How to Address Consumers’ Concerns and Information Needs about Emerging Chemical and Microbial Contaminants in Drinking Water
The Case of GenX in The Netherlands
Liesbeth Claassen (Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (RIVM))
Julia Hartmann (Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (RIVM), TU Delft - Sanitary Engineering)
Susanne Wuijts (Universiteit Utrecht, Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (RIVM))
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
The perceived safety of tap water is an important condition for consumers to drink it. Therefore, addressing consumers’ concerns should be included in the roadmap towards the UN SDG 6 on safe drinking water for all. This paper studies consumers’ information needs regarding emerging contaminants in drinking water using a mental model approach for the development of targeted risk communication. As most consumers expect safe drinking water, free of contamination, communication on emerging contaminants may increase concerns. Here, we showed that communication strategies better tailored to consumers’ information needs result in smaller increases in risk perception compared with existing strategies.
help_outline