Final Program - Society for Risk Analysis

passenger impact of such events and the effectiveness of the public health system inmitigating these events. It analyzes the effectiveness on the various response strategiesagainst the range of events, and documents which responses are most effective.Finally, it provides recommendations for implementation and further study.P.21 Medrano D, Demichelis SO; sandrademichelis@yahoo.comNational University of LanusPOPULATION RISKS IN A SMALL COASTAL TOWN OF THE RIO DELA PLATA RIVER: A CASE OF STUDYPunta Lara is a small town localized on the south coast of the de la Plata River,in Buenos Aires province, Argentina. Environmental indicators of poor water quality,the lack of urban services such as sewages and the wrong management of resourcesgenerate a significant damage of environment that affects the population life quality.This town is exposed periodically to floods which increases the contact of inhabitantswith polluted water. In fact, the urban and environmental conditions do not fulfillthe indispensable urban services requirements to humans. This city presents a greatinefficiency of management in hydraulic works and social-environmental prevention.The Rio de la Plata is a tidal regaled water body which receives all the effluents producedby the urban activities 15 km upstream the maximum sewage from Buenos Airesand downstream the petrol industry park and the port and the maximum sewagefrom La Plata and Gran La Plata (5 km). Punta Lara belongs to a region of coastalstrip. Due to its natural particularity, it became the habitat of a great variety of aquaticand terrestrial species with high ecological value, which is rarely is appreciated andcontinuously degraded. It exists an area of three thousand ha protected by ProvincialNatural Reserve declaration. This it is an important reason to decide actions. The goalof present work is propose five viable actions which will diminish significantly risk onhealth and structures.T3-C.3 Meek ME; bmeek@uottawa.caUniversityTHE IMPORTANCE OF MODE OF ACTIONThe need for more efficient assessment as a basis to address the many unevaluatedchemicals in the marketplace was identified by the NAS Science and DecisionsCommittee as one of the more significant challenges facing the toxicological and riskassessment communities. That this requires tiered approaches to testing and assessmentwas also recognized. However, the importance of mode of action in developmentof predictive methodologies relevant to early tiers and more accurate chemicalspecific approaches in latter tiers was not explicitly addressed. This presentationwill address deliberations of the Alliance for Risk Assessment Panel related to increasingcommon understanding of the extent of incorporation of mode of actionconsiderations and associated uncertainties in increasingly mode of action informedpredictive and chemical specific approaches to dose-response analysis in various tiers144of assessment. The application of internationally agreed criteria in assessing weightof evidence for mode of action-related considerations in dose-response evaluationfor various tiers is also considered.T3-I.3 Mercer AM, Keith DW, Sharp JD; mercer.ashley@gmail.comUniversity of Calgary, Simon Fraser UniversityPUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF SOLAR RADIATION MANAGEMENTAND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON FUTURE RESEARCHGeoengineering (or climate engineering) has recently become the subject ofserious debate within scientific and political circles. A geoengineering techniquecalled solar radiation management (SRM) is designed to reflect incoming sunlight,with the objective of slowing and partially offsetting greenhouse gas driven climatechange. Intentionally manipulating the Earth’s climate is very controversial, and todate there has not been a broad public dialog on the use of SRM. Experts assumethat the public is unaware of its existence and cannot contribute to the debate. Thisresearch provides an international baseline assessment of the general public’s awarenessand opinions of geoengineering and SRM. An internet-based survey was administeredto nationally representative samples in Canada, the United Kingdom, and theUnited States (n = 2,893). The results suggest that 8% and 45% of the populationcorrectly understand the terms geoengineering and climate engineering respectively,with awareness levels similar across the three countries. On average there was slightsupport for the use of geoengineering as a solution to global warming, although asubstantial share of the population does not yet have an opinion. Distinct supporterand detractor groups were identified. The results have important implications for therole of public engagement in future research programs on high-risk emerging climatetechnologies.W2-H.3 Meyer RJ; meyerr@wharton.upenn.eduUniversity of PennsylvaniaSTUDYING AND IMPROVING RESPONSE TO TROPICAL CYCLONETHREATS: LESSONS FROM THE VIRTUAL HURRICANE LABThis presentation reports the initial findings of a program of work that exploresthe use of realistic hurricane simulations to test how alternative approaches towarning communication affect risk perceptions and preparedness decisions. A prototypesimulation is described in which participants experience the approach of a virtualhurricane, where they have the opportunity to invest in different kinds of action toprotect their home from damage. As the hurricane approaches participants haveaccess to an “information dashboard” in which they can gather information aboutthe storm threat from a variety of natural sources, including mock television weatherbroadcasts, web sites, and conversations with neighbors. In response to this informationthey then have the opportunity to invest in different levels of protective actions.The key feature of the approach is that the simulation allows experimental control