Peter Sandman

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Peter Sandman is a low-profile but very influential US-based "risk communication" adviser. He is best known for his "Risk = Hazard + Outrage" formula. [1]

Sandman has advised tarnished companies and industries on how to re-invent themselves as a way of easing community-driven constraints on their current and future business. [2]

Sandman has also been a pioneer advocate of governments and corporations creating community advisory panels as a way of reducing "outrage" and "engaging" with the community. [3] His analysis has been incorporated into "Outrage" software to assist governments and corporations manage public relations controversies. [4]

Sandman also works for non-profit groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund. [5] Sandman - who can command consultancy rates from $US650 per hour for domestic work up to $1250 per hour for his overseas work - has his supporters among even notoriously conservative companies. [6]

Clients

On his website - dated 2002 - Sandman includes what he refers to as a "representative" list of his past and current clients:

Corporate and Trade Association

Government and Non-Profit

Sandman does not disclose on his website what exactly he worked on for each of his clients. However, his work included the following:

  • advising on the Nevada nuclear waste dump for the U.S. Department of Energy; [7]
  • on radon testing in houses and home testing for lead for the U.S. Environment Protection Agency;
  • advising Shell International on handling the controversy over its involvement in countering the advocacy of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed in November 1995 by the then Nigerian military dictatorship;

Other clients not included in Sandman's ‘representative’ list include Pasminco, ARCO, the Chemical Manufacturers Association, Ciba-Geigy, Exxon, Intel, Union Carbide, Placer Pacific, CSR, Energy Resources of Australia, the Minerals Council of Australia, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization. These additional clients and the specifics of what he worked on for some of them was confirmed by Sandman. [8]

Contact information

Peter M. Sandman
59 Ridgeview Rd.
Princeton NJ 08540-7601 USA
Phone: 1-609-683-4073
Fax: 1-609-683-0566
Email: peter AT psandman.com
http://www.psandman.com/

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch articles

References


External resources

  • The most detailed outline of Peter Sandman's views on how companies should manage outrage is "Responding to Community Outrage: Strategies for Effective Risk Communication," which is available for $US30 from the American Industrial Hygiene Association, 2700 Prosperity Avenue, Suite 250, Fairfax VA 22031, phone (703) 849-8888 or fax (703) 207-3561.
  • Some of his other reports and articles are available at low cost, along with other "risk communication" materials, from the Center for Environmental Communication at Rutgers University by phoning (908) 932-8795. The publications list is at http://aesop.rutgers.edu/~cec/pubs.html

External articles

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