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Opinion

When Risk Communications Are Precise, Accurate and Utterly Meaningless

January 30, 2013

I hope the title of this post got your attention. It’s a statement that seems to violate the fundamental concept of risk communication. How is it possible that risk communications could be accurate yet meaningless? Isn’t the whole point of risk communication to help people to quantify the uncertainty in their lives? Isn’t it better [...]

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Hot Button Issues: Fracking

December 18, 2012

The School of Public Health (SPH) recently published a feature in Findings magazine on ‘hot button issues’ with perspectives from the SPH community.  Several Risk Science Center members and collaborators were featured, and we are grateful to Findings for allowing us to re-post these articles as a five-part series in Risk Sense. John Callewaert on Fracking: The Issue: For several decades, the [...]

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Hot Button Issues: Chemicals Management

December 14, 2012

The School of Public Health (SPH) recently published a feature in Findings magazine on ‘hot button issues’ with perspectives from the SPH community.  Several Risk Science Center members and collaborators were featured, and we are grateful to Findings for allowing us to re-post these articles as a five-part series in Risk Sense. Greg Bond on Chemicals Management: The Issue: Chemistry is [...]

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Hot Button Issues: Nanotechnologies

December 7, 2012

The School of Public Health (SPH) recently published a feature in Findings magazine on ‘hot button issues’ with perspectives from the SPH community.  Several Risk Science Center members and collaborators were featured, and we are grateful to Findings for allowing us to re-post these articles as a five-part series in Risk Sense. Diana Bowman on [...]

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EPA protections for obese and overweight adults

December 4, 2012

A new Occasional Paper published by the University of Michigan Risk Science Center addresses the significance of obesity to the pulmonary risk from air pollution. In the report, Patricia Koman – formerly a Senior Environmental Scientist at the US Environmental Protection Agency – argues that the US EPA should include obese and overweight adults as [...]

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Lead Paint Renovation Risks Part II: Expert Advice

August 3, 2012

This week I’m following up on my blog post weighing the health risks of lead paint renovation.  Thank you to those of you who have provided feedback on my previous post.  Here’s the expert advice I’ve received from Dr. Niladri Basu, RSC Member and Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, and Tracey Easthope, Environmental Health [...]

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Risk Science Moment: Weighing lead paint renovation health risks

July 19, 2012
Thumbnail image for Risk Science Moment: Weighing lead paint renovation health risks

Since joining the Risk Science Center, I have found myself looking at the world through new eyes – it’s what happens when you introduce an economist to a bunch of really smart scientists!  This has made for interesting dinner conversation at my house and the start of ‘risk science moments,’ where I come across an [...]

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Why We Need to Ban the Word “Safe” from Reports of Risk Research: The Example of Alcohol Use in Pregnancy

June 21, 2012

Yesterday, BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology electronically published in “Early View” 5 articles from a Danish research group, all of which use longitudinal data from 2003-2008 to consider the relationship (or lack thereof) between maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy and various outcomes (executive function, intelligence, attention) in these mothers’ children at 5 [...]

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The Myth of the Bicycle Helmet

June 14, 2012

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. H. L. Mencken “Be careful!”  “Walk gently!”  “Try not to get hurt!” Don’t worry; I am talking to myself, not to you.  I am warning myself before I take the leap into a realm of challenging a truism.  In a recent [...]

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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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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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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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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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Planned Parenthood (lowercase): The Cure for Poverty

February 4, 2012

“There is a cure for poverty.  It is a rudimentary one, it does work, though.  It works everywhere, and for the same reason.  It’s colloquially called ‘the empowerment of women.’  It’s the only thing that does work.  If you allow women control over their cycle of reproduction, so that they are not chained by their [...]

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Going to Pot: A dangerous concoction of science journals, media and publicity

January 13, 2012

Since the cold of the winter months have come upon us once again (Every year?), I have been inundated with the second-hand marijuana smoke of my neighbor.  Let me try to explain.  The house where I live has a forced-air central heating system through which all of the apartments are connected.  I have returned to [...]

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The Quiet Emergency of Hazardous Medical Waste in Developing Countries

December 24, 2011

This past semester, I set my second year Masters of Public Health students a deceptively simple task: Write an opinion piece for a lay audience on a topic related to environmental health sciences and public health.  Deceptive, as anyone who has attempted to write an op ed will tell you, it’s fiendishly difficult to find [...]

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Other People’s Children – How Scientific Illiteracy and Political Maneuvering are Hurting the Globe, Public Health, and You

December 24, 2011

This past semester, I set my second year Masters of Public Health students a deceptively simple task: Write an opinion piece for a lay audience on a topic related to environmental health sciences and public health.  Deceptive, as anyone who has attempted to write an op ed will tell you, it’s fiendishly difficult to find [...]

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The Gucci Apple

December 22, 2011

This past semester, I set my second year Masters of Public Health students a deceptively simple task: Write an opinion piece for a lay audience on a topic related to environmental health sciences and public health.  Deceptive, as anyone who has attempted to write an op ed will tell you, it’s fiendishly difficult to find [...]

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E-waste: Haunting Health from the Dead

December 22, 2011

This past semester, I set my second year Masters of Public Health students a deceptively simple task: Write an opinion piece for a lay audience on a topic related to environmental health sciences and public health.  Deceptive, as anyone who has attempted to write an op ed will tell you, it’s fiendishly difficult to find [...]

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I’ll have a life when I….

December 21, 2011

This past semester, I set my second year Masters of Public Health students a deceptively simple task: Write an opinion piece for a lay audience on a topic related to environmental health sciences and public health.  Deceptive, as anyone who has attempted to write an op ed will tell you, it’s fiendishly difficult to find [...]

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