Public Health Report: Risk Perception of Genetically Modified Food

This report examines two key areas within public health: disaster planning and risk perception. The first section focuses on earthquake disaster planning in Canada, particularly for indigenous populations. It analyzes the government's preparedness strategies, including awareness campaigns and infrastructure improvements, assessing their strengths and weaknesses. The second section delves into the controversy surrounding genetically modified foods (GMOs), exploring factors influencing public risk perception, such as health concerns and the novelty of the technology. It identifies trusted information sources, like research papers and news articles, and proposes health communication strategies to address public concerns and promote informed decision-making. The report utilizes APA style for referencing.

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH
PUBLIC HEALTH
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Author Note

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Topic 1
Disasters are often defined as natural catastrophe or a sudden accident which is seen
to cause a lot of damage and even loss of lives. Natural calamities are inevitable and possess
a lot of threat to the human beings because of its grave effects (Banfield, 2018). Thus, it is
important for countries to do a proper disaster planning so that they can minimize the grave
effects that affect the people and the society in a negative manner. This paper will be
presenting the disaster planning in terms of a natural calamity, Earthquake in Canada for the
indigenous people.
According to scholars, Canada is prone to earthquakes and every year the country
experiences around 4000 earthquakes where mostly the earthquake cannot be felt (Wang,
2018). The main regions in Canada for the seismic activity are the Arctic, British Columbia,
Cordillera region and also in the eastern seaboard and eastern provinces to some extent. It has
been seen that Canada takes this matter seriously and considers disaster preparedness in order
to ensure that maximum number of people do not suffer because of the natural calamities.
The government of Canada spreads awareness among people to what are the things
one needs to do to protect themselves during the earthquake and also spreads awareness about
the precautions one needs to take during an Earthquake. They educate the indigenous people
and make them participate in the risk preparedness projects to make them aware and gain
knowledge of the detrimental effects which earthquakes create. In their official website, the
government of Canada has provided some tips that one should consider while building their
houses or make the necessary changes to protect houses from earthquakes like adding metal
roof ties, anchor bolts and many more (Seismescanada.rncan.gc.ca., 2018). In the earthquake
preparedness report, the government has seen to have provided the strategies they have been
taking to ensure the well-being of the people during the time of crisis like reconstruction of
the building that are affected, community and volunteer support, improving the water and the
sewer system, civil facilities, transportation systems which will help in minimizing the
damage that an earthquake can cause (Vancouver.ca., 2016).
In order to assess these arrangements and plans, it is important to follow simple steps
that have been provided by eminent scholars that are identify the nature of the hazard, next is
to assess the people who are likely to be more affected and how, assess the risks and then
take strict actions, create a report of the findings and then review the risk assessment properly
(Mili, Hosseini & Izadkhah, 2018). It can be seen that the plans that have been taken by the

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government to ensure minimizing the effects of risk help in minimizing the effects and
prepares and spreads knowledge about the issues that can have detrimental impacts which can
help people take precautions to reduce the risk factors however, the major limitations of the
plan is that it does not fully guarantee to mitigate all the issues as it is unknown to people
what natural disasters might bring.
Natural disasters are a serious threat to the people and the society as it cannot be
apprehended before that what can risks it can possess which makes the risk planning
sometimes vague. However, it has been seen that the risk plans developed by the Government
of Canada is strong and helps to mitigate a lot of issues for making the lives of people better
after the grave effects caused.

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Reference
Banfield, A. (2018, December). When ‘Acts of God’Strike: Faith responses and leadership in
natural disasters in Vanuatu. In Asia Pacific Humanitarian Leadership Conference
Proceedings (pp. 65-69).
Mili, R. R., Hosseini, K. A., & Izadkhah, Y. O. (2018). Developing a holistic model for
earthquake risk assessment and disaster management interventions in urban
fabrics. International journal of disaster risk reduction, 27, 355-365.
Seismescanada.rncan.gc.ca. (2018). How would your home stand up?. Retrieved 30 March
2020, from
https://www.seismescanada.rncan.gc.ca/info-gen/prepare-preparer/eqresist-en.php
Vancouver.ca. (2016). Earthquake Preparedness Strategy Update 2016. Retrieved 30 March
2020, from https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/earthquake-preparedness-strategy-april-
2016.pdf
Wang, R. (2018). Source Analysis of Induced Earthquakes in the Western Canada
Sedimentary Basin.

