Risk communication: Dioxin and municipal waste combustion
- Risk Communication International, Bethesda, MD (United States)
September 1994, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its long awaited dioxin reassessment report. The findings expressed in this report have increased public concern about dioxin emissions from municipal waste combustion (MWC). This concern can jeopardize continued implementation of this solid waste management option. To meet today`s environmental challenge, MWC owners/operators must develop an effective communication strategy for addressing public concerns about perceived health and environmental threats associated with dioxin emissions. The focus will depend upon the concerns of specific communities: a public health concern, apprehension about personal risks, or public indignation with corporate activities. Differences in the basis of concern must be addressed if a communication strategy is to have some impact on community actions. Public reactions to the results presented in EPA`s dioxin reassessment report likely will be a concern about personal risks associated with dioxin/furan emissions. A communication strategy should provide information about the several problems associated with EPA`s findings. Criticisms expressed by the scientific community and the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) can be presented as evidence that the EPA conclusions lack scientific credibility. Communities need to understand the assumption used by EPA in its exposure assessment and the exaggerated exposure conditions represented by EPA`s findings about dioxin emissions.
- OSTI ID:
- 495333
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9504119--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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