TY - JOUR
T1 - Consistency among methods of assessing concerns about the Los Alamos National Laboratory
AU - Burger, Joanna
N1 - Funding Information: Supported by the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) through the Department of Energy cooperative agreement (AI number DE-FC01-95EW55084, DE-FG 26-00NT 40938), by NIEHS (ESO 5022), and by the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. The results and interpretations in this article are the sole responsibility of the author. This research was conducted under a Rutgers University protocol. I thank O. Myers, C. Dixon, R. Ramos, C. S. Boring, C. Lord, M. McMahon, and S. Shukla for field and computer assistance, and M. Gochfeld, B. D. Goldstein, M. Greenberg, E. Faustman, B. Friedlander, and C. Powers for valuable comments on the research or article.
PY - 2003/1/24
Y1 - 2003/1/24
N2 - In making environmental remediation and restoration decisions, risk assessors and managers need to take into account the environmental concerns of people living around an industrial facility, as well as those residing in the general region. Yet such information is usually anecdotal rather than quantitative, and rarely compares perceptions among different alternatives methods. The concerns of individuals living in Santa Fe, NM, near the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) were characterized. On an open-ended question, the public's greatest concerns were for contamination (35%), ecological health (16%), and human health (14%). When asked to rate their level of concern from a list of possible concerns, people rated accidents/ spills and storage of additional nuclear material the highest, and changes in property values the lowest. Unexpectedly, ethnicity, education, and income did not explain variations in ratings for most concerns about LANL. There was generally agreement between the concerns expressed on the ratings and on the open-ended question, although on the latter individuals expressed concern for larger issues, rather than specific issues. Preferences for future land use reflected their concerns for maintaining a safety buffer of an ecosystem around the site.
AB - In making environmental remediation and restoration decisions, risk assessors and managers need to take into account the environmental concerns of people living around an industrial facility, as well as those residing in the general region. Yet such information is usually anecdotal rather than quantitative, and rarely compares perceptions among different alternatives methods. The concerns of individuals living in Santa Fe, NM, near the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) were characterized. On an open-ended question, the public's greatest concerns were for contamination (35%), ecological health (16%), and human health (14%). When asked to rate their level of concern from a list of possible concerns, people rated accidents/ spills and storage of additional nuclear material the highest, and changes in property values the lowest. Unexpectedly, ethnicity, education, and income did not explain variations in ratings for most concerns about LANL. There was generally agreement between the concerns expressed on the ratings and on the open-ended question, although on the latter individuals expressed concern for larger issues, rather than specific issues. Preferences for future land use reflected their concerns for maintaining a safety buffer of an ecosystem around the site.
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U2 - https://doi.org/10.1080/15287390306404
DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/15287390306404
M3 - Article
C2 - 12653023
VL - 66
SP - 199
EP - 210
JO - Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health - Part A: Current Issues
JF - Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health - Part A: Current Issues
SN - 1528-7394
IS - 2
ER -