Alumni Bulletin - Winter 2009 - (Page 21)

OLOGY • ENVIRONMENT • POLICY • SOCIETY Sharon Friedman ASSESSing tHE riSK As Sharon Friedman studies media coverage of potential environmental and health risks associated with nanotechnology, she is finding similarities to how the media covered nuclear power in the years before the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident. Friedman, professor and director of the Science and Environmental Writing Program, served as a consultant to the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, which investigated the partial core meltdown at the plant near Harrisburg, Pa. Comparing the results of her nanotechnology risk study, funded through grants by the National Science Foundation and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with her previous work on Three Mile Island, Friedman observes that:  Both emerging technologies claimed revolutionary roles and major benefits. Nuclear power, we were told, would produce electricity too cheap to meter. Nanotechnology, we are now assured, will lead the next industrial revolution.  Both technologies were proclaimed safe by government and industry officials who maintained that existing regulations would protect public safety.  Both technologies had overwhelmingly positive media coverage and few articles about risks at the outset. “Public trust in nuclear power plummeted after the TMI accident. It is important to prevent a similar situation with nanotechnology by openly discussing its possible risks,” Friedman says. Christopher Knight ’09, who is pursuing a double major in science and environmental writing and earth and environmental science, is among the undergraduate students who have had the opportunity to assist Friedman. Friedman’s co-author on the nanotechnology study is Brenda P Egolf of . Lehigh’s Center for Social Reseach. She also has worked with colleagues in the Science, Technology, and Society Program and the Center for Applied Materials and Nanotechnology on this project, and believes the new STEPS facility will encourage even greater collaboration. “STEPS will bring students and faculty together from a number of fields, creating an exciting synergy for teaching and research,” she says. Christopher Knight ’09 Sharon Friedman believes that nanotechnology has the potential to improve people’s lives in many ways. “But those benefits may not come if there’s a consumer backlash, if people lose trust in the technology, which can happen if they do not know about potential risks,” she says. Her research analyzes how much information is available to the public regarding the risks associated with nanotechnology. While media coverage in the United States and United Kingdom increased between 2000 and 2007, only several hundred risk articles were written during those years. Since 2005, coverage has shifted from scientific studies about risks toward more regulatory issues. WINTER 2008 6 For more faculty profiles, the latest news and updates, and even a live Web-cam of the STEPS building construction, please visit: www.lehigh.edu/steps For information on giving opportunities, please call (610) 758-4285. Why it matters http://www.lehigh.edu/steps

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Lehigh Bulletin - Winter 2009 Contents From the President's Desk Mailbox On Campus Research Arts & Culture Sports Teaming Up to Tackle Global Challenges Positively 4th Street A Sweet Job From the Publisher's Desk Alumni News

Alumni Bulletin - Winter 2009

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