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Short abstract

Invisible airborne chemicals, from household to hazardous, stir public concern. Cross-country interviews reveal how perceptions at the molecular edge mix knowledge, emotion, and risk in shaping resilient futures.

Long abstract

This study examines public perceptions of chemicals and the associated risks taking the mental model approach focusing on both people’s cognitive (information and knowledge) and emotional dimensions. Our approach retains a strong contextual element in which the user’s mental model is driven primarily by user’s own understanding, concerns, and feelings. Regarding the chemicals investigated, the focus is on acetone, ammonia, chlorine, and toluene. These chemicals were selected as they may have some familiarity in modern industrial society because of their uses in consumer and regular household products, in agriculture, or traffic. Importantly, however, as volatile compounds in air, they are not visible, but they may have great impacts on human health and life if released as gas or when not handled with care. So far, there are only a few studies focusing on people’s understanding of inhalation as a route of exposure to chemical risks. This is surprising since poor air quality is currently one of the major global challenges posing severe environmental health threats.

The empirical data for this study is based on 11 focus group interviews with 36 participants and four semi-structured interviews with individual interviewees conducted in Finland, four focus group interviews conducted in Germany with 11 participants, and 23 individual interviews conducted in Greece. Our study discusses laypeople’s understandings, concerns, and feelings of common chemicals in everyday life and identifies challenges in laypeople’s understanding of chemical risks. Our study then contributes to the literature on risk perception by bringing laypeople’s perspectives on chemicals to the forefront.