RE: a followEup on yesterday's discussion: a solid example

[James Cooper <james.cooper@socma.com>]

Andrea,

I think you raise an important issue here.  Although it appears to be apathy, perhaps it may be human nature in the context of assessing personal risk.  People often depend on their personal observations and what they learn from TV, reading and talking to others about the risks that surround their lives to make decisions.  I believe most folks develop a system that allows them to make personal behavioral decisions based on the likelihood that something or someone will harm them.  In this case, with which I am not familiar, I wonder if folks view it as a low-risk situation because they are not seeing a cause and effect relationship between the PCB contamination and possible illness from exposure.  When I read about cancer clusters, or other abnormal groupings of illness, it seems that communities get much more alarmed and involved.  Maybe the folks in this community are not experiencing anything out of the ordinary.