ABSTRACT
Environmental health practitioners are professionally concerned with the risks that arise from the adverse effects of environmental stressors, such as pollution, conditions in the living and working environments and contaminated food. Progress in reducing these risks has been made with consequent improvements in health and quality of life but these improvements have been accompanied by increased expectations for a society free from involuntary risks and the imperative for state intervention to reduce risks. In addition government departments are subject to increasing demands for more openness and transparency in their decisionmaking processes on handling societal risks [1].
