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May 2012

Andrew Maynard taking over as Interim Chair of the UM Environmental Health Sciences department

May 31, 2012

From June 1 I will be taking up the position of Interim Chair in the School of Public Health Environmental Health Sciences Department, as well as continuing to direct the Risk Science Center.  This is a great opportunity to build on the work of the previous chair Howard Hu and prepare the department for my [...]

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Does science literacy increase polarization in risk perception?

May 31, 2012

It’s very easy to assume that people who don’t make smart decisions on risks are – not to put too fine a point on it – stupid (“smart” here usually meaning “the decision I think is right”).  But as many researchers in the decision analysis field will attest to, it’s more complicated than that.  This [...]

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Web 2.0 Means Public Health Can Join the Online Vaccination Discussions… or Risk Being Ignored

May 29, 2012

About a year ago, I wrote a blog post here about the role of stories in vaccination decisions. It was the product of a small group research conference I attended in Erfurt, Germany that brought together a small but diverse group of researchers interested in the interplay between the evolving Internet and patients’ and parents’ [...]

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More on Sunscreen and Cancer

May 24, 2012

The following post is by Jessica Skiba.  Jessica has just completed her first year of studies at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in the Epidemiology Department. Her main research focus is genetics, with interests in cancer and infectious disease. She is currently completing her  summer internship at the Center for Public Health and [...]

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Communicating about communicating science at the National Academies

May 23, 2012

I‘ve just spent the last two days at the National Academies of Science listening to a long strong of folks talk about the Science of Science Communication. It was a bit of a guilty pleasure for me as I wasn’t a speaker and so could just kick back and listen – but I did get [...]

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Think Design – an alternative take on nanotech (in 11 minutes!)

May 23, 2012

A few weeks ago I was asked to give a “TED style talk” on nanotechnology for the University of Michigan Environmental Health Sciences department 125th anniversary. What they got was a short talk on “thinking small”: The other talks in the series are also worth checking out – covering topics as diverse as epigenetics, cancer, [...]

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Frightful Or Functional? A New Era for Tattoos (Part One)

May 22, 2012

xkcd: 933: Tattoo The idea of a functional tattoo is not new. In a sense, tattoos have always been functional, just that the functions have tended to focus more on social bonding, status, communication, and beauty, rather than as specific tools or technologies. That vision of a ‘functional’ tattoo solely social in purpose is changing. [...]

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Carbon nanoparticles could be ubiquitous to many foods

May 21, 2012

TEM images of carbon particles from foods containing caramelized sugar. Click to see larger image. Source: Palashudding et al. Nanotechnology leads to novel materials, new exposures and potentially unique health and environmental risks – or so the argument goes. But an increasing body of research is showing that relatively uniformly sized nanometer scale particles are [...]

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Cancer prevention in a pill: Science vs. Marketing

May 18, 2012

The following post is written by Andy Gard. Andy is a second-year International Health MPH student at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He worked four years in biotech and healthcare scientific communications and is now developing research skills for work in developing countries. This summer he is conducting research on cervical cancer [...]

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Risk Science Center Annual Meeting – May 30 (all welcome!)

May 16, 2012

May 30 sees this year’s Annual Meeting of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center – a chance to hear about some of the activities of the center and (more importantly) provide us with your thoughts and insights into where we should be going in the future.

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New Managing Director joins the UM Risk Science Center

May 15, 2012

I am very pleased to announce that the University of Michigan Risk Science Center has just been joined by Tracy Swinburn as its new Managing Director.  Tracy has a background as an economic analyst, and will be working closely on building up the center’s strategic partnerships with stakeholders, as well as developing and contributing directly [...]

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Flame retardants in furniture foam – weighing the evidence

May 10, 2012

The Chicago Tribune launched a hard hitting investigative series this week on the downsides of flame retardant chemicals. Opening with the line “The average American baby is born with 10 fingers, 10 toes and the highest recorded levels of flame retardants among infants in the world”, the series paints a picture of corporate greed, misinformation [...]

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Radiation as Currency: A Better Metaphor for Understanding Risks?

May 8, 2012

Today I want to discuss not only risk but also the usefulness of the science blogosphere. When casting about for a blog post topic (and trying hard to focus on studying for the UM EHS Doctoral Qualifying Exam next week!) I found a very interesting post about risk literacy on Everyday Einstein that describes an interesting [...]

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Nanoparticles, cosmetics and sunscreens – again!

May 5, 2012

Cross posted from 2020 Science Robin Erb has a good piece on cosmetics and safe ingredients in the Detroit Free Press this week – it tackles the very limited regulation over what goes into cosmetics, but balances this with a useful perspective on consumer choice and how this in turn can drive business decisions on [...]

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Pink Slime and Cochineal Bugs: The "Ick" Factor

May 2, 2012

Ignoring the crazy weather that March and April generated, the past two months have been particularly interested in the health world, as the United States population finally paid attention to just what exactly was in their processed food, namely, Lean Finely Textured Beef also known “affectionately” as Pink Slime.  Public attention appears to have been [...]

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