This study examines the psychosocial impact of the process of soil excavation in a Belgian community after the initial responses to the announcement of the contamination. Qualitative and quantitative data are connected to predict the stress experience of the residents. Halfway through the excavation of the community, structured questionnaires were collected (N = 98) that included questions about stressors related to the risks of the physical environment and to the process of soil excavation. The results show that neither risk assessments nor risk perceptions about the contaminated sources significantly contribute to the explanation of variance. The stress perception is best predicted by the need for additional information about the risks, the decontamination stage, and the extent of site-specific concerns. However, concerns related to the process of soil excavation seemed to have an effect on the experience of stress only if inhabitants had started with the recovery of the excavation.
Aronoff, M., & Gunter, V. (1992). Defining disaster: Local constructions for recovery in the aftermath of chemical contamination. Social Problems, 39, 345-365.
2.
Barnes, G., Baxter, J., Litva, A., & Staples, B. (2002). The social and psychological impact of the chemical contamination incident in Weston Village, UK: A qualitative analysis. Social Science and Medicine, 55, 2227-2241.
3.
Baum, A., Fleming, R., & Singer, J. E. (1983). Coping with victimization by technological disaster. Journal of Social Issues, 39(2), 117-138.
4.
Baum, A., Fleming, R., & Singer, J. E. (1985). Understanding environmental stress: Strategies for conceptual and methodological integration. In A. Baum & J. E. Singer (Eds.), Advances in environmental psychology (Vol. 5, pp. 185-207). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
5.
Baum, A., Singer, J. E., & Baum, C. S. (1981). Stress and the environment. Journal of Social Issues, 37(1), 4-35.
6.
Baxter, J., Eyles, J., & Willms, D. (1992). The Hagersville tire fire: Interpreting risk through a qualitative research design. Qualitative Health Research, 2, 208-237.
7.
Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. London: Sage.
8.
Becker, S. M. (1997). Psychosocial assistance after environmental accidents: A policy perspective. Environmental Health Perspectives, 105(Suppl. 6), 1557-1563.
9.
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 385-396.
10.
Cohen, S., & Williamson, G. (1988). Perceived stress in a probability sample of the United States. In S. Spacapam & S. Oskamp (Eds.), The social psychology of health: Claremont symposium on applied social psychology (pp. 31-67). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
11.
Couch, S. R., & Kroll-Smith, J. S. (1985). The chronic technical disaster: Toward a social scientific perspective. Social Science Quarterly, 66, 564-575.
12.
Couch, S. R., & Mercuri, A. (in press). Toxic water and the anthill effect: The development of a subculture of distress in a once-contaminated community. Research in Social Problems and Public Policy.
13.
Crighton, E. J., Elliot, S. J., van der Meer, J., Small, I., & Upshur, R. (2003). Impacts of an environmental disaster on psychosocial health and well-being in Karakalpakstan. Social Science and Medicine, 56, 551-567.
14.
Dunn, J. R., Taylor, S. M., Elliot, S. J., & Walter, S. D. (1994). Psychosocial effects of PCB contamination and remediation: The case of Smithville, Ontario. Social Science and Medicine, 39, 1093-1104.
15.
Edelstein, M. R. (1991). Ecological threats and spoiled identities: Radon gas and environmental stigma. In S. R. Couch & J. S. Kroll-Smith (Eds.), Communities at risk: Collective responses to technological hazards(pp. 205-225). New York: Peter Lang.
16.
Edelstein, M. R. (2004). Contaminated communities: The social and psychological impacts of residential toxic exposure (2nd ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview.
17.
Edelstein, M. R., & Wandersman, A. (1987). Community dynamics in coping with toxic contaminants. In I. Altman & A. Wandersman (Eds.), Neighborhood and community environments (pp. 69-112). New York: Plenum.
18.
Elliot, S. J., Taylor, S. M., Hampson, C., Dunn, J., Eyles, J., Walter, S., et al. (1997). “It's not because you like it any better...”: Residents' reappraisal of a landfill site. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 17, 229-241.
19.
Elliot, S. J., Taylor, S. M., Walter, S., Stieb, D., Frank, J., & Eyles, J. (1993). Modelling psychosocial effects of exposure to solid waste facilities. Social Science and Medicine, 37, 791-804.
20.
Erikson, K. T. (1991). A new species of trouble. In S. R. Couch & J. S. Kroll-Smith (Eds.), Communities at risk: Collective responses to technological hazards(pp. 11-29). New York: Peter Lang.
21.
Freudenburg, W. R. (1993). Risk and recreancy: Weber, the division of labor, and the rationality of risk perceptions. Social Forces, 71, 909-932.
22.
Freudenburg, W. R. (1997). Contamination, corrosion and the social order: An overview. Current Sociology, 45, 19-40.
23.
Gerling Consulting Group Europe nv. (1999). Beschrijvend bodemonderzoek op de site “Kouterwijk” te Sint-Amands, CO990301, in opdracht van: Openbare Afvalstoffenmaatschappij voor het Vlaamse Gewest (OVAM) [Descriptive soil research in the Kouterwijk, Sint-Amands, under the authority of: The Public Waste Agency of Flanders (OVAM)]. Antwerp, Belgium: Author.
24.
Gibbs, L. M. (1983). Community response to an emerging situation: Psychological destruction and the Love Canal. American Journal of Community Psychology, 11, 116-125.
25.
Hartsough, D. M. (1985). Measurement of psychological effects of disaster. In J. Lambe & S. A. Murphy (Eds.), Perspectives on disaster recovery (pp. 22-61). Norwalk, CT: Appleton Century Crafts.
