Abstract
Risk assessment of technologies and social activities involves subjective judgment as one of its components, which depends on the risk perception of individuals. Medical radiation exposure is one of the main subjects of radiation protection and regulation. We undertook a survey of public perceptions of the social issues and risks related to radiation, particularly the use of medical radiation with children. The actual survey involved personal visit interviews carried out during October 2006, and resulted in 610 valid responses from men and 747 from women, aged 20 years and older. We also asked subjects for private information such as their sex, age, occupation and so on. We then compiled the results for each attribute. The majority identified global warming as highly risky among social issues related to technology, and smoking among health-damaging issues, but not radiation-related items such as natural radiation, artificial radiation, and X-ray/CT examinations. In general, a sexual distinction was observed regarding perceptions of food safety. Forty percent of the public inaccurately believed that the main source of daily exposure was nuclear facilities. For each of the attributes, the majority of the participants indicated that they were reluctant to expose children to radiation for cancer diagnosis or treatment. Mothers of children of elementary school age or younger demonstrated a higher acceptance of X-ray examinations for diagnoses of pneumonia or bone fractures, while women without children were less accepting of such risks. The results suggest that the public tends to rationally judge risk of medical exposure in the cases they are most likely to encounter. We also report the comparison of our results against those from earlier surveys and the analysis of the data from a socio-psychological perspective.
