Public attitude

Biodegradable polymers are likely to be increasingly important materials in the future, finding use in applications as diverse as medicine, agriculture, and pharmacy. For applications such as packaging, they remain expensive. However, with changing public attitudes towards enviromnental pollution, it is likely that objections based purely on cost will dimiiush, and that such applications will also grow in the years ahead. 

As a consequence, much of the public has come to believe that most chemicals are hazardous. A recent poll by the Roper Organization revealed that two out of three American citizens expect a major chemical disaster, resulting in thousands of deaths, within the next 50 years. The poll also found that a high proportion of the public lacked confidence that industry would deal openly with them. A public attitude toward exposure to chemicals is developing that can be summed up by the words, "no risk." But, as a judge recently stated, "In the crowded conditions of modem life, even the most careful person cannot avoid creating some risks and accepting others. What one must not do, and what I think a careful person tries not to do, is to create a risk which is substantial." ... 

We have all heard that public attitudes will prevent a future reliance on new nuclear power systems. However, independent polling by Hank Jenkins-Smith at the University of New Mexico (some of which was sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories), found a somewhat different picture ... 

Dorothy Nelkin Well, first of all as a social scientist I feel that humour is serious. It is also a pedagogical device to get people to listen at the end of a long meeting. Studies of the sociology and psychology of humour suggests that it s serious, as social commentary and an indication of public attitudes. 

This chapter reports some of the key findings of the first comprehensive public survey on pharmacogenomics. In several instances, the data generated by the survey challenge prior assumptions concerning public attitudes... 

Rothstein, M.A. and C.A. Hornung, "Public Attitudes About Pharmacogenomics," this volume. 

Prozac, 259 Pseudomonas, 142 Psychiatric drugs, 177 Public attitudes, 3-26 Public attitudes survey key findings of, 7-25 methodology for, 5-7 questions for, 7 sample size for, 6 sampling frame for, 6 survey instrument for, 6 telephone interviews for, 6 Public databases, 36, 39 Public education, increase in, 26 Public health genetics, 138 Public health genetics in, 150 protecting, 108, 217... 

The following passage is an excerpt from a recent introduction to the momentous 1964 Report on Smoking and Health issued by the United States Surgeon General. It discusses the inspiration behind the report and the report s effect on public attitudes toward smoking. 

Changing public attitudes toward the pharma industry... 

Laws about marijuana have been the subject of controversy for many years. When marijuana use spread to the middle class in the 1960s and 1970s, public attitudes toward it softened. In 1970, President Richard Nixon created the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse. In 1972, the Commission issued its report, "Marijuana A Signal of Misunderstanding." This report recommended the elimination of criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana.,—... 

High sensitivity low and stable background Robust detection not sensitive to background interferences and to environmental factors Small size of radioisotopes minimal effect on immunoreaction Radiation counting well established Short lifetime of radioisotopes Radiation hazard handling, legal, purchase and waste problems Expensive production Negative public attitude... 

Organisations and institutions provide networks for risk communication, but the media holds a key position in shaping public attitudes to risk [436]. 

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