Informing the public about radiation--the messenger and the message: 1997 G. William Morgan lecture

I am greatly honored to be invited by the Presidents Emeritus Committee of the Health Physics Society as a G. William Morgan Lecturer for 1997. The topic of this Plenary Session on Public Information and Public Relations is very close to my heart; it was a theme for my term as President of the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA). I met IRPA members from all of the societies affiliated to IRPA and found that they shared a common concern about the need to improve public information especially in the event of a nuclear emergency. But who should tell them and what should be the message? There is considerable agreement about the desired characteristics of the messenger in risk communication. These include credibility, openness, and the sharing of uncertainty. The profession must maintain the status and credibility of the members, it must train members in communication skills, and above all win the cooperation of other professions. There are many obstacles to radiation protection communication, and, in particular, the complex language, derived from research, should be reserved for colleagues, and our message to the public must be clarified and freed from unnecessary jargon. Communication would be more efficient and possibly cause less anxiety if people were better educated about ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. There is considerable disagreement within the profession about the content of our message to the public. Consistency in the message would be helpful although it would be wrong to expect total unanimity in research. The profession should seek the support of the international agencies and commissions to use plain and consistent language wherever possible. I will discuss the desired characteristics of the messenger, the nature of the message, and examine some of the obstacles in the path of communication using evidence from experience with IRPA and the European Union. In this paper I will suggest some action to improve radiological protection communication and will conclude with a discussion of the central role of education. Our objective is to ensure that everyone recognizes that radiation protection opens the door to the benefits of the applications of radiation in medicine and industry.