ABSTRACT

This chapter analyzes two cases involving profiles of developing risk—risks that became perceived in different ways in different time frames. The case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy/Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in Britain illustrates widespread fear in a population that arose after a government's initial inclination to keep risk data from the public, followed by a sudden infusion of information into the public sphere. The case of carpal tunnel syndrome shows that sometimes public perceptions of risk are exaggerated, as in the case of normal levels of computer use. One reason the case is symbolic of profiles of developing risk is because of the uncertainty about the disease that existed in the early stages of its discovery. The story of mad cow disease reveals the thinness of the line that occasionally exists between risk aversion and panic, and it presents a parable for our time in the combination of uncertain risk and public perception.