Crisis Communication Centre, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Örebro University, 701 82 Örebro, Sweden.
Medical Radiation Physics, Lund University, 205 02 Malmö, Sweden.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 23;19(13):7709. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19137709.
The potential devastation that a nuclear accident can cause to public health and the surrounding environment demands robust emergency preparedness. This includes gaining a greater knowledge of citizens' needs in situations involving radiation risk. The present study examines citizens' attitudes to a remediation scenario and their information and communication needs, using focus group data (n = 39) and survey data (n = 2291) from Sweden. The focus groups uniquely showed that adults of all ages express health concerns regarding young children, and many also do so regarding domestic animals. Said protective sentiments stem from a worry that even low-dose radiation is a transboundary, lingering health risk. It leads to doubts about living in a decontaminated area, and high demands on fast, continuous communication that in key phases of decontamination affords dialogue. Additionally, the survey results show that less favorable attitudes to the remediation scenario-worry over risk, doubt about decontamination effectiveness, and preferences to move away from a remediation area-are associated with the need for in-person meetings and dialogue. Risk managers should thus prepare for the need for both in-person meetings and frequent information provision tasks, but also that in-person, citizen meetings are likely to feature an over-representation of critical voices, forming very challenging communication tasks.
核事故可能对公众健康和周围环境造成的巨大破坏，要求我们做好强有力的应急准备。这包括更深入地了解民众在涉及辐射风险的情况下的需求。本研究使用来自瑞典的焦点小组数据（n=39）和调查数据（n=2291），调查了公民对补救情景的态度及其信息和沟通需求。焦点小组的独特之处在于，所有年龄段的成年人都对幼儿的健康表示担忧，许多人也对家养动物的健康表示担忧。这种保护意识源于对低剂量辐射也是一种跨境、持续存在的健康风险的担忧。这导致人们对居住在去污区产生怀疑，并强烈要求快速、持续的沟通，在去污的关键阶段提供对话。此外，调查结果还表明，对补救方案的态度较不乐观——对风险的担忧、对去污效果的怀疑以及离开补救区的偏好——与面对面会议和对话的需求相关。因此，风险管理者应该为面对面会议和频繁的信息提供任务做好准备，但也要认识到，面对面的公民会议可能会有更多的批评声音，这将形成非常具有挑战性的沟通任务。
