USING AUTOMATED EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEMS TO INFORM THE PUBLIC -A FIELD EXPERIMENT

Research and experience have shown that it can be difficult to get cit izens to pay attention to risk messages and preparedness information i n the absence of an actual emergency. As the use of computerized syste ms that alert the public to hazards by automatically ringing their hom e phones increases, we thought it important to ask if tests of these ' 'call down'' systems can also be used to convey preemergency informati on. We worked with a local government to add instructions on how to sh elter-in-place to the message on a routine test of a call down system. We then surveyed a test group and a control group before and after th e test call and a second control group only after the call. The result s indicate that the test call raised awareness of the emergency notifi cation system without generating undue concern about the possibility o f a chemical accident. Those who received the test call demonstrated s ignificant improvements in their knowledge of how to shelter-in-place while no such improvement was observed in those who did not get the ca ll. While the nature of the sample used in this study limits generaliz ability, we feel this outcome is positive enough to warrant further ex ploration of this method of disseminating risk information and prepare dness instructions.