Category Archives: Risk

Risk Assessment

On scare reporting of science and the risk of eating red meat

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Blair

My twitter feed went insane this morning following a news release from The Lancet about an article titled Carcinogenicity of consumption of red and processed meat. For anyone interested in toxicology, human health risk assessment or simply regular readers of … Continue reading →

Posted in Risk, Risk Communication | 3 Comments

On Wi-Fi, Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity and the Nocebo Effect

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Blair

One of my fears when I wrote my previous post about Wi-Fi was that I was opening a Pandora’s Box on the whole field of electromagnetic fields and health. As I expected, shortly after I posted that blog a number … Continue reading →

Posted in Wi-Fi | Leave a comment

On Wi-Fi in Schools and the Precautionary Principle

Posted on September 3, 2015 by Blair

I knew this day was coming. I wasn’t sure when, but I knew that at some point as a promoter of evidence-based decision-making I would have to take on the topic of Wi-Fi in schools at this blog. Well the … Continue reading →

Posted in Wi-Fi | 4 Comments

More on that "Toxic Benzene Plume"

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Blair

Today’s blog post is intended to provide some further commentary on the “toxic benzene plume” from my previous blog post: Questions about the City of Vancouver May 27th Trans-Mountain Expansion Proposal Summary of Evidence. As readers of my blog know, … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Environmentalism and Ecomodernism, Risk | 2 Comments

Questions about the City of Vancouver May 27th Trans-Mountain Expansion Proposal Summary of Evidence

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Blair

Yesterday my twitter feed was stuffed with multiple re-tweets of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Proposal (TMEP) Summary of Evidence (SoE) prepared for Vancouver City Council 27 May 2015 (ref). I was first directed to the document by Jeff Lee … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, General Politics, Risk, Trans Mountain, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

On the “conspiracy” to force people to remain connected to sanitary and sewer systems

Posted on May 26, 2015 by Blair

The topic for tonight’s blog arrived on my radar because of the story of a Florida woman who went to court in an attempt to legally get herself off the grid (ref and ref). Her story created a pretty significant … Continue reading →

Posted in Canadian Politics, Risk, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

More on Gypsy Moth Spraying: Bioaerosols and Medical Symptomatology

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Blair

 I had really hoped that after my first and then second posts on gypsy moth spraying that I could get off the topic and move on to more interesting discussions, but the topic is like the bad guy in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Gypsy Moth | 3 Comments

More on Gypsy Moth spraying: Toxicity redux

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Blair

 Much as I expected, my post on “the nocebo effect” and spraying for gypsy moths” drew a whirlwind of criticism on Twitter and in my email inbox. The major concern had to do with the fact that in my post … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemistry and Toxicology, Gypsy Moth | 1 Comment

On "the nocebo effect" and spraying for gypsy moths

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Blair

This week my inbox has been flooded by emails about the decision by our Ministry of the Environment to spray for gypsy moths in parts of Surrey and Delta. For those of you outside the British Columbia lower mainland you … Continue reading →

Posted in Gypsy Moth | 3 Comments

Risk Assessment Methodologies Part 3: the Risk Assessment Process

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Blair

Over the course of the last few posts I have discussed components of the risk assessment process. As I’ve discussed, the process of conducting a formalized risk assessment is long-established as scientists have been doing them for years and have … Continue reading →

Posted in Risk Assessment Methodologies | 5 Comments