Public meetings about local cancer clusters: exploring the relative influence of official versus symbolic risk messages on attendees' post-meeting concern

Scholars have long lobbied for a view of risk communication that supplants a conventional 'transmission' model of risk communication with an alternative that considers the complex social environment that accompanies any risk communication effort. Along these lines, this study examines the relative influence of official health messages versus symbolic risk messages on public meeting attendees' post-meeting concern about cancer clusters in six US communities. As part of a larger study of cancer clusters, we obtained written responses from 125 individuals who attended a government-sponsored public meeting in their community. We asked respondents whether attending the meeting influenced their concerns and, if so, why. The results found that, despite the largely reassuring messages that health officials were giving, most attendees reported feeling more concerned after the meetings in their communities. Regarding why, explanations that denoted symbolic risk messages -- unofficial sources of risk information and procedural cues -- outnumbered explanations that pointed to official risk messages -- scientific presentations -- by a score of three to one. The results lend support for a broader view of risk communication, which accounts not only for multiple sources of risk information but also for procedural cues regarding the trustworthiness of an investigation.