Source: RISK newsletter,
First Quarter 1996, published by the Society for Risk Analysis
The Society for Risk Analysis specialty groups met during the 1995 SRA Annual Meeting in Hawaii, during which they made the following plans for the 1996 Annual Meeting:
The Dose Response Specialty Group would like to receive a variety of topics and proposals for 1996 Annual Meeting symposia, technical sessions, and poster sessions to consider in addition to the topics they have already proposed, including time as the forgotten dimension in risk assessment, selecting the best dose-response model, dose response and epidemiology, practical procedural approaches to conducting dose-response assessments in risk assessment, biological basis of carcinogenicity, communicating dose response to engineers and other non-biologists, uncertainty in dose-response assessment, and dose-response databases. Contribute suggestions to Scott R. Baker.
The Ecological Risk Assessment Specialty Group is considering two topics--comparative risk analysis and ecosystem sustainability--as possible session titles for the 1996 Annual Meeting. They are also interested in developing sessions on local issues in the New Orleans area, such as ecological risk assessment projects along the Gulf Coast or in the southeastern United States. Their other ideas for topics include valuation, competing for resource dollars, how to use both human health and ecological risk assessment in overall assessments of sites, cost-benefit analysis, and assessment and measurement endpoints. To suggest other topics, contact William (Bill) Alsop of ChemRisk in California by e-mail bill_alsop@mclrnhrt.uucp.netcom.com, telephone (510) 748-5657, or fax (510) 521-1547.
The Engineering Specialty Group wants to help promote the interdisciplinary nature of SRA by strengthening its own contributions. As a first step, it will solicit engineering articles for the journal and work with other groups to present interdisciplinary papers at the next annual meeting. Ideas should be sent to Robert J. Mulvihill.
The Exposure Assessment Specialty Group is developing themes for the exposure assessment sessions at SRA's joint annual meeting with the International Society of Exposure Assessment in New Orleans. Session topics under consideration include activity patterns, air pollution, biological contaminants, biomarkers of exposure, environmental epidemiology, communication of exposure variability and uncertainty, dermal uptake, exposure modeling, food-chain exposures, hazardous waste and toxic chemicals, metals, monitoring and surveillance, Monte Carlo methods, pesticides, regulatory issues, water contamination, indoor air exposures, and exposures to household and consumer products. For more information, contact John C. Kissel of the University of Washington by e-mail jkissel@dehpost.sphcm.washington.edu, telephone (206) 543-5111, or fax (206) 543-8123.
The Risk Communication Specialty Group is interested in
organizing symposia with other specialty groups for the 1996 SRA
Annual Meeting. The group has discussed possible symposium
topics, such as identifying and dealing with ethical and moral
value conflicts in risk communication and lowering barriers to
openness in institutional communication. Richard Rich of the
University Center for Environmental and Hazardous Materials
Studies in Virginia is accepting additional suggestions from
potential symposia organizers and participants by e-mail
urban@vt.edu, telephone (540) 231-5323, or fax (540) 231-3860. In
addition, the group is accepting volunteers for pre-annual
meeting risk communication workshop instructors and suggestions
for workshop topics, such as a basic introduction to a technique
for dealing with the media, designing questionnaires, or
organizing effective focus groups. For interaction about the
workshop, contact Steven Lewis of Exxon Biomedical Sciences Inc.
in New Jersey by telephone (908) 873-6063 or fax (908) 873-6009.