Environmental Risk Perception Framework in Contested Illness

• In Event: 254 - Section on Environment and Technology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Environmental Perception

Abstract

This article explores the complex factors that lead members of a community to perceive environmental health threats in different ways. The present study examines the case of The Acreage, a community in south Florida declared as a cancer cluster due to its unusually high number of pediatric brain tumors and cancers, without a confirmed source of the cancer hazard. This paper therefore brings together work on contested illness with literature on risk frames that citizens develop to interpret their experience of environmental threats to their health. In particular, I offer a framework for understanding how residents frame environmental health risks by drawing on literatures in psychology and social psychology on risk perception. This framework aids future research by helping us understand how people develop different risk assessments concerning potential environmental threats to their health.

Authors

• Ginger Jacobson, University of Florida

• Alison E. Adams, University of Florida