Source: RISK newsletter,
Fourth Quarter 1996, published by the Society for Risk Analysis
Chicago Regional Chapter and the Argonne National Laboratory's Office of the General Manager for Environmental Sciences cosponsored a seminar held November 7 on "The Presidential/Congressional Risk Commission's Comprehensive New Risk Management Framework for Environmental Regulatory Agencies." Gilbert S. Omenn of the University of Washington's School of Public Health and Community Medicine, who chairs the Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management, spoke. The chapter's Web site is located at http://www.ead.anl.gov/~web/sra/index.html.
East Tennessee Chapter, with local chapters of the American Nuclear Society, the Health Physics Society, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the [city of] Oak Ridge League of Women Voters, cosponsored a dinner meeting in September that featured guest speaker Warren K. Sinclair, president emeritus of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. He summarized the papers presented at the council's recent annual meeting, focusing his talk on dose-response relationships and the relevance of the linear hypothesis at low dosages. The chapter's Web site is located at http://stargate.ornl.gov/stargate/sra/etsrc.html.
Lone Star Chapter held its third quarterly meeting on September 26th in Austin, Texas. Paul F. Deisler Jr., SRA fellow, Advisory Board chair, and past president, spoke on "Comparative Risk Ranking: Lessons Learned, New Developments." The chapter is planning a meeting for mid-November in San Antonio.
Metropolitan (Connecticut–New Jersey–New York) Chapter cosponsored a symposium last April on "Emerging Microbial Threats: Public Policy Implications" (see Metropolitan Chapter, U.S. Chapter News, RISK newsletter, Second Quarter 1996) that is now available on audio-visual tapes. The speakers included Joshua Lederburg, Stephen S. Morse, and Alexander Tomasz of Rockefeller University; Laurie Garrett, health and science writer for Newsday and New York Newsday; Dr. Mitchell L. Cohen of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia; and Marcelle Layton of the New York City Department of Health. To order the tapes at a cost of $50.00 for chapter members and $100.00 for non-members, contact the chapter's Past President Miriam de Salegui, who organized the symposium, at telephone (212) 749-7961.
Michigan Chapter held a workshop in August on "The Internet: A Tool for Risk Analysts." Thomas Wackerman of Applied Science & Technology Inc. provided extensive, hands-on assistance for navigating Internet systems and supplied participants with references for risk information. To inquire about his course on the Internet, contact him by e-mail twacker@cheml.eng.wayne.edu or by telephone (313) 426-1200. The chapter secretary is accepting nominations for the election of new officers.
New England Chapter kicked off its 1996-97 monthly seminar series in September with Paul Weathersby, a private consultant, presenting "A Case Study of a Success with Quantitative Risk Management: Diver Decompression Systems" and Gale Hoffnagle of TRC Inc., who spoke on "EPA's New Regulations on Accidental Releases: Bhopal, Not Here!" In October, Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management member Norman Anderson of the American Lung Association presented "An Outsider's Inside View from the Risk Assessment and Risk Management Commission: Process and Outcome," and Ruth Bleyler of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region I, spoke on "The Risk Report: A View from the Trenches of EPA Risk Characterization." The seminar series allows working risk assessors to present projects that are either in progress or recently completed and to get feedback from a larger community of professionals, says Dale B. Hattis of Clark University, the chapter's president for a second term. Lorenz R. Rhomberg of the Center for Risk Analysis at Harvard School of Public Health is the new president-elect.
Philadelphia Chapter will sponsor three dinner meetings during its 1996-97 program year. At the meeting on December 3, Linda S. Erdreich of Bailey Research Associates Inc. in New York City will speak on "New EPA Carcinogen Risk Assessment Guidelines: How Much of a Difference Will They Make?" The remaining meetings will focus on new directions in environmental regulation and on the risks, legal and otherwise, of silicone breast implants. Research Triangle Chapter and Duke University are cosponsoring a conference on "Risk in the Republic: Comparative Risk Analysis and Public Policy," to be held November 15-16 in Durham, North Carolina, that combines the university's Second Annual Cummings Colloquium on Environmental Law with the chapter's 1996 Annual Workshop. SRA Councilor Gail Charnley of the Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management will give the opening address, and U.S. Department of Energy Under Secretary Thomas Grumbly, will give the keynote address. Featured speakers will include SRA President John Graham of Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and former SRA presidents Lester Lave of Carnegie Mellon University and Robert Tardiff of EA Engineering, Science, and Technology Inc. More information is available on the chapter's new World Wide Web site at http://www4.ncsu.edu/~frey/www/rtcsra.html. When the chapter met in August, George Christakos of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill spoke on the "The Role of Stochastic Indicators in Site Characterization, Risk Assessment, and Remediation Analysis"; and in October, Kenneth Rudo of the North Carolina Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources spoke on "Hog Farms and Public Health." The chapter is presenting its first Student Travel Award for an outstanding graduate student from a Research Triangle-area university to attend the SRA Annual Meeting and to present a paper.
Southern California Chapter plans to organize or
cosponsor three technical workshops, four dinner meetings, and an
annual workshop during its 1996-97 program year. In September,
the chapter assisted the California Office of Emergency Services
by supplying six speakers at a four-day training course for
California Administering Agencies on a new state program that
combines California's Risk Management and Prevention Program with
the federal Risk Management Plan. The chapter's dinner meeting in
September featured Linda Meadow of the Los Angeles Metropolitan
Transit Authority, who spoke on "Risk and Prioritizing
Resolution of Rail Grade Crossing Hazards." On December 14,
the chapter will hold a risk management workshop at the
University of California in Los Angeles. The chapter's Web site
is located at http://members.aol.com/scsra/index.html.
To contact SRA's U.S. chapters, see the current list of U.S. Chapter
Contacts (which was not published in this newsletter issue
due to space restrictions).