
But newly released documents show the extent to which Dr. Soon’s work has been tied to funding he received from corporate interests.
He has accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers. At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work.”
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Maple Leaf Meat Recall - Aug ‘08
- August 2008 Listeriosis Contamination
- 24/7 press conerences
- News reports
- Social media (Facebook/ blog)
- Employee Teleconference (several)
- Customer and analyst briefings
- Plant tours
- Videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIsN5AkJ1AI&list=WLe450ZxO0MSxDe5KfVDJMNth4VCcuR2k3
- Expert (3rd party) interviews
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XL Foods Meat Recall Sept ‘12
- No statement “We all take responsibility”
- No apology
- No face or spokesperson
- No communications plan
- No discussion of what went wrong
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOX4q5w_Apk&list=WLe450ZxO0MSxDe5KfVDJMNth4VCcuR2k3
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Dealing with Risk Conflict
- PR approaches
Management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies policies and procedures and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.
“Enlightened selfishness” places the broad interests of the public first.
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Bad PR practices
- Dishonest, unethical, covering-up the truth
- Spin - not overt deceit but manipulation - polishing the truth - interpretation
- Cherry Picking - selectively presenting facts to support a position
- Non-denial denial - phrasing statements in a way that presumes unproven truths
- Astroturf lobbying
- Shadowing
- Grasstop Lobbying
- Public Service
- Letter writing
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Dishonesty - faking blogs
Astroturf lobbying - creating a pro-industry org that fits the “grassroots” model for credibility
Shadowing - following critics on tour to provide alternative view
Grasstops - identifying influentials to speak on your behalf
Letter writing - provide letters of conviction on “personalized” stationary
Assisting in fund raising
Good PR Practices
- No amount of communication will cover up mistakes
- Get all the bad news out fast
- Tell the truth
- Address what happened, why, and what your org. is going to do about it
- Don’t speculate, predict, guess
- Don’t talk off the record
- Protect the reputation and credibility of your company within the limits of truth
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Need for personal accountability - ethics on part of company - do not lie
What is your responsibility as a new staff member? Senior staff? Consultant?
Dealing with Risk Conflict
- Vincent Covello’s advice to PR practioners
Accept and involve the public as a legitimate partner
Listen to your audience
Be honest, frank and open
Coordinate and collaborate with other credible sources
Caring and empathy are 50% of your work
Do not use negative language
Develop nonverbal communication skills
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Dealing with Risk Conflict
- Peter Sandman’s approach to reducing public outrage:
Stake out the middle ground - this is what we know
Acknowledge prior misbehaviour
Acknowledge current problems - no spin
Discuss achievements with humility
Share control and be accountable
Bring concerns to the surface
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Risk and conflict strategies
- Public Involvement
Sharing information with those directly involved;
Demonstrate how risk decisions were made;
Look for strategies in partnership with the community members living with the risk;
Accommodate the “What happened” “Feeling” and “Learning” conversations face to face
Makes managers and regulators accountable
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Audiences of Risk Messages
- Fanatics - want direct input; main interest
- Attentives - monitor the news carefully, attend a meeting; very worried
- Browsers - check on the issue in the media from time to time; somewhat worried
- Inattentives - don’t know and don’t want to know
Pay the most attention to Attentives and Browsers but be aware that they watch how you treat the fanatics.
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Exercise
The provincial office of air quality has released a report that indicates Nexen Chemicals on the Dollarton Highway has had two accidental releases of chlorine gas in the last month.
- Team 1 - Identify three questions you want answered as worried and angry residents of the North Shore
- Team 2 - Identify three key messages you want to share with residents as public relations and management of the Nexen plant. What long term strategy might you adopt as a result of this experience?
