Examining inequities in children’s environmental health: results of a survey on the risk perceptions and protective actions of new mothers

Young children are more highly exposed and vulnerable to environmental health hazards than adults due to a variety of physiological and behavioural factors. Despite the significant responsibility mothers typically bear in managing their children’s health, little is known about how they perceive and negotiate these risks in their day-to-day lives. To better understand mothers’ environmental health risk perceptions and associated protective actions across socio-economic and geographic contexts, a telephone survey was conducted among new mothers (n = 606) recruited through two Public Health Units in Ontario, Canada. Analyses revealed that approximately half of the respondents were moderately or highly concerned about environmental health risks, ranging in nature from household products to outdoor air contaminants. Factors affecting the likelihood of experiencing concern included lower income and lower levels of perceived control. With regard to protective actions, 43% reported taking three or more actions to reduce environmental health risks to their children, with the likelihood of taking action being negatively affected by factors including low income and first language other than English or French, and positively affected by being a first-time parent (primiparous). This study contributes to our understanding of environmental health risk perceptions and associated protective behaviours among new mothers, and has implications for the development of more context-focused risk management and communication strategies.     

Farmers’ motivations,risk perceptions and risk management strategies in a developing economy: Bangladesh experience

Aquaculture farmers’ risk perceptions and risk management strategies have still received little attention in agricultural research. Therefore, an exploratory study has been undertaken to provide empirical insight into Bangladeshi coastal shrimp farmers’ risk perceptions and risk management responses. Data from our study show that 95% of farmers have no formal training in shrimp aquaculture. Shrimp farmers’ cooperative societies operate in only 13.3% of the studied areas and only 15% of shrimp farmers are involved with these cooperative societies. The results reveal that shrimp diseases, price and availability of quality shrimp seeds, exploitation by intermediaries and uncertainty about the future demand for shrimp in foreign markets are perceived as the most important sources of risk. On the other hand, prevention of disease, timely supply of shrimp seeds, elimination of middlemen from the supply chain and farm management training are considered among the best methods to manage the risks in the shrimp‐farming business. We also observe some disparities in farmers’ perceptions. For instance, farmers mentioned that removal of influence of middlemen from supply chain is essential for the betterment of their business. However, they did not consider market monitoring, direct contract with processors and improved marketing facilities as important risk management strategies, although these factors play a significant role in reducing the influence of intermediaries and private money lenders.     

Aquatic refuges for surviving a global catastrophe

Recently many methods for reducing the risk of human extinction have been suggested, including building refuges underground and in space. Here we will discuss the perspective of using military nuclear submarines or their derivatives to ensure the survival of a small portion of humanity who will be able to rebuild human civilization after a large catastrophe. We will show that it is a very cost-effective way to build refuges, and viable solutions exist for various budgets and timeframes. Nuclear submarines are surface independent, and could provide energy, oxygen, fresh water and perhaps even food for their inhabitants for years. They are able to withstand close nuclear explosions and radiation. They are able to maintain isolation from biological attacks and most known weapons. They already exist and need only small adaptation to be used as refuges. But building refuges is only “Plan B” of existential risk preparation; it is better to eliminate such risks than try to survive them.     

Practitioners' perceptions of the importance of specific corporate tax knowledge of new hires working in tax

