Interpreting risks to the public

Human beings have always lived with risks and have coped as best they could, according to their perceptions of the relative dangers and the mechanisms available to them. Being conscious of risks helps us to confront and cope with them, but it also has negative effects. The multiplicity of threats and the urgency with which they are presented make it difficult to sort out those that we as individuals can control from those that we cannot. Consequently, we are in danger of surrendering to feelings of helplessness and apathy, which paralyze us in the act of coping even in situations in which personal action can make a difference. The challenge for those of us engaged in interpreting risks to the public is to do so in such a way that we convey a sense of relative risk; and, cumulatively over time, we need to "accentuate the positive" in the sense of communicating that it is well worth the effort for people to control those risks they can control. Risks over which individuals fell they have no control contrast with those related to daily lifestyle decisions. The public is aware of the risks associated with these decisions, but because of some overriding fears, the daily lifestyle choices receive lower priority than they deserve from the public. As health professionals, we can improve ways of presenting the most serious and most controllable threats and reach broader audiences with key messages.