新しい化学物質のリスク情報伝達における教育の試み : 内分泌かく乱物質問題理解におけるテキストの有用性

抄録

After "Our Stolen Future" written by T. Colborn was published in 1996, a group of new toxic chemicals called "Endocrine Disruptors (EDC)" had become recognized worldwide. Meanwhile, the release of sensational news of the decline of sperm count caused by EDC and it's conneetion with the detection of EDC in styrene of cup noodle containers and bisphenol A of school crockery was much talked about on TV and in many journals. Along with this new wave of news came alot of inaccurate information, so it became necessary to properly inform young people at school, such as by providing Junior College studeruts with a concise and systematic text by the writer, which included corrections of previous inaccurate information given by the media. Two tests with an interval of 6 months were given to students and later analyzed to see how the students understanding of this issue had changed after using the textbook. In the first test taken before the introduction of the new textbook, students wrote about EDC using only mass communication articles. But, in the second test after having used the textbook, answer papers included more information on the detection of ECC, differences between the results of experimental animal tests and human cases, and the necessity of risk assessment and certain regulations. As a result of re-informing the students using the textbook, an accurate and detailed understanding of this issue. could be gained.