The first case study deals with the mad cow fiasco of 1996, one of the most expensive and tragic examples of poor risk management in the last twenty-five years. For ten years the British government failed to acknowledge the possibility of a link between mad cow disease and Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human equivalent, until increased scientific evidence and public pressure forced them to take action, resulting in the slaughter of more than one million cattle. The second study looks at what is commonly known as hamburger disease, caused by a virulent form of the E. coli bacterium, which has...

Communicating the nature and consequences of environmental and health risks is still one of the most problematic areas of public policy in Western democracies. Mad Cows and Mother's Milk outlines the crucial role of risk management in dealing with public controversies and analyses risk communication practice to provide a set of lessons for risk managers and communicators. This second edition adds new case studies on mad cow disease in North America, climate change and genetic technologies. The first of the new case studies brings the story of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)...

Here is a major new volume for practitioners, researchers, and those concerned with future policies to promote the welfare of children and families. The patterns of support and the ability of family members to care for each other have changed along with the problems for the health and functioning of families. In Families as Nurturing Systems, respected scholars examine the new and emerging directions in the design and implementation of family resources and support programs. They describe and analyze a wide range of program models in the areas of prevention, social support, family resource,...