Creator of the “Risk = Hazard + Outrage” formula for risk communication, Peter M. Sandman was one of the world’s preeminent risk communication speakers and consultants. He is best known for his unique and effective approach to calming unduly upset stakeholders in low-hazard, high-outrage risk controversies. But he also worked on how to convince apathetic people to take precautions (e.g. wear seatbelts) in high-hazard, low-outrage situations; and on how to guide appropriately upset people through high-hazard, high-outrage situations (e.g. pandemics).

A Rutgers University professor from 1977 to 1995, Dr. Sandman received his Ph.D. in Communication from Stanford University in 1971. He came out of near-retirement when COVID struck in early 2020. Now he is nearly retired again, living aboard a world-traveling ship. His work lives on mostly through his former clients and through his website, www.psandman.com.

Dr. Sandman has long argued that public health professionals prioritize health over truth, routinely committing “noble lies.” He sees public health derogation of noncombustibles as an exception, an ignoble lie that kills people by discouraging smokers from switching. He has written only occasionally on this topic, most notably in his 2015 website column, “A Promising Candidate for Most Dangerously Dishonest Public Health News Release of the Year.”

In this presentation he will offer some thoughts on why so many public health professionals refuse to see noncombustibles through a harm reduction lens – and some preliminary thoughts on what to do about it.