Earlier (2008 and before) Listings

Lessons from the Westland beef recall

March 9

Vaccination and autism: Responding to the Hannah Poling case

February 29

You can’t hector people into pandemic preparedness

February 21

Alberta’s oil royalty: The industry’s risk communication mistakes

February 17

NIMBY

January 19

Honesty as strategy

January 15

Who's Irrational? When People “Ignore” Risk Data

2007

December 18

What can you say when you want to work with groups that detest each other?

December 17

Managing outrage about the release of a convicted rapist

December 16

Helping drinking water systems talk about serious and not-so-serious violations

December 15

New comments Measuring public versus expert risk perceptions and outrage

How morale affects safety
The movie “Awake” – and talking to people about anesthetic awareness

December 5

Landlord-tenant relations and indoor air quality controversies

December 1

Outrage about depleted uranium

Origins of the risk communication seesaw principle

November 9

New Pandemic Flu Preparedness Columns

“Watch Out!” – How to Warn Apathetic People

October 21

Read “FAFfing About” if you need some motivation
The bird flu / pandemic flu confusion
Whose pandemic fatigue?
Why talk now: The case for communicating with employees before the pandemic arrives
Corporate pandemic precaution advocacy: The time is now

October 1

Does taking the thimerosal out of vaccines reassure people or scare them?

September 29

Two new Peter M. Sandman in the News

Working with inexperienced regulators

September 13

Climate Risk Communication: TreeHugging Amidst The Outrage Industries, By John Laumer
Posted on the www.treehugger.com website, September 12, 2007.

Sandman says, By Clay Boswell
Published in ICIS Chemical Business, and on its website, September 3, 2007.

September 12

Indoor Air Quality Risk Communication: Before You Fix Anything, Talk!

September 6

(1) What’s unique about pandemic communication? (2) What’s new in risk communication?

September 5

Where do “risk tolerance” and “risk appetite” fit in risk management and risk communication?

September 4

Role of leadership in homeland security crisis communication

August 31

New Pandemic Flu Preparedness Columns

Panflu risk communication to foreign-born populations

August 25

New handouts

Precaution Advocacy Messaging Strategy: The GAAMM Model

“Watch Out!”: Precaution Advocacy Fundamentals

August 18

New articles

Understanding the Risk: What Frightens Rarely Kills
Published in Nieman Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, Spring 2007 (edited transcript of a conference on pandemic media coverage)

Risk Perception, Risk Communication, and Risk Reporting: The Role of Each in Pandemic Preparedness
Originally presented at a conference on “Avian Flu, a Pandemic & the Role of Journalists,” Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, December 1, 2006

Understanding Human Responses [to pandemic risk]: Communication Focus
Panel discussion with Howard Koh, Glen Nowak, and Dick Thompson, at a conference on “Avian Flu, a Pandemic & the Role of Journalists,” Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, December 2, 2006

August 15

What kind of risk communication does pandemic preparedness require?
Start thinking in phases – risk communication phases
Riding the many pandemic seesaws
Seesaw your way through ambivalence
Talking about a flu pandemic worst case scenario

August 14

Tamiflu redux

Empathy in risk communication

August 10

Elvin Semrad, humanistic psychotherapy, and risk communication

Fischhoff’s seven stages of risk communication

August 2

Searching my site

July 30

Empathy in Risk Communication

July 14

Asking people to wait in line for medicine in a crisis

MRSA “superbug” risk communication

July 11

What’s unique about “counterterror risk communication”?

June 28

Christine Todd Whitman’s defense of EPA re: post-9/11 air quality

Delay in cancer information tarnishes state Health Department image, By Lorna Benson
Broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio, June 22, 2007 (transcript)

If the Unexpected Happens ... Who You Gonna Call? Crisis Busters, By Vanessa Burrow
Published in The Age, “Business Day,” June 16, 2007, pp. 1, 6.

June 18

Managing Outrage and Crises: Dealing with Risk by Understanding Your Audience, By Cliona Reeves
Published in Food Technology News (Guelph Food Technology Centre), June 2007.

June 6

New Pandemic Flu Preparedness Columns

A severe pandemic is not overdue – it’s not when but if

“Might help a lot, might help a little, might not help at all – and worth trying!”

