Mad Cows and Mother's Milk, Second Edition

Mad Cows and Mother's Milk, Second Edition
Author: William Leiss
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 478
Release: 2004
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780773528178

The first case study deals with the mad cow fiasco of 1996, one of the most expensive and tragic examples of poor risk management in the last twenty-five years. For ten years the British government failed to acknowledge the possibility of a link between mad cow disease and Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human equivalent, until increased scientific evidence and public pressure forced them to take action, resulting in the slaughter of more than one million cattle. The second study looks at what is commonly known as hamburger disease, caused by a virulent form of the E. coli bacterium, which has struck thousands and killed over thirty people in the last few years. Despite its widespread effects, it is unclear whether scientific knowledge on preventing the disease is reaching the public. Other case studies include the use of a genetically engineered hormone to increase milk production in cows, health risks associated with silicone breast implants, public controversies surrounding dioxins and PCBs, and the introduction of agricultural biotechnology. These case studies show that institutions routinely fail to communicate the scientific basis of various high-profile risks. These failures to inform the public make it difficult for governments, industry, and society to manage risk controversies sensibly and often result in massive costs. With its detailed analyses of specific risk management controversies, Mad Cows and Mother's Milk will help us avoid future mistakes.

Mad Cows and Mother's Milk, Second Edition

Mad Cows and Mother's Milk, Second Edition
Author: William Leiss
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 471
Release: 2004-11-25
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0773572406

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 and malpractice 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 genetics 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. One example is gene therapy, which can be used to eliminate inherited genetic diseases (i.e. cystic fibrosis), enhance human traits (i.e. athletic performance), and perhaps double life-spans. Gene technologies are relevant to some of the most fundamental human values. 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 with us sooner than we imagine. All of the case studies emphasize the need for effective communication about risks to allow effective dialogue by informed publics on health and environmental risks.

How the Cows Turned Mad

How the Cows Turned Mad
Author: Maxime Schwartz
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2004-09-13
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0520243374

"How the Cows Turned Mad tells the story of a disease that continues to elude on many levels. Yet science has come far in understanding its origins, incubation, and transmission. This book is a case history that illuminates the remarkable progression of science."--BOOK JACKET.

Mad Cows and Mother's Milk

Mad Cows and Mother's Milk
Author: Douglas Powell
Publisher: MQUP
Total Pages: 320
Release: 1997-10-10
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780773516182

The first case study deals with the mad cow fiasco of 1996, one of the most expensive and tragic examples of poor risk management in the last twenty-five years. For ten years the British government failed to acknowledge the possibility of a link between mad cow disease and Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human equivalent, until increased scientific evidence and public pressure forced them to take action, resulting in the slaughter of more than one million cattle. The second study looks at what is commonly known as hamburger disease, caused by a virulent form of the E. coli bacterium, which has struck thousands and killed over thirty people in the last few years. Despite its widespread effects, it is unclear whether scientific knowledge on preventing the disease is reaching the public. Other case studies include the use of a genetically engineered hormone to increase milk production in cows, health risks associated with silicone breast implants, public controversies surrounding dioxins and PCBs, and the introduction of agricultural biotechnology. These case studies show that institutions routinely fail to communicate the scientific basis of various high-profile risks. These failures to inform the public make it difficult for governments, industry, and society to manage risk controversies sensibly and often result in massive costs. With its detailed analyses of specific risk management controversies, Mad Cows and Mother's Milk will help us avoid future mistakes.

Mother's Milk

Mother's Milk
Author: Andrew Thomas Breslin
Publisher: ENC Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2005
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0975254006

A young, emphatically non-idealistic attorney finds herself in Washington, DC, working for a group of radical nutrition advocates with a passionate distaste for cow milk. Little does she suspect that their militant intolerance for lactose is a reaction to a secret global conspiracy orchestrated by the dairy industry, itself a puppet of alien masters from a distant planet orbiting the star Vega.

