Consumers in the twenty-first century present many challenges for managers within the food industry. Consumers are everyday bombarded with choices, making decisions in respect of these involves an element of risk taking. Whilst the consequences of 'bad' choices infrequently prove to be life threatening, the values which collectively constitute a consumer's lifestyle, are potentially threatened by these day to day decisions. Consumers can both support and reinforce their lifestyle and values through selection and rejection of the products and services offered by the food industry. This research recognises that consumers' lifestyles and values differ and investigates the implications of these differences for consumer perceptions of food risk and risk relieving / avoiding strategies for a homogeneous sample of 215 women. An eclectic approach was adopted using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Taylor Nelson's British based Social Value Groups as reported by MacNulty (1985) were selected as the most appropriate framework for value segmentation. A screening instrument was constructed and used to identify members of the Sustenance driven, Outer directed and Inner directed social value groups described by MacNulty (1985). The relationships between these identified social values and perceptions of food risk and risk relieving / avoiding strategies were investigated. The findings support the view that consumers' food risk perceptions and risk avoiding strategies are influenced by their social values. Each of the three groups of consumers presented a specific portfolio of food risk perception and risk avoiding strategies. The perceptions of all three groups are important to understanding consumers' food choices. The Inner directed consumers do however present a set of values and perceptions predicted to increase. Furthermore the Inner directed values question the likely future success of traditional management and marketing strategies in the food industry. This research is the first to provide an insight into how social values influence food risk perceptions and risk avoiding strategies. It provides a platform for beginning to develop strategies for the management of consumers' food risk perceptions. The findings identify the need for further research into Inner directed values, particularly in the context of their implications for the management of food risk perceptions in the future. Similarly findings in respect of risk avoiding strategies need to be explored further. A significantly funded repeat of the research would be necessary to confirm the generalisability of the findings. However from a theoretical point of view it is likely that identified relationships and differences would be apparent in other sectors of the British population.

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This thesis investigates the range, distribution and causes of high radon levels in dwellings in the Brighton area of Southeast England. Indoor radon levels were measured in more than 1000 homes. The results show that high radon levels can arise in an area previously considered to offer low radon potential from local geological sources. Climate and building-related factors were found to affect significantly the radon levels in dwellings. Multiple regression was used to determine the influence of the various factors on indoor radon levels and an empirical model developed to predict indoor radon levels. The radon hazard, independent of building-related effects, was determined for each surveyed location by adjusting the radon measurement to that expected on the ground floor of a 'model' dwelling. This standardised set of radon levels was entered into a geographical information system (GIS) and related to surface geology. The geometric mean radon level for each lithological unit was plotted to produce a radon hazard map for the area. The highest radon levels were found to be associated with the youngest Chalk Formations, particularly where they meet overlying Tertiary deposits, and with Clay-with-Flints Quaternary deposits in the area. The results were also converted to the radon activity equivalent to that expected from the NRPB's standard dual-detector dwelling survey method and analysed by lognormal modelling to estimate the proportion of dwellings likely to exceed the UK Action Level of 200 Bq/m3 for each lithological unit. The likely percentages of dwellings affected by radon thus obtained were mapped to lithological boundaries to produce a radon potential map. The radon hazard map and the empirical radon model facilitate the prediction of radon levels in dwellings of comparable construction and above similar geology and should further the understanding of the behaviour of radon gas in buildings to allow indoor radon concentrations to be controlled. The radon potential map is directly comparable with those produced by NRPB and BGS and can be used to assist in environmental planning and development control.

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Most countries aim to regulate and protect the state of our environment under a system of environmental standards to control the level of certain pollutants present in various media of concern. Many such standards are often set without due consideration of uncertainty and variation and based on poorly defined principles. A sound statisticallybased approach to setting environmental standards can be based on the statistically verifiable ideal standard (SVIS) of Barnett and O'Hagan (1997). The SVIS is developed and practical implications of its use considered in terms of applications to pollution situations in air, water and soil, working in co-operation with relevant bodies. Developments include a non-parametric binomial approach and quantile testing for several simple parent pollutant distributions; properties of these approaches are examined in detail. A best linear unbiased quantile estimator (BLUQE) is examined, and 5% and 1 % critical values for the 0.95 and 0.99 BLUQE tabulated for use in an approximate significance testing procedure. This work is extended to a BLUQE for ranked set sampling, demonstrating impressive efficiency gains. Assessment of the SVIS using composite sample data is also investigated, with major improvements in test perrormance over the use of the commonly accepted 'divide-by-n' rule for critical value calculation. Following Barnett and O'Hagan (1997), the problem of setting directly equivalent compatible standards at different stages of the pollutant cause-effect chain is investigated. A statistically verifiable ideal guard point standard with two levels is also developed to avoid benefit of the doubt in testing procedures for standards, and its use demonstrated for both normal and gamma parent pollutant distributions. A reference point standard is proposed for a spatially dependent pollutant variable, with a krigingbased testing procedure. Finally, a 'hotspot' identification procedure is also developed, using outlier methods and composite sampling. The work concludes with suggestions for further related research.

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