This study reports accounting practitioners' perceptions of the importance of new hires having certain tax knowledge normally addressed and developed in a corporate tax class. Variables related to the administration of a tax course are also examined.The results suggest that topics dealing with Subchapter S Corporations, determination of the corporate tax liability, and definition of the corporation are perceived as most important and should be covered in depth. Collapsible corporations and preferred stock bailouts are considered the least important topics.The survey results also are analyzed by firm size (large, medium, and small). Respondents from small firms place more importance on the accumulated earnings tax than the respondents from large firms. Respondents from large firms place more importance on reorganizations than respondents from medium or small firms.When asked about corporate tax course administration, respondents recommend the use of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and Regulations as a supplement to a standard textbook. They think it is important for any new hire to have at least one corporate tax course and be familiar with corporate tax forms. The only disagreement among the respondents from the different size firms is related to the number of courses students should complete. The respondents from the large firms indicate one course in corporate tax is not sufficient while the respondents from the medium and small firms indicate it is.The study also compares practitioners' recommendations concerning the amount of coverage for various corporate tax topics with the coverage of the topics in two corporate tax textbooks.These results have implications for accounting academicians who teach corporate tax. The results are useful in determining course coverage and in identifying topics that need additional attention as well as areas that need to be deemphasized or eliminated. The results also provide insight into the corporate tax course administration.     

Island futures—Does a participatory scenario process capture the common view of local residents?

Scenarios are often developed by small groups of motivated individuals, but how representative are they of community views of desirable futures? A scenario process in the coastal community of Vega in central Norway was complemented by a survey among 200 community residents in which respondents rated a preferred development option from a series of future choices and dilemmas. While the scenario process produced novelty and diversity in thinking about the future, the common community view reflects a more traditionalistic view of the future. Tourism was identified as a key economic opportunity in the scenario process, but the larger island community has little faith in tourism as a future cornerstone of economic development and would rather rely on traditional sectors like agriculture and fisheries. The scenarios brought out richness in future development options, highlighted place identity and support for heritage conservation based on wise use of natural resources. The scenarios were less suited for making decisions about economic investments, but produced salient information about opportunities, uncertainties and complexities of the future. Findings show the need to compliment scenario processes where a small group explores “possible futures” with surveys to explore the wider populations’ views about “preferred futures”.     

Influences of individual-level characteristics on risk perceptions to various categories of environmental health and safety risks

Over the last five decades, social science researchers have examined how the public perceives the risks associated with a variety of environmental health and safety (EHS) hazards. The body of literature that has been emerged diverse both in the methodology employed to collect and analyze data and in the subject of study. The findings have confirmed that risk perceptions vary between groups of individuals as well as between categories of EHS risks. However, the extant literature on EHS risk perceptions has failed to provide empirical insights into how risk perceptions can be best explained according to the interplay of both (1) the category of EHS hazard appraised and (2) the prominent individual-level characteristics that best explain observed risk perception differences. This study addresses this deficiency in the literature by providing insights into the individual and cumulative roles that various individual-level variables play in characterizing risk perceptions to various categories of EHS risks including ‘agentic risks’ like street drug use and cigarette smoking, ‘emerging technological risks’ like nanoparticles and cloning, and ‘manufacturing risks’ like air and chemical pollution. Our data are drawn from the 2009 Citizens, Science, and Emerging Technologies national study of United States households that investigated public perceptions of EHS risks, traditional and emerging media use, and various individual characteristics like personal demographics, socioeconomic factors, and perceptual filters. The findings show that some categories of EHS risks like those associated with emerging technologies may be more easily predicted than other categories of risks and that individual-level characteristics vary in their explanative power between risk categories even among a single sample of respondents.     

Mobile phone masts,social rationalities and risk: negotiating lay perspectives on technological hazards

This paper examines the responses of 37 participants in six focus groups to media representations of the health risks associated with mobile phone masts (‘base stations’) in the light of theoretical debates concerning non‐expert understandings of risks (variously characterised as ‘lay rationality’, lay epidemiology’, popular epidemiology’, ‘public knowledges’, ‘social rationality’ and ‘intuitive risk judgements’). In particular, the study discusses the extent to which two particular manifestations of such understandings – non‐mediated contextual and personal knowledges (‘multiple information sources’), and risk comparisons made between mobile phone masts and a variety of other perceived health risks – are prominent in respondents’ discursive constructions of risk. The paper suggests that analyses of risk responses such as these should differentiate clearly between classes of risks, and avoid suggestions that any particular type of risk response can be unproblematically mapped onto other risk scenarios.     

