Grant: CIHR/Regional Partnership Program/Operating Grants

In recent years, communication about risks to human health has commanded increasing public attention and reaction. As various agencies and organizations struggle to deal with an increasingly apprehensive and distrustful public about a bewildering variety of natural, man-made, voluntary and involuntary risks, it has become evident that social and individual trust in risk managers plays a profound role in the acceptability of decisions for risk actions. The proposed research will seek to develop a better understanding of the roles that risk communication has played in influencing individual and social trust in decision-maker action on key public health issues. The work will be conducted via the development and application of a standardized evaluative framework to three unique cases of past events involving risk communication and management in select areas of Canada. These are: (1) the issue of environmental contaminants in a northern Inuit community exposed via their traditional diet and the risks posed to infant development from in utero exposure; (2) remediation of arsenic tri-oxide contamination from gold mining activities near the Yellowknives Dene First Nation communities of Ndilo and Dettah in NWT; and (3) the tradeoff between the anticipated benefits of reducing the risk from West Nile virus (WNV) disease using malathion among the Métis community in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This research will provide a systematic basis upon which to examine the various factors affecting the trust of public in decision-maker action on risks to the health of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. Results from the study will be useful to a number of Federal and Provincial health agencies to determine the importance of trust in risk management, the relationship between effective risk communication and trust in decision-makers and the factors underlying the establishment and maintenance of trust.