The Public Risk Perception of Electromagnetic Field in Taiwan
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Lin, Yen-Chun
Abstract
This study has two parts: the first part is to compare the public perception of health risk from electromagnetic field (EMF) and various environmental factors in Taiwan and the second part is to investigate the public perception of risk, benefit and trust for various sources of electromagnetic fields.he telephone surveys were conducted by the Center for Survey Research, Academia Sinica in 2007 and 2008. The surveys used national telephone database and the two-stage stratified systematic sampling method. The respondents were aged eighteen years and above. In August 2007, we collected 1,251 effective samples; the response and the non-response rates were 17.8% and 35.4%, respectively. In 2008, we collected 2,035 effective samples; the response and the non-response rates were 16.3% and 38.2%, respectively.n the first part, we investigated the public perception of health risk from EMF and various environmental factors in references to the European Union opinion survey in 2006. Our respondents thought that ‘food safety’ has the greatest influence on health in Taiwan, followed by chemicals, outdoor air quality, drinking water quality, waste dumping, high-voltage power lines, housing conditions, noise, base station, indoor air quality, over-exposure to sun, mobile phone and household electrical equipments. Further, we used cluster analysis to distinct four groups of health risk perception, include “high risk”, “EMF”, “environmental” and “low risk” groups. Our study indicated that there were significant differences in demographic characters and self-reported EMF hypersensitivity in the EMF and environmental health risk clusters.n the second part, we investigated the public perception of risk, benefit and trust for various sources of electromagnetic fields in references to the EMF risk perception study in Swiss in 2002. According to our respondents’ assessments, high-voltage power lines were the most risky source of EMF, followed by base station and transformer, while mobile phone were the most benefit source of EMF, followed by wireless internet. The regulations of base station were the most distrusted. Further, our results reveal that female respondents reported higher risk perceptions than male respondents. Older age, higher education, benefits, trusts, and agree that ‘EMF may cause cancers’ were important factors in deciding the risk perception of high-voltage transmission lines and base station in Taiwan.
Subjects
Electromagnetic Field
Environmental Factors
Risk
Benefit
Trust
Type
thesis
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