What's the MSDS for "soft soap."

Michigan Center for "Risk Science and Communication." or some such. BrooklynDodger taxonomizes risk communication into two branches, national policy risk communication and situation specific risk communication.

National policy is about how the exposure health threat that has political momentum to get some public health intervention launched is aimed at a smaller risk than something which is legally tolerated. Phthalates in pacifiers compared to sky diving or speeding on a downhill, curving country road at night in the rain after a few beers and not wearing a seatbelt.

Situation specific is about formaldehyde vapor from the insulation in your house. That's about whether you move out and file a lawsuit - vaporizing your investment against tough sell litigation - or just get over it and live or die with the exposure. That's the soft soap metaphor.

Here's the Center's Debut:


The Center for Risk Science and Communication inaugural symposium:
'Calculation to Communication'
Promoting informed decision-making about health risks.
Thursday and Friday September 15-16, 2005

University of Michigan School of Public Health
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Here are some hazardous ingredients, each more than 1% of the program:

Thursday, September 15, 2005
8:00 a.m. - Registration and Continental Breakfast


1:45 p.m. - Colloquium: 'Risk Science and the National Landscape' John Graham, Ph.D., Administrator, Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, The Executive Office of the President

4:45 p.m. Roundtable and Q&A Discussion with the afternoon participants moderated by Teresa Bowers, Ph.D., Principal, Gradient Corporation

6:00 p.m. Reception and Banquet with John Henshaw, M.P.H., Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, 2001–2004. Registration required.
Friday, September 16, 2005

9 a.m. Keynote Address by John H. Marburger III, Science Advisor to the President and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, The White House

9:45 a.m. - 1:00 pm 'Poorly Characterized Environmental Risks' A moderated discussion with:
John Butenhoff, Ph.D., Corporate Toxicology and Regulatory Services, 3M

Edward Calabrese, Ph.D., Professor of Toxicology, Environmental Health Sciences Program, University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences

[Mr. Hormesis]

Melvin Andersen, Ph.D., Division Director of Computational Biology, CIIT Centers for Health Research

Dennis Paustenbach, Ph.D, President and Founder, ChemRisk, Inc.