Emerging Contaminants in Drinking Water: Should the Public Be Concerned?

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Giddings ◽  
J. Fawell
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Endocrine Disruptor ◽  
Emerging Contaminants ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Water Supplies ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
Public Concerns

Significant media coverage regarding new chemicals being found in water supplies has given rise to public concerns about the safety of their drinking water. Emerging contaminants in drinking water supplies, which include pharmaceuticals, personal care products and endocrine disruptor compounds, have been regularly detected at trace levels in drinking water sources in many countries. Regulators around the world are grappling with questions from the public relating to possible health outcomes from long-term exposure to these contaminants in their drinking water. The presentation will discuss the challenges in addressing public concern about these contaminants and how communicating scientific uncertainties requires a balanced and clear series of messages.

scholarly journals Virus Eradication and Synthetic Biology: Changes with SARS-CoV-2?

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 569
Author(s):  
Jean-Nicolas Tournier ◽  
Joseph Kononchik
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Viral Disease ◽  
Virus Eradication ◽  
Disease Eradication ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Significant Effort

The eradication of infectious diseases has been achieved only once in history, in 1980, with smallpox. Since 1988, significant effort has been made to eliminate poliomyelitis viruses, but eradication is still just out of reach. As the goal of viral disease eradication approaches, the ability to recreate historically eradicated viruses using synthetic biology has the potential to jeopardize the long-term sustainability of eradication. However, the emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2 pandemic has highlighted our ability to swiftly and resolutely respond to a potential outbreak. This virus has been synthetized faster than any other in the past and is resulting in vaccines before most attenuated candidates reach clinical trials. Here, synthetic biology has the opportunity to demonstrate its truest potential to the public and solidify a footing in the world of vaccines.

Transnational Protest and The Public Sphere

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Beyeler ◽  
Hanspeter Kriesi
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Economic Globalization ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
World Economic ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Selection Of

This article explores the impact of protests against economic globalization in the public sphere. The focus is on two periodical events targeted by transnational protests: the ministerial conferences of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Based on a selection of seven quality newspapers published in different parts of the world, we trace media attention, support of the activists, as well as the broader public debate on economic globalization. We find that starting with Seattle, protest events received extensive media coverage. Media support of the street activists, especially in the case of the anti-WEF protests, is however rather low. Nevertheless, despite the low levels of support that street protesters received, many of their issues obtain wide public support.

scholarly journals Technical Infrastructure Increasing Resistance in the Natural Environment

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Šárka KROČOVÁ
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Risk Analysis ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Acceptable Level ◽  
Natural Phenomena ◽  
The World

The natural environment has its specific patterns that a human must take into account during realisation of any technical infrastructure of the world countries. Underestimating the dangers that can arise from natural phenomena has often serious consequences. Forsome constructions of technical infrastructure, especially their line constructions, there will be a high number of operational accidentswith extremely negative impact on the supplied regions with energy or drinking water. Other types of technical infrastructure forexample in nuclear power have a potential to create a natural emergency threaten the environment not only in the country of theirdislocation but also in the long term to change living conditions in entire regions.The following article deals with this issue in a suffcient basic range suggests chat ways and means to recognize the threat of danger andthen based on risk analysis to eliminate the consequences to an acceptable level.

scholarly journals Maintaining trust in a pandemic: Blood collection agency messaging to donors and the public during the early days of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennie Haw ◽  
Rachel Thorpe ◽  
Kelly Holloway
Keyword(s):  
Blood Donation ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Vaccine Uptake ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Blood Collection ◽  
Patient Needs ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
Initial Drop ◽  
Public Concerns