Great deeds or great risks? Scientists’ social representations of nanotechnology

Nanotechnologies are becoming a larger presence in everyday life and are viewed by governments and economic actors as a key area for development. The theory of social representations suggests that specialist views eventually disseminate to shape representations among the public. Yet nanotechnologies remain relatively little known to the general public. The media emphasize potential benefits, while potential risks get less attention. The literature has not yet addressed whether representations by a well-informed population (scientists) are indeed structured in terms of the risk–benefit polarity that dominates research framing to date. We attempted a systematic assessment of how background knowledge about nanotechnology may influence experts’ perception. Study 1 delivered the first demonstration derived from a qualitative analysis confirming the existence of a polarized representation of nanotechnologies, contrasting opportunity (medical, economic, and technological) and risk. Interestingly, risk was distinguished at two levels: that associated with nanomaterial characteristics (toxicity, reactivity) and at the larger scale of impact (health, environment, legislation). Does this polarity indicate a ‘yes, but’ logic (nanotechnology carries opportunity but also risk), or two clusters of specialists (sensitive, respectively, to opportunity or to risk)? Study 2 surveyed a larger sample of experts who self-described their scientific background and role viz. nanotechnology. Role had no influence. Specialists consensually viewed that nanotechnology represents opportunity, but depending on scientific background they did not agree to the same extent that nanotechnology also constitutes a risk. Participants with a physics and chemistry background tended to represent nanotechnologies predominantly in terms of opportunities and not in terms of inherent risks or impacts. In contrast, toxicologists, life and social scientists appeared to explicitly incorporate both benefits and risks in their representation of this new technology. Environmental scientists were a more diverse group, divided between the two patterns of representation.     

Is it all about awareness? The normalization of coastal risk

Coastal risk is already high in several parts of the world and is expected to be amplified by climate change, which makes it necessary to outline effective risk management strategies. Risk managers assume that increasing awareness of coastal risk is the key to public support and endorsement of risk management strategies – an assumption that underlies a common worldview on the public understanding of science, which has been named the deficit model. We argue that the effects of awareness are not as straightforward. In particular, awareness of coastal hazards might not lead to more technically accurate risk perceptions. Based on research on risk perception normalization, we explored the hypothesis that coastal risk awareness reduces coastal risk perception – in particular the perceived likelihood of occurrence of coastal hazards – through its effect on reliance on protective measures to prevent risk. Individuals can rely on protective measures, even when those are not effective, as a positive illusion to reduce risk perception. This effect might be stronger for higher probability hazards and for permanent residents of costal zones. Data from 410 individuals living in coastal zones corroborated most of our expectations. Global results demonstrated a risk normalization effect mediated by reliance on current measures. Additional analyses made clear that this effect occurred in 2 of the 5 high-probability hazards (flood and storm), and not in the low-probability hazard (tsunami). Normalization might be more likely among high-probability hazards which entail catastrophic and immediate impacts. This effect was also found among permanent residents, but not among temporary residents. Results imply that coastal risk management might benefit from (a) taking risk perception normalization effects into account, (b) tailoring strategies for permanent and temporary residents and (c) promoting a higher public engagement, which would facilitate a more adaptive and effective coping with coastal risk than the use of positive illusions.     

