eTen 2005/1 – STUDIES ON PUBLIC AWARENESS ABOUT THE OCCUPATIONAL RISK ON CANCER Antonina Cebulska-Wasilewska 1,2 1 Department of Radiation and Environmental Biology INP, Polish Academy of Science, ul Radzikowskiego 152, Kraków, Poland Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory, 2 Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory, Chair of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University

eTen 2005/1 – Objectives of the Electronic Trans-European Network (e-TEN) programs, conducted in European Union aim to diminish differences in life quality among participating countries. Introduction Research conducted in Western Europe has shown, that very often the general public is not aware of all the risk she is expose to. Research conducted in Western Europe has shown, that very often the general public is not aware of all the risk she is expose to. The improvement of life quality is expected via implementation of some informational services portals providing easy access to important information.

eTen 2005/1 – The EuroWorkSafe is one of e-TEN projects aiming to provide to the public the European semantic portal on workplace safety and occupational cancer risk prevention The EuroWorkSafe is one of e-TEN projects aiming to provide to the public the European semantic portal on workplace safety and occupational cancer risk prevention The EWS portal is containing carefully chosen and crucial for his topic:  complex information about cancer risk in working environment,  procedures or regulations concerning health hazard, Aim of trial and, that should be helpful to those under the potential or increased risk of cancer.

European semantic portal on workplace safety and occupational cancer prevention eTen 2005/1 – Z.Drag, P.Karwacki, M.Kłosok, M.Krzysiek, R.Majewska, S.Krasnowolski, J.Miszczyk, J.Stefaniak. Is coordinated: Gianni Viano, Stefano Bianci, Daniela Vecchio In the presented study participated also following members of the EWS group from Poland: Participating institutions:

eTen 2005/1 – Our task, among others, and aim of this project was to estimate the concern of educated public in Poland, about its interests in occupational cancer risk and needs for accessibility to metabase. Presented study shows preliminary analysis of the survey results on cancer risk awareness, performed in a very special group of academic society: students from nine universities in the area of Central and Southern Poland. Aim of trial

eTen 2005/1 – Cancer risk awareness was investigated in a group of 1077 students (720 females, 343 males, 14 missing). Type of university Faculty Characteristic of the group

eTen 2005/1 – Questionnaires were distributed to volunteers under supervision of specialists in empiric sociology Questionnaires were distributed to volunteers under supervision of specialists in empiric sociology and and feedback was collected and coded into the SPSS data base by members of trial group instructed and equipped with brief user guide. feedback was collected and coded into the SPSS data base by members of trial group instructed and equipped with brief user guide. Methodology

eTen 2005/1 – The questionnaires about the health and cancer risk interest were directed to those young people, who:  on one hand, those people, in a couple of years, should become persons responsible for health protection: Characteristic of the group  for themselves, or  for other people in their work places.  On the other hand:

eTen 2005/1 – That group, in general, should be no limited in the access to computer information sources. Characteristic of the group The use of the internet for searching any information needed for lectures and trainings at the University. internet at home (at the univeristy: 70.8% yes)

eTen 2005/1 – How do you rank the level of your knowledge about the health risk associated with various harmful agents present in your environment (biological,chemical,physical) ? Here is a percentage of responses to the question: limited Results

eTen 2005/1 – Knowledge about carcinogenic agents gender Missing Female Male nd full. limited none. dif. answer Female students were more than males interested in the occupational cancer risk, nevertheless, they self estimated their knowledge about that issue similarly (rather poor). Results

eTen 2005/1 – More than 80% of students were interested in enlarging their knowledge in the field of occupational cancer Almost 73% responded that they should know more about hazardous agents in their environment Results

eTen 2005/1 – Results For the question: Do you know any portal with information about the occupational cancer risk? Response was:

eTen 2005/1 – Differences between types of universities in the level of knowledge the portal on occupational hazards (the best-medical, the worst-universities) Results ,6%47,3%29,0%100,0% ,0%36,0%32,0%100,0% ,2%1,8%2,6%100,0% Count % knows portal on occupational hazards? Count % knows portal on occupational hazards? % of yes no yes Total count medicaluniversities technical & agricultural Type of university Total Very few students know any portal about the occupational hazards !

eTen 2005/1 – More than fifty percents of responders would accept an occupational risk in their work places. Results

eTen 2005/1 – Few more percentage would accept such a job under conditions of getting more knowledge about prevention. more than 91% of responders expressed the need for the access to the portal like: and Results

eTen 2005/1 – Response to the question: Do you see necessity of creation such a portal ? (i.e. EWS) Q uestion : Do you see necessity of creation such a portal i.e. EWS ?

eTen 2005/1 – Validation trial Here are some results from the Euroworksafe portal validation trial performed in a group of academic staff in Poland No opinion 1.5% I totally disagree 30.8% I disagree 7.7% 52.3% I agree 7.7% I totally agree 3.1% nd 4.6% I totally disagr 4.6% I disagree 20.0% No opinion 56.9% I agree 10.8% I totally agree EuroWorksafe website is fast. EuroWorksafe covers all key areas of occupational cancer

eTen 2005/1 – Conclusions Preliminary results show that there is a strong need for:  higher level of education about the envirnmental and occupational cancer risk  better education about the internet acces metabases on envirnmental and occupational cancer risk data  portal like Euroworksafe

eTen 2005/1 – Trials Thank you for your attention