In the Chamber of Risks

In the Chamber of Risks
Author: William Leiss
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2001
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0773522387

In In the Chamber of Risks William Leiss demonstrates that case studies of risk controversies show that those instincts are unreliable guides to effective risk management and that in all cases the opposite position is a far better guide. As risk management is inherently disputable, public perceptions of risk should be seen as legitimate and treated as such and the public should always be involved in discussions about risk evaluations made by scientists and risk managers. ; Leiss chronicles the erratic course of risk management and communication in environmental management in Canada, discussing the notable controversies that have arisen over pesticides and breast cancer, vinyl toys, genetically engineered food crops, cellular telephones, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, among many others. He focuses on risk management - how we make decisions about and assess hazards in the environment - and on risk communication - social dialogue that deals with both our intuitive feelings of concern about substances or activities that might hurt our health or the environment, and the scientific and probabilistic description of them. ; Leiss 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. ;

Calculating Political Risk

Calculating Political Risk
Author: Catherine Althaus
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2013-11-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317973151

Calculating Political Risk is rich and illuminating, and much more than a political science treatise. Althaus draws on diverse literature, extensive interviews and intriguing case studies to offer interdisciplinary, practical and nuanced insight. This book provides new perspectives and more precise language for making sense of a critical dimension of politics, policy-making and public management. Evert Lindquist, Director and Professor, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria, Canada This powerful new book is the first ever examination of the hard edge of how political risk - something faced by all political actors innumerable times every day - is calculated and used in decision-making. It opens with an outline of the historical and linguistic origins of risk, the various disciplinary understandings of risk, the risk society concept, and how risk has come to be so prominent in the context of environmental disaster and terrorism. The book then defines political risk and looks at its manifestations in the public sector, from project to high-level political risk. It also looks at risk identification versus risk management and compares the concept of political risk with the private sector practice of risk management. Unique research findings from interviews with over 100 risk practitioners and politicians provide a detailed look at how political actors calculate political risk. Case study-based chapters look in-depth at neat and discrete examples: risk calculation in state development plans in Australia; political risk identification and management in the UK during the mad cow crisis; and US government risk calculation in the post-September 11 context. The final chapters draw together the experiences and lessons learned from the case studies and practitioner insights to formulate a better understanding of what political risk is and what its calculation means in political practice. The author shows how political risk calculation provides a fresh perspective on policy analysis and identifies how political risk is relevant to a broader understanding of politics and political science, as well as policy formulation and implementation on the ground.

Mad Cowboy

Mad Cowboy
Author: Howard F. Lyman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2001-07-07
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0743219058

Told by the man who kicked off the infamous lawsuit between Oprah and the cattlemen, Mad Cowboy is an impassioned account of the highly dangerous practices of the cattle and dairy industries. Howard Lyman's testimony on The Oprah Winfrey Show revealed the deadly impact of the livestock industry on our well-being. It not only led to Oprah's declaration that she'd never eat a burger again, it sent shock waves through a concerned and vulnerable public. A fourth-generation Montana rancher, Lyman investigated the use of chemicals in agriculture after developing a spinal tumor that nearly paralyzed him. Now a vegetarian, he blasts through the propaganda of beef and dairy interests—and the government agencies that protect them—to expose an animal-based diet as the primary cause of cancer, heart disease, and obesity in this country. He warns that the livestock industry is repeating the mistakes that led to Mad Cow disease in England while simultaneously causing serious damage to the environment. Persuasive, straightforward, and full of the down-home good humor and optimism of a son of the soil, Mad Cowboy is both an inspirational story of personal transformation and a convincing call to action for a plant-based diet—for the good of the planet and the health of us all.

States of Global Insecurity

States of Global Insecurity
Author: Daniel Béland
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2007-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780716771876

Discusses the collective threats faced by the United States in the early twenty-first century and how political sociology seeks to understand these matters.

Risky Business

Risky Business
Author: G. Bruce Doern
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2000-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780802082626

The essays in this volume ask what risks Canadians might be exposed to as fiscal pressures strain the capacity of regulators in areas such as food, drugs, pesticides, fisheries, and the environment.