title: Risk: a media perspective.
abstract: The joumalist's quest for stories and the media's business needs pose problems for those who work in radiation protection. Accidents are news; routine operations are not. Relations with journalists have been damaged by dishonesty about radiation. Secrecy, a legacy of the atomic bomb, still persists throughout the nuclear industry and distorts public debate. Examples are given. There is also scientific uncertainty about the effects of low-level radiation because of the discoveries being made in Harwell, Dublin and Harvard about genomic instability. The key to how people perceive risks is the degree of control they exert over them. People are not in control of the risks they encounter from radiation. Hence they dislike additions of artificial radioactivity from bomb tests, Chernobyl and Sellafield. This is a sensible response that should be dealt with honestly.
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011835:Radiation Protection; D018788:Radioactive Hazard Release; D018570:Risk Assessment