COVID-19 has posed unprecedented challenges to health systems around the world, including bloodcollection agencies (BCAs). Many countries, such as Canada and Australia, that rely on non-remuneratedvoluntary donors, saw an initial drop in donors in the early days of the pandemic followed by a return tosufficient levels of the blood supply. BCA messaging plays a key role in communicating the needs of theblood operator, promoting and encouraging donation, educating, and connecting with the public anddonors. This paper reports on discourse analysis (Bloor and Bloor, 2013) of BCA messaging in Canadaand Australia from March 1-July 31, 2020 to understand how BCAs constructed donation to encouragedonation during this period and what this can tell us about public trust and blood operators. Drawing onmultiple sources of online content and print media, our analysis identified four dominant messagesduring the study period: 1) blood donation is safe; 2) blood donation is designated an essential activity;3) blood is needed; and 4) blood donation is a response to the pandemic. In Canada and Australia, ouranalysis suggests that: 1) implicit within constructions of blood donation as safe is the message thatBCAs can be trusted; 2) messages that construct blood donation as essential and needed implicitly askdonors to trust BCAs in order to share in the commitment of meeting patient needs; and 3) thepandemic has made possible the construction of blood donation as both an exceptional andcommonplace activity. For BCAs, our analysis supports donor communications that are transparent andresponsive to public concerns, and the local context, to support public trust. Beyond BCAs, healthorganizations and leaders cannot underestimate the importance of building and maintaining public trustas countries continue to struggle with containment of the virus and encourage vaccine uptake.

scholarly journals Coronavirus - Crisis Communication in Croatia

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Grbic ◽  
D Stimac Grbic ◽  
L Stimac ◽  
Z Sostar
Keyword(s):  
Child Protection ◽  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Information ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One

Abstract Introduction The coronavirus outbreak has set off alarms around the world, leading to border closures, trade controls, travel bans and other measures. The Wuhan coronavirus epidemic continues to spread globally to the new European hotspot in Italy. New information about the epidemic and the virus is changing rapidly as the virus spreads and appears in parts of the world. Although official announcements by the Croatian Government and Crisis Staff calmed the public with pictures and data on the disease, it showed something else that heightened public concern and caused two conflicting phenomena among citizens - on the one hand, the majority showed understandable doubt about the information that could have raised the concern for their own health while the rest of the population ignored the facts. The market showed complete unwillingness to cope with this epidemic and a chronic shortage of protective equipment (masks, disinfectants...) emerged. Most of the citizens' queries and concerns were moving in the direction of personal protection, child protection and justification for holding large gatherings. Results By March 8, 2020, twelve COVID-19 patients were recorded in Croatia, of which 5 were patients in Rijeka, 3 in Zagreb and 4 in Varaždin. The first sick person is a Croatian citizen from Zagreb who became infected during his stay in Italy (Milan, Lombardy province). Conclusions In this crisis, several basic principles of crisis communication with the public have been forgotten: The first source of communication often becomes the source against which everyone else is measured.Accuracy is crucial to credibility.Emotion cannot be countered by facts. People must first know that the government cares.The public should regain a sense of control over circumstances beyond control.A lack of public respect in a crisis undermines trust.Honesty is fundamental to maintaining trust. Key messages Accuracy is crucial to credibility. Emotion cannot be countered by facts.

scholarly journals 2018: A watershed year for psychedelic science

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 205032451987228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob S Aday ◽  
Christopher C Davoli ◽  
Emily K Bloesch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ballot Initiatives ◽  
The Public ◽  
Psychedelic Drugs ◽  
The Status ◽  
Regulatory Bodies ◽  
The Public Sphere

While interest in the study of psychedelic drugs has increased over much of the last decade, in this article, we argue that 2018 marked the true turning point for the field. Substantive advances in the scientific, public, and regulatory communities in 2018 significantly elevated the status and long-term outlook of psychedelic science, particularly in the United States. Advances in the scientific community can be attributed to impactful research applications of psychedelics as well as acknowledgement in preeminent journals. In the public sphere, Michael Pollan’s book How to Change Your Mind was a commercial hit and spurred thought-provoking, positive media coverage on psychedelics. Unprecedented psychedelic ballot initiatives in the United States were representative of changes in public interest. Finally, regulatory bodies began to acknowledge psychedelic science in earnest in 2018, as evidenced by the designation of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy to “breakthrough therapy” status for treatment-resistant depression by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In short, 2018 was a seminal year for psychedelic science.