The four faces of bird flu

Physician survey shows mixed views on pandemic risk, By Lisa Schnirring
Posted on the website of CIDRAP News (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota), June 6, 2007.

Presenting to Boards of Directors

When a regulator is making “impossible” demands

May 28

Health department policies on releasing information

May 16

New Pandemic Flu Preparedness Columns

Melamine risk communication: acknowledgment and anticipatory guidance

May 7

New columns

The Boss’s Outrage (Part II): Talking with Top Management about Risk Communication

The Boss’s Outrage (Part III): Managing Management’s Outrage at Outrage Management

April 10

Get Your Slice of the ‘Fearfulness’ Pie
Scaring People Is Scary
How’s Your Business Discontinuity Program?

April 7

Updated curriculum vitae page 1, page 2, and page 3.

April 1

Corporate Tamiflu stockpiling

Updated curriculum vitae page 4.

March 15

What to Say When a Pandemic Looks Imminent: Messaging for WHO Phases Four and Five
By Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard

How much risk do you live with? By Chad Skelton
Published in the Vancouver Sun, March 9, 2007.

February 15

Are empathy and compassion really what matters in mid-emergency?

February 8

What do I think about the controversy in the pandemic prep community about my role and my integrity?

Why do I want the government to control all the Tamiflu? (I don’t.)

February 4

Why is this such an old-fashioned website?

January 29

Risk Communication for Salmon Aquaculture, By Vivian Krause
Submitted to the Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture, Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, November 24, 2006.

Pandemic preparedness and the poor: Are we urging people to do more than they can?

Is a flu pandemic likely to raise issues of social stigma? How can risk communication help with stigma?

January 20

When Worlds Collide: During Crises, Sandman Says, Politics and Government Are Separate Spheres By Alan Crawford
Published in Impact (Public Affairs Council), January 2007.

Is it good or bad risk communication to warn Asian students that they are at “high risk” of contracting bird flu from food?

January 11

Risk communication and outdoor education

January 7

Two One-Day Seminars Listed

The Boss’s Outrage (Part I): Talking with Top Management about Safety

Open to the Public
Toronto, Ontario March 6–7, 2007

2006

December 12

Giving Away the Credit: Managing Risk Controversies by Claiming You’re Responsive (though maybe not responsible)

December 11

Asbestos Risk Politics By Dave Johnson
Published in ISHN Ezine (Industrial Safety & Hygiene News), December 4 and December 8, 2006.

December 7

Talking about animal culls

November 30

Risk communication and the legitimacy of counterterrorism

Internet rumours of bird flu case in Rimouski, Que., are ‘totally untrue,’ By Helen Branswell
Distributed by Canadian Press, November 29, 2006.

Translated articles

Published by the International Atomic Energy Agency in its IAEA Bulletin, “Tell It Like It Is: Seven Lessons from TMI” is now available in six languages

November 26

Traducciones en Español:

November 24

The role of outrage in regulatory reform
Lessons of the O.J. Simpson/Rupert Murdoch/Judith Regan controversy
Defining risk: Why not include benefits too?
November 18
New article
Globalization, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability
Excerpts from a 2006 “Forum” dialogue sponsored by SustainAbility.

New comment
Why it’s hard to persuade people to add pandemics to the long list of things they’re worried about

October 29
New comments
Risk communication and corporate social responsibility
Pandemic flu good communication example file
Aren’t the outrage factors just aspects of risk perception?
October 22
New comments
Is emergency preparedness getting too much attention?
Risk communication in facility siting controversies
Pandemic flu misinformation “Hall of Shame”

October 10

Putting extremists on a Community Advisory Panel

September 30

Talking about “high-path”" and “low-path” avian fluHow much should we trust what WHO says about pandemic phase?

September 24

Lessons from Ground Zero: Risk Communication, By Dave Johnson
Published in ISHN Ezine (Industrial Safety & Hygiene News), September 21 and September 28, 2006.

September 19

Telling 9/11 emergency responders to wear their masks — and explaining later what went wrong

September 6

Media Sensationalism and Risk: Talking to Stakeholders with Reporters in the Room

The Survivalist: How to Survive a Disaster, By David Shenk
Posted on Slate, September 5, 2006

September 4

How do we “know” if they’re telling us the truth about BSE — or about anything?

August 28

Localized geographical identifiers: How to say “This Means You!”

