Findings: Materials

Some of the print materials given to Pascoag residents by officials included:

• notifications and updates from the PUD
• a handout from HEALTH at the first public meetings on September 25, 2001
• mailed updates from HEALTH as to status and agency actions on November 16, 2001 and December 21, 2001
• information on MTBE from ATSDR provided by an occupational and environmental health specialist at a meeting sponsored by a concerned citizens group

Much of this information is web-based as well through the difference agency websites.

Also, newspaper accounts were a valuable information source. The local paper, the Woonsocket Call, ran a story on the contamination almost every day throughout the course of the event, and the Providence Journal, the largest paper in the area, ran occasional stories as well.

Additional non-print information included the public meetings that were held (there were a few others in addition to the first on September 25), television coverage, and information passed through personal contact, such as information given to residents when they called a state agency. For more information on the frequency of accessing these different kinds of information, and data on which media were most used by residents, refer to the ES 126 study.