Mass Media and the Social Amplification of Climate Change Risks

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Mazur
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New York ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Forthcoming Article ◽  
Public Concerns

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. Please check back later for the full article. Global warming was not on public or media agendas prior to 1998. In summer of that year, during an unusual heat wave, The New York Times and other major U.S. news organizations saliently reported warnings by NASA scientist James Hansen that the earth is warming. This alarm quickly spread to secondary media and to the news media of other nations. According to the “Quantity of Coverage Theory,” public concerns and governmental actions about a problem rise and fall with the extent of media coverage of that problem, a generalization that is applicable here. Over the next few years, global warming became part of a suite of worldwide issues (particularly the ozone hole, biodiversity, and destruction of rain forests) conceptualized as the “endangered earth,” more or less climaxing on Earth Day 1990. Media coverage and public concerns waned after 1990, thereafter following an erratic course until 2006, when they reached unprecedented heights internationally, largely but not entirely associated with former Vice President Al Gore’s promotion of human-caused climate change as “an inconvenient truth.” By this time, the issue had become highly polarized, with denial or discounting of the risk a hallmark of the political right, especially among American Republicans. International media coverage and public concern fell after 2010, but at this writing in 2015, these are again on the rise. The ups and downs of media attention and public concern are unrelated to real changes in the temperature of the atmosphere.

Corporate reputation, trait covariation and the averaging principle ‐ The case of the UK pensions mis‐selling scandal

2001 ◽  
Vol 35 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 387-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Bennett ◽  
Helen Gabriel
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Bad News ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Averaging Principle ◽  
Media Criticism ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Uk ◽  
A Company

Presents the results of an empirical investigation into whether the attribution by members of the public of an unfavourable reputational trait (e.g. dishonesty) to a company covaries with other traits ascribed to the same enterprise. Additionally it examines whether people aggregate successive pieces of unfavourable information received about a business to form a continuously worsening impression of it; or whether they mentally average bad news, so that successive adverse items can actually improve the overall impression – provided the later messages are not as damaging as the earlier ones. The study is based on the UK pensions mis‐selling scandal, which generated severe, long‐term media criticism of the large UK insurance companies. Hence it analyses a unique reputational management situation in that the firms involved are subject to continuous and intense scrutiny, protracted and hostile media coverage, periodic public censure by regulatory authorities, and interference in day‐to‐day management by government agencies. The proposition that pensions are an “avoidance product” is also explored.

scholarly journals The World Trade Organization's legitimacy crisis

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL C. ESTY
Keyword(s):  
Global Governance ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Trade Regime ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
Successful Launch ◽  
National Governments ◽  
Legitimacy Crisis

Despite the successful launch of a new round of multilateral trade negotiations at Doha, the World Trade Organization faces a legitimacy crisis. Protests continue to rock major international economic meetings, and the WTO's role in globalization is being questioned by many observers. This paper examines the contours of this crisis and explores the possibility that the WTO's indirect ties to popular sovereignty – through national governments – provide an insufficient foundation for the trade regime's authority and central role in the emerging structure of global governance. Arguing that the WTO needs to re-establish its legitimacy based on wider links to the public around the world in whose name freer trade is pursued, the paper suggests that the WTO must also re-build its reputation for efficacy in a context where success is no longer measured exclusively in narrow economic terms. To be seen as serving the interests of the world community broadly, the trade regime needs to pursue its economic goals in a fashion that shows sensitivity to other important goals and values, such as poverty alleviation, environmental protection, and the promotion of public health. Long-term success further depends on the trade regime becoming embedded within a broader structure of global governance that provides ‘checks and balances’ and reinforces the legitimacy of international trade policy making.

scholarly journals Emerging Contaminants in Trans-American Waters

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Verónica Patricia Pinos Vélez ◽  
Germain Esquivel-Hernández ◽  
Isabel Cipriani-Avila ◽  
Enma Mora-Abril ◽  
Juan Fernando Cisneros ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Emerging Contaminants ◽  
New Products ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Environmental Matrices ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Products ◽  
In Trans ◽  
Water Plants

  Industrial development has made new products available to people to make their lives easier. Items such as food, cleaning, personal care and health products, among others, are processed, sold and consumed daily by all age groups. These products include in their formulation inorganic and organic chemicals with the purpose of improving or increasing some of their properties, making them more attractive to the consumer. These substances are strictly controlled during production so that the final product may be safely consumed. In most cases, the constituents of commercial products end up in wastewater, where they are not controlled. These uncontrolled pollutants of differing chemical natures are known as “Emerging Contaminants” (ECs). Research worldwide has found ECs in various environmental matrices, especially water. To understand this problem, four fundamental aspects must be addressed: 1) the analytical methods for its determination; 2) the occurrence in environmental matrices; 3) the treatments for the removal of ECs in wastewater and drinking water plants; and 4) the risks to health and the environment. This document reviews these four aspects with regard to 14 ECs commonly found in the studies around the world and addresses the state of these ECs in trans-American waters.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document