August 17

Motivating disaster preparedness

What does it mean to “manage” terrorism — and the fear of terrorism?

August 5

End-of-the-world risk communication

July 27

“Speak with One Voice ” — Why I Disagree

Recent H5N1 Outbreaks: The Evolving Challenge of Defining and Communicating Pandemic Risk
Transcript of a June 22, 2006 teleconference

Notes from the Beirut evacuation

July 20

Crisis Communication Best Practices: Some Quibbles and Additions
Published in the Journal of Applied Communication Research, August 2006

Outrage about global warming

July 4

New page

Working Toward a “Legacy”

June 27

Public Health and Risk Communication: A Brief Overview, By Roy Wadia
Presented to a Chinese Government workshop on health and safety for the 2008 Winter Olympics, May 18, 2006

Wearing personal protective equipment around hazardous waste sites: Damned if you do, damned if you don’t

Is mid-crisis consultation possible?

June 20

Talking to poultry consumers about bird flu: How reassuring is too reassuring?

May 29

Bird Flu, Pandemic Flu, and Poultry Markets: Playing Ostrich or Talking Turkey?
By Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard

Master of sorry management
Published in The Australian, May 20, 2006

May 18

“Mild” versus severe pandemics — public health versus emergency response

AWB public relations document sent to Cole Inquiry
Broadcast on ABC Radio, March 24, 2006
Also eight other related articles through May 18, 2006

May 12

Why do people keep smoking?

May 9

Preparing for a severe pandemic

April 25

Talking risk: avian flu advice from a risk communicator
Published in Food Chemical News, March 27, 2006.

Skeptics warn bird flu fears are overblown, By Rebecca Cook Dube
Posted on MSNBC.com, April 20, 2006.

Fake Tamiflu

Activism versus education, sensationalism versus inspiration

April 20

How Safe Is Safe Enough: Sharing the Dilemma

April 16

Talking to wildlife rescuers about their bird flu risk

Measuring pandemic fear, panic, denial, and apathy

April 15

Coming out of the closet about pandemic preparedness

Risk communication seminars

March 21

The Outrage Industries: The Role of Journalists and Activists in Risk Controversies

March 18

The Bird Flu: How Much Fear Is Healthy? By Christine Gorman
Posted on TIME.com, March 15, 2006.

Bird flu’s potential toll warrants alerts, By Jeffrey P. Koplan
Published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 17, 2006.

March 10

Doctor-patient risk communication: persuasion or just the facts?

Just-in-time pandemic preparedness

Message points for a pandemic flu school flyer for parents

More on Tamiflu stockpiling ethics and psychology

Expanded Guestbook Exchange

February 20

Outrage management and school-parent relations
Risk communication versus media relations
Doctor-patient risk communication: persuasion or just the facts?
Outrage about risk to the elderly

February 18

Fear can play role in pandemic readiness, speaker says, By Robert Roos
Published on the website of the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP), University of Minnesota, February 17, 2006

New two-part interview

What Motivates Companies — Interview with Peter M. Sandman (Part 1)
Published in safety AT WORK, December 2005

Worst Case Scenarios, Bird Flu, and Risk Perception — Interview with Peter M. Sandman (Part 2)
Published in safety AT WORK, January 2006

February 9

Announcement: Peter M. Sandman Public Seminars

Surgical masks: Another pandemic risk communication controversy

Crisis Communication: Guidelines for Action, Loma Linda, California

Risk Communication in Scary Times, Orlando, Florida

January 19

Pandemic risk and the U.S. poultry industry

On Not Wanting to Know What Hurts You, By Henry Fountain
Published in The New York Times, January 15, 2006

January 14

Family pandemic preparedness and family pandemic communication

The “outrage factors”

January 10

Staving Off Panic in a Flu Pandemic, By Jon Hamilton
Broadcast on “Morning Edition,” NPR (National Public Radio), January 10, 2006.

January 10

The Dilemma of Personal Tamiflu Stockpiling
By Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard

2005

December 29

Sifting Through Official Speak on Bird Flu, By Jon Hamilton
Broadcast on “Morning Edition,” NPR (National Public Radio), December 28, 2005

December 15

Likelihood of a severe pandemic — the hunger for a number

December 13

Games Risk Communicators Play: Follow-the-Leader, Echo, Donkey, and Seesaw

December 10

Are you a sitting duck for bird flu? By Anita Manning
Published in USA Today, December 6, 2005

December 6

The flu pandemic issue-attention cycle — where does skepticism fit?

