Risk Communication: A Handbook For Communicating Environmental, Safety, And Health Risks

Rating:
Summary: No Risk in Buying THIS Book!
Review: No Risk In Buying This Book!

I've been in the Environmental Risk Communication (RC) field for ten years, medicine for thirty. Often I've wished there was a text or overview of RC that was readable by professional and layperson alike. Little did I know: Regina Lundgren and Andrea McMakin have accomplished this, and the results are a resounding "Wow!" In the Third Edition of "Risk Communication, A Handbook for Communicating Environmental, Safety, and Health Risks" (Regina started with the first one; Andrea joined in for the latter two), they present an orderly, comprehensive, understandable, well-referenced, indexed, annotated and glossaried RC bible for anyone just launching into or well-ensconced in the field.

I've often said that RC can be used not only in the "classic" situations (nicely defined alliteratively in this book as "care, crisis and consensus"), but also in one-on-one domestic and professional settings. This book presents information and advice useful to and usable by just about any reader, as one would expect from a work by two communicators. There are numerous examples, case studies, tables, graphs, charts and margin key points (noted with a diamond) that go along with the very readable text (written at the appropriate level, of course). One moves from cover to cover with the ease of reading a novel, the steps to well-executed RC clearly and comprehensively (yet with remarkable simplicity) delineated. There is a start, a middle and an ending, and one feels as though the next natural step is to go out and try the recipe immediately. (I would not suggest, however, that this is a cookbook, only that it reads as easily and the results could be rewarding.)

I suspect many have and many more will hone their skills as this fine work becomes more familiar to those in the rapidly growing, essential and dynamic field of Risk Communication. There is "no risk in buying this book!" I highly recommend it and urge it on anyone who has dealt or will deal with environmental, safety and health "wicked problems" involving concerned stakeholders. That sigh of relief you hear is you, as you find solutions to---or at least direction toward---the challenges you face.


Rating:
Summary: Essential handbook for those communicating risks
Review: Straightforward and well-designed, this 400+ page book tells you how to explain risks to your workers, your stakeholders, and the public effectively. This book gives you the information you need to understand, plan, start, finish, and evaluate your plan to communicate environmental, safety, or health risks.

This guide, which is based on extensive research in the field, is filled with clear visuals and valuable checklists. The examples pulled from the authors' experiences reinforce the messages, often with a touch of humor and grace. For example, never give a presentation during moose hunting season.

A new chapter devoted to communicating in emergenices, such as bioterrorist attacks, provides valuable research and guidelines for building the infrastructure you need NOW, before the emergency, as well as what to do during and after the emergency.

If your job involves communicating risks, you'll want to read this book.