Protective Responses to Household Risk: A Case Study of Radon Mitigation

This study analyzes the effectiveness of a mass-media radon information and testing campaign conducted in the Washington, D.C. area in the winter of 1988. Although an impressive number of test kits (approximately 100,000) were sold, the ultimate mitigation rates resulting from the campaign were extremely low. Analyses show that low mitigation rates cannot be explained by postulating that people's responses to radon are insensitive to the level of objective risk. They may instead be due to characteristics of the protective response required to reduce radon risk. Radon may be thought of as one of a family of household risks which have risk response profiles that make them particularly difficult for people to manage and remediate. Traditional information campaigns for such risks are likely to be ineffective; instead, they may require regulatory strategies or programs which provide active guidance and assistance.