Schöne Aussicht auf den Fluss? Wahrnehmung von Risiken aus Naturkatastrophen

Impacts of natural disasters have increased worldwide during the last decades. Facing the growing losses from natural hazards also in Germany, the question emerges how persons in likely affected areas perceive risks from natural hazards such as windstorm, flood, and earthquake. The everyday, ?intuitive“ perception of risks is basic for the individual, subjective assessment of natural risks. Consequently, perception and evaluation of risk is basic for behaviour in dangerous situations. It is also fundamental for decisions concerning preventive protective measurements. To be able to develop effective information and communication strategies and politics about natural risks, the perception and evaluation of these risks and influencing factors should be known. Therefore, the purpose of the study presented in this paper is to focus on the perception of storms, floods, and earthquakes and to study factors that influence risk perception. To study risk perception, a mail survey was conducted in summer 2001 in six regions of Germany which had been affected by windstorm, flood and / or earthquake within the last 30 years. Köln-Rodenkirchen, Passau, Karlsruhe, Neustadt/Donau, Albstadt and Rosenheim were selected as survey areas. In total, 450 persons responded the questionnaire. In the study a mixture of approaches to risk perception was applied, among them the psychometric paradigm. The project was conducted at the Institute for Insurance, Universität Karlsruhe (TH) and additionally funded by the Stiftung Umwelt und Schadenvorsorge der SV Versicherungen. The results show that storm, flood, and earthquake are rated heteroge-neously regarding their general dangerousness, several risk characteristics and attributions of causes. Personal characteristics, such as age, education level, and the experience of damage seem to play a role for the general risk rating. In addition, the risk perception of homeowners and tenants differs.     

The Effect of Corporate Governance on the Use of Enterprise Risk Management: Evidence From Canada

This article examines the use of enterprise risk management (ERM) by companies in Canada, the characteristics that are associated with the use of ERM, what obstacles companies face in implementing ERM, and what role, if any, corporate governance guidelines have played in the decision to adopt ERM. We obtained our data from the responses to a mail survey sent to Canadian Risk and Insurance Management Society members as well as telephone interviews with 19 of the respondents. The results indicate that 31 percent of the sample had adopted ERM and that reasons for adopting ERM include the influence of the risk manager (61 percent), encouragement from the board of directors (51 percent), and compliance with Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) guidelines (37 percent). The major deterrents to ERM were an organizational structure that discourages ERM and an overall resistance to change. Although only about one‐third of companies indicated that they had adopted an ERM approach, evidence was clear that a larger portion of the sample was moving in that direction, as indicated by what changes they had observed in their companies in the past three years. These include the development of company‐wide guidelines for risk management (45 percent), an increased awareness of nonoperational risks by operational risk management personnel and an increased awareness of operational risks by nonoperational risk management personnel (49 percent), more coordination with different areas responsible for risk management (64 percent), and more involvement and interaction in the decision making of other departments. Contrary to what we expected, there was not a significant difference between firms that are listed on the TSE versus those that are not in terms of the propensity to use ERM. However, the fact that 37 percent of firms indicated that the TSE guidelines were influential in their decision to adopt ERM provides some evidence that the guidelines are influencing companies’ risk management strategies.     

The impacts of emotions and personality on borrowers’ abilities to manage their debts

This paper examines the impacts of retail borrowers’ emotions and personality traits on their abilities to engage in appropriate responses when things unexpectedly go wrong and they get into debt repayment difficulties. We establish several scenarios where borrowers are hit with unforeseen circumstances that affect their abilities to make their loan payments and we classify and evaluate the riskiness of the strategies they state that they would adopt in those situations. Via an extensive on-line survey conducted in the UK, we show that borrowers who were most comfortable about taking on debts in the first place, those who show neurotic tendencies, and those who believe that they have control over events rather than being controlled by them, are more likely to undertake high risk strategies when faced with unforeseen issues that affect their ability to meet their debt interest and repayment costs. We also find that respondents who identify as feeling excited, alert or guilty, as well as younger borrowers and those who are single or renters, are more likely to opt for risky approaches. Our findings have potentially important implications for lenders, regulators and debt counselling services regarding the types of people who are most likely to get into debt troubles.     

