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Brits 'coped' with spy trauma

02/11/2007

The British public showed surprising resilience in the face of warnings about radiation poisoning after Alexander Litvinenko's death, researchers have said.

The former Russian agent died on November 23rd last year after receiving a fatal dose of polonium-210 and traces of the radioactive isotope were discovered in a number of locations across London.

The case received significant media attention and many voiced concerns about the implications of radiation poisoning for public health.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) sought to downplay the most extreme concerns voiced but today's research, undertaken in collaboration with King's College London, suggested it was the portrayal of the case as an espionage incident which dampened public anxiety.

"Perceptions of risk were… strongly associated with the perceived motivation of the perpetrators," the study noted.

"Respondents who thought that the incident was related to espionage or was aimed at one person reporting the least perceived risk and those who thought that it was related to terrorism or aimed at the general public reporting the most."

A survey conducted by the researchers found that only 11.7 per cent of adult Londoners interviewed during the case felt their health was endangered by the incident.

Their report, published online by the British Medical Journal, concluded that keeping the public informed in such cases is extremely important.

"It is essential to give the public access to detailed, comprehensible, and relevant health information," an accompanying commentary by Steven Becker of the University of Alabama, said.