WHO WE ARE...PEOPLE AND PROGRAMS:
Assessing, Managing, Communicating Risks
Working, playing, breathing—life presents us with risks every day. Some risks are worth taking— think of the exhilaration of skiing in fresh powder. Other risks, such as the use of chemicals in the workplace that have hazardous properties or the potential for prenatal exposures to toxic substances, require much more effort and understanding in order to arrive at valid policy decisions and individual choices.
The science of risk assessment and risk commu-nication underlies many of our educational and research initiatives in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences.
In this, our fourth biennial report, you will learn about a predictive tool that can identify injured workers who are at risk of chronic disability. You will read about a win-win solution to a neighborhood noise problem that also reduces risks to workers.
You will learn how technology can be applied to identify farmworkers whose risk of pesticide-related symptoms may be higher than average and to reduce the risk of waterborne illness.
You can ponder the risk trade-off of a class of fire retardants. You will learn how a new, interdisciplinary center is working to uncover some of the mysteries in the human-ocean relationship. And you will learn how departmental research is helping inform decision-making about lead in the drinking water in the Seattle public schools.
In short, almost all of the research, teaching, and service work in our department is related to risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication in some way.
You will read about six of our alumni and how their education translates to the workplace. We know that our graduates are increasingly required to participate in and perform risk analysis or risk management projects. For more than 20 years, our faculty has taught a multidisciplinary risk assessment course, which was the first of its kind in the United States. In 1997, this course became the foundation of our department’s Risk Emphasis certificate program.
Our Institute for Risk Analysis and Risk Communication (IRARC) is committed to improving public health through research that strengthens the scientific methods used in risk assessment and risk communication. IRARC conducts molecular and cellular laboratory research, develops mechanistic models of toxicity, and translates findings into effective education and intervention programs.
For all of us in the department, our ultimate goal is to improve public health outcomes through sound science that is translated into effective public health practices and policies. Please join us as we describe a number of ways in which we strive to accomplish this goal.
-David Kalman, chair