| Community Comittee
on the Sudbury Soils Study /
Comité communautaire de l’étude des sols de Sudbury |
|
Mining Companies and Soil
Pollution:
The Rhetoric and Science
of Health and Ecological Risk Assessments
With Phlippa Spoel and Glen
Fox.
Wednesday, November 18th,
1-2:30pm.
Room F -335 (in the Science
Building beside the Fraser Auditorium Building)
Organized by the Centre for Research on Social Justice and Policy as part of our public launch events and sponsored by the Community Committee on the Sudbury Soil Study www.sudburysoils.com .
Philippa Spoel, on "Rhetorics of Public Communication and Community Engagement in the Sudbury Soils Study." This talk draws on recent theoretical work in environmental risk communication and citizen engagement in science communication as the framework for reviewing key aspects of public communication and community engagement in the Sudbury Soils Study. This will be discussed both in terms of the main public communication / community engagement activities undertaken by the Study for its Human Health Risk Assessment and in terms of the rhetorical assumptions and language used by the Study to describe these initiatives.
Dr. Philippa Spoel of the Laurentian University English department works in the field of rhetorical studies. Her main teaching and research interests are in science, health, and environmental communication.
Glen A. Fox, "I am the Lorax, I speak for the Trees" on his evaluation of the Ecological Risk Assessment of the Sudbury Soil Study as well as the proposed Biodiveristy Action Plan undertaken for the Community Committee on the Sudbury Soil Study. Glen Fox has a BSc in Agriculture from the University of Guelph majoring in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology; an MSc. from the U of Alberta in Ecology and Environmental Physiology; and an MSc. from the University of Surrey, UK. in Biochemical Toxicology. He has spent his professional career with the Canadian Wildlife Service of Environment Canada where he investigated the effects of environmental contaminants on the health and reproduction of fish-eating birds on the the Great Lakes. He retired in 2005.
Dr. Fox writes in his critical analysis of the Ecological Risk Assessment that:
"There are no accurate, real, or current measures for many of the variables required by the risk assessment model. Of the 25 dietary "items" used in the risk assessment, 80% were estimated. It is felt that this approach compromised the risk assessment, making it difficult to say anything about the likelihood of adverse effects of a chemical of concern on any valued ecosystem component."
This event is free and open to the public.
For more information on this event contact Gary Kinsman at 675-1151 ext. 4221.