Irene Mussio & Colleagues: A risk - risk trade-off approach for incorporating the public’s risk perceptions into quantitative microbial risk assessment
Irene Mussio and colleagues have had an article published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene which takes a look at the risk trade-off approach for incorporating the public’s risk
Article overview:
Risk assessment in public health often excludes community input when defining acceptable risk targets. Researchers, including Dr. Irene Mussio from the CDR have now developed a new, interdisciplinary methodology that uses behavioural microeconomics to incorporate individual risk preferences directly into the risk assessment process. Focusing on healthcare staff, the method evaluated a trade-off between increased asthma risk from heightened cleaning and disinfection (C&D) and increased infection risk from reduced C&D. Using a Risk-Risk Trade-Off (RRTO) framework, they captured the risks individuals were willing to accept to offset risks in another area. These insights informed a Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA) that identified "critical concentrations" – viral levels on surfaces that meet predefined risk targets for both single-touch and full work-shift scenarios.
The results revealed critical concentrations were over four orders of magnitude higher for single-touch scenarios, with consistency across risk target datasets. This novel approach broadens the use of individual risk preferences in risk analysis, offering transformative potential for applications beyond economics.
Authors: Wilson, A. M., Mussio, I., Verhougstraete, M. P., Jung, Y., Ashraf, A., Chilton, S., & Hamilton, K. A.
To see more information please use the URL link below.
