Information sources, awareness and preventive health behaviors in a population at risk of Arsenic exposure: The role of gender and social networks

Arsenic in Mining Areas: Environmental Contamination Routes

The emission and accumulation of toxic elements such as arsenic in various environmental compartments have become increasingly frequent primarily due to anthropogenic actions such as those observed in agricultural, industrial, and mining activities. An example of environmental arsenic contamination in Brazil exists in the city of Paracatu, MG, due to the operation of a gold mine. The aim of this work is to evaluate the routes and effects of arsenic contamination in environmental compartments (air, water, and soil) and environmental organisms (fish and vegetables) from mining regions as well as the trophic transfer of the element for a risk assessment of the population. In this study, high levels of arsenic were found in the waters of the Rico stream ranging from 4.05 µg/L during the summer season to 72.4 µg/L during the winter season. Moreover, the highest As concentration was 1.668 mg kg^-1 in soil samples, which are influenced by seasonal variation and by proximity to the gold mine. Inorganic and organic arsenic species were found above the allowed limit in biological samples, indicating the transfer of arsenic found in the environment and demonstrating a great risk to the population exposed to this area. This study demonstrates the importance of environmental monitoring to diagnose contamination and encourage the search for new interventions and risk assessments for the population.

State versus action orientation and compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia

This study explored the roles of activity versus state direction in how Indonesians adhered to COVID-19 preventive behaviour using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). A total of 615 participants were gathered through a web questionnaire containing 68 questions. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to determine the causal relationships of the latent variable construct. The results revealed that information sources positively influence both attitudes and subjective norms toward preventive behaviour. The results also support self-regulation as a moderator of the main intent-behaviour relationship. Moreover, state-oriented people cannot self-regulate their behaviour to comply with COVID-19 protocols. This investigation provides productive experiences for strategists and managers to improve COVID-19 compliance. This paper's analysis also contributes to literature by revealing the intention to comply with COVID-19 protocols by emphasizing the role of self-regulation. The findings are relevant to practitioners and policymakers in the field of public health and managing of human behavior, particularly to improve of compliance with COVID-19 prevention. Therefore, governments or public health organizations can be utilized to improve the number of individuals who practice COVID-19 preventative behaviours now and in the future, but various factors must be addressed. Future directions and recommendations for improving TPB are suggested.

The Mediated Role of Credibility on Information Sources and Patient Awareness toward Patient Rights

Although patient rights are an important issue, this remains an understudied research area. Patients are unaware of their rights, lacking control of health care treatments they might deserve. This can contribute to sustaining inequality as well as failure in achieving welfare policy goals. Drawing on channel complementarity theory, the current study explored patients’ awareness toward their rights, and the credibility of information sources related to patient rights. In a web-based survey, 994 Israeli participants, suffering from chronic illness and using health services, were recruited. To examine the study’s theoretical framework and relationships among the constructs and test the hypotheses, a path analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling. The research model depicts direct and indirect relationships between constructs, and the relevant coefficients. The results show a direct and positive interaction between information credibility and patient rights awareness (β = 0.10, p = 0.019). Information credibility partially mediates the relationship between public service information sources and patient rights awareness (bootstrap with 95% CI: 0.01–0.07; p = 0.015). The mass media information sources construct is directly and positively related to information credibility (β = 0.36, p = 0.000). Age was found as a moderator, indicating that information credibility is a factor only at lower ages. Therefore, patient rights should be systematically and reliably accessible in order to raise the awareness and trust of chronic patients regarding information about patient rights. Using planned health communication campaigns mainly via public service sources that are perceived as trustworthy can help contribute to approach patients more effectively and provide them with accessible and detailed information about their rights.

Arsenic contamination assessment in Brazil - Past, present and future concerns: A historical and critical review

This paper presents a summary of some relevant documents published during the last decades regarding arsenic contamination in Brazil until December 2018, including scientific papers, reports and regulatory documents. Natural and anthropogenic arsenic sources were covered, excluding those related to agriculture. International "key" documents related to arsenic contamination were used to support the discussion and comparative analysis. This paper aims: (a) to summarize and discuss some available data (including Portuguese written documents) concerning arsenic contamination in Brazil, mainly geographical, geological, geochemical, environmental and health studies; (b) to critically review the published studies comparing their main findings; (c) to describe and compare ancient and recent contamination events; and (d) to highlight key knowledge gaps, and identify promising areas for future researches. The arsenic contamination scenario in Brazil results not only from mining. Natural or anthropogenic emissions caused by great magnitude phenomena as flooding, erosion, landslide and, water scarcity equally impact arsenic mobilization/immobilization equilibria. Our literature review demonstrates that arsenic contamination of soils, sediments and water sources is observed at least at three of the five geographically defined Brazilian regions (Northern, Southern and, Southeastern regions). Arsenic enriched soils, and waters naturally occur all around the country and anthropogenic activities have been the main contributory factor to the environmental contamination since the 18th Century. Geogenic materials (topsoil and mining tailings), and water samples could contain extremely high arsenic concentrations, i.e. 21,000 mg kg^-1 or 1,700,000 μg L^-1, respectively, have been found mainly at the "Iron Quadrangle". Moreover, if we consider both the Brazilian and international parameters, the health risks associated with the human exposition to arsenic are of significant concern. For those reasons, constant monitoring of As contaminated areas in Brazil is mandatory. Furthermore, it is necessary to learn from the mistakes made in the past in order to prevent or minimize future problems.