What are the biggest health risks for consumers today?

What consumers consider to be the biggest health risks
According to a recent survey, consumers think smoking, pollution, unhealthy or malnutrition and alcohol are the biggest health risks. However, important topics of consumer health protection are still largely unknown, experts warn.

The biggest health risks
If consumers are asked about the health risks they consider to be the greatest, smoking, climate or environmental pollution, unhealthy or poor diets and alcohol are still a problem. Only then are also called unhealthy or contaminated food and possible problems that may result from agriculture. This is a result of the current BfR consumer monitor, a representative survey by the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR).

Residues of pesticides, improper diet, smoking and alcohol are among the biggest health risks for German consumers. Many other dangers, according to experts, are still underestimated. (Image: farbkombinat / fotolia.com)

Consumers underestimate risks
As the BfR reports, a small majority of respondents believe that the quality and safety of our food tend to increase or remain the same.

Issues such as antibiotic resistance, genetically modified food and pesticide residues continue to cause concern among the public.

"However, consumers continue to underestimate risks that are important from a risk assessment perspective, such as: Pyrrolizidine alkaloids in tea, acrylamide in food or food hygiene in one's own household ", said BfR President Professor Dr. med. Dr. Andreas Hensel.

Tees contaminated with dangerous pollutants
And such risks are indeed enough: In recent months, several reports on the pollution of chamomile and herbal teas.

These partially contain Pyrrolizidinalkaloide, short PA. These are substances that are undesirable in foods, "as they damage the liver and showed mutagenic and carcinogenic effects in animal experiments," the BfR writes in a statement.

Food hygiene at home
The current BfR survey of more than 1,000 people also showed that a new method of gene modification, the so-called "genome editing", which is currently being intensively discussed in science, is largely unknown to people in Germany.

One topic that consumers are clearly not paying enough attention to from a scientific point of view is home-grown food hygiene. Only a small minority is worried about it. In contrast, 34 percent are concerned about food hygiene in the catering industry.

The safety of products such as textiles, toys and cosmetics is viewed with skepticism by respondents. Almost half of them rate textiles and toys as unsafe, and for cosmetics, the proportion is slightly lower. However, concerns about the safety of toys have increased in comparison to the previous year.

According to the Institute, the results of the current Consumer Monitor show the importance of raising public awareness of findings and verifiable research results. (Ad)