Risk Communication, Overview

Risk communication involves creating shared understanding about uncertain loss or danger. This mul-tidisciplinary field emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. In those decades, members of the public, scientists, engineers, corporate leaders, and government officials were coping with Love Canal, a Niagara Falls, New York, neighborhood where 21,000 tons of toxic waste was discovered buried beneath neighborhood homes; the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania; and the Bhopal, India, disaster, [Page 653]where thousands died from accidental release of hazardous chemicals. These situations made vivid the need for research on how communication about hazards does and should occur.