Abstract
BackgroundPolicy makers and regulators are constantly required to make decisions despite the existence of substantial uncertainty regarding the outcomes of their proposed decisions. Understanding stakeholder views is an essential part of addressing this uncertainty, which provides insight into the possible social reactions and tolerance of unpredictable risks. In the field of nanotechnology, large uncertainties exist regarding the real and perceived risks this technology may have on society. Better evidence is needed to confront this issue.MethodsWe undertook a computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) survey of the Australian public and a parallel survey of those involved in nanotechnology from the academic, business and government sectors. Analysis included comparisons of proportions and logistic regression techniques. We explored perceptions of nanotechnology risks both to health and in a range of products. We examined views on four trust actors.ResultsThe general public’s perception of risk was significantly higher than that expressed by other stakeholders. The public bestows less trust in certain trust actors than do academics or government officers, giving its greatest trust to scientists. Higher levels of public trust were generally associated with lower perceptions of risk. Nanotechnology in food and cosmetics/sunscreens were considered riskier applications irrespective of stakeholder, while familiarity with nanotechnology was associated with a reduced risk perception.ConclusionsPolicy makers should consider the disparities in risk and trust perceptions between the public and influential stakeholders, placing greater emphasis on risk communication and the uncertainties of risk assessment in these areas of higher concern. Scientists being the highest trusted group are well placed to communicate the risks of nanotechnologies to the public.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-015-1795-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Policy makers and regulators are constantly required to make decisions despite the existence of substantial uncertainty regarding the outcomes of their proposed decisions
Gender representation of the weighted public survey population was comparable to the June 2012 Australian population estimates of approximately 50% male and female
Risk perception Examining the public perception of risk through chi squared analysis we found that females were more likely to consider nanotechnology as a risk for all applications (p ≤ 0.01) and the elderly were more likely to consider nanotechnology a risk to their health, or if put in cosmetics/sunscreen, pesticides and tennis racquets/ computers (p ≤ 0.01)
Summary
Policy makers and regulators are constantly required to make decisions despite the existence of substantial uncertainty regarding the outcomes of their proposed decisions. In the field of nanotechnology, large uncertainties exist regarding the real and perceived risks this technology may have on society. While consumer products developed with nanotechnology have the potential to revolutionise our way of life with new medicines, building materials and technological devices, nanoparticles, the building blocks of the consumer products made by nanotechnology, can display unexpected and unusual forms of toxicity. Materials that are not harmful in their larger form have the potential to be toxic in their nanoform [13]. This is seen with silver which is benign in its bulk form yet is used as an antibacterial in its nanoform [14]. To further complicate matters there is an increasing sophistication of nanotechnology products as four generations (passive, active, integrated nanosystems, molecular nanosystems) of products are released into the public arena [8]
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