December 2

Selling Safety: Business Case or Values Case
Published in The Synergist, December 2005, pp. 30–35.

November 26

Reorganized pandemic flu index

Analogies in risk communication

November 20

New manual chapter

Risk Communications During a Terrorist Attack or Other Public Health Emergency
Published in Terrorism and Other Public Health Emergencies: A Reference Guide for the Media (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2005).

November 12

The Fear Factor: Preparing the public for a major disaster like pandemic flu without inciting panic is tricky. But the truth goes a long way. By Nancy Shute
Published in U.S. News and World Report, November 21, 2005; online November 13, 2005

Talking to a local government official about pandemic flu
Talking to healthcare workers about pandemic risks
November 11
New comment
Trusting in your government’s pandemic planning

November 8
New comments
Flu Wiki
Pandemic preparedness: the individual, the government, and the world of finance
November 6
New comments
The Worst Risks
Stressing non-medical pandemic preparedness (while the feds stress medical preparedness)

November 5

New article and video

Risk Communication Before and During Epidemics

October 26

Risk communication for children

The worst risks

October 22

(1) How do I define “panic”? (2) What about risk communication to emergency responders?
Some flu pandemic adjustment reactions

October 18

Pandemic preparedness — what’s a doctor to do?

October 15

A variant on Risk = Hazard + Outrage

October 12

The ethics of Tamiflu

Inadequacies in Katrina response

October 10

The Flu Pandemic Preparedness Snowball

Corporate emergency response

October 1

Apologizing to employees

Getting Workers to Wear PPE: Communication Is Key, By Jennifer Busick
Published in Safety Compliance Letter, September 2005.

September 24

Myanmar takes note of bird flu

September 13

Managing outrage about healthcare errors

September 8

Katrina: Hurricanes, Catastrophes, and Risk Communication

September 3

Newly posted 1979 book-length government report

Is there an epidemic of fear?

August 22

Report of the Public’s Right to Information Task Force of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island (1.5 MB pdf)

Public Reactions and Teachable Moments

August 18

Giving children frightening bird flu information

August 15

Risk Words You Can’t Use

August 3

Selling a house near mobile telephone towers

July 27

Pandemic Flu and Other Infectious Disease Index

Homeland Security’s color coding as an excuse not to warn people about bird flu

Should you acknowledge the little bit of truth on the other side of an argument?

Updated curriculum vitae

July 12

New Topical Index

Bird Flu: Communicating the Risk
By Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard

When warnings become a scare, By Gregory M. Lamb
Published in the Christian Science Monitor, July 7, 2005

People getting themselves ready for a flu pandemic

July 9

Thimerosal, autism, and misleading toward the truth

July 6

Superb Flu Pandemic Risk Communication: A Role Model from Australia
By Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman

June 24

New follow-on to 2003 article posted

The math behind the U.S. Tamiflu supply

June 17

Sars Communication: What Singapore Is Doing Right:
“WHO Expert Consultation on Outbreak Communications — Singapore's SARS Outbreak Communications”
Speech text on the website of the Singapore Ministry of Health, 21 Sep 2004

June 16

A Blind Spot for Bad Guys

June 11

Arousing outrage about aging
More sources on when to release risk information
Asbestos warnings and the Libby miners

New two-part article

Talking about "What Happened": Post-Event Risk Communication
Published in ISHN (Industrial Safety and Hygiene News), May 2005 and June 2005
June 2
New comment
Bird flu cover-ups

May 31
New comments
(1) Does public involvement reduce public concern? (2) Talking management into an involvement program
Talking to engineering clients about risk
“We all know what part of their bodies risk assessors pull those numbers out of.”
May 29
New comments
Magnitude of the communication problem during a flu pandemic
Risk communication in the face of class action litigation

May 23

Coping with violence

May 13

What can individuals do to prepare for a bird flu pandemic?

WHO’s new pandemic influenza phases

April 30

Weight, health, and CDC risk communication

April 29

Critical Mass Theory and risk perception

April 16

When to Release Risk Information: Early — But Expect Criticism Anyway

Outrage about exercise limitations when air pollution is high

April 4

Communication plans for flu pandemics

Most Canadians have taken note of the threat of a flu pandemic By Helen Branswell
Distributed by Canadian Press, March 30, 2005.

