Biocca Marco
Regional Agency for Health and Healthcare of Emilia-Romagna, Bologna, Italy.
Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2004;17(1):197-201.
The perception of risks for environment and health deriving from globalization processes and an uncontrolled use of modern technologies is growing everywhere. The greater the capacity of controlling living conditions, the larger is the possibility of misusing this power. In environmental and occupational health research we tend to reduce the complexity of the observed phenomena in order to facilitate conclusions. In social and political sciences complexity is an essential element of the context, which needs to be continuously considered. The Precautionary Principle is a tool for facing complexity and uncertainty in health risk management. This paper is aimed at demonstrating that this is not only a problem of technical risk assessment. Great attention should also be paid to improve risk communication. Communication between the stakeholders (experts, decision makers, political and social leaders, media, groups of interest and people involved) is possibly the best condition to be successful in health risk management. Nevertheless, this process usually runs up against severe obstacles. These are not only caused by existing conflicts of interest. Differences in values, languages, perceptions, resources to have access to information, and to express one's own point of view are other key aspects.
全球化进程以及现代技术的无节制使用所带来的环境与健康风险认知在各地不断增强。控制生活条件的能力越强，滥用这种能力的可能性就越大。在环境与职业健康研究中，我们倾向于简化所观察现象的复杂性，以便得出结论。而在社会和政治科学中，复杂性是背景的一个基本要素，需要持续加以考虑。预防原则是应对健康风险管理中复杂性和不确定性的一种工具。本文旨在表明，这不仅仅是一个技术风险评估问题。还应高度重视改善风险沟通。利益相关者（专家、决策者、政治和社会领袖、媒体、利益群体及相关民众）之间的沟通可能是健康风险管理取得成功的最佳条件。然而，这一过程通常会遇到严重障碍。这些障碍不仅源于现有的利益冲突。价值观、语言、认知、获取信息资源以及表达自身观点的差异也是其他关键因素。
