BSE: Risk, Science, and Governance

This new book provides a riveting account of how BSE changed from an obscure disease in a handful of dairy cows into the worst failure of UK public policy sinse the Suez Crisis of 1956. BSE has subsequently spread to 30 other countries so the market for this book is not just British but international. The authors not only explain what happened, they also develop a compelling account of why it happned and of what changes need to be made if similar risk policy failures are to be avoided in the future. This book will become a key text in debates about the future of public policy-making about technological risks.

Patrick van Zwanenberg is at Research Fellow, Science and Technology Policy Research, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. Erik Millstone is at Reader in Science Policy, Science and technology Policy Research, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.