From hypothetical scenario to tragic reality: A salutary lesson in risk communication and the Victorian 2009 bushfires

Abstract

There is a need in public health risk and emergency situations to focus on community development, information and consultation.

Efficacy of Communication Techniques and Health Outcomes of Bushfire Smoke Exposure: A Scoping Review

“…Forty papers were found that provided information pertinent to communication and public action during natural disasters. Twenty-one publications relate to the origin and media form, with thirteen providing information on traditional media [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21], eleven on nontraditional sources [10,11,15,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27], and seven on choice of media [9][10][11]15,18,28,29]. Five articles provided information on smoke avoidance behaviours [19,20,22,25,30,31].…”

“…Five articles provided information on smoke avoidance behaviours [19,20,22,25,30,31]. Twenty-nine papers provide advice on message style, with nine relating to message content [9,18,20,22,27,[32][33][34][35], nineteen relating to message style [11,14,15,18,19,21,22,30,[32][33][34][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44], nine relating to the origin of the message [10,14,15,18,21,22,34,38,42,45], and seven specifically mentioning two-way dialogue [15,18,33,36,[46...…”

Highlights in this issue

“…We are pleased that the sections in this February 2013 issue reflect their interests and work. Also of note, and to remind us of Delys's work, our cover photograph reflects the challenges of our climate and of climate change, which we covered in a previous editorial 1,2 …”

“…Also of note, and to remind us of Delys's work, our cover photograph reflects the challenges of our climate and of climate change, which we covered in a previous editorial. 1,2 We are also saying farewell to Jeanne Daly and Sandy Thompson. We thank them for their contributions and will miss their thoughtful contributions as editors.…”

Wildfire Smoke: Trends, Challenges, Unknowns, and Human Response

“…A 2009 Australia brushfire study examining the means of receiving public health messages found that people over 40 years of age preferred government-funded local radio, local papers, and state/council spokesperson and emergency services. In the same study those under 40 years of age preferred television, local papers, and emergency services (Burns, Robinson, and Smith 2010;Fish et al 2017). Both the San Diego and Australian studies demonstrate that the mode of communication is dependent on the community to which it is given.…”