Communicating Risk without Creating Outrage

1. Communicating Riskwithout Creating Outrage Dennis Winkler WinklerPublic Relations Air Toxics: Risk Communication Panel Tuesday, October 18, 2005 University of Houston Hilton - Houston, Texas 713.259.0195 . dennis@winklerpr.com

2. Risk Communication Evolves • Decades of Improvement • Continuing Process • William Ruckelshaus, EPA • Tacoma Process • Sandman, Covello, et al • Stakeholder Engagement

3. Risk Communication Evolves “They felt that risk assessment was a function of experts and they were afraid that soliciting wider input might make the public afraid and angry.” EPA staff 1983 Tacoma Process Source: Krimsky and Plough, Communicating Risk as a Social Process

4. Communication Process Model Social Environment Context of Relationship A’s frame of reference B’s frame of reference Encoder Decoder Message A Communicator A Communicator B Message B Decoder Encoder Source: Effective Public Relations, Cutlip, Center & Broom

5. Risk Communication Barriers • Attitudes • Opinions • Beliefs • Values • Judgments

6. Developing Barriers • Misinformation, Myth, Innuendo • cancer is a concern for many in polluted communities, but little is being done • the government established that inhaling a concentration of 0.3 ppb butadiene over 70 years could result in one additional case of cancer in a million people • in an increasingly familiar scene, black smoke and flames streamed from a plant • Corporations are reaping profits, poisoning the land, and causing lung cancer

7. Risk Communication Enablers • Involvement • Understanding • Control • Trust

8. Trust and Credibility Factors Source: Dr. Vincent Covello

9. Model Risk Communication Process • Sharing Worst Case Scenarios • More than four years planning • Involved community members • Asked what they wanted to know • Active members engaged others

10. Model Risk Communication Process • Community Event • Managers, workers & union • Community Advisory Panel members • Schools • City leaders

11. Model Risk Communication Process • Public Process • Pre-meetings with community • Preview articles on risk management • Media coverage • Student assignments lured parents • Repeated at town festival

12. Model Risk Communication Process • Favorable Results in Exit Surveys • 96.5% - program was informative • 87.8% - better understand crisis plans • 92.2% - planning increases our safety

13. Successful Risk Communication • A process, not a program or event • Based on trust and understanding • Requires shared control • Requires balanced information • Occurs when public is engaged • Inhibited by outrage

14. Communicating Riskwithout Creating Outrage Dennis Winkler WinklerPublic Relations Air Toxics: Risk Communication Panel Tuesday, October 18, 2005 University of Houston Hilton - Houston, Texas 713.259.0195 . dennis@winklerpr.com

15. Dennis Winkler, co-owner and Chief Operating Officer of Winkler Public Relations, provides public relations, media relations and crisis communication counsel to a varied list of clients. A nearly 30-year veteran in the public relations field, Winkler worked 23 years for Shell Oil Company serving as a regional Community Relations manager, manager of Houston Public Affairs and as external affairs support for three presidents of Shell Oil before retiring in 2004. Winkler has actively engaged with local communities, served on Local Emergency Planning Committees and helped establish and participated on multiple Community Advisory Panels. He worked side-by-side with community members to educate citizens about worst-case scenario plans, helped build community awareness about clean air plans and spent years establishing dialogue and trust between companies and communities. Winkler is Accredited in Public Relations (APR) through the Public Relations Society of America. Dennis Winkler . 713.259.0195 . dennis@winklerpr.com