Hazard proximity and the perception of cancer risk: A multi-level spatial analysis.

研究人员研究了与生活在环境污染附近相关的社会和心理状况。例如，已有研究表明，对癌症的恐惧在靠近有毒物质暴露地点的社区中更为普遍。但总体而言，令人惊讶的是，人们对接近可疑的环境健康危害可能对来自该危害的风险的感知产生的影响知之甚少。可能涉及许多因素，包括经济、教育和危险本身的特点。这项研究将通过查看在20多个社区收集的数据来加深我们对危险接近和风险感知之间的关系的理解，在这些社区中，由于怀疑环境健康危害，癌症发病率令人担忧。对进行癌症聚集性调查的地点进行了调查，约有1000名受访者参与了调查。这项调查提供了以下信息：个人如何看待与局部危险相关的风险，他们如何与有关这些危险的信息互动，他们如何看待有关当地癌症发病率的各种信息来源的可信度，以及他们对癌症本身的担忧程度。本次调查中进行的分析将按街道地址将这些调查答复与通过使用地理信息系统(地理信息系统)获得的各种其他数据联系起来。其他数据来源将包括，例如，有毒物质释放清单和州癌症登记。通过应用地理信息系统和空间分析，该项目将审查一些因素所起的作用，这些因素可能共同影响距离如何影响风险感知。这项工作的结果将是一个具有足够严谨性的空间风险量化模型，作为一系列学科的调查人员持续关注这一问题的基础。最后，很明显，使用网络和地理信息系统将毒物释放清单和癌症登记等数据库合并，将是未来定义对危险的关注以及个人和社会看待风险的方式的重要力量。

Researchers have looked at the social and psychological conditions associated with living near environmental pollution. For example, it has been shown that fear of cancer is more prevalent in communities located near toxic exposure sites. But overall, surprisingly little is known about the effect that being close to a suspected environmental health hazard may have on the perception of risk from that hazard. Many factors are probably involved, including economics, education, and the characteristics of the hazard itself. This study will add to our understanding of the relationship between hazard proximity and risk perception by looking at data collected in a survey of over 20 communities in which cancer rates are of concern due to suspected environmental health hazards. Locations in which cancer cluster investigations have been conducted were surveyed and approximately 1,000 respondents have participated. The survey provides information on how individuals see the risks associated with local hazards, how they interact with information about these hazards, how they view the credibility of various information sources concerning local cancer rates and their level of concern about cancer itself. The analysis to be conducted in this investigation will link these survey responses, by street address, to a variety of other data that are available through the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Additional sources of data will include, for example, the Toxics Release Inventory and state Cancer Registries. Through the application of GIS and spatial analysis the project will examine the role played by a number of elements that together may influence how proximity affects risk perception. The outcome of this work will be a quantitatively demonstrated model of spatial risk with sufficient rigor to serve as a foundation for ongoing attention to this problem by investigators across a range of disciplines. Finally, it is clear that merging databases such as the Toxics Release Inventory and Cancer Registries using the Web and GIS will be an important force in the future definition of concern over hazards and the manner in which individuals and society views risk.