Risk Communication: A Review of the Literature. Washington, D.C., National Emergency Training Center; Covello, V.T., von Winterfeldt, D., and Slovic, P. (1986). “Communicating scientific information about health and environmental risks: Problems and opportunities from a social and behavioral perspective,” Uncertainties in Risk Assessment and Risk Management ,eds. V. Covello, A. Moghissi, and V.R.R. Uppuluri. New York: Plenum Press. 1986; Covello, V.T., Sandman P., and Slovic P. (1988). Risk Communication, Risk Statistics, and Risk Comparisons. Washington, D.C.: CMA; Covello, V., McCallum, D., and Pavlova M., eds. 1988b. Effective Risk Communication: The Role and Responsibility of Government and Nongovernmental Organizations. New York: Plenum; National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences (1989). Improving Risk Communication. Washington, DC: National Academies Press7 7 Covello, V.T., and Sandman, P. (2001). “Risk communication: Evolution and revolution,” in Solutions to an Environment in Peril, ed A. Wolbarst. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press .
8 8 Since 1945, DDT was available as an agricultural pesticide and as a household insecticide. Over the next 25 years, numerous researchers expressed concerns about the risks associated with DDT, citing dangers such as killing beneficial insects by bringing about the death of fish, birds (e.g., eagles), and other forms of wildlife either by their feeding on insects killed by DDT or directly by ingesting DDT. Outrage was engendered by the publication of a best‐selling book Silent Spring by naturalist Rachel Carson. In 1972, the US Environmental Protection Agency cancelled most uses of DDT, exempting public health uses under specific conditions.
9 9 Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York. It is the location of a 70‐acre landfill that became the cause of a massive environmental pollution crisis culminating in an extensive hazardous waste cleanup operation.
10 10 See, e.g., Covello, V.T., Sandman, P.M., and Slovic, P. (1988). Risk Communication, Risk Statistics, and Risk Comparisons. Washington, DC: CMA; Fischhoff, B. (2009). “Risk perception and communication,” Oxford Textbook of Public Health, Volume 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 940–953; Johnson, B. B. (2004). “Risk comparisons, conflict, and risk acceptability claims.” Risk Analysis 24(1):131–145; Keller, C. (2011). “Using a familiar risk comparison within a risk ladder to improve risk understanding by low numerates: A study of visual attention.” Risk Analysis 31(7):1043–1054; Keller, C., Siegrist, M., and Visschers, V. (2009). Effect of risk ladder format on risk perception in high‐ and low‐numerate individuals. Risk Analysis 29(9):1255–1264; Kunreuther, H., Novemsky N., and Kahneman, D. (2001). “Making low probabilities useful.” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 23(2):103–120; Lipkus, I.M. (2007). “Numeric, verbal, and visual formats of conveying health risks: Suggested best practices and future recommendations.” Medical Decision Making 27(5):696–713; Peters, E. (2020). Innumeracy in the Wild. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Peters, E., M.K. Tompkins, M.A.Z. Knoll, S.P., Ardoin, B. Shoots‐Reinhard, and A.S. Meara, (2019). “Despite high objective numeracy, lower numeric confidence relates to worse financial and medical outcomes.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116 (39):19386–1939l Peters, E., Västfjäll, D., Slovic P., Mertz C.K., Mazzocco, K., and Dickert, S. (2006). “Numeracy and decision making.” Psychological Science 17(5):407–413; Pighin, S., Savadori L., Barilli, E., Rumiati, R., Bonalumi, S., Ferrari, M., and Cremonesi, L. (2013). “Using comparison scenarios to improve prenatal risk communication.” Medical Decision Making 33(1):48–58; Roth, E., Morgan, M.G., Fischhoff, B., Lave, L., and Bostrom, A. (1990). “What do we know about making risk comparisons?” Risk Analysis 10(3):375–387.
11 11 See, e.g., Kunreuther, H., Novemsky, N., and Kahneman, D. (2001). “Making low probabilities useful.” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 23(2):103–120; See also Kellens, W., Terpstra, T., Schelfaut, L., and De Maeyer, P. (2013). “Perception and communication of flood risks: A literature review.” Risk Analysis 33(1):24–49 .
12 12 See, e.g., Johnson, B. B. (2004). “Risk comparisons, conflict, and risk acceptability claims.” Risk Analysis 24(1):131–145.
13 13 See, e.g., Hohl, K., and Gaskell, G. (2008). “European public perceptions of food risk: Cross‐national and methodological comparisons.” Risk Analysis 28(2):311–324.
14 14 See, e.g., Ames B.N., and Gold, L.S. (1998). “The causes and prevention of cancer: the role of environment.” Biotherapy 11(2‐3):205–220.
15 15 Inhaber, H. (1978). Energy Risk Assessment. Ottawa, Quebec, Canada: Atomic Energy Control Board.
16 16 Doll, R., and Peto, R. (1981). “The causes of cancer. Quantitative estimates of avoidable risks of cancer in the United States today.” Journal of the National Cancer Institute 66:1195–1308.
17 17 US Environmental Protection Agency (1987). Unfinished Business: A Comparative Assessment of Environmental Problems and Major Risks. Washington. DC: Environmental Protection Agency.
18 18 Page 140 in Allen, F. (1987). "Towards a holistic appreciation of risk: The challenge for communicators and policymakers.," Science, Technology & Human Values 12(3):138–143.
19 19 Covello, V., and Allen, F. (1988). Seven Cardinal Rules of Risk Communication. EPA Policy Document OPA‐7‐020. Washington, DC: US Environmental Protection Agency .
20 20 See, e.g., Dickmann, P., Abraham, T., Sarkar, S., Wysocki, P., Cecconi, S., Apfel, F., and Nurm, Ü. (2016). “Risk communication as a core public health competence in infectious disease management: Development of the ECDC training curriculum and programme.” EuroSurveillance 21(14):30188; Bondy, S.J., Johnson, I., Cole, D.C., Bercovitz, K. (2008). “Identifying core competencies for public health epidemiologists.” Canadian Journal of Public Health 99(4):246–251; Joint Institution Group on Safety Risk (2012). Risk Communication and Professional Engineers. Accessed at: https://www.theiet.org/media/1431/risk‐comms.pdf; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Environmental Health Services (2001). “Environmental Health Competency Project: Recommendations for Core Competencies for Local Environmental Health Practitioners.” Accessed at: https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/corecomp/corecompetencies.htm; Franziska Baessler, F., Zafar, A., Ciprianidis, A., Wagner, F.L., Bettina Klein, S., Schweizer, S., Bartolovic, M., Roesch‐Ely, D., Ditzen, B., Nikendei, C., and Schultz, J. (2020). “Analysis of risk communication teaching in psychosocial and other medical departments.” Medical Education Online, 25:1. Accessed at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10872981.2020.1746014
21 21 See, e.g., Holly, K.
