Journalism and Media Studies at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.
J Law Med Ethics. 2009 Winter;37(4):759-69. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-720X.2009.00446.x.
Regulatory oversight and public communication are intimately intertwined. Oversight failures quickly galvanize media and public attention. In addition, regulations sometimes require that risks and uncertainties be included in communication efforts aimed at non-experts outside of the regulatory and policy communities - whether in obtaining informed consent for novel medical treatments; by including risk information on drug labels, in drug advertisements, or on chemicals used in the workplace; in providing nutritional information on food packages; or by opening environmental impact assessments to public comment. In recent decades, broad public input with respect to new technologies has also been sought "upstream" of hard policy decisions in the hope of ultimately gaining legitimacy for those decisions - and perhaps increasing their quality. When communication fails, oversight may also be seen as failing - rightly or wrongly. As part of a larger project organized by the University of Minnesota, this paper presents six models of public risk communication and uses those models to analyze the communication challenges facing nanotechnology and nanobiotechnology. Reviewing the communication dynamics associated with the historical cases of technology regulation with which this symposium issue is concerned (genetically engineered organisms [GEOs] in the food supply, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, chemicals in the workplace, and gene transfer research or "gene therapy") helps shed light on the communications challenges facing nanobiotechnology.
监管监督和公共沟通是密切交织在一起的。监督失误会迅速引起媒体和公众的关注。此外，法规有时要求在针对监管和政策界之外的非专业人士的沟通工作中纳入风险和不确定性，无论是在获得新医疗方法的知情同意时；通过在药品标签、药品广告或工作场所使用的化学品上包含风险信息；在食品包装上提供营养信息；还是通过向公众征求意见来进行环境影响评估。在最近几十年，人们还希望在做出硬性政策决策之前，就新技术问题“从上游”广泛征求公众意见，希望最终为这些决策赢得合法性——或许还能提高决策质量。如果沟通失败，监督也可能被视为失败——无论对错。本文作为明尼苏达大学组织的一个更大项目的一部分，提出了六种公众风险沟通模式，并利用这些模式分析了纳米技术和纳米生物技术所面临的沟通挑战。回顾本次研讨会涉及的历史技术监管案例（食品供应中的基因工程生物、药品和医疗器械、工作场所的化学品以及基因转移研究或“基因治疗”）相关的沟通动态，有助于阐明纳米生物技术所面临的沟通挑战。
