4/15/05
Collins & Pinch 6

when there is a possible danger, what do the experts do?

NSAID drugs showed to increase risk of heart disease
corporation stopped selling the drug--to protect themselves from lawsuits
FDA ruled the drugs could still be sold
benefits are greater than risks
they don't want to admit they made a mistake
let people choose whether to take a risk
you can't ban all drugs that have this level of risk--too many do

radioactive contamination from Chernobyl--how much danger was there to the public
experts immediately tried to reassure the public that there wasn't any danger
by an oversimplified analysis it looked like it would be ok
the government experts most of all don't want people to panic
often it isn't that simple, people learn to distrust the experts because initial reassurance was wrong

scientists needed to listen to the knowledge of the local farmers
Collins and Pinch want everyone to admit that science isn't certain