Webinar: Understanding radon in the context of health spas: framings, perceptions and enactments
This event is open to Members and Non-Members
Event Details
Understanding radon in the context of health spas: framings, perceptions and enactments
Klara Himmelbauer1 & Robbe Geysmans2
While researchers and authorities usually consider radon as a potential risk to public health, various spas in Europe are offering services in which radon gas is claimed to have beneficial health effects. This seminar reports on the seeming paradox between ‘radon as a threat’ and ‘radon as a treatment’. Results are presented which emphasise the ways in which radon is framed on the websites of radon spas as beneficial to health, natural, a luxury, a (non-) risk and rejuvenating.
Interviews with spa staff, radon experts and authorities from Germany and Austria revealed varying beliefs in radon’s therapeutic effects. Finally, data from surveys in Germany, Austria and Czech Republic revealed limited public awareness of radon’s cancer risks and mixed views on its safety and healing effects. Our results also affirm that while some groups recognise the dichotomy between radon as a health risk and radon as a therapeutic agent, there is sometimes limited understanding of the exposure-related differences that distinguish these two radon realities. Recommendations are presented on how to communicate about the existence of these radon realities.
Understanding radon in the context of health spas: framings, perceptions and enactments
Klara Himmelbauer1 & Robbe Geysmans2
While researchers and authorities usually consider radon as a potential risk to public health, various spas in Europe are offering services in which radon gas is claimed to have beneficial health effects. This seminar reports on the seeming paradox between ‘radon as a threat’ and ‘radon as a treatment’. Results are presented which emphasise the ways in which radon is framed on the websites of radon spas as beneficial to health, natural, a luxury, a (non-) risk and rejuvenating.
Interviews with spa staff, radon experts and authorities from Germany and Austria revealed varying beliefs in radon’s therapeutic effects. Finally, data from surveys in Germany, Austria and Czech Republic revealed limited public awareness of radon’s cancer risks and mixed views on its safety and healing effects. Our results also affirm that while some groups recognise the dichotomy between radon as a health risk and radon as a therapeutic agent, there is sometimes limited understanding of the exposure-related differences that distinguish these two radon realities. Recommendations are presented on how to communicate about the existence of these radon realities.
