Until it was suggested I made a Risk Bites video about the flu, I hadn't had a shot. Why not? Time for some flu risk-introspection. For further information on the flu and flu shots, check out: Flu.gov: http://www.flu.gov Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/ Universi
An introduction to what's cool and what's important about environmental health science. For more information on Environmental Health Science, check out the University of Michigan EHS department website at http://www.sph.umich.edu/ehs/ Risk Bites is your guide to making sense of risk. We cover ever
What are the ethical issues that emerge as our ability to detect chemicals in the environment around us improves? This week's risk bites looks at the ethical dimension of the measurement conundrum -- when our ability to detect stuff outstrips our understanding of what to do with the information. Th
What is a scientific model and what is it good for? As a prelude to talking about dose-response models on Risk Bites, this week's video is a primer on models -- what they are, and why they are useful. This is part of a series of Risk Bites videos that tackle dose response and response models. Ch
Risk is not just a number -- it also involves how we feel about things. This week Risk Bites introduces Dr. Brian Zikmund-Fisher, who will be talking more in future videos about how we perceive and feel about risk, and what this means about the risk decisions we make. This week's Risk Bites team:
Have you ever experienced that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? It probably meant you were dreading something. But, why is it that we dread some things and not others? And how does this affect how we feel about risk? Brian Zikmund Fisher is back with Risk Bites to talk about how we tend
A recent report from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists highlighted the challenges of dealing with potential but unproven risks to child health during pregnancy. While the report's authors acknowledge that most exposures to environmental chemicals experienced by pregnant women pr
A Public Health perspective on getting the risks and dangers of the Ebola virus in perspective. Ebola is a serious infectious disease, and should never be taken lightly. Yet it's easy for lack of understanding of this virus to give way to fear, when what we really need to tackle it is knowledge. A
Are companies that provide direct-to-consumer information on their personal genome -- including genetic susceptibility to disease -- creating new health risks that need to be regulated? On November 22 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration requested that the personalized DNA analysis company 23a
What are the hazards associated with lithium-ion batteries, and how can these turn into safety risks? Last week Risk Bites looked at the bottom-line risk challenges of lithium-ion batteries. This week we take a closer look at the technology behind the batteries used in cell phones, laptops and the
How do you know how likely something is to kill you? Or how do you work out how beneficial something is? Welcome to micromorts and microlives! Just how dangerous is crossing the road? And what's the real payback on eating healthily and exercising regularly? Neither are easy to get our heads aroun
Some chocolate contains lead. Is this safe? And does the ability to measure minute quantities of lead in chocolate make the product less safe? This week's Risk Bites is about the measurement conundrum -- what do you do when you can measure what's in the stuff you eat to the nth degree? It's not p
