Awareness and Perceptions of the Risks of Exposure to Indoor Radon: A Population-Based Approach to Evaluate a Radon Awareness and Testing Campaign in England and Wales

The current study aimed to evaluate the locally directed radon roll-out program that was conducted between 2001 and 2005 in England and Wales to increase radon awareness and testing rates. A representative sample of 1,578 residents aged 16 and older were interviewed who lived in radon-affected areas of 15 local authorities in England and Wales that were eligible for participation in the program. The study systematically sampled across participating and nonparticipating local authorities, “actionable” and “nonactionable” radon-affected areas, and geographic regions with different campaign histories (Wales, Southwest England, and the rest of England). As a multistage sampling strategy was used, the data were analyzed from a multilevel perspective. This study found that participants living in participating local authorities had higher levels of awareness and were more likely to have tested their home for radon than participants living in nonparticipating local authorities. Similar results were found for participants living in “actionable” areas as compared to those living in “nonactionable” radon-affected areas. The study further found that radon awareness and testing rates were the highest in Southwest England and the lowest in Wales. This study suggests that the radon roll-out program has been effective in raising awareness and testing rates, and that ongoing domestic radon campaigns in Southwest England may have raised radon awareness and testing in these areas, showing important reinforcement effects of multiple risk communication campaigns

Symptomatology attributable to psychological exposure to a chemical incident: a natural experiment

Background: Exposure to a complex emergency has a substantial psychological component, which is rarely assessed. This study compares the health impact of physically and psychologically mediated exposure to a complex emergency. Setting: The Sea Empress oil tanker spill. Design: A cross-sectional analysis of self-report questionnaire responses collected from inhabitants of 6 different coastal towns—4 of them physically exposed to the oil spill, 2 unexposed—was undertaken. The towns were known to be psychologically homogeneous before the incident. Perceived risk was used as a measure of psychological exposure. Anxiety, depression and symptom reporting were used as measures of health impact. Participants: 1089 (69%) men and women aged 18–65 years responded. Main results: Perceived risk was associated with raised anxiety and non-toxicologically related symptom reporting, whereas physical exposure to oil was only associated with toxicologically related symptom reporting. The impact of raised perceived risk on the population was greater than that of physical oil exposure, involving more persons over a wider area. Conclusions: Psychological exposure was shown to be quantifiable, and to be a substantially more sensitive measure of health impact than physical exposure in relation to psychological outcomes. This type of analysis has important implications for emergency response planning, and for the interpretation of a complex emergency by the general public

The relationship of different sources of social support and civic participation with self-rated health

Purpose – Social support from different sources is beneficial for health and often helps individuals to cope with stress and illness. The aim of this paper is to simultaneously examine the effects of social support from personal, professional, and community networks and other factors in relation to health. Design/methodology/approach – A cross sectional postal and web-based survey was undertaken to examine these relationships in a random sample of 10,000 households in Wandsworth, London. Social support variables were standardized by calculating Z-scores and the relationship with health was modelled using a series of regression models. Findings – The response rate was 22.8 per cent. This study found that “social support from family”, “social support from friends”, “social support at work”, and “civic participation” were associated with a lower likelihood of poor self-rated health, but that social support from neighbours was associated with a higher likelihood of reporting poor health. The results suggest that most of the health effects of social support are supplementary. However, the finding that the health effects of social support from family disappear after controlling for the other social support variables, suggests that it can be compensated for by support from other sources. Socio-economic variables such as gender, age, being married, employment, and home ownership were also associated with better self-rated health. Originality/value – This paper extends previous analyses by demonstrating a range of interactions between self-rated health, social support (from personal, professional, and community networks), civic participation, and socio-economic variables. These factors have not previously been studied simultaneously