Kami Export - envh 472 hw4 2023
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School
University of Washington *
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Course
472
Subject
Communications
Date
Feb 20, 2024
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Pages
2
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Risk Assessment 472 HW #4: Risk Communication and Management Due: November 14, 11:59PM Scenario:
At a public school, the water in the drinking fountains has an unpleasant smell. Several children complain of stomachaches, and a couple ended up in the urgent care due to cases of vomiting and stomach cramps. One teacher has missed a week of school due to gastrointestinal distress. The students and parents complain about the water to the administration, and the parent group prompts the administration to investigate the water. Many parents tell their children to avoid drinking the water at school, though th
e school hasn’t told students not to drink the water. The State Department of Health comes in to test the water and finds that there is a slightly elevated level of Mineral S, which has a RfD of 17 mg/kg BW per day
. The concentration in the water of Mineral S was measured to be 1.4 mg/mL.
Exposures above the RfD may cause acute health effects such as stomachaches, cramps, vomiting/diarrhea, fever, and malaise. The parents of students in the school are very upset (think of outrage factors!) that this has occurred. You work in risk communication for the State Department of Health and are tasked with developing and enacting a risk communication plan for this particular situation, to ensure that everyone knows they should not be drinking the water. You can rely on any methods of risk communication that you choose, but keep in mind that the parents are very upset and outraged over this, feeling a lack of trust, amongst other things. The talking points that you receive from the State Lab that tested the water and the school are: -Until the problem is fixed, students and staff at the school should not consume water from school drinking fountains, or sinks -Dermal exposure is not of concern, hands can still be washed with the water -If you have any adverse GI outcomes, you should keep children home from school and take them to the doctor if symptoms persist for more than 24 hours -This is an isolated incident in this school, and public water elsewhere around the city can be assumed to be safe to drink -Steps are alrea
dy underway to retrofit the school’s pipe system to ensure that this will not happen again -Water in the school will be sampled daily after the retrofit has occurred to ensure that water is safe to drink A.
Thinking back to our modules on risk perception (sessions 2 and 3) describe which “outrage factors” you think would be most relevant to this situation. (I.e., which outrage factors might be fueling the parental outrage for this situation)
B.
The school has kindergartners through 5
th
graders. The average weight of a kindergartner is 18.5 kg.
The average weight of a 5
th
grader is 34 kg.
Over the course of a school day, a kindergartner consumes 25% of their daily water intake at school and a 5
th
grader consumes 30% of their daily water intake at school. In total, a kindergartner consumes 1000 mL of water every day, and a 5
th
grader consumes 1500 mL of water every day. You are interested in calculating the absorbed dose of Mineral S that the kindergartners and 5
th
graders could be consuming in a day, to compare to the RfD. Assuming that students have no additional exposure to Mineral S outside of school and that the only relevant exposure route is through ingestion (which has a 95% absorption factor), what is the absorbed daily dose of Mineral S for both kindergartners and 5
th
graders? How does this compare to the RfD? How could this inform your risk communication strategy? C.
Think of three groups you need to develop a risk communication strategy for. For each of the three groups, define what type of risk communication (as discussed in Risk Communication session) you will likely have to practice with them and in one sentence defend why it would be that type of risk communication. D.
Pick one of the groups you mentioned above and develop a risk communication plan for this group with 2 elements (two different messages). Follow the template presented in the Risk Communication session and ensure that your risk communication plan is consistent with the type of risk communication you identified in question 1C. What are the barriers you will face with each element of your risk assessment plan, in order to get your message across and create the intended impact? (Note: easiest to arrange in a table)
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