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Intuitive Toxicology: The Public Perception of Nanoscience
Thursday, April 26, 2007
If the public as citizens and consumers are to react favorably to the introduction of nanotechnology into the market, their perceptions of the risks associated with applied nanoscience is important. While protecting the health and safety of workers who make products involving nanoparticles is incredibly important, the citizen consumer has been poorly addressed. It is important for standard risk assessments to continue, but it is equally important that parallel to these efforts we engage public risk perception and design communication strategies appropriate to the task at hand. The problem for experts, regulators, business and industry, and policy makers is that the public uses a non-rational calculus based on a matrix of attitudes and beliefs (hereafter referred to as values) to decide risk issues, whereas current risk assessment algorithms used by risk management professionals who do not include these non-rational variables. |
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