[Communicating about risks to public health].

The goals of public health risk communication are to explain the risks, to inform a community without causing a crisis, to implicate the population in decision-making, and to improve dialogue between organizations and communities. Based on a document entitled "Communicating about risks to public health: pointers to good practice", the authors of this article review the main principles relevant to health risk communication and present a list of key points for effective management of this communication.