The International Seminar on Emerging Risks & Health Communication – Future risks: Communicating today, the risks of tomorrow – aims to bring together national and international policy makers and researchers, to discuss the potential future consequences and prevention measures, concerning emerging risks to human health: “A risk resulting from a newly identified hazard to which a significant exposure may occur, or from an unexpected new or increased significant exposure and/or susceptibility to a known hazard.” (EFSA, 2007). Due to their novelty and the inherent uncertainty regarding their consequences, various challenges emerge on how to communicate these risks to the population, to enable their prevention.
To address this, the seminar will focus on three main sub-themes: 1) Formally introduce the new National Observatory for Emerging Risks (ONRE) and its relation with the European Emerging Risks Exchange Network (EREN), followed by the presentation of case studies on emerging risks in the food and health domains; 2) Discuss the role of science communication in health and particularly the challenges of communicating emerging risks, particularly based on the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) innovative approach to risk communication and the health literacy programme, proposed by the Portuguese General-Directorate for Health (DGS), to implement in the coming years; 3) Discuss both the challenges posed by the emerging risks of emerging technologies and the potential of emerging technologies for health communication. The seminar will close with a presentation of the post-grad course in “Public Health Communication” by FCH-UCP.