Web site intended to replace diatribe with dialogue
King County, Wash., officials are using a dedicated, interactive web site to build bridges between residents who disagree on how to educate the public about the dangers of hazardous materials. The site serves as an electronic meeting room that encourages dialogue on sensitive and controversial environmental issues.
The site was created last fall, but its roots go back about two years, when the King County Hazardous Waste Management Program issued flyers and posters alerting consumers to the dangers of common household products and cleansers. The flyers warned that some products “poison children, irritate eyes or skin, cause cancer or kill birds and fish” and urged consumers to avoid products with the word “danger” on the label. They also encouraged consumers to use environmentally friendly alternatives such as baking soda or nonchemical products such as soap and water.
In response to the county’s dire warnings, the Household and Institutional Product Information Council (HIPIC) and the Chemical Specialties Manufacturing Association drafted a bill for consideration by the state legislature that would have restricted the publicly funded distribution of materials such as the county’s flyers unless they could be validated scientifically. That led to an April 1997 meeting at which representatives of the county’s hazardous waste management program, HIPIC and the Washington Department of Ecology sought to resolve their differences.
“Everybody came at the issue from completely different points of view,” says Ray Carveth, King County’s supervisor of field services. “It was understood that they would probably never agree on certain basic issues, but I was encouraged that [the different parties] were ready to get together.”
Eventually, the manufacturers’ association agreed to withdraw the pending controversial legislation in exchange for a promise that a peer-review process and advisory committee would be established. The committee would review any future educational materials on the use, storage and disposal of chemical household products and would advise the submitting agencies/organizations on the accuracy and scientific content of those materials.
Working with the Information Systems Division of GZA GeoEnvironmental Technologies, Newton Upper Falls, Mass., local, state and industry officials also constructed a web site (www.ehmi.org/wsacc). The public can visit the site to get the latest news on hazardous waste educational programs, issues, policies and materials. A “reading room” provides more than 100 sources for environmental and safety information.
Additionally, the “CommitteeLink” section offers a secure cyberspace meeting room where authorized members can access technical information, participate in discussion forums and review and collaborate on proposed promotional materials before they are released to the public. Steering committee members can proceed through the rigorous 17-step review process at their own pace, which reduces the need for members to meet in person.
While face-to-face meetings tend to favor those with more forceful, persuasive personalities, communication on the Internet levels the playing field, county officials say. Alan Borner of the Durham, N.H.-based Environmental Hazards Management Institute, a nonprofit environmental education organization, set up the initial meeting to introduce local, state and private sector officials to one another.
“King County’s project is the first of its type in the United States, and possibly the world, to use a web site approach to the peer review process,” Borner says. “I believe it will be the standard by which efforts like this will be judged.”
King County’s Carveth adds, “The trend in environmentalism today is moving from control to prevention. The most important need is to get good, scientifically valid information out to the public. The web site in many ways is a nearly ideal information-sharing tool.”