Public health’s ability to communicate with the media, pressure groups and the public on the concept of health is one that also has enormous implications for any future public health structure and one which - whether it sits easily with training in the specialty or not - is unlikely to disappear. Some health risks are the result of deliberate decisions of individuals consciously trying to get the best deal possible for themselves and those important to them, such as the wearing of bicycle helmets and seat belts. Others involve social issues, such as the sitting of hazardous waste incinerators, whether to vote for or against fluoridation of public water supplies or whether to support sex education for primary school children. In some cases, single choices can have a large effect on individual risk - buying a car with air bags, for example, or becoming pregnant. In others, the effects of individual choice are small but can accumulate over multiple decisions - adding salt to food and using butter rather than margarine. In some cases, choices tend to affect health risks, do nothing at all, or achieve the opposite of what is intended - for example, the adoption of quack treatments.

Thus risk perception and communication of the risks of particular behaviors, environments and events is an extremely complex process but one that is central to any modern public health function and structure and requires greater attention to communication skills than has previously seemed necessary.