Educating the Public

Raising public awareness of solutions and problems associated with science and technology also becomes more pressing as engineering artefacts pervade more and more into our daily lives. A fine example of this linked into the recent European Union directive on managing waste associated with electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE). The legal aspects of this directive are profound making manufacturers responsible for the eventual disposal of 

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Although government officials attempted to educate the public and military personnel about atomic civil defense, in retrospect these efforts seem hopelessly naive if not intentionally misleading. Army training films advised soldiers to keep their mouths closed while obser"ving atomic test blasts in order to not inhale radioactive flying dirt. Civil defense films used a friendly animated turtle to teach schoolchildren to duck and cover during a nuclear attack—that is, duck under their desks and cover their heads. Such measures, of course, would have offered pitiful protection to those in the blast zone. 

Similarly, the use of Irish moss extract, as the suspending agent in chocolate milk, has, through the additional thickening of the drink, educated the public to expect and to enjoy a more viscous type of chocolate-flavored dairy drink. Consequently, should a method be devised to stabilize the drink properly without increasing its viscosity, it is probable that it would be considered insufficiently rich and deemed unpalatable. 

The problems of educating the public in such matters are many and diverse. It will require not only the support of medical people but that of all individuals who have a social conscience. The interest and sincere efforts of all scientific workers are needed to simplify and hasten this much needed program of public education. 

On behalf of an MCS task force, I testified before the legislature here in Santa Fe and helped to raise funds for an MCS awareness program. It is imperative to educate the public about this condition. Helping to make that happen feeds me on an emotional and spiritual level. 

There are also potential complications that can occur because of proactive consumer information. In these cases, information that is intended to educate the public may also have unintended signal value, suggesting the existence of previously undisclosed or underestimated hazards. Indeed, information that is intended to restore consumer trust may actually raise... 

There has been much debate about several aspects of additives. Their safety has been questioned, often as a result of much-publicised reports of adverse reactions. Indeed the need for additives has been questioned. The chemical nature of additives has also led to debate. Some members of the public in this and probably several other countries firmly believe that additives are a bad thing . This book touches on these topics, but it does not and cannot give definitive answers. Perhaps the shortage of books about this scientific work has contributed to public distrust. But it is not the purpose of this work in some way to re-educate the public. That would be both arrogant and trying to turn back history The purpose of this volume is to demonstrate that there is considerable scientific work to enable the effective protection of consumers safety. 

However, society likes to have decisions made in a black and white manner and to know whether something is there or not. This situation suggests that the analytical error should drop to zero. While this result is the goal of all analytical work, it is simply not realistic. Our basic need, then, is to simplify error determinations and explanations and to educate the public both for the reasons and for the interpretations of error. The goal of this volume is to further the use of mathematical and statistical tools—the field of chemometrics—for chemical and, specifically, trace chemical analyses of pesticides and environmental contaminants. 

Professor Richard Wilson of Harvard University and an associate, Edmund Crouch, among others, have devoted considerable effort to collecting and analyzing risk information on activities commonly engaged in and exposures commonly incurred. This type of information can be used effectively to both educate the public about risk in general and to assist risk managers efforts to explain specific risk decisions. 

Source Crouch and Wilson as cited by Slovic, P., 1986. Informing and educating the public about risk. Risk Analysis. 6, 403 15. 

While editorials criticized our secrecy, we failed to respond and did little to educate the public. Few government officials were inclined to offer effective rebuttals to the critics. Most of the media, suspicious of all things military, were... 

To educate the public on the advantages and disadvantages using biofuels in households. 

Perhaps scientists need to educate the public that it is impossible to have a perfect instrument. If zero false negatives are required for a detector, then there must be some amount of false positive responses. This does not mean that science has failed risk is inherent in everything. 

