Arsenic and Plague: An Analysis of Communicating Risks in India. Arvid S. Susarla, School of Geography, Clark University, 950 Main St., Worcester, MA 01610
Societal response to hazard events is perplexing. While policies and decision-makers in most countries equate public concern and response to hazard events with the associated potential for injuries and deaths; hazard researchers have suggested social properties (for e.g. fear, blame) that are linked to the human experience of risk, responses of the hazard management organizations, and the role of media as additional factors to explain how certain hazard events produce intense societal reactions while many others remain dormant. Applying Social Amplification of risk model (Kasperson, R.E. et al.,Risk Analysis. 8(2):166-186) this paper discusses, in India, how the flow of messages or "signals" from newspapers, initiatives of hazard management organizations, and the nature of the hazard coalesce to shape public concern and response to hazard events. Two hazard events -- pneumonic plague in Surat city in 1994 and arsenic pollution of ground water in West Bengal -- are examined to judge the societal processing of risk signals that amplify and attenuate risk and risk consequences respectively. By employing both qualitative and quantitative methods, the content of local newspaper articles, interviews with key personnel, and information from secondary sources have been analyzed to develop an interpretation on societal amplification and attenuation of risk. The results contribute to derive policy implications for risk communication in the settings of India.
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