Recommended Distributions for Exposure Factors Frequently Used in Health Risk Assessment

Although there has been nearly complete agreement in the scientific community that Monte Carlo techniques represent a significant improvement in the exposure assessment process, virtually all state and federal risk assessments still rely on the traditional point estimate approach. One of the rate-determining steps to a timely implementation of Monte Carlo techniques to regulatory decision making is the development of "standard" data distributions that are considered applicable to any setting. For many exposure variables, there is no need to wait any longer to adopt Monte Carlo techniques into regulatory policy since there is a wealth of data from which a robust distribution can be developed and ample evidence to indicate that the variable is not significantly influenced by site-specific conditions. In this paper, we propose several distributions that can be considered standard and customary for most settings. Age-specific distributions for soil ingestion rates, inhalation rates, body weights, skin surface area, tapwater and fish consumption, residential occupancy and occupational tenure, and soil-on-skin adherence were developed. For each distribution offered in this paper, we discuss the adequacy of the database, derivation of the distribution, and applicability of the distribution to various settings and conditions.     

“We Don't Call It a 'Circle'”: The Ethos of a Support Group

This paper contains the results of an eight month qualitative study of a group of young adults called a 'circle of friends', in Ontario, Canada. The 'circle of friends' concept has become increasingly popular in the field of disability in the last few years. In it, unrelated age peers are expected to befriend and support a person with a label. Utilizing participant observation and in-depth qualitative interviewing, the researcher gathered data which revealed a group ethos. The group attempted to make their activities seem as 'natural' and 'normal' as possible. It was also found that the 'circle' meant little or nothing to the supporters involved, but their friendships with the labelled person were quite important to them. The results of the study increase our understanding of how one such group operates, and the meaning participation has to those involved. As well, we can begin to build a theory about the relationship between friendship and support in such groups.     

How Dangerous Is Low Level Radiation?

Problems in the theoretical basis for the linear-no threshold theory of radiation carcinogenesis are reviewed, and it is shown that they very strongly suggest that the theory greatly overestimates the risk of low level radiation. A direct test of the theory, based on the radon—lung cancer relationship is described; it strongly reinforces that conclusion. However, it is shown that even if the linear-no threshold theory is valid, the public's fear of low level radiation, at least in some contexts, is grossly exaggerated.     

Accounting for Exclusion: Giving a ‘Voice’ and producing a ‘subject’

SUMMARY: This article examines a series of accounts of exclusion given by pupils and a teacher in interviews and a group discussion. It is argued that it is important to hear pupils' experiences. However, it is recognised that it is never possible to access an experience directly, since the process of research alway shapes the way an account is constructed. This does not invalidate the research, since it is argued that the way pupils relate to the interviewer and the way they talk about their exclusion seemed indirectly to reflect important differences in the way exclusion is experienced. Specifically, two ways of managing exclusion were identified by pupils: some pupils protested about being excluded and welcomed the invitation to tell their story. Others distanced themselves from the event, by speaking of their exclusion in objective and concrete terms. These styles of accounting are compared to the way in which the head teacher discusses the topic of exclusion.     

Feminism and the quality of life

A measure of feminism is introduced, and a case is made for the acceptability of its levels of reliability, criterion-related, content, construct and discriminant-validity. Feminism is shown to be related to such features of the quality of life as happiness and being a good person. Survey results are reported from a sample of 431 members of the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women and 413 undergraduate women from the University of Guelph.     

Between Representations and Subjectivity: Gender Binaries and the Politics of Organizational Transformation

The distinction between male and female and masculinity and femininity continues to polarize relations between the sexes in ways that generally subordinate, marginalize, or undermine women with respect to men. The gender literature has recently challenged the singular and unitary conception of gender identity, arguing that there are a multiplicity of masculinities and femininities that are often fragile, fragmented and fluid. Despite this, the binary relationship between men and women continues to obstruct the development of sexual equality. This article is concerned with focusing critically on this binary and, in particular, its association with hierarchy, where men dominate women and masculinity assigns to femininity a marginal or ‘Other’ inferior status. It suggests that hierarchy is a condition and consequence of the reification of the binary that is difficult to challenge from within a representational epistemology that continues to dominate even studies of gender, let alone social science more generally. Deconstructing the gender binary is simply to challenge the reification of the terms wherein the divisions between male and female, masculine and feminine or men and women are treated as absolute and unchanging. The article examines conceptions of masculinity and the debate between Foucauldian and anti‐Foucauldian feminists as a basis for developing its argument. It then concludes that gender analysis can only deconstruct the hierarchical content of the gender binary by disrupting masculine hegemony at work. One way of facilitating this is temporarily to occupy a space between representations of gender and the conditions of subjectivity and language that make them possible.     

Conflict Resolution as the Alternative to Terrorism

We distinguish between the typical sort of short-range conflict management, in which governments must engage, and the long-term processes of conflict resolution, which must include the involvement of entire societies and the replacement of adversarial relations with cooperative ones. How can third parties facilitate conflict resolution? This article discusses five principles that have evolved from attempts to facilitate conflict resolution in the Mideast: enhancement of each adversary's identity , creation of new symbols, enfranchisement of elements within each of the conflict groups, enhancement of indigenous development , and use of indigenous third parties . We argue that this nongovernmental facilitation of conflict resolution (with governmental tacit cooperation) is the real alternative to terrorism.     

Tamworth, Australia's ‘country music capital’: place marketing, rurality, and resident reactions

Since the 1970s, Tamworth has become well known as Australia's ‘country music capital’. Its annual Country and Western Music Festival has become the leading event of its type in Australia, attracting over 60,000 visitors every year. The festival, and country music more generally, have become central to the town's identity and tourism marketing strategies. This article discusses the social constructions that have surrounded Tamworth's transition to ‘country music capital’—of the ‘rural’, and of ‘country’—within the context of debates about the politics of place marketing. Textual analysis of promotional material and built landscapes reveals representations of rurality (or ‘senses of the rural’). In their most commercial form, representations of rurality converge on a dominant notion of ‘country’, quite different from the ‘countryside’ and ‘rural idyll’ in England. This dominant, or normative ‘country’ forms the basis of imagery for the festival, the Town's marketing strategy, and associated advertising campaigns by major sponsors. It is predominantly masculine, white, working class and nationalist. But links between musical style and discourses of place are complex. Colonial British histories, Celtic musical traditions and North American popular culture all inform ‘country’ in Tamworth, dissipating nationalist interpretations. Normative constructions also contrast with other, heterogeneous ruralities in Australia, that include the lived experiences of rural Australians, and on stage—in country music—where multiple ‘ruralised’ identities are performed. Even those who stand to benefit from place promotion have been uncertain about country music and ‘the country’, because of associated discourses of Tamworth as ‘hick’ and ‘redneck’. In the final section of the paper, reactions of residents to constructions of Tamworth as country music capital are discussed, via the results of a simple resident survey. In contrast to previous studies of the disempowering politics of place marketing, Tamworth residents were on the whole supportive of the new associations and images for the town, despite ‘hick’ connotations, as it has become a centre for ‘country’, and for country music. Reasons for this are explored, and resistances discussed. The result is a complex and entangled politics of national identity, gender, race and class, where meanings for place are variously interpreted and negotiated.