Department of Geography, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
J Radiol Prot. 2021 Jun 1;41(2). doi: 10.1088/1361-6498/abf9e2.
As far as carcinogens are concerned, radiation is one of the best studied, having been researched for more than 100 years. Yet, radiation remains feared in many contexts as a result of its invisibility, its relationship with cancers and congenital disorders, aided by a variety of heuristics and reinforced by negative imagery. The strong socio-psychological response relating to nuclear energy has made radiation a classical case in the risk literature. This is reflected clearly following the nuclear accidents that have taken place, where the socio-psychological impacts of the clear dissonance between real and perceived health effects due to radiation exposure have caused considerable health detriment, outweighing the actual radiological impacts. Despite considerable efforts to normalise humankind's relationship with radiation, there has been little shift away from the perceived uniqueness of the health risks of radiation. One consistent issue is the failure to place radiation within its proper perspective and context, which has ensured that radiophobia has persisted. The radiation protection community must get better at placing its research within the appropriate perspective and context, something that is far too rarely the case in discussions on radiation matters outside of the scientific community. Each member of the radiation protection community has an ethical, professional and moral obligation to set the record straight, to challenge the misconceptions and factual errors that surround radiation, as well as putting it into the proper perspective and context. Failing to do so, the well-established harms of radiophobia will remain, and the many benefits of nuclear technology risk being withheld.
就致癌物质而言，辐射是研究最多的物质之一，已经研究了 100 多年。然而，由于辐射的无形性、与癌症和先天缺陷的关系，再加上各种启发式和负面形象的影响，在许多情况下，人们仍然对辐射感到恐惧。与核能有关的强烈社会心理反应使辐射成为风险文献中的一个典型案例。这在发生核事故后表现得尤为明显，由于辐射暴露导致的实际健康影响和感知健康影响之间明显的不和谐，产生了相当大的健康危害，超过了实际的放射性影响。尽管人们为使人类与辐射正常化做出了相当大的努力，但人们对辐射健康风险的独特性几乎没有改变。一个一直存在的问题是未能正确看待和理解辐射，这确保了辐射恐惧症的持续存在。辐射防护界必须更加善于将其研究置于适当的视角和背景下，而在科学界之外讨论辐射问题时，这种情况很少发生。辐射防护界的每一个成员都有道德、专业和道德义务来澄清事实，挑战围绕辐射的误解和错误，以及正确看待和理解辐射。如果不这样做，已确立的恐辐危害将依然存在，核技术的许多好处也将被拒之门外。
