121 Letter to Editor: Diferent Perception, Diferent Behavior, Necessity of Consensus Over “Risk” Term CrossMark Citation: Sai Keykaleh M, Khorasani Zavareh D, Safarpour H, Gholamnia R. Diferent Perception, Diferent Behavior, Necessity of Consensus Over “Risk” Term. Health in Emergencies and Disaters Quarterly. 2018; 3(3): 121-122 . : Use your device to scan and read the aricle online Humans experience diferent danger situations every day and encounter many hazards consciously or uncon- sciously; sometimes they have to do things with high risk, for example, driving has many probable dangers, but it is unlikely to ind a person who does not drive [1, 2]. The term “risk” have diferent origins in diferent cultures and its origin could not be determined clearly, thus people can perceive it diferently. This word is often used in everyday common words. Any individual uses this term on the basis of the importance of the subject and how it can be challenged [3-5]. In the 1980s and 1990s, the concept of danger was conined to the ield of natural disaters and disater management was meant to limit the extent of the con- sequences and the vulnerability to hazards [6]. However later on, the term “risk” was used in various areas such as natural disaters, human disaters (including; crime, health-related consequences, traic accidents, air pollu- tion and terror), diferent sciences (including insurance and economics, psychology and tatitics) [5-10]. The risk in any ield has a diferent meaning, for example, “risk” in economic ields refers to both beneit and loss [6, 8]. The term “risk” in technological ields is deined as a deadly threat [5], so that in the indutrial countries if the risks of various chemical plants left unmanaged, besides deadly pollutions to the water resources and the environment, the economic losses will be enormous [11]. This issue has made risk assessment and appraisal one of the important aspects of the indutrial manage- ment, because incidents due to safety breaches, espe- cially in Indutrial technologies (for example, in the oil and gas indutries) left catatrophic efects on human and environment [5, 12]. This term in some areas, such as traic accidents is used as a risk factor (risk factors such as age and gen- der) afecting the occurrence of adverse event (the crash) [13] that usually has drawn little attention [14]. McNeil believes that the word “risk” means uncertainty, because the occurrence of major crises such as hurricanes, global economic crisis, earthquakes, loods and multiple ires, are partly associated with conditions of uncertainty, in a way that humans cannot fully predict the time of their occurrences [5]. The important challenge in the ield of health is the diferent perception of this term in the in- dutrial sciences and health ields in the events and di- saters. Sometimes words like danger and hazards are used diferently [6, 7]. Therefore, risk deinition seems simple and undertandable, but in reality it has its own complexity. Although accepting danger is due to the na- ture of the job and social responsibilities, such as ire extinguisher, police, rescue teams; outweighing beneits over losses, or seemingly slight danger, but one of the mot important reasons of accepting danger and risk is the lack of suicient awareness [8, 9]. All risk concepts have a prerequisite which is the con- tingency of human actions. People, organizations, and society have a variety of options to conduct their activi- ties. Each choice of action has positive and negative con- sequences. Analyzing risks can help people choose op- tions that their advantages outweighs disadvantages [10]. Hyogo framework for action (2005) has introduced knowledge and education one of the ive components needed to reduce the dangers of disaters and consoli- date the resilience of societies [11]. Education and pro- moting the awareness and undertanding of the commu- nities is so important that it has been considered one of the domains of Sendai framework [12]. However, the level of danger knowledge (level of awareness) depends to a large extent to the quantity and quality of avail- able information as well as people’s diferent percep- tions of the danger. Danger perception is the important and decisive component of people’s behaviors in time of dangers. Public awareness of disaters and disaters knowledge has direct inluence on people’s attitudes and behaviors [10]. April 2018, Volume 3, Number 3