Exposure to Complex Environmental Health Challenges : Agent Orange and Sodium Dichromate
出版項
2020
說明
1 online resource (130 pages)
文字
text
無媒介
computer
成冊
online resource
附註
Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 82-01, Section: B
Advisor: Perry, James L
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, 2020
Includes bibliographical references
Complexity theory can inform risk management of complex environmental health challenges considering scientific uncertainty, politics, federal statutes, and legal decisions. American servicemembers face danger not only from the weaponry of hostile forces but from exposure to occupational and environmental hazards as well. Servicemembers were exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam and exposed to sodium dichromate in Iraq. The military is a complex adaptive system operating within an uncertain and complex environment. The management of uncertainty and conflict is compounded by the unique characteristics of modern combat. Competing priorities among and for the benefit of numerous actors create challenges to enact policy change. These actors operate within organizations of varying degrees of innovation including the individual branches of the armed forces; the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs; the Congress; and the judiciary. A sense of urgency exists to identify policy interventions to address the potential for future exposure of service members to environmental and occupational hazards given emerging threats. Federal administrators require the flexibility to act swiftly in coordination with stakeholders in times of national emergency without compromising processes for safety, the environment, public health, fiscal responsibility, and national security. Complexity theory can help us understand how organizations function and encourage new perspectives working in both non-linear and non-vertical processes across agencies to create new relationships for transformational change. Shifting the paradigm of risk management to encourage the presumption of exposure with system response and engagement would allow leaders to respond collaboratively to meet the health care needs of servicemembers
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Mich. : ProQuest, 2021