Cybersecurity insurance and risk-sharing

In today’s interconnected digital world, cybersecurity risks and resulting breaches are a fundamental concern to organizations and public policy setters. Accounting firms, as well as other firms providing risk advisory services, are concerned about their clients’ potential and actual breaches. Organizations cannot, however, eliminate all cybersecurity risks so as to achieve 100% security. Furthermore, at some point additional cybersecurity measures become more costly than the benefits from the incremental security. Thus, those responsible for preventing cybersecurity breaches within their organizations, as well as those providing risk advisory services to those organizations, need to think in terms of the cost-benefit aspects of cybersecurity investments. Besides investing in activities that prevent or mitigate the negative effects of cybersecurity breaches, organizations can invest in cybersecurity insurance as means of transferring some of the cybersecurity risks associated with potential future breaches.This paper provides a model for selecting the optimal set of cybersecurity insurance policies by a firm, given a finite number of policies being offered by one or more insurance companies. The optimal set of policies for the firm determined by this selection model can (and often does) contain at least three areas of possible losses not covered by the selected policies (called the Non-Coverage areas in this paper). By considering sets of insurance policies with three or more Non-Coverage areas, we show that a firm is often better able to address the frequently cited problems of high deductibles and low ceilings common in today’s cybersecurity insurance marketplace. Our selection model facilitates improved risk-sharing among cybersecurity insurance purchasers and sellers. As such, our model provides a basis for a more efficient cybersecurity insurance marketplace than currently exists. Our model is developed from the perspective of a firm purchasing the insurance policies (or the risk advisors guiding the firm) and assumes the firm’s objective in purchasing cybersecurity insurance is to minimize the sum of the costs of the premiums associated with the cybersecurity insurance policies selected and the sum of the expected losses not covered by the insurance policies.     

Combining backcasting and adaptive management for climate adaptation in coastal regions: A methodology and a South African case study

Developing adaptation strategies for deltaic and coastal regions is a major challenge, due to future uncertainties of climate change and complexity of the social–ecological systems to be managed. This paper investigates how desirable futures or normative scenarios approaches, in particular backcasting, can be used to develop more robust climate strategies in coastal regions. The paper develops a methodology in which participatory backcasting and adaptive management are combined, and its applicability is demonstrated for the Breede–Overberg coastal region in South Africa where a catchment management strategy has been developed. It is concluded that the methodology offers an adequate framework for developing and implementing long-term climate adaptation strategies and policies, including a transition management scheme for intermediate assessments.     

Book reviews

Valid measures of how people view risks due to combinations of hazards are needed. 320 adult smokers responded to four vignettes in which hypothetical men were described as having high or low levels of (1) smoking and (2) either (a) blood cholesterol or (b) family history of CHD (coronary heart disease). Ratings of the risk of a heart attack were made using one of three different rating scales: (a) nine‐point, (b) 101‐point, and (c) unbounded. The nine‐point scale yielded a strong sub‐additive interaction, the 101‐point scale yielded a weak sub‐additive interaction, and the unbounded scale yielded a weak synergistic interaction. Although respondents preferred the nine‐point scale, evidence from this and other studies suggest that scales with nine points or fewer should not be used to assess perceptions of risks due to multiple hazards.     

Default Risk and Equity Returns: Evidence from the Taiwan Equities Market

Studies of risk and return characteristics of different portfolios have recently gained enormous attention. Differing from past studies, this paper uses a compound option model to build the proxy of default risk and evaluate the relationship between default risk effect and equity returns. The primary goal of this paper is to evaluate the relationship among default risk, size, book-to-market, and equity returns, using data drawn from the Taiwan equities market, and to also examine whether size and book-to-market are proxies for default risk. The results show that the effects of size and book-to-market exist in different default portfolios when default risks are controlled. If size or book-to-market is controlled, there are no default effects. In the regression analysis, when default risk is included in Fama and French’s Three Factor Model, it shows that size, book-to-market and default risk have significant influence on equity returns and default risk is a systematic risk. Default risk is also more powerful in explaining returns when the compound option model is adopted for estimating default risks.     

