Nuclear energy: The accuracy of policy makers' perceptions of public beliefs

Similarities and differences with the 'general public': Chinese civil servants' attitude to genetically modified organisms and its influencing factors

This study examines Chinese civil servants' attitudes toward genetically modified organisms by reviewing a national survey of 3,018 Chinese civil servants. The findings show that Chinese civil servants hold a more positive attitude to GMOs than the wider Chinese "general public", with a similar level of genetic scientific literacy and belief in GMOs conspiracy theories and their influence mechanisms. While the Chinese civil servants' occupational literacy plays an important role in their GMOs attitude. This study provides a new mind-set for studying some specific groups' attitudes toward GMOs and related food policies.

Bridging the Information Gap at Three Mile Island: Radiation Monitoring by Citizens

This paper describes a unique effort to provide citizens with information about radiation exposure and to rebuild public confidence in information supplied by government agencies. The Citizen Radiation Monitoring Program (CRMP) trained lay citizens to monitor, interpret, and publicize radiation levels in 12 communities surrounding Three Mile Island (TMI) during the purge of radioactive Krypton from the reactor a year after the accident. One outgrowth of the accident was an erosion in the community's confidence in information about risks associated with the clean-up. Traditional mechanisms for information exchange between government officials and the public had a deviation-amplifying effect on this information gap. The CRMP sought to reverse this effect by (1) involving the communities in the program's design and operation, (2) trusting local citizens to measure and publicize radiation levels, and (3) addressing emotional as well as technical issues associated with the purge. Several implications for disseminating public information are offered.

Comparative risk analysis of technological hazards (a review)

Hazards are threats to people and what they value and risks are measures of hazards. Comparative analyses of the risks and hazards of technology can be dated to Starr's 1969 paper [Starr, C. (1969) Science 165, 1232-1238] but are rooted in recent trends in the evolution of technology, the identification of hazard, the perception of risk, and the activities of society. These trends have spawned an interdisciplinary quasi profession with new terminology, methodology, and literature. A review of 54 English-language monographs and book-length collections, published between 1970 and 1983, identified seven recurring themes: (i) overviews of the field of risk assessment, (ii) efforts to estimate and quantify risk, (iii) discussions of risk acceptability, (iv) perception, (v) analyses of regulation, (vi) case studies of specific technological hazards, and (vii) agenda for research. Within this field, science occupies a unique niche, for many technological hazards transcend the realm of ordinary experience and require expert study. Scientists can make unique contributions to each area of hazard management but their primary contribution is the practice of basic science. Beyond that, science needs to further risk assessment by understanding the more subtle processes of hazard creation and by establishing conventions for estimating risk and for presenting and handling uncertainty. Scientists can enlighten the discussion of tolerable risk by setting risks into comparative contexts, by studying the process of evaluation, and by participating as knowledgeable individuals, but they cannot decide the issue. Science can inform the hazard management process by broadening the range of alternative control actions and modes of implementation and by devising methods to evaluate their effectiveness.