Percepção de risco: um campo de interesse para a interface ambiente, saúde e sustentabilidade

Exposure to chemical agents in the Spanish construction sector: A risk assumed and accepted by workers

BACKGROUND: The weak preventive culture among workers in the construction sector leads to the underestimation of risks posed by the presence or handling of chemical agents on-site and, consequently, harms workers’ health. OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this paper are to classify exposure to chemical agents present or used on-site, determine workers’ perception of said agents and establish the influence that socio-demographic variables have on chemical agent exposure and the perception of such exposure. METHODS: A total of 490 workers in the Spanish construction sector participated in this study. The data were gathered through a self-administered questionnaire that explored socio-demographic characteristics, the degree of exposure to chemical agents, attitudes toward exposure and the prevention of consequences. The underlying dimensions of perception were researched using an adapted version of the questionnaire used by the Paul Slovic group to apply the psychometric paradigm. RESULTS: The levels of exposure to and handling of chemical agents found in the sample were high and moderate, respectively. The participants were found to have advanced knowledge about the effects of exposure, with the majority of the workers considering the probability of suffering a serious disease to be low. Statistically significant associations were found between the socio-demographic variables identified in the sample and the various exposure characteristics. A factor analysis performed on the underlying dimensions of perception provided a final version of the instrument comprising two factors. CONCLUSION: Measures are needed to improve the preventive culture among workers in the construction sector and reinforce on-site preventive measures aimed at preventing or minimising the consequences of exposure to chemical agents.

Environmental Health Risk Perception: Adaptation of a Population-Based Questionnaire from Latin America

BACKGROUND: Environmental risk assessments and interventions to mitigate environmental risks are essential to protect public health. While the objective measurement of environmental hazards is important, it is also critical to address the subjective perception of health risks. A population’s perception of environmental health hazards is a powerful driving force for action and engagement in safety and health behaviors and can also inform the development of effective and more sustainable environmental health policies. To date, no instruments are available to assess risk perception of environmental health hazards in South America even though there are many concerning issues in the region, including mining. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to adapt and validate an environmental health risk perception questionnaire in a Chilean population affected by mining activity among other risks frequently reported in Latin American countries and included the collection of information on trust on public information sources. METHODS: We adapted an Australian risk perception questionnaire for validation in an adult population from a Chilean mining community. This adaptation included two blinded translations (direct, inverse), a pre-test study (n = 20) and a review by environmental health experts. Principal Component Analyses (PCA) was used to identify factors within major domains of interest. The Bartlett test of sphericity, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure and the Cronbach α test were used to assess the instrument’s validity and reliability. The instrument was pilot tested in 205 adults from a mining community in Chañaral. RESULTS: The final adapted questionnaire proved to be a good instrument to measure risk perception in a community chronically exposed to mining waste. For community risks, four factors explained 59.4% of the variance. “Global Issues” (30.2%) included air pollution, contamination of mining, ozone layer depletion and vector diseases. For personal risks, the first two components explained 59.5% of the variance, the main factor (36.7%) was “unhealthy behaviors within the household”. For trust in information, the first factor (36.2%) included as main sources “Media and authorities”. The Cronbach α ranged between 0.68 and 0.75; and the KMO test between 0.7 to 0.79 for community and personal risks and trust. CONCLUSIONS: The final questionnaire is a simple, reliable and useful instrument that can assist in evaluating environmental health risk perceptions in Latin American countries.

Port and industrial compound of Pecém: an epidemiological survey

This research aimed to analyze the dwellers' knowledge of the territories, Pecém Port and Industrial Compound (CIPP), the quality of life of the communities living in the vicinity of the enterprises, and the prevalence of hypertension and overweight. This is a home-based, epidemiological survey of four areas of the Family Health Strategy (ESF) in São Gonçalo do Amarante and one area of the ESF in Caucaia, Ceará, Brazil. The study was carried out between 10/2017 and 03/2018. Anthropometric and blood pressure measurements were performed, and sociodemographic data and knowledge about community, the CIPP, and quality of life were collected. A total of 69.8% of the 503 adults interviewed were female, and the mean age was 44 years. Parada was the area reporting the highest percentage of problems related to air particles (51.1%), the worst concept regarding the CIPP (40.1% bad), the highest percentage of worse quality of life (29, 1%), and greater desire to move to another place (31.5%). Pecém had the highest percentage of community problems related to violence, consumption of illicit drugs, and prostitution. We concluded that there are signs of impact on local populations' health and quality of life without more significant direct work/income benefits.