As many as 10% of children have a medication-responsive psychiatric disorder (Riddle et ah, 1998) and there has been a dramatic increase in the use of psychotropic medication to treat mental disorders in youth (Rappley et ah, 1999). Multiple factors account for this increase, including scientific advances in fields such as epidemiology, nosology, neuroscience, drug development, and clinical measurements, and efforts to educate the public about the benefits of early, effective treatment. Despite large gaps between research and practice, many medications are used in children on the basis of a small amount of scientific data. Factors that contribute to this situation are societal desires for rapid, effective treatment, acceptance of medication as a therapeutic modality, and a reimbursement climate in which there is increased pressure for brief treatment. Clearly there is a need to balance clinical and administrative pressures with a resort to treatment based on the best available data. 

On the basis of their solubility and polarity, vitamins are divided into two categories the water-soluble and the fat-soluble vitamins. The former cannot be stored in any biocompartment and must be ingested regularly. In that context, it is important to caution about the many and periodically recurring fads and myths embraced by the lay public and press. Since vitamins are widely known but misunderstood, there is a need to educate the public about their misuse, as well as in other areas of pseudoscientific misunderstanding. 

Based on the information in the chart, what would be the most effective area for the fire department to concentrate its efforts to educate the public to reduce the total number of automatic fire alarms ... 

Seeks to educate the public about the effects of intellectual property laws on the availability of health care and prescriptions drugs. 

The FDA receives and reviews about 300 medication error reports each month and classifies them to determine the cause and type of error. Depending on the findings, the FDA can change the way it labels, names, or packages a drug product. In addition, once a problem is discovered, the FDA educates the public on an ongoing basis to prevent repeat errors. 

I still thought that most media people were acting in good faith to educate the public, so I decided to try to write papers for j oumals serving the journalism profession, like the Columbia Journalism Review, explaining how they were misinforming the public about nuclear power. I submitted two such papers to three such j oumals in turn. Neither was published. One-sentence letters of rejection, with no explanation, arrived within a few days. 

The media never made an effort to educate the public on quantitative risk estimates and use these to put nuclear risks into perspective. I published papers on catalogs of risks,10 and used them constantly in public presentations and interviews with reporters. These are easily understandable to anyone, butthey were never transmitted by the media. 

Although society tolerates this sleep is for sissies attitude, scientists and medical professionals are trying hard to educate the public that chronic sleep loss is a serious health issue. It may seem like just some heavy eyelids during class here and a yawn there, but sleep deprivation is indeed very dangerous. Not only does it cause us to be irritable and less tolerant (and perhaps less pleasant to be around), but it also hampers our creative and analytical thinking, physical performance (we run and swim better and lift more weight when we are well-rested), and often leads to health problems like increased susceptibility to colds and infections. 

Recommendation 4-4. The Army should make a greater effort to educate the public about possible disposal processes, as well as the relative risk of continued stockpile storage versus disposal. Army officials responsible for the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program, in close coordination with the... 

To educate the public on the importance of sleep, and to advocate social change in educational and professional situations where sleep deprivation is currently the norm. 

National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture www.sustainableagriculture.net This campaign educates the public on the importance of a sustainable food and agricultural system that is economically viable, environmentally sound, socially just, and humane. Get on their action alert list to get involved. 

Fighting drugs is big business. Federal, state, and local governments spend billions of dollars each year in efforts to patrol borders, arrest and punish users and dealers, research the effects of drugs and ways to educate the public about the hazards of drugs, treat addicts, and care for addicts and their children. 2... 

Second, a facility may have to reach out to a community to share publicly available information on its operations and the associated storage and use of hazardous materials and their risks. The importance of this information is related to land use patterns and the potential for off-site risk. If a facility is remotely situated and the off-site hazards are minimal, then there is less need to inform the public. However, if a facility s property lines border directly on densely populated residential areas and there is significant off-site risk, then the need to share information is great. The facility must educate the public about the risks and associated emergency response procedures, including equipment and techniques for notification, as well as actions they should take to protect themselves. 

Facilitate the effective representation of Educate the public, policy makers, pharmacists on professional, educational, legislative, and regulatory issues through analysis, interpretation, and exchanges of views on relevant issues. 

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