Japanese Journal of Risk Analysis Vol. 26(2016) No. 4

To clarify the role of the institutional trust in risk management in regard to electromagnetic fields (EMF), this study investigated the antecedents and consequences of institutional trust that was moderated by knowledge. A web based survey among the Japanese population was conducted. Respondents answered small quiz on EMF, then rated their trust and other attributes on 10 EMF-related institutions. The results showed that each institution was moderately trusted, and perceived sincerity was the strongest predictor of the institutional trusts regardless of its difference in name recognition. On average, people perceived medium level of risk about EMF, and most people had poor knowledge of EMF. It was also revealed that the relation between trust and risk perception was only significant when knowledge level was high. Implications for risk communication are discussed.

The objective of this study is to reveal an emergency information disclosure technique that reduces disaster risk of customer in the restoration period from the viewpoint of customers' controllability. In this study, questionnaire survey on information relevant to emergency responses in water sector was carried out on the Internet. Using the factor analysis, potential factors in the information disclosure during the restoration period were examined. As a result, five factors, named ‘trust to water utilities’, ‘controllability of disaster risk’, ‘disaster risk reduction’, ‘same understanding’, and ‘comprehensiveness of information’, were extracted. In addition, path diagram analysis of these five factors was conducted. Consequently, it was pointed out that information on water system in emergency with customers' controllability would result in to ensure reliability and trust to water utilities.

We developed an indoor consumer exposure assessment tool, named “ICET”, which estimates inhalation, dermal, and oral exposure from consumer products in the indoor environment. The tool estimates concentrations of chemicals in indoor air, in house dust, and the amount of substances migrated to the surface of the skin, from both articles and mixtures. A database reflecting the Japanese lifestyle is included in the tool, such as types of houses, bodyweight, respiratory volume, and some default datasets concerning products. The tool estimates not only personal exposure in individual house but also nationwide exposure distributions of houses and residents in Japan using Monte Carlo simulation.