Driscoll, David. 1999. HUMANIZING ENVIRONMENTAL RISK DECISION MAKING A case study of how select ethnographic and social marketing techniques can contribute to a more participatory environmental risk decision making process.

Abstract: In recent years, environmental risk decision-making has evolved away from a focus on the potential of a single chemical agent in one environmental media for causing one of a few health conditions. As the need to recognize multiple endpoints, sources, and routes of exposure as well as to respond to the goals and concerns of local residents grows, applied anthropology can contribute to the assessment and management of health risks. The following case study demonstrates how select ethnographic and social marketing techniques can augment the assessment process, and help local residents participate in the management of local health risks. It was specifically undertaken with the assistance of, and for, an audience of federal and state agency environmental risk professionals and project administrators who work in the area of brownfields redevelopment. It took place over a period of two years, from May of 1997 until December of 1998, in northern Miami-Dade County, Florida.