Re: Strontium-90 on Tennessee Highway 95

[Jose Julio Rozental <joseroze@netvision.net.il>]

1) We know the subject what we don't know is the best way to transmit information - One of the important lesson in Goiania, were discussing with the press the best way to transmit, one told me: -- Is quite difficult to avoid errors, many of you express by means of abstract words. We know that you know on you are talking about. What you don't know is our difficulty to understand what you know and are talking about.

Example we know the difference among the three words:  irradiation, exposition and contamination.  Until now most of the society doesn't. 





2) In terms of IAEA I suggest the following document available to download:  TECDOC 1076 Communication on Nuclear, Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety: A Practical Handbook, April 1999 - I was one of the contributors to draft and review

http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/te_1076_prn.pdf



3) More on this and psychological approach, please read my extensive message to radsafe at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/0001/msg00470.html



Jose Julio Rozental

joseroze@netvision.net.il

Israel



  ----- Original Message ----- 

  From: RuthWeiner@aol.com 

  To: vargo@physicist.net ; jjcohen@PRODIGY.NET ; joseroze@netvision.net.il ; RadSafeInst@cableone.net ; bobcherry@cox.net ; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu 

  Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 6:09 AM

  Subject: Re: Strontium-90 on Tennessee Highway 95





  In a message dated 5/17/04 8:25:06 PM Mountain Daylight Time, vargo@physicist.net writes:





    Actually, there's a lot of validity in that  A lot of us could use more training in effective communication, 





  If you know what you are talking about, and are enthusiastic about it  and about communicating it, and accept disagreement, you don't need training in communication.  If you aren't, all the training in the world won't help you.



  psychology, leadership (the right-brain kind of stuff).  I can recall many instances 



    where radiation workers, members of the public, etc. have been turned "anti" because of dismissive or condescending attitudes,





  Oh my!  Had i been put off by "condescending attitudes," I wouldn't have succeeded at anything!  Whatever happened to "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me?"  Or was that saved for the lower-middle-class children of the 1940s, like me.  Or are people so easily beguiled by sycophancy that they can't take ordinary disagreement and  different attitudes?



  ineptly communicated explanations of risk, or the "we know what's good for you" 



    attitude.  Like or not, personal perceptions become personal realities and feelings become beliefs.





  Sure, like the folks who thought laetrile could cure cancer.  Or the people who won't use seat belts (in the words of Consumer Reports: "Americans think they are immortal until the moment of impact").  Or the people who think aliens landed at Roswell, NM.  Or...



  Ruth





  Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

  ruthweiner@aol.com