Collaborative Proposal: Perceptions of Risk From Nuclear Testing in Kazakhstan: A Comparative Study of Kazakh Villagers, Health Care Workers & Research Scientists

德克萨斯农工大学的一名人类学家、克莱蒙特麦肯纳学院的一名化学家和东哈萨克斯坦州卫生保健机构的一名医生进行了这项合作研究，将对哈萨克斯坦塞米巴拉金斯克附近的一个前苏联核试验场辐射暴露的感知风险进行检查。有些人在以前的试验场从事采矿等高风险活动，有些人继续住在附近。该项目将研究哈萨克村民、当地研究科学家和当地卫生保健工作者这三个社会群体如何看待辐射暴露的风险。该项目采用参与式观察，对两个村庄（一个靠近试验场的村庄和一个远离试验场的对照村庄）的30名研究科学家、100名卫生保健工作者和400名村民进行调查，评估过去的感知风险、现在的感知风险以及对辐射暴露造成的健康风险的理解。这项研究将有助于理解在辐射暴露是真实的而不是假设的情况下，在对政府普遍不信任的情况下，在告密者使用传统和现代方法处理他们的情况下，人们如何对感知到的风险作出反应的文化差异。该研究将促进我们对当地文化如何影响风险感知和与风险理解相关的政治活动的理解。

0214037, Purvis (collaborative with 0214406, Werner)This collaborative research by an anthropologist at Texas A& M University, a chemist at Claremont McKenna College, and a physician at the East-Kazakhstan Oblast State Agency for Health Care will examine perceived risk from radiation exposure at a former Soviet nuclear test site near Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. Some persons engage in high-risk activities such as mining copper at the former test site, and some individuals continue to live near it. The project will study how three social groups, Kazakh villagers, local research scientists, and local health care workers, perceive the risk from radiation exposure. Using participant observation, a survey of 30 research scientists, 100 health care workers and 400 villagers in two villages (a test village close to, and a control village distant from the site), the project will assess the perceived risk in the past, the perceived risk at present, and the understanding of health risks due to radiation exposure. The study will contribute to the understanding of cultural differences in how people react to perceived risk in a situation where the radiation exposure is actual, not hypothetical, where mistrust of the government is pervasive, and where informants use traditional as well as modern ways of dealing with their situation. The study will advance our understanding of how local culture affects risk perception and political activity relevant to the understanding of risk.