Craig Trumbo, College of Medicine, Univ. of Vermont, Office of Health Promotion Research, UHC Arnold 4428, One South Prospect St., Burlington, VT 05401, 8026564109, ctrumbo@uvm.edu and Katherine McComas, PhD, Department of Communication, Cornell University, 307 Kennedy Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.

Every day in the United States, on average, three communities reach a sufficient state of alarm to contact their state health department to request the investigation of a suspected cancer cluster—an unusual and unexplained increase in the occurrence of cancer in space and time. These requests are almost always triggered by an environmentally located hazard (e.g., toxic sites). State health departments investigate about a third of these complaints in one way or another, but find that very few cases present suspect cancer rates, and almost none present a causal link to suspected environmental carcinogens. Yet public concerns typically persist despite such reassurances.

This presentation reports an overview of a 10-year program of research looking at risk perception and risk communication during the investigation of suspected cancer clusters. Special emphasis will be given to the most current phase of the program in which approximately 1,000 community members across 30 separate cluster investigations were surveyed. Twenty states are represented in the surveys.

Results will be presented on the characteristics of risk perception for cancer, the manner in which individuals use information in the process of making a judgment about the risk, how individuals view the credibility of various information sources in these cases, and the role that cancer anxiety may play in driving these cases. A discussion will also be offered concerning the effect of various case-level characteristics such as hazard type (e.g., air pollution, water pollution), variety of cancer involved, and the manner in which the state health department responded.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how laypersons perceive environmental cancer hazards.
• Understand the role that risk communication plays in community controversies over environmental health hazards

Keywords: Risk Communication, Environmental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.