Industrial risk in the Lombardy Region (Italy): what people perceive and what are the gaps to improve the risk communication and the participatory processes

Risk communication is of vital importance in today’s society, as audiences become ever more questioning about the causes and effects of risk. However, the communication of risk is a complex activity involving many different types of communicators and destinataries, from scientists, to the media, to government agencies, industry and consumer groups, each of which having its own agendas to fulfil. Such variation across the communication of the same risk can lead to confusion, misunderstandings, misreporting in the media and subsequent conflicts. The goal of risk communication is to produce an informed public. The personal nature of risk issues and the uncertainty associated with estimating risk can provoke considerable anxiety for the public and make adopted risk management strategies less acceptable. Lombardy is one of the most densely populated and industrialized regions in Europe and nearly 280 Seveso sites interest it. The Seveso Directive requires specific measures on risk communication to the population. Nevertheless, the Lombardy Region Authorities consider that the implementation of such provisions is too weak. Therefore an exploratory research has been concluded, in order to estimate the gaps in risk communication and to improve the participation of the population in the emergency preparedness activities. The paper reports the main results of the research and illustrates the potential strategies to improve the risk communication and the population participation and preparedness (Éupolis Lombardia 2011).