New biographical profile

From SustainAbility Faculty Biographies

March 30

(1) Dead bodies — crisis communication or outrage management? (2) Two-way communication with apathetic publics

March 16

Cloned cattle and preventive outrage management

March 7

Why people can’t understand toxicity

“Hazard + Outrage” versus “Impact × Probability”

February 27

People’s need for health emergency information

February 23

A non-zero standard for anthrax (or any risk)

Learning tsunami lessons and punishing the guilty; protecting tourism versus protecting lives

February 19

Scared Safe? By Dave Johnson
Published in ISHN E-NEWS, Vol. 4, No. 1, Friday, January 21, 2005.

February 17

Bioterrorism risk communication — what are people interested in learning?

February 16

2003

December 17

Flu: A touch of the panic

Root/risk philosophies

Interview in The Sun

December 9

Appearance of mobile telephone base stations

December 4

Practicing for The Big One: Pennsylvania’s Hepatitis A Outbreak and Risk Communication
(By Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman)

Some knotty dilemmas of public consultation

November 22

“Be first, be right, and be credible”

Taking responsibility for the 2003 blackout

November 15

Old article newly posted

Progress and Promise: Community Involvement at the MMR Cleanup (By Tara O’Toole, M.D., M.P.H. and Peter M. Sandman, Ph.D.)
Published in Technical Peer Review for the Massachusetts Military Reservation, October 1999.

Improving safety by firing employees

October 29

What’s Different about Employees?

Crisis Communications to the Public: A Missing Link
Published in the “Naylor Report” on SARS in Canada, October 2003

October 25

Risk Communication Recommendations for Infectious Disease Outbreaks
(By Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard)

September 17

It Is Never Too Soon to Speculate
(By Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman)

September 8

Fear of Fear: The Role of Fear in Preparedness ... and Why It Terrifies Officials
(By Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard)

August 20

Philanthropy, Bribery, Blackmail, Reparations, and Penance

August 13

New articles

Peter M. Sandman on Safety
Part One (ISHN E-News, July 25, 2003) — on persuading management to take safety seriously ... and why it’s so difficult.
Part Two (ISHN E-News, August 1, 2003) — on persuading employees to take safety seriously ... and why it’s difficult too.
Part Three (ISHN E-News, August 8, 2003) — on reputation management, employee outrage, and finding your niche as a safety and health professional.

13 June

Stakeholders

What are the components of hazard?

May 30

Fear Factory: Have the Media Overblown Canada’s Health Scares?
Published in Maclean’s, June 9, 2003.
What next? Insanity?
Published in The Toronto Star, May 30, 2003
Beyond Duct Tape
Published in ISHN (Industrial Safety & Hygiene News), March 28, 2003

May 19

Panic (and even fear) can do real harm

May 8

Sars communication: What Singapore is doing right
Published in The (Singapore) Straits Times, May 6, 2003
(By Jody Lanard and Peter M. Sandman)

May 2

Communicating a health concern

April 30

Template for risk communication planning

(Site Management Action: Re-organized comments pages by year.)

April 28

“Fear Is Spreading Faster than SARS” — And So It Should!
(By Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard)

April 11

Four Kinds of Risk Communication

April 9

SARS: How Singapore outmanaged the others
Published in Asia Times, Hong Kong, April 9, 2003.

March 26

Candour, not PR, will calm virus fears
Published in The Straits Times, Singapore, March 27, 2003

March 24

Weighing Your Risks of Becoming a Terror Victim
Published in The New York Times Week in Review, March 23, 2003

When people are under-reacting to a risk

March 20

How to Lead a Community during Times of Trouble
(roundtable discussion)

February 27

Emergency how-to warnings

Evacuation feasibility -- the attractions of fatalism

February 19

Duct Tape Risk Communication
(By Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard)

February 12

Why the sudden interest in smallpox?

January 30

GM foods and risk communication

SUVs and risk communication

January 19

Public Health Outrage and Smallpox Vaccination: An Afterthought

January 8

Smallpox vaccination: Can we trust the government?

2002

December 30

Smallpox Vaccination: Some Risk Communication Linchpins

December 4