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From Cancer to Diarrhea: The Moving Target of Public Concern about Environmental Health Risks

Public concern about the environment can be unpredictable because it is influenced by numerous factors. Environmental health issues often emerge as important because the public is worried about their health especially when it comes to cancer. Public fear of cancer from environmental exposures is rei...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Morrone, Michele
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Libertas Academica 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3236003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22174587
http://dx.doi.org/10.4137/EHI.S8296
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author Morrone, Michele
author_facet Morrone, Michele
author_sort Morrone, Michele
collection PubMed
description Public concern about the environment can be unpredictable because it is influenced by numerous factors. Environmental health issues often emerge as important because the public is worried about their health especially when it comes to cancer. Public fear of cancer from environmental exposures is reinforced by many of the US regulations that set pollutant limits based on reducing the risk of cancers rather than other health outcomes. While fear of cancer will never dissipate, recent foodborne outbreaks are contributing to raising public awareness of the health effects from microbes. This paper adds to the dialogue about the challenges of enhancing public understanding of environmental health issues. Internal factors, such as worry, that contribute to public outrage are sometimes more important than external factors such as the media. In addition, relying on the media to inform the public about imminent public health risks may be an ineffective approach to enhancing understanding. In the end, scientists and risk communicators are forced to compete with politicians who are often very effective at manipulating public understanding of risk.
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spelling pubmed-32360032011-12-15 From Cancer to Diarrhea: The Moving Target of Public Concern about Environmental Health Risks Morrone, Michele Environ Health Insights Perspective Public concern about the environment can be unpredictable because it is influenced by numerous factors. Environmental health issues often emerge as important because the public is worried about their health especially when it comes to cancer. Public fear of cancer from environmental exposures is reinforced by many of the US regulations that set pollutant limits based on reducing the risk of cancers rather than other health outcomes. While fear of cancer will never dissipate, recent foodborne outbreaks are contributing to raising public awareness of the health effects from microbes. This paper adds to the dialogue about the challenges of enhancing public understanding of environmental health issues. Internal factors, such as worry, that contribute to public outrage are sometimes more important than external factors such as the media. In addition, relying on the media to inform the public about imminent public health risks may be an ineffective approach to enhancing understanding. In the end, scientists and risk communicators are forced to compete with politicians who are often very effective at manipulating public understanding of risk. Libertas Academica 2011-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC3236003/ /pubmed/22174587 http://dx.doi.org/10.4137/EHI.S8296 Text en © the author(s), publisher and licensee Libertas Academica Ltd. This is an open access article. Unrestricted non-commercial use is permitted provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Perspective
Morrone, Michele
From Cancer to Diarrhea: The Moving Target of Public Concern about Environmental Health Risks
title From Cancer to Diarrhea: The Moving Target of Public Concern about Environmental Health Risks
title_full From Cancer to Diarrhea: The Moving Target of Public Concern about Environmental Health Risks
title_fullStr From Cancer to Diarrhea: The Moving Target of Public Concern about Environmental Health Risks
title_full_unstemmed From Cancer to Diarrhea: The Moving Target of Public Concern about Environmental Health Risks
title_short From Cancer to Diarrhea: The Moving Target of Public Concern about Environmental Health Risks
title_sort from cancer to diarrhea: the moving target of public concern about environmental health risks
topic Perspective
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3236003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22174587
http://dx.doi.org/10.4137/EHI.S8296
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