Mad Cows and Mother's Milk: The Perils of Poor Risk Communication [Paperback]

William Leiss (Author), Douglas, H. Powell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0773528172 | ISBN-13: 978-0773528178 | Publication Date: November 2004 | Edition: 2

Communicating the nature and consequences of environmental and health risks is still one of the most problematic areas of public policy in Western democracies. "Mad Cows and Mother's Milk" outlines the crucial role of risk management in dealing with public controversies and analyses risk communication practice to provide a set of lessons for risk managers and communicators. This second edition adds new case studies on mad cow disease in North America, climate change and genetic technologies. The first of the new case studies brings the story of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak in the United Kingdom in the 1980s up-to-date. Mad cow disease is still being discovered in UK herds and cases of mad cow disease have been found in twenty countries across the European continent and as far away as Japan with devastating consequences for the food industry. BSE has now been discovered on the North American continent in two cows born in Canada. The original cause of these two new cases is almost certainly importation of infected cattle, cattle feed, or both from Britain. Canadian government regulators and those in the cattle industry have failed to correctly assess the risks of the disease in the Canadian herd, take the precautionary measures needed to prevent the spread of disease, and communicate risks and precautionary measures to the public. The second new study deals with global warming. Not only is every aspect of this risk debate both contentious and difficult for the public to understand but the potential consequences of the risks extend all the way to global catastrophe for human civilization. A new chapter outlines the many dimensions of risk debate in the context of the need for effective and sustained dialogue by an informed public. The last new case study provides an introduction to genomic science, which is placed in the context of both the health benefits expected from genetic manipulation and some of the risk factors associated with it. This new chapter suggests that we must think about the range of new risks introduced by these technologies as well as the potential benefits - and that we should do this collective thinking soon, since given the furious pace of genomics discoveries, the possibilities will be us sooner than we imagine.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"There is no other book like this one, drawing so extensively and insightfully from case studies. This is the best book I have seen on risk communication." Paul Slovic, Decision Research

About the Author

Douglas Powell Science and Society Project, Universities of Guelph and Waterloo, Canada & William Leiss, Queen's University, Canada --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 452 pages
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press; 2 edition (November 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0773528172
• ISBN-13: 978-0773528178
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #735,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Have for the Professional PR Library, July 1, 2000

By 

Suzanne Cornforth (Saskatoon, SK Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mad Cows and Mother's Milk: The Perils of Poor Risk Communication (Paperback)

Canadian authors Powell and Leiss provide a structured and interesting look at significant case studies, both Canadian and American, of issues and crisis management communications, or as they call it, "risk communications". The book provides an excellent background into risk communications. From dioxins among Canadian natives to silicone breast implants and cow's milk,excellent and recent case studies are deconstructed to identify the key successes and failures of the risk communications process. Finally, the book ends with 10 "lessons" for risk communicators--providing not so much the "how" answers, as the "why" and "what" answers. Easy to read, but scholarly in nature, an excellent addition to any public relations practitioners' library, and particularly Canadian practitioners, who have little to choose from in the way of good and recent Canadian case study analysis.

3.0 out of 5 stars Review of Mad Cows and Mother's milk, August 1, 2008

By 

Spero P. Tsindos "Kilgore Elder" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mad Cows and Mother's Milk: The Perils of Poor Risk Communication (Paperback)

This is an excellent book on the issue of risk communication and communication vacuum. For anyone in the fields of public health and health promotion, this is worth the read.