5th World Conference of Science Journalists

PRODUCER: Craig Cormick

CHAIR: Fiona Fox

SPEAKERS: Mark Burgman, Lydia Buchtmann, Pallab Ghosh, Rosemary Robbins

SESSION REPORT: Progress: It’s a risky business

By Wu Chong

Food safety, nuclear power and chemical pollution… We live in a risk society where the hazards of scientific and technological progress step into highlight.

And in the public perception of risks, institutional context is important, according to a Melbourne scholar, who spoke at “Risky business — perception of risk,” on Thursday.

Rosemary Robbins, a researcher at University of Melbourne, said nuclear power scores highest in all risks in people’s psychological assessment. Food safety also scores high, she said.

Robbins said people always perceive nuclear power and chemical pollution as institutional failures in controlling risks. And when they perceive technological development, they question things such as, who is benefiting and how does it impact farmers and developing countries.

“We live in a risk society where modernization risks present qualitatively different dilemma,” Robbins said.

Genetically modified (GM) food is an example. “The issue is driven by sub-politics,” she said. “Even experts disagree with each other. We don’t know who we should trust.”

Lydia Buchtmann, a senior employee with Food Standards Australia New Zealand agrees that GM food is an actual risk. “It has continued to be a problem,” she said.

Other risks that are easy to ignore involve the so-called scientists who obtained their PhD degrees from unauthorised backgrounds, she said.

But she emphasized that no action is actually risk free. The difference is whether the risk is acceptable or not. “There are perceived risks from consumers and actual risks,” she said.

For example, consumers always worry that diseases in beef would pass on to humans, or pesticide residues are accumulated on fruit and vegetables.

Also, media play a role of shaping the public perception of risks, according to Mark Burgman from the Australian Center of Excellence for Risk Analysis.