An inquiry of the opinions of the French and Belgian populations as regards risk

Carlé, Benny; Charron, Sylvie; Milochevitch, Alexandre; Hardeman, Frank

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2004.02.004

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Our results support the findings of earlier studies where 65% of the population in Belgium and 75% in France assumed they were not correctly informed about the fallout of Chernobyl (Carlé et al, 2004). The chaotic situation in Italy at that time and the role played by stakeholders is well described in the paper by Cantone et al (2007) and in the correspondence by Cigna (2008):"Anyone outside of the competent scientific bodies was free to spread any crazy number.…”

Section: Informationsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…e About 60% of those surveyed showed confidence in official information and about 30% did not have much confidence. This result is corroborated by two surveys carried out in France and Belgium, where 37% and 42%, respectively, stated that they do not have confidence in the appropriateness of the actions taken to protect them against the danger of nuclear installations (Carlé et al, 2004).…”

Section: Confidence In the Authoritiesmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…A possible explanation is the lack of a tradition of public dialogue and participation in Italy (Cantone et al, 2007) to the point that people do not consider it a productive use of time to prepare for a remote event. Research conducted in Belgium and France also found there were many people that did not want to spend time obtaining information about hazardous installations, but there were also a large number of people claiming to be willing to spend more than one day or even one week per year on such tasks (Carlé et al, 2004).…”

Section: Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Attitudes of rural population in emergency exposure situations

Carini

Pellizzoni

2011

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

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Section: Informationsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Confidence In the Authoritiesmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Attitudes of rural population in emergency exposure situations

Carini

Pellizzoni

2011

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

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“…In the aftermath, Japan had to face the worst nuclear disaster since the destruction of Chernobyl’s reactor number four in 1986. Nuclear disasters have global consequences, and populations are now highly aware of the potential public health consequences of radioactive discharges [3], [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A study on a sample of the general population in France by Carlé and colleagues [4] showed that 75% of the respondents believed they had not been told the truth about the Chernobyl fallout. The same study showed that neither government representatives nor journalists were considered by a large majority of respondents to be technically competent and likely to tell the truth about nuclear issues.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Assessment of Preventive Behaviors in France during the Fukushima Nuclear Crisis

2013

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BackgroundThe Fukushima nuclear disaster has generated worldwide concern on the risk of exposure to nuclear radiations. In Europe, health authorities had to issue statements about the lack of usefulness of iodine based preventive treatments within their borders. However a lack of confidence in official messages has developed in various European countries due to recent perceived failures in managing public health crises. The lay population preventive behaviors in this context are largely unknown. Consequently, to examine the effects of public health crisis on lay behaviors leading to pharmaceuticals purchases, we studied the sales of iodine-based products in France before, during and after the crisis.MethodsWe focused our study on 58 iodine-based drugs available with and without a physician prescription. Our data came from a stratified sample of 3004 pharmacies in metropolitan France. Our study period was from January 2010 to April 2012, with a focus on March-April 2011. We differentiated sales of drugs prescribed by physicians from sales of drugs obtained without a prescription. We used a CUSUM method to detect abnormal increases in sales activity and cross-correlations to assess shifts in sales timing.ResultsSales of iodine-based nutritional complements, and later sales of iodine-based homeopathic remedies, substantially increased (up to 3-fold) during a period of 20 days. Their temporal patterns were correlated to specific events during the crisis. Prescriptions for iodine-based homeopathy increased (up to 35% of all sales). Iodine pills, strictly regulated by health authorities, have also been sold but on a very small scale.ConclusionThese results indicate uncontrolled preventive behaviors resulting in the potentially unjustifiable consumption of available drugs. They have implications in public policy, and demonstrate the usefulness of drug sales surveillance for instantaneous evaluation of population behavior during a global crisis.

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