Suchergebnisse

Risk management decisions are not made only on the basis of expert risk assessment. In numerous instances, public controversy erupts, questioning the results of previous risk assessment procedures and shaping the development of risk management episodes. This article presents a case study of risk management in the context of a 1980s controversy over aerial spraying against a spruce budworm epidemic in Quebec and draws some general conclusions concerning the relationship between risk analysis and public controversies. Actors in public controversies define risks more broadly than risk assessment experts. Moreover, public controversies only partly concern issues of risk. They are first and foremost debates about social choices in which actors carry with them a multidimensional social experience of technology, trust, credibility and decision‐making institutions. This experience contributes to the construction of a plurality of emergent representations of what is at stake in a controversy, referred to in this paper as "worlds of relevance." Analysis shows that in any given public controversy, there are not just two parties arguing against each other. Rather, several "worlds of relevance" can be found that link, in a variety of ways, a variety of entities not necessarily shared by all these worlds. Each "world of relevance" presents a different definition of what the issues and the stakes of the controversy are. Risks are only part of the picture, and they are embedded in "worlds of relevance" from which they take their significance. The successful management of a controversy entails the association of entities from different worlds.

The appearance of the pandemic A/Hong Kong/1/68 (H3N2) influenzavirus strain provided an opportunity for a clinical field trial of influenza vaccines in Canada during the winter of 1968-69. As by November 1968 there were reports of influenza B activity and as supplies of A2/HK/68 vaccines were limited, it was decided to make a series of strictly randomized double-blind trials comparing A2/HK/68 vaccines not only with B/Mass/66 vaccines but also with a bivalent vaccine that was already in production and contained B/Mass/66 and A2/Mtl/68, the latter a strain isolated in Canada during January 1968. In 4 trials, a total of 13 729 military personnel and 4 795 primary schoolchildren were vaccinated. Reported vaccine reactions were less than 0.1% with zonally-purified vaccines and 2.6% with the "standard" aqueous killed bivalent vaccine. Three children had serious reactions. Surveillance detected an outbreak of influenza in the first two trials on the military. The 3 vaccines containing A2 strains gave similar clinical protection conservatively estimated at 42-55% but probably about 80%. The effectiveness of the A2/Mtl/68 vaccine, which was in production before the Hong Kong variant had been isolated, was unexpected. In the absence of a vaccine specific to a new pandemic strain, it should not be assumed that a vaccine made from another recent strain could not be useful.

Das Heft enthält folgende Beiträge: "++ Davignon: Die Telematik in Europa: Eine Strategie der Herausforderung ++ Sorge: Neue Technik: Wohin steuert die Berufsbildung? ++ Lutz: Den Teufelskreis durchbrechen! ++ Fantoli: Vom ungelernten zum qualifizierten, vielfältig einsetzbaren Mitarbeiter Automatisierung, Qualifikation und Berufsbildung ++ Senker: Vereinigtes Königreich: Die Wirkungen technischer Veränderungen auf die Anforderungen in der verarbeitenden Industrie ++ Pescarollo: Italien: Automobilbranche: Technische Entwicklung und Berufsbildung ++ Wollschläger: Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Man hätte es fast nicht bemerkt Einfluß der technologischen Entwicklung auf die Berufsbildung in der Druckindustrie ++ Vignaud: Frankreich: Die Sicherheit der Informationssysteme ++ Debaty: Belgien: Informatik und Schaffung von Arbeitsplätzen"