RISK PERCEPTION STUDY IN THE FRAMEWORK OF PHARE CESAR STUDY - CENTRAL-EUROPEAN STUDY ON AIR-POLLUTION AND RESPIRATORY HEALTH RISK PERCEPTION, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES IN THE CESAR PROJECT - RESULTS FROM THE CZECH-REPUBLIC/

The town Ostrava is an important Czech industrial agglomeration of hea vy industry. The impact of industrial production leads to the irrepara ble damage of human health and the environment. The most significant h ealth risks for the population are caused by heavily polluted air. The health status of children living in this industrial environment is un favourable effected by industrial pollution and is very important sour ce of respiratory diseases. The town is divided in two parts - the eas tern part of the town is the most polluted industrial area which inclu des the central part of the city with high density of inhabitants. The re were selected 3 localities for the purpose of the PHARE study in th is part of the town. The western part of Ostrava is relatively clean a rea therefore was decided to use this part of the town as the control area. For the Risk Perception Study was selected one locality from the eastern part of the city (study location) and the one in the western part (control area). For RP study was chosen the method of the semi-st ructured interview with 7 key ''stake-holders'' in each area. The obje ctives of this part of study is to recognize the perception of possibl y risks that have influence on the incidence of respiratory health of inhabitants of the town of Ostrava and the perception of the individua l and general responsibility to health and environment issues. The res ults of RP study are presented separately for area I and II and furthe rmore are completed with the results of the perception study that was provided with the method of the focus group discussion (selected paren ts of children involved into the main PHARE/CESAR study in area I). (C ) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.