Dissertation Research: Fats of the Land: The Consequences of Designating Substances as Risky

这个政策科学，工程和技术计划论文改进补助金的科学与社会研究的重点是如何将物质指定为危险物质可以有明显的社会，经济，政治和生物物理后果的问题？这项研究将分析反式脂肪、饱和脂肪和人体脂肪组织之间的关系，以解决以下问题：1。将一种物质指定为有风险物质怎么会产生其他风险？2.如何将一种物质指定为有风险的物质才能在生物药理学上或物质上改变世界？3.将一种物质定为危险物质如何影响可用于管理其他风险的手段？拟议的研究旨在确定将一种物质指定为危险物质是否以及如何产生明显的后果。这些后果被假设为包括其他风险的产生;物质世界的生物物理变化的沉淀;以及管理其他风险的机会的改变。研究者将把风险分类作为各种行为者之间斗争的结果。将特别注意国家决策，公共宣传和企业活动之间的关系，以了解如何指定普遍的膳食物质作为风险可能会影响产品配方，农业育种，立法和司法活动。该项目的独特之处在于，它审查了食源性生活方式风险，并认识到风险可能意味着具有不同利益的行为者的机会。研究人员假设，联邦将反式脂肪酸列为危险物质，促使人们努力减少反式脂肪酸在某些食品中的流行，并被用作起诉食品生产商与肥胖有关的证据。他假设这些诉讼可能促成了限制未来肥胖诉讼的立法的通过，并且美国食品系统中反式脂肪的流行本身可能是早期将饱和脂肪指定为危险的结果。物质和现象被指定为有风险的，以解决问题或减轻不良后果。但拟议的研究可能表明，如果将风险指定的次要影响纳入决策决定，则可以改进将潜在和广泛的饮食物质指定为流行病学风险的熟悉方法。如果本文中阐述的假设被证明是有效的，政策制定者、公众倡导者和科学家将有义务考虑将特定营养素指定为有风险的影响，并评估他们选择的管理这些风险的方法的智慧。由于其他类型的风险也可能产生意想不到的后果，因此拟议的研究可能会影响毒品，城市规划，恐怖主义和战争等不同领域的政策制定，其中将一种现象指定为风险也可能产生其他风险。

This Science and Society Studies of Policy Science, Engineering, and Technology Program Dissertation Improvement Grant focuses on the question of how designating substances as risky can have discernible social, economic, political, and biophysical consequences? The proposed research will analyze relationships among trans fats, saturated fats, and human adipose tissue in order to address the following questions: 1. How can designating a substance as risky generate other risks? 2. How can designating a substance as risky alter the world biophysically or materially? 3. How can designating a substance as risky affect the means available for managing other risks? The proposed research aims to determine if and how the designation of a substance as risky can have discernible consequences. These consequences are hypothesized to include the generation of other risks; the precipitation of biophysical changes to the material world; and the alteration of opportunities for managing other risks. The researcher will approach risk categories as outcomes of struggle among various kinds of actors. Particular attention will be paid to the relationships among state decision-making, public advocacy, and corporate activity in order to understand how the designation of pervasive dietary substances as risky can impact product formulation, agricultural breeding, legislation, and judicial activity. The project is unique in both its scrutiny of food-borne lifestyle risks and in its recognition that riskiness can denote a situation of opportunity for actors with varying interests. The researcher hypothesizes that the federal designation of trans fatty acids as risky has precipitated efforts to reduce their prevalence in some foods and has been used as evidence in suits against food producers for claims related to obesity. He hypothesizes these suits may have precipitated the passage of legislation limiting future obesity litigation, and that the prevalence of trans fats in the American food system could itself be a consequence of an earlier designation of saturated fats as risky. Substances and phenomena are designated as risky in order to solve problems or mitigate undesirable outcomes. But the proposed research may indicated that familiar approaches to designating insidious and widespread dietary substances as epidemiologically risky could be improved if the secondary effects of risk designations were factored into policymaking decisions. If the hypotheses articulated in this dissertation prove valid, policymakers, public advocates and scientists would be obliged to consider the effects of designating specific nutrients as risky, and to evaluate the wisdom of the methods they choose to manage those risks. Because the designation of other kinds of risks may also have unintended consequences, the proposed research could impact policymaking in areas as diverse as drugs, urban planning, terrorism, and war, where designating one phenomenon as risky may also generate other risks.