Communication of Epidemiologic Information: A Case Study Review. Susan L. Santos, Tufts University and FOCUS GROUP, 29 Welgate Road, Medford, MA 02155; and Anne Chebot, Tufts University - Center for Environmental Management, 177 College Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
Over the last number of years, much of the interest and practice of risk communication has focused on explaining health risk information primarily derived from risk assessment information. More recently, the proposed risk legislation has focused the debate on improving the science of Risk Assessment and the comparison of relative ranking of risks. There is an increasing public concern over the potential health effects of individuals and communities living in proximity to waste sites nationwide, and an increasing dissatisfaction with risk assessments as a primary decision-making tool for managing clean-up of these waste sites. The demand for more health studies in the form of environmental epidemiology investigations is being thrust upon the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) along with other federal agencies such as the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Energy (DOE), as well as state agencies. However, the results of these studies tend to leave communities confused and frustrated as to what the results mean. To date, not much attention has been focused on the role that risk communication can play as an integral component of epidemiologic studies. This paper describes the results of two case studies: the Greater New Bedford Health Effects Study and the Upper Cape Cod Cancer Incidence Study. Specifically, this paper explores the extent to which researchers and agencies have employed risk communication processes for community health studies and how more structured and systematic risk communication as part of the overall study design could improve the process and the production of these studies.