Collaborative Research: Perceptions of Risk From Nuclear Testing in Kazakhstan: A Comparative Study of Kazakh Villagers, Health Care Workers & Research Scientists

Texas A&M Research Foundation, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

0214406 Werner (collaborative with 0214037, Purvis) This collaborative research by an anthropologist at Texas A& M University, a chemist at Claremont McKenna College, and a physician at the East-Kazakhstan Oblast State Agency for Health Care will examine perceived risk from radiation exposure at a former Soviet nuclear test site near Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. Some persons engage in high-risk activities such as mining copper at the former test site, and some individuals continue to live near it. The project will study how three social groups, Kazakh villagers, local research scientists, and local health care workers, perceive the risk from radiation exposure. Using participant observation, a survey of 30 research scientists, 100 health care workers and 400 villagers in two villages (a test village close to, and a control village distant from the site), the project will assess the perceived risk in the past, the perceived risk at present, and the understanding of health risks due to radiation exposure. The study will contribute to the understanding of cultural differences in how people react to perceived risk in a situation where the radiation exposure is actual, not hypothetical, where mistrust of the government is pervasive, and where informants use traditional as well as modern ways of dealing with their situation. The study will advance our understanding of how local culture affects risk perception and political activity relevant to the understanding of risk.