While research has shown that people are adversely psychologically affected by knowledge that their communities have been toxically contaminated, it has been suggested that those who see a disaster as naturally occurring tend to be less adversely affected than those who see a disaster as caused by human acts. To examine this issue, questionnaires were collected from 73 residents of Warwick, New York. Warwick residents potentially faced toxic contamination from both a natural occurrence (radon released by underground deposits of uranium) and a man-made problem (a plan to dump radioactively contaminated soil in the bordering town). The results revealed that respondents viewed the dumped toxic as more dangerous than the naturally-occurring toxic and were both more aware and more concerned about the dump situation. They also rated government handling of the dump as poorer than government handling of the radon problem. Subjects also differed in their emotional reactions to the two dangers, checking more total emotions in relation to the dump than to the natural radon and feeling more anger about the dump than about the natural radon. These findings support the hypothesis that perception of human causation leads to greater distress and anger than does perception of natural causation of toxic contamination. (NB)