Expert judgments of environmental risks

Although much progress has been made in improving risk communication by understanding the differing risk judgments between the lay public and the scientific community, there is increasing awareness that discrepancies in risk judgments between experts themselves also hinder effective risk communication. To further address this issue a survey was conducted to determine the extent to which members of various environmental disciplines share similar beliefs and conceptual frameworks concerning several basic assumptions and concepts in environmental health risk assessment.; This study focuses on exploring the perspectives concerning risk judgments of two disciplinary groups whose members often become involved in studying risk issues and/or conveying risk information to others. These include a group of environmental epidemiologists as well as a group of environmental engineering professors. In addition, previous published findings on toxicologists in the United States and Canada provide a comparison for some of our analyses.; In light of the apparent difficulties in evaluating and communicating risk, the findings from this study provide a possible basis for which risk judgments can be more informed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...