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This article presents an interpretive analysis of the narratives of 15 men and women who have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) living in the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Relatively little is known about how people who are affected by MS tope with the challenges posed by social and physical barriers in their environment. Our research investigates two objectives: (1) to explore how those who have developed MS cope with their disease and resulting impairments, both in terms of the bodily experiences of becoming a chronically ill person and in terms of how they cope with changing relationships, changing identities and challenges in their physical environment; and (2) how they engage in the process of disablement over time and space as a result of these changing social and spatial relationships. We argue that the physical body and its social placings in public and private spaces are intertwined and both affect experiences of health, ability, impairment, disability and chronic illness. We further argue that these relationships are experienced across time and space, and in place, as people who have developed a chronic illness, such as MS, engage in, with and through the process of disablement. This article demonstrates the need for researchers to pay more attention to the role and significance of the simultaneity of space, place and time in shaping the experiences of people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, as it has been shown that these variables played a significant role in regulating the everyday experiences of this study's respondents. Cette etude presente une analyse interpretative du cas narratif de quinze hommes et femmes de la ville d'Ottawa, Ontario, Canada diagnostiques avec la sclerose en plaques. Nous en connaissons relativement peu sur la facon dont les personnes atteintes de cette maladie degendrative font face aux defis imposes par les barrieres sociales et physiques de leur environnement. Notre recherche poursuit deux objectifs: 1) explorer comment ceux qui ont developpe la sclerose en plaques font face a cette maladie et les incapacites qui en resultent, en terme de leurs experiences individuelles corporelles et des changements effectues dans leurs identites, leurs relations sociales et leurs environnements physiques; et 2) explorer comment ceux-ci s'engagent dans ce processus d'incapacite de maniere temporelle et spatiale, en tenant compte des changements dans leurs relations sociospatiales. Nous argumentons que le corps physique et son emplacement social ou le public et le prive sont inter-relies, vont influencer directement les experiences d'un individu sur le plan de sa sante, de sa capacite, de ses facultes affaiblies, de son incapacite et de sa maladie chronique. Nous avancons que ces experiences sont vecues sous un axe temporel, spatial et local et de plus, que les gens qui ont developpe une maladie chronique, tel la sclerose en plaques, sont profondement engages dans ce processus d'incapacite. Cette etude demontre qu'il existe un besoin important de poursuivre la recherche sur le role et la signification du phenomene de la simultaneite de l'espace, de l'endroit et du temps, puisque ces variables ont joue un role predominant dans la determination des experiences quotidiennes du groupe cible. Mot cle: Sclerose en plaques, processus d'incapacite, incapacite, construction d'une identite, spatio-temporelle., Introduction Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressively worsening chronic disease of unknown etiology for which there is as yet no cure. It affects primarily the central nervous system and has [...]

Risk issues become complicated when scientific evidence concerning a potential environmental exposure is equivocal; particularly when many argue that the public health benefits of a policy action outweigh any potential negative health effects. Chlorinated drinking water, and chlorinated disinfection byproducts (CDBPs) that are formed during the disinfection process, represent a useful case-study for examining these complications. We conduct a media analysis of chlorinated drinking water stories in the Canadian print media from 1977 to 2000. We examine media presentations of science compared to framings by scientists, regulators, the chlorine industry, water utility representatives, and non-governmental organizations of the CDBP issue based on key informant interviews. We argue that there are two main framings of the debate, each of which are powerful in constructing risk perceptions. On the one hand, many frame the debate as a `voluntary' risk: we choose chlorine disinfection to protect against microbial risks with a possible adverse consequence of that protection. On the other hand, others frame the issue as an `involuntary' risk: chlorine disinfection was a `choice' imposed by public health and water utility officials; a choice that carries a potential cancer risk, and alternative disinfection technologies are advocated. We demonstrate these different frames by examining metaphorical constructs of water, chlorine and cancer contained within them. Keywords: Canada; Risk communication; Media frames; Metaphors; Chlorinated drinking water; Cancer

Byline: Cynthia G. Jardine, Merry Turtiak, S. Michelle Driedger Although involving members of the public in risk decision-making is a key concept of risk governance, efforts to date have met with mixed success. Members of the public and industry/regulatory stakeholders in two Canadian cities were asked to assess the sufficiency of current opportunities for public participation and to identify the barriers to both providing opportunities and participating in existing opportunities. These two groups viewed the opportunities and institutional barriers quite differently, with the stakeholders' viewpoints being more grounded in a regulatory or mandated duty context. Both groups agreed that, at the individual level, lack of time, vested interest and motivation are major barriers. Overcoming these obstacles will require developing two-way communication that explores incongruencies in coorientation to the issue and focuses on aspects of the process, not just the risk issue.

This paper explores the role and utilization of scientific evidence concerning one of the potential adverse health impacts (breast cancer) of the use of chlorine through examining the aims of an environmental group, Greenpeace, and its opponents. Specifically, the paper identifies the claims of Greenpeace and the scientific evidence used to justify those claims in its (Thornton, 1993) report Chlorine, Human Health and the Environment: The Breast Cancer Warning. A media analysis was conducted over a ten year period to assess what counter-claims were generated. The claimsmaking activities of breast cancer advocacy groups, scientists, pro-chlorine groups, and environmentalists were monitored. To counter the Greenpeace claims, pro-chlorine supporters argued for the responsible use of science, and redefined the chlorine issue as one of public health and economic security. The counter-claims between the supporters and the opponents of the chlorine issue stemmed from differences in their agendas, values, and solutions proffered in the environmental health policy domain. Keywords: Claimsmaking; Organochlorines; Breast cancer; Greenpeace; Environmental health policy; Canada