26.
Havenaar, J. M., & van den Brink, W. (1997). Psychological factors affecting health after toxicological disasters. Clinical Psychology Review, 17, 359-374.
27.
Havenaar, J. M., van den Brink, W., Kasyanenko, A. P., van den Bout, J., Iljina, L., Poelijoe, N. W., et al. (1996). Mental health problems in the Gomel region (Belarus): An analysis of risk factors in an area affected by the Chernobyl disaster. Psychological Medicine, 26, 845-855.
28.
Jarup, L., Briggs, D., de Hoogh, C., Morris, S., Hurt, S., Lewin, A., et al. (2002). Cancer risks in populations living near landfill sites in Great Britain. British Journal of Cancer, 86, 1732-1736.
29.
Kaiser, H. F. (1960). The application of electronic computers to factor analysis. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 141-151.
30.
Kovalchick, D. F., Burgess, J. L., Kyes, K. B., Lymp, J. F., Russo, J. E., Roy-Byrne, P. P., et al. (2002). Psychological effects of hazardous materials exposures. Psychosomatic Medicine, 64, 841-846.
31.
Kroll-Smith, J. S., & Couch, S. R. (1987). A chronic technical disaster and the irrelevance of religious meaning: The case of Centralia, Pennsylvania. Journal of the Scientific Study of Religion, 26, 25-37.
32.
Kroll-Smith, J. S., & Couch, S. R. (1991a). As if exposure to toxins were not enough: The social and cultural system as a secondary stressor. Environmental Health Perspectives, 95, 61-66.
33.
Kroll-Smith, J. S., & Couch, S. R. (1991b). What is a disaster? An ecological-symbolic approach to resolving the definitional debate. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 9, 355-366.
34.
Kroll-Smith, J. S., & Couch, S. R. (1993a). Symbols, ecology, and contamination: Case studies in the ecological-symbolic approach to disaster. Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, 5, 47-73.
35.
Kroll-Smith, J. S., & Couch, S. R. (1993b). Technological hazards: Social responses as traumatic stressors. In J. P. Wilson & B. Raphael (Eds.), The international handbook of traumatic stress syndromes (pp. 79-91). New York: Plenum.
36.
Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Psychological stress and the coping process. New York: McGraw-Hill.
37.
Levine, A. (1982). Love Canal: Science, politics, and people. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
38.
Lima, M. L. (2004). On the influence of risk perception on mental health: Living near an incinerator. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24, 71-84.
39.
Markowitz, J. S., & Gutterman, E. M. (1985). Predictors of psychological distress in the community following two toxic chemical incidents. In A. Baum & J. E. Singer (Eds.), Advances in environmental psychology (Vol. 5, pp. 89-107). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
40.
Matthies, E., Höger, R., & Guski, R. (2000). Living on polluted soil: Determinants of stress symptoms. Environment and Behavior, 32, 270-286.
41.
McGee, T. K. (1999). Private responses and individual action: Community responses to chronic environmental lead contamination. Environment and Behavior, 31, 66-83.
42.
Mirowsky, J., & Ross, C. E. (1986). Social patterns of distress. Annual Review of Sociology, 12, 23-45.
43.
Picou, J. S., Gill, D. A., Dyer, C. L., & Curry, E. W. (1992). Disruption and stress in an Alaskan fishing community: Initial and continuing impacts of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Industrial Crisis Quarterly, 6, 235-257.
44.
Poels, C. L., & Veerkamp, W. (1992). Hazard assessment of chemical contaminants in soil. Toxicology Letters, 503, 64-65.
45.
Pollack, H. N. (2005). Uncertain science... uncertain world. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
46.
Preston, V., Taylor, S. M., & Hodge, D. C. (1983). Adjustment to natural and technological hazards: A study of an urban residential community. Environment and Behavior, 15, 143-164.
47.
Pukkala, E., & Pönkä, A. (2001). Increased incidence of cancer and asthma in houses built on a former dump area. Environmental Health Perspectives, 109, 1121-1125.
48.
Rushton, L. (2003). Health hazards and waste management. British Medical Bulletin, 68, 183-197.
49.
Stone, R. A., & Levine, A. G. (1985). Reactions to collective stress: Correlates of active citizen participation at Love Canal. Prevention in Human Services, 4, 153-177.
50.
Taylor, S. M., Elliot, S., Eyles, J., Frank, J., Haight, M., Streiner, D., et al. (1991). Psychosocial impacts in populations exposed to solid waste facilities. Social Science and Medicine, 33, 441-447.
51.
Vrijheid, M. (2000). Health effects of residence near hazardous waste landfill sites: A review of epidemiologic literature. Environmental Health Perspectives, 108(Suppl. 1), 101-112.
52.
Vyner, H. M. (1988). Invisible trauma. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
53.
Wakefield, S., & Elliot, S. J. (2000). Environmental risk perception and well-being: Effects of the landfill siting process in two southern Ontario communities. Social Science and Medicine, 50, 1139-1154.
54.
Weterings, A. P. M., & Van Eijndhoven, J. C. M. (1989). Informing the public about uncertain risks. Risk Analysis, 9, 473-482.
55.
Wynne, B. (1987). Risk management and hazardous waste: Implementation and the dialectics of credibility. New York: Springer-Verlag.
56.
Wynne, B. (1992a). Misunderstood misunderstanding: Social identities and public uptake of science. Public Understanding of Science, 1, 281-304.
57.
Wynne, B. (1992b). Risk and social learning: Reification to engagement. In S. Krimsky & D. Golding (Eds.), Social theories of risk(pp. 275-297). London: Praeger.
