In the Chamber of Risks: Understanding Risk Controversies Paperback - 2001

Through a new set of detailed case studies William Leiss shows that while industry and governments have made much progress in responsibly managing risks to health and environment, they generally remain quite poor at managing their involvements with risk issues, that is, with the often intense controversies about the way in which risks should be managed. This organizational risk, associated with misunderstanding the nature of risk management issues, can have damaging consequences, something that remains poorly appreciated.

The essential problem is the failure to recognize that controversies over risks are "normal events" in modern society and as such will be with us for the foreseeable future. Three key propositions define these events: risk management decisions are inherently disputable; public perceptions of risk are legitimate and should be treated as such; the public needs to be intensively involved in the processes of risk evaluation and management. Leiss and his collaborators chronicle these organizational risks in a set of detailed case studies on genetically modified foods, cellular telephones, the notorious fuel additive MMT, pulp mill effluent, nuclear power, toxic substances legislation, tobacco, and the new type of "moral risks" associated with genetics technologies such as cloning.

Contributors include Debora L. Van Nijnatten (Sir Wilfred Laurier University), Michael D. Mehta (University of Saskatchewan), Stephen Hill (University of Calgary), ric Darier (Greenpeace), Greg Paoli (Decisionalysis Risk Consultants, Inc.), and Peter V. Hodson (Queen's University).