IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jriskr/v21y2018i7p869-884.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Perception of risk from air pollution and reported behaviors: a cross-sectional survey study in four cities

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Oltra
  • Roser Sala

Abstract

We investigate how public perceptions of air pollution, risk beliefs and self-reported actions to limit personal exposure to ambient air pollution vary across cities. Our analysis also examines the extent to which a number of individual-level variables are associated to self-protective and information-seeking actions due to bad air quality. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey in four cities with a total sample of 1202 inhabitants. We found a moderate variation in the subjective evaluation of local air pollution between cities, as well as in the levels of annoyance and distress due to air pollution. There was relatively little variation in perceived severity, worry and self-reported actions. No variation was found for self-reported attention to air quality levels and controllability beliefs regarding the risks from air pollution. Preliminary modeling of four self-reported actions suggests that self-reported attention to air quality levels and worry are important predictors of self-protective and information seeking behavior. We conclude that both personal and contextual factors have to be taken into account in order to understand public reactions to outdoor urban air pollution. We discuss the implications in terms of risk and health communication.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Oltra & Roser Sala, 2018. "Perception of risk from air pollution and reported behaviors: a cross-sectional survey study in four cities," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(7), pages 869-884, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:21:y:2018:i:7:p:869-884
    DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2016.1264446
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13669877.2016.1264446
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13669877.2016.1264446?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sonja Grossberndt & Philipp Schneider & Hai-Ying Liu & Mirjam F. Fredriksen & Nuria Castell & Panagiota Syropoulou & Alena Bartoňová, 2020. "Public Perception of Urban Air Quality Using Volunteered Geographic Information Services," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 45-58.
    2. Yiwen Xu & Ying Wang & Yang Yang, 2024. "The Impact of Air Pollution on Game Outcome," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 25(5), pages 557-582, June.
    3. Sang, Peijun & Wang, Liangliang & Cao, Jiguo, 2019. "Weighted empirical likelihood inference for dynamical correlations," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 194-206.
    4. Sonja Grossberndt & Philipp Schneider & Hai-Ying Liu & Mirjam F. Fredriksen & Nuria Castell & Panagiota Syropoulou & Alena Bartoňová, 2020. "Public Perception of Urban Air Quality Using Volunteered Geographic Information Services," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 45-58.
    5. Liliana Cori & Gabriele Donzelli & Francesca Gorini & Fabrizio Bianchi & Olivia Curzio, 2020. "Risk Perception of Air Pollution: A Systematic Review Focused on Particulate Matter Exposure," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-27, September.
    6. Dalia M. Muñoz-Pizza & Mariana Villada-Canela & M. A. Reyna & José Luis Texcalac-Sangrador & Jesús Serrano-Lomelin & Álvaro Osornio-Vargas, 2020. "Assessing the Influence of Socioeconomic Status and Air Pollution Levels on the Public Perception of Local Air Quality in a Mexico-US Border City," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Nuno Canha & Ana Rita Justino & Carla A. Gamelas & Susana Marta Almeida, 2022. "Citizens’ Perception on Air Quality in Portugal—How Concern Motivates Awareness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-17, October.
    8. Nguyen, Thanh Cong & Le, Hoa Thu & Nguyen, Hang Dieu & Le, Thanh Ha & Nguyen, Hong Quang, 2021. "Estimating economic benefits associated with air quality improvements in Hanoi City: An application of a choice experiment," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 420-433.
    9. Chia-Lee Yang & Chi-Yo Huang & Yi-Hao Hsiao, 2021. "Using Social Media Mining and PLS-SEM to Examine the Causal Relationship between Public Environmental Concerns and Adaptation Strategies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-23, May.
    10. Juwon Chung & Seung-Nam Kim & Hyungkyoo Kim, 2019. "The Impact of PM 10 Levels on Pedestrian Volume: Findings from Streets in Seoul, South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-23, December.
    11. Maximilian Ueberham & Uwe Schlink & Martin Dijst & Ulrike Weiland, 2019. "Cyclists’ Multiple Environmental Urban Exposures—Comparing Subjective and Objective Measurements," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-12, March.
    12. Wu, Junfeng & Liu, Baohua & Chang, Samuel & Chan, Kam C., 2022. "Effects of air pollution on accounting conservatism," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jriskr:v:21:y:2018:i:7:p:869-884. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJRR20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.