Local facility hazard risk controversy and non-local hazard risk perception

Facility siting disputes are as much about the socio-politics in a place as they are about the risks posed by the facility; yet not much is known about how localized controversy about one hazard effects the perception of other, non-local, hazard risks. Our exploratory study tests the idea that a local facility risk controversy (landfill expansion) is tied to an overall sensitivity to risks from a wider range of potentially hazardous facilities. We use logistic regression models of questionnaire survey responses from 205 residents living near two landfills that were recently expanded or proposed to be expanded. Psychometric risk variables, cultural theory of risk variables, and sociodemographic variables are used as controls to see if risk-in-place/context variables related to threat and governance (e.g. fairness and fiduciary equity) predict not only risk from the landfill but also risk from three other potentially hazardous facilities (incinerator, chemical, and nuclear). The risk-in-place/context variables are predictive across all hazards but there is little consistency in the mix of predictors across models. The results suggest that facility controversy is linked to how residents view risks from non-local facility hazards and that this effect varies by place. This points to the need for more research in this area, and is suggestive that risk-hazard controversy may foster localized risk-averse places or wider risk-averse communities.     

Living in a foreign country: the meaning of place of origin and gender for risk perceptions,experiences, and behaviors

Abstract

Previous research has convincingly proven that perceptions, experience, and exposure to risks vary among certain groups in society. By drawing from a unique combination of Swedish survey data and interviews, this study aims to investigate perceptions and experiences of risks as well as in relation to behavior by analyzing the cleavages related to interactions between place of origin and gender. Theoretically, we see individual risk perception as part of situated hierarchical power relations where an individual’s position (which is an intersection of, for example, gender, race, age, and place of origin) structures action and thought. Findings verify that foreign-born men and women perceive risks to a greater extent than those born in Sweden. However, no direct pattern of ethnicity is apparent in exposure to risks, but since predictors measuring experience of discrimination are shown to be significant, the effect can be mediated by such circumstances. In terms of how risks have affected behavior, women, irrespective of their ethnicity, are affected. Exposure to tragic experiences among those who are foreign born can pose risks that are perceived to a greater extent. Furthermore, more vulnerable material conditions can also affect how risks are perceived, and uncertainty due to a lack of resources and as an inherent ingredient of living in a foreign country seem to enhance perceptions of risk and feelings of unsafety. Last, the sense of discrimination appears to influence exposure to certain risks, which might capture an interaction between racism and violence.     

Concerns and perceptions immediately following Superstorm Sandy: ratings for property damage were higher than for health issues

Governmental officials, health and safety professionals, early responders, and the public are interested in the perceptions and concerns of people faced with a crisis, especially during and immediately after a disaster strikes. Reliable information can lead to increased individual and community preparedness for upcoming crises. The objective of this research was to evaluate concerns of coastal and central New Jersey residents within the first 100?days of Superstorm Sandy’s landfall. Respondents living in central New Jersey and Jersey shore communities were differentially impacted by the storm, with shore residents having higher evacuation rates (47% vs. 13%), more flood waters in their homes, longer power outages (average 23 vs. 6?days), and longer periods without Internet (29 vs. 6?days). Ratings of concerns varied both among and within categories as a function of location (central vs. coastal New Jersey), stressor level (ranging from 1 to 3 for combinations of power outages, high winds, and flooding), and demographics. Respondents were most concerned about property damage, health, inconveniences, ecological services, and nuclear power plants in that order. Respondents from the shore gave higher ratings to the concerns within each major category, compared to those from central Jersey. Four findings have implications for understanding future risk, recovery, and resiliency: (1) respondents with the highest stressor level (level 3) were more concerned about water damage than others, (2) respondents with flood damage were more concerned about water drainage and mold than others, (3) respondents with the highest stressor levels rated all ecological services higher than others, and (4) shore respondents rated all ecological services higher than central Jersey residents. These data provide information to design future preparedness plans, improve resiliency for future severe weather events, and reduce public health risk.