Not surprisingly, he says, they rank risks differently. People's concerns are often more a function of outrage than hazard. It is no longer a simple matter of harmful versus innocuous, but of good versus evil. It is easier to cope with the known than the unknown and mysteriously threatening. We decide for ourselves whether to accept the risks of driving, drinking, smoking, or hang gliding.
Sandman examines the role of the media in contributing to the confusion concerning risk.
An analysis of news stories on environmental risk submitted by newspaper editors in New Jersey showed that reporters focused on the politics of risk rather than the science of risk, politics being more newsworthy. Yet the public needs to understand abstractions like the uncertainty of risk assessments, the impossibility of zero risk, the debatable assumptions underlying dose-response curves and animal tests. Managing Risk Health protection agencies have a responsibility to carry out risk assessments and use them judiciously to protect the public on the basis of the data available. It is important to remember that the published risk estimates are inherently protective and not predictive. The answer to this question may be a long time coming.