What do experts and stakeholders think about chemical risks and uncertainties? – An Internet survey

This report presents results from a web-based explorative survey on integrated risk assessment. The survey was conducted in the EU-funded project NoMiracle (Novel Methods for Risk Assessment of Cumulative Stressors in Europe) which develops methods for assessing cumulative risks from combined exposures to multiple stressors. The objectives of the survey were to give a general picture of perceptions and views among experts and stakeholders concerning risks, risk assessment and risk management. The survey focused on chemicals with an emphasis on information related to complex risks and uncertainties in a management context. The methodology of the survey combined traditional multiple choice questions and a novel approach that charted the importance of different types of information in two-dimensional graphs describing simultaneously use in regulatory procedures and public discussion. Another part was linked to new methods of presenting risks and explored the ranking of separate and cumulative risks in map grids. The survey was e-mailed to 952 recipients representing researchers, national and EU level administrators, enterprises, NGOs and international organizations, and most EU member states and some other countries. The response rate (26 %) can be considered acceptable but limits the possibilities to make quantitative claims concerning the views held by different groups although it gives an overview of the types of views one encounter among experts. A key finding was the pronounced variability of concepts and views regarding risks and uncertainties, and regarding information and knowledge about these. Opinions on risks and risk assessment, particularly on integrated risk assessment, on related principles, and on the role of experts are genuinely variable. They cannot be reduced to any simple model, and cannot (and need not) be dispelled in a forced manner. The observations should be taken into account in the development and application of novel methods for risk assessment by ensuring the transparency of the methods and by communication between actors