Environmental Risk Perception

Environmental Risk Perception

A combination of things that make up our surroundings, conditions, or influences is known as environment. The environment is considered to be “our life support system because it includes everything that we rely on during our lifetime such as air, water, metals, soil, rock, and other living organisms” (Sustainable environment, 2014).   Environment consists of ecological, social and cultural influences that have the ability to shape an individual’s life.  The condition of our environment is dependent upon human behavior and it is very important to understand “that we have the opportunity to either nurture or mistreat it” (Sustainable environment, 2014).  In this essay I have chosen to select pollution as an environmental risk that I would like to examine different perceptions of the level of risk. 

A common understanding of risk “refers to a situation, event, or activity which may lead to uncertain adverse outcomes affecting something that human value” (Steg, 2013 p. 16).  Environmental risk is more complex than just risk in general because they are “characterized by high complexity and uncertainty, entailing intricate casual relationships and multiple consequences” (Steg, 2013 p. 16).   Environmental risk often occurs “from the aggregated behaviors of many individual rather than a single activity (Steg, 2013 p.16)” and that is why I decided to examine the environmental risk factors of pollution.

Pollution is defined “as unwanted or detrimental changes in a natural system.  Usually pollution is associated with the presence of toxic chemicals in some large quantity, but pollution can also be caused by the presence of excess quantities of heat or by excessive fertilization with nutrients” (Freedman, 2011).  Pollution can occur in several ways such as noise, air or water and is mainly the result of human behavior.  The two articles that I examined focused on air pollution and how it contributes to health related problems.

Air pollution is used to describe the “broad range of contaminants in the atmosphere that can occur from natural causes or from human activities” (Brimblecombe, 2011).  Many air pollutants have been discovered “as gas particles and on a restricted scale they can be trapped inside buildings as indoor air pollutants” (Brimblecombe, 2011).  When discussing environmental risk factors on a scale of importance I believe that air pollution should be at the top of that list because air is something at all humans have to consume on a daily basis in order to survive and if the air is bad is can be the cause many health related problems. 

The first article I examined was about air pollution and health.  This article discussed how “exposure to pollutants such as airborne particulate matter and ozone has been associated with increases in mortality and hospital admissions doe to respiratory and cardiovascular disease” (Brunekreef & Holgate, 2002).  This article viewed the effects of air pollution based on short-term studies in which the differences between individuals that were terminally ill and otherwise healthy were compared to determine if being exposed to air pollutants caused serious health problems.  The study that was conducted was trying to gain “knowledge on which pollution components are responsible for any health effects observed in epidemiological studies of obvious importance” (Brunekreef & Holgate, 2002). 

The next article I examined focused on air pollution and epigenetics.  This article discussed how “air pollution is a global problem with far-reaching environmental impacts” (Syed, Hew, Kohli, Knowlton, & Nadeau, 2013).  The authors of this article are trying to explain to readers how being exposed to air pollution is connected to several health problems as well the importance of “understanding the impact of ambient air  pollution is complicated given the diversity of both pollutants involved as well as the complexity of associated diseases” (Syed, Hew, Kohli, Knowlton,  & Nadeau, 2013).  This article gave an outline on the serious health problems that can occur as a result of ambient air pollution and made suggestions on involving “epigenetic modifications, including DNA methylation, histone acetylation, and microRNAs” (Syed, Hew, Kohli, Knowlton,  & Nadeau, 2013).

Risk perception is defined as “people’s subjective judgment about the risk associated with some activity, event, or technology” (Steg, 2013 p. 24).   In the first article I examined on air pollution and health the risk perception was focused more on “sources of ozone, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide” (Brunekreef & Holgate, 2002).  The author basically discussed how the effects of the ozone contributed to air pollution and how they perceived those effects to contribute to health related problems in humans.  In the next article I examined on air pollution and epigenetics the risk perception was focused on air pollutants such as the ozone, particulate matter, diesel exhaust particles and cigarette smoke and the relationship between  “ambient air pollution and the incidence of respiratory diseases” (Syed, Hew, Kohli, Knowlton,  & Nadeau, 2013).  The article air pollution and epigenetics risk perception was higher than air pollution and health because that article took a more in depth look on the relationship between air pollution and health problems such as respiratory diseases such as bronchitis and asthma.
            Environmental stressors are situations that happen mostly by human behavior that cause pressure on individuals as well as the environment.  Both articles identify diesel exhaust as an environmental stressor because diesel exhaust gives off fumes that contribute to health problems that affect an individual’s respiratory system.  State laws have been adapted to prohibit vehicles that run on diesel fuel for idling for more than five minutes at any given time.  Prohibiting diesel vehicles from idling for more than five minutes was developed to reduce the amount of air pollution that comes from the exhaust fumes of a vehicle operated by diesel fuel. 

Diesel fuel is an environmental stressor because the fumes are strong and if an individual inhales too much it will cause them to cough and possibly choke depending on how long they have been exposed to the fumes.  I honestly agree with the regulations that were made on the idling of diesel vehicles because I drive a school bus and I have been exposed to the fumes on several occasions and they caused me to cough repeatedly and then I developed a headache.  Another risk perception that was identified but I did not discuss much was cigarette smoke.  Cigarette smoke has been identified as “one of the most widely studied environmental exposures, particularly with regard to gene-environment interactions” (Syed, Hew, Kohli, Knowlton,  & Nadeau, 2013).  Several studies have been conducted over a period of time to determine the relation between cigarette some and many diseases such as “respiratory diseases such as COPD, asthma, and lung cancer, as well as cardiovascular diseases and other cancers” (Syed, Hew, Kohli, Knowlton,  & Nadeau, 2013).  Laws have been developed prohibiting cigarette smoking in many businesses such as hospitals, restaurants and bars which I believe was a very good way to eliminate people especially children being exposed to cigarette smoke.  I believe that individuals that are exposed to cigarette smoke regularly can possibly develop chronic breathing problems because cigarette smoke is very strong and every time that I have been exposed to it I felt shortness of breath and coughed excessively.     

References

Brunekreef, B., & Holgate, S. T. (2002). Air pollution and health. The Lancet, 360(9341), 1233-42.

Freedman, B. (2011). Pollution. Environmental Encyclopedia, 2(4th), 1304-1307.

Steg, L. (2013). Environmental psychology: An introduction. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

Sustainable environment. (2014). Sustainable environment. Retrieved from http://www.sustainable-environment.org.uk/Environment/environment.php

Syed, A., Hew, K., Kohli, A., Knowlton, G., & Nadeau, K. C. (2013). Air pollution and epigenetics. Journal of Environmental Protection, 4(8), 114-122.