Ethical and Social Perspectives of Risk Assessment, Management, and Communication in Radiological Protection and Chemical Safety

抄録

Risk analysis approaches involving risk assessment, management, and communication have been developed independently in radiological protection, food safety, and environmental sciences. Summarizing the commonalities and differences in risk analysis methodologies in these fields may contribute to updating future risk analysis. Therefore, this review summarizes the multifaceted perspectives of risk assessment, management, and communication, with actual application examples, by introducing the birth of risk concepts and various risk indicators, and the historical development of risk management and assessment. Particularly, reviewing the relationship of socio-psychological aspects, the importance of ethical and normative perspectives, and the role of dialog with stakeholders is helpful. Based on these reviews, we note that understanding and applying risk indicators across fields is necessary in comparing different types of risk events. Furthermore, we mention that the application of risk assessment that considers egalitarianism and maximin principles will become more important in the future when emphasizing the consideration of ethical and normative perspectives in accordance with the social context and needs from the field. We then discuss the challenges and the need to update the risk analysis for planning and crisis management. We argue that incorporating collaboration with stakeholders can lead to ethically and socially acceptable risk assessment, management and communication.