Category Archives: Risk

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment Methodologies Part 2: Understanding “Acceptable Risk”

Posted on February 7, 2015 by Blair

In my last post I wrote about the basic concepts of toxicology including dose/response relationships and the concept of a de minimis risk. Today I am going to expand on that concept by discussing what represents an “acceptable risk” in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Risk Assessment Methodologies | 8 Comments

Risk Assessment Methodologies Part 1: Understanding de minimis risk

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Blair

In my last post I talked about big numbers and how they can cause confusion in the minds of the media and the public. In this post I want to discuss the other side of the coin: extremely small numbers … Continue reading →

Posted in Risk Assessment Methodologies | 14 Comments

How Big and Small Numbers Influence Science Communication: Understanding Fuel Spill Volumes

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Blair

This weekend I got a tweet from a friend who wanted everyone on her twitter list to be deeply concerned about the remaining oil from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (more on that later). In reading … Continue reading →

Posted in Oil Sands, Pipelines, Risk Assessment Methodologies | 7 Comments

On Science Communication and the Difficulty Relaying Scientific Information to the Public

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Blair

This blog posting is a reminder about the difficulties communicating good science both in the media and to our fellow scientists and how challenging it is to communicate to both audiences simultaneously. This blog posting is derived from a three-way … Continue reading →

Posted in Risk, Risk Communication | 3 Comments