Laypeople and physicians perceive risk differently for blood transfusion, but this perceptual gap between the groups for blood transfusion may be representative of a more generalized phenomenon that spans different types of hazards, both medical and nonmedical. Awareness of such differences may facilitate risk communication and shared decision making between physicians and their patients.

Risk communication that incorporates risk comparisons in either written or visual presentation formats can improve knowledge and reduce the perception of transfusion risk in laypeople.

Using Canada as a case study, this article argues that regulating biotechnology and nanotechnology is made unnecessarily complex and inherently unstable because of a failure to consult the public early and of-ten enough. Furthermore, it is argued that future regulators (and promoters) of nanotechnology may learn valuable lessons from the mistakes made in regulating biotechnology.

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