Volume 5, Number 4 Jan. 26, 2001

Evaluating and Communicating Subsistence Seafood Safety in a Cross-Cultural Context: Lessons Learned from the Exxon Valdez Spill

The Exxon Valdez oil spill and its aftermath were a case study in environmental disaster response. Evaluating and Communicating Subsistence Seafood Safety in a Cross-Cultural Context: Lessons Learned from the Exxon Valdez Spill (SETAC, March 2000, 338 pp.) addresses the impact of the disaster on human trade, society and culture in predominately native communities of the Prince William Sound and the Alaska peninsula.

Thomas Nighswander, Alaska WWAMI clinical medical education director, was chair of the Oil Spill Health Task Force and one of the book's editors. The Oil Spill Health Task Force was responsible for assessing subsistence food safety and making decisions that affected the subsistence culture and lifestyle of the coastal native communities in the oil-spill area. Nighswander contributed the chapters on risk communication, the work and politics of the task force, and the lessons learned from this environmental disaster.