Emotional, behavioral, and physiological effects of chronic stress at Three Mile Island.

Abstract

The present study evaluated the psychophysiological impact of a powerful environmental stressor-the uncertainty and threat during the aftermath of the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island (TMI). TMI residents were compared with samples of people living near an undamaged nuclear power plant, people living near a traditional coal-fired power plant, and people living in an area more than 20 miles from any power plant. A number of self-report measures of psychological stress were evaluated by administering the Symptom Checklist-90 and the Beck Depression Inventory more than 1 year after the nuclear accident. In addition, two behavioral measures of stress were obtained (performances on a proofreading task and an embedded figures task). Finally, urinary catecholamine levels were assayed in order to examine chronic stress-related sympathetic arousal. Results indicated that residents of the TMI area exhibited more symptoms of stress (selfreport, performance, and catecholamine levels) more than 1 year after the nuclear accident than did people living under different circumstances. Although the intensity of these problems appears to be subclinical, the persistence of stress may be cause for some concern.

Ecosystem Services and Abrupt Transformations in a Coastal Wetland Social-Ecological System: Tubul-Raqui after the 2010 Earthquake in Chile

“…These accounts may be affected by the shocking experience and the impacts suffered and may therefore be not entirely reliable. However, literature suggests that a good recall of disaster experiences is actually possible, even over long periods of time (Baum et al 1983, Verger et al 2003. In our study, the consistence of results with other biophysical reports and the congruence between the magnitude of transformations and the impacts on levels of well-being in different geographical sectors, suggests the validity of respondents' recall.…”

Chinese Public Willingness to Pay to Avoid Having Nuclear Power Plants in the Neighborhood

“…Conclusions of the above studies showed how distance affects residents' attitude towards the NIMBY facilities. Several studies showed that people who lived near the nuclear power plant of Three Mile Island had stronger stress reactions than people who lived far away [53,54]. Huppe and Weber [52] found an inverted U-shaped relationship between the strength of opposition towards nuclear power plants and the distance of dwelling place to the plant.…”

Assessment of exposure to a flood disaster in a mental-health study

“…There are four principal methodological problems. First, the same experience may be apprehended very differently from one individual to another as a function, in particular, of his or her coping style; in addition, individual reports can depend on the person's psychological and emotional state at the moment they are questioned (Baum et al, 1983); these questions raise the problems of reproducibility and reliability of the information collected. Second, to establish a causal link between the postdisaster PD and a disaster-related experience, ''exposureeffect'' relations must be tested and thus the intensity and severity of cumulative exposure to disaster stressors must be quantified.…”