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Topic 2
Risk perception is considered to be a subjective judgment which people generally
make about severity and the characteristics of a risk (Ghasemi et al, 2019). This phrase is
majorly used when referring to threats to environment, health or natural hazards. In recent
times, one of the major risk perceptions of people which is becoming a growing concern in
the society is genetically modified food. This paper will focus on the rise in risk perception
about genetically modified food in the society, its grave effects on the health of the people
and provide a health communication strategy.
According to scholars, genetically modified food is also popularly known as
genetically engineered food that are foods that are produced from certain organisms which
has had changes which has been introduced in their DNA by various methods and processes
of genetic engineering (Royzman, Cusimano & Leeman, 2017). There are many factors that
have influenced risk perception about genetically modified food like man-made risks, leads to
chronic disease, a comparatively new risk and can possess risk to the future generations.
These factors create a panic among people because scholars have stated that man made
things, new risks, affecting health and the future generations often make people more scared
because of the effects it can have on the health of the people and the children in the society
(Fruh, 2017). It has been seen that genetically modified food scares people because of the risk
factors associated with it for example negative impact on the heaths and the tweaking of the
food by man.
Genetically modified food have become a huge concern for the society because of the
health risks it causes among people and also contributes to diseases like obesity and diabetes
which can later lead to more serious diseases like heart diseases. There are is a lot of
awareness spread about the detrimental effects of genetically modified food in the society
mostly because of several research conducted by scholars on this topic and also news articles
that have contributed to the growing concerns. According to reports, genetically modified
food do not risk the lives of the people directly but do it indirectly as when used in crops they
pollute the groundwater and the surface which causes harm to wildlife, however, countries
use groundwater in order to drink those water which can cause harm to people as well
(Nationalgeographic.com., 2020). These sources are mostly trusted and authentic as these
news articles and research papers consult environmentalists and doctors that research on these

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topics and provide the latest development on these topics to ensure that people are aware as it
highly affects the health of the people and the environment.
These sources are highly important because of the news it provides and helps in
creating a risk perception that a proper risk plan can be made. These sources will help in
creating fruitful health communication strategies so that people are aware of the issues that
genetically modified food can possess and make healthier lifestyle choices to avoid the
issues. These sources can be used in both verbal and non-verbal communication by
incorporating methods like advertising, social media and health marketing to make people
aware of the issues. Genetically modified food is considered to be a controversial topic
which contributes to the perception of risk and thus it is important to come up with a
communication health strategy which will help in spreading awareness and control the risk it
can possess.

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Reference
Fruh, S. M. (2017). Obesity: Risk factors, complications, and strategies for sustainable long‐
term weight management. Journal of the American Association of Nurse
Practitioners, 29(S1), S3-S14.
Ghasemi, S., Ahmadvand, M., Karami, E., & Karami, A. (2019). Social Risk Perceptions of
Genetically Modified Foods of Engineers in Training: Application of a
Comprehensive Risk Model. Science and engineering ethics, 1-25.
Nationalgeographic.com. (2020). Altered Food, GMOs, Genetically Modified Food -
National Geographic. Retrieved 30 March 2020, from
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/food-how-altered/
Royzman, E., Cusimano, C., & Leeman, R. F. (2017). What lies beneath? Fear vs. disgust as
affective predictors of absolutist opposition to genetically modified food and other
new technologies. Judgment and Decision Making, 12(5), 466

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Chosen disaster: Earthquake
Topic 2: 500
Chosen current controversy: Genetically modified food
Style of reference: APA