[Trust, attitudes, information: a study on the perception of the COVID-19 pandemic in 12 Brazilian cities]

In this study, the perception of Brazilians regarding COVID-19 in 12 cities in the country was analyzed. Issues about the severity and dangers of the disease, sources of information and reliability, checking information, attitudes, precautions, and priorities for coping and trusting relationships in science were addressed. This study was carried out in the context of broader research on how Brazilians perceive the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). The survey was applied between May 18 and June 10, 2020, with 1,643 residents over 16 years of age in Brazilian cities where Fiocruz has a technical unit or office. The results reveal that the majority of the interviewees appreciate the seriousness of the pandemic, the importance of being properly informed, considers the measures indicated by health authorities important and trusts scientists and scientific institutions as sources of information. With the sense of urgency and experience of uncertainties about the present and the future, the need for strengthening of trust in institutions is present.

Place-Based Citizen Science for Assessing Risk Perception and Coping Capacity of Households Affected by Multiple Hazards

Since hazards act upon vulnerability and exposure to become disasters, the understanding of societal challenges is key for disaster risk reduction. This condition is even more critical when more than one hazard is in place. Taking the case of flooding and water shortage, this study is built upon the premise that disasters are a social phenomenon; therefore, it is essential to comprehend the social context in which they occur. Particularly, this study aims to evaluate the similarities and differences in risk perception and the coping capacity of residents in the multiple-hazard context. For this, a place-based citizen science approach was developed in this study in Campina Grande, a semiarid region of Brazil, with the collaboration of 199 participants. Risk perception and coping capacity were analysed through the citizens’ participation, while combining subjective and objective methods. The results indicate that even though residents have experienced severe flooding and water shortages in the past, they still have low coping capacity. The findings highlight the need to combine a triad of societal challenges, namely information, trust, and incentives, to improve coping capacity in the future and increase resilience. This study underlines the need to understand multiple hazards according to social, spatial, and temporal scales in a socio-spatial perspective.

Risk Society and Science Education: Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic

The current COVID-19 pandemic raises reflection on the new roles of science education in citizen education in a world characterized by civilization risks, derived from the current socioeconomic development. This specific type of risk is treated as a manufactured risk as proposed by the sociologist Ulrich Beck. In this paper, we report a document analysis starting from Beck's risk society theory, followed by notions of reflexive modernity, risk perception, and the Cynefin decision-making model for complex problems. COVID-19 pandemic is characterized as a manufactured risk. We state that students are unable to deal with manufactured risk because of the type of problems they are usually prepared to solve at school and the limited risk perception they have. In order to acquire better science education, we propose the integration of wicked problems in science programs alongside the use of a multidimensional schema, the so-called amplified risk perception space, a tool to locate students' risk perception. We hope to contribute to prepare citizens for a world of global and complex events, such as the current pandemic.

Public Perceptions of Environmental Public Health Risks in the United States

Understanding public perceptions about environmental health hazards, exposures, and health impacts can help environmental public health practitioners to target and prioritize community activities, policy needs, and communication strategies. The online cross-sectional 2013 summer wave of the ConsumerStyles survey sampled U.S. adults and used questions from the Centers for Disease Control’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Program to measure public awareness of governmental efforts to track environmental exposures and links to health impacts, as well as perceptions of environmental health issues. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regressions examined the associations between demographic characteristics and level of awareness of government environmental public health efforts or level of concern about health risks associated with environmental pollutants. Responses were received from 4033 participants, yielding a response rate of 66.0%. More than half of respondents (57.8%) noted concerns about health risks from environmental pollutants. More than one-third (40.0%) of respondents reported awareness of government efforts. Nearly 40% of respondents felt that none of the health impacts listed in the survey were related to environmental issues. Multiple logistic regression models showed that non-Hispanic blacks, other races, females, people with a college or higher education, and people living in the Midwest or South regions were more likely than their counterparts to be concerned about how the environment affects their health. Future work should focus on improving risk communication, filling the information gap on environmental health issues, and understanding how perceptions change over time.