scholarly journals Media Reporting on Air Pollution: Health risk and precautionary measures in national and regional newspapers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Ramondt ◽  
A. Susana Ramirez
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
News Media ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Local Newspapers ◽  
Environmental Health Literacy ◽  
Precautionary Measures

Abstract Background Exposure to air pollution is one of the primary global health risk factors, yet individuals lack the knowledge to engage in individual risk mitigation and the skills to mobilize for change necessary to reduce such risks. The news media are an important tool for influencing individual actions and support for public policies to reduce environmental threats; thus, a lack of news coverage of such issues may exacerbate knowledge deficits. This study examines the reporting of health risk and precautionary measures regarding air pollution in national and regional print news using an environmental health literacy perspective.Methods We conducted a content analysis of two national (New York Times and Washington Post) and two local newspapers (Fresno Bee and Bakersfield Californian) newspapers covering the country’s most polluted region, California’s San Joaquin Valley, during a 5-year period (2011-2015). Using a constructed week sampling approach, 276 newspaper articles were coded for information on threat, efficacy information, and information sources.Results News coverage of air pollution mostly failed to mention human health risks. Moreover, fewer than 10 percent of news stories about air pollution provided information on the precautionary measures necessary for individuals to take action to mitigate their risk. Despite being located in one of the most polluted areas in the US, local newspapers did not report significantly more threat and efficacy information. News coverage of air pollution consistently missed opportunities to raise environmental health literacy.Conclusions Although air pollution levels are high and continue to rise at alarming rates, our findings suggest that news media reporting is not conducive to raising environmental health literacy. Public health advocates and health promotion experts must develop more effective strategies for disseminating information about the health risks of air pollution, balancing the need for recognizing the structural causes of poor air quality and the actions individuals and communities can take to reduce air pollution related morbidity and mortality. National and local news media may be useful partners for such dissemination.

scholarly journals Media Reporting on Air Pollution: Health Risk and Precautionary Measures in National and Regional Newspapers

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (18) ◽  
pp. 6516
Author(s):  
Steven Ramondt ◽  
A. Susana Ramírez
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
News Media ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Media Reporting ◽  
Local Newspapers ◽  
Precautionary Measures

Exposure to air pollution is one of the primary global health risk factors, yet individuals lack the knowledge to engage in individual risk mitigation and the skills to mobilize for the change necessary to reduce such risks. News media is an important tool for influencing individual actions and support for public policies to reduce environmental threats; thus, a lack of news coverage of such issues may exacerbate knowledge deficits. This study examines the reporting of health risks and precautionary measures regarding air pollution in national and regional print news. We conducted a content analysis of two national and two local newspapers covering the USA’s most polluted region during a 5-year period. Coders identified information on threat, self-efficacy, protective measures and information sources. Nearly 40% of air pollution news articles mentioned human health risks. Fewer than 10% of news stories about air pollution provided information on the precautionary measures necessary for individuals to take action to mitigate their risk. Local newspapers did not report more threat (Χ2 = 1.931, p = 0.165) and efficacy (Χ2 = 1.118, p = 0.209) information. Although air pollution levels are high and continue to rise at alarming rates, our findings suggest that news media reporting is not conducive to raising environmental health literacy.

scholarly journals Increasing Environmental Health Literacy through Contextual Learning in Communities at Risk

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 2203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leona Davis ◽  
Mónica Ramirez-Andreotta ◽  
Jean McLain ◽  
Aminata Kilungo ◽  
Leif Abrell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Literacy ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Health Knowledge ◽  
Rainwater Harvesting ◽  
Community Action ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Environmental Health Risk ◽  
Environmental Health Literacy

Environmental health literacy (EHL) has recently been defined as the continuum of environmental health knowledge and awareness, skills and self-efficacy, and community action. In this study, an interdisciplinary team of university scientists, partnering with local organizations, developed and facilitated EHL trainings with special focus on rainwater harvesting and water contamination, in four communities with known environmental health stressors in Arizona, USA. These participatory trainings incorporated participants’ prior environmental health risk knowledge and personal experiences to co-create training content. Mixed methods evaluation was conducted via pre-post participant surveys in all four trainings (n = 53). Participants who did not demonstrate baseline environmental science knowledge pre-training demonstrated significant knowledge increase post-training, and participants who demonstrated low self-efficacy (SE) pre-training demonstrated a significant increase in SE post-training. Participants overall demonstrated a significant increase in specific environmental health skills described post-training. The interdisciplinary facilitator-scientist team also reported multiple benefits, including learning local knowledge that informed further research, and building trust relationships with community members for future collaboration. We propose contextual EHL education as a valuable strategy for increasing EHL in environmental health risk communities, and for building academia-community partnerships for environmental health research and action.

scholarly journals Reference Correction to: Making Air Pollution Visible: A Tool for Promoting Environmental Health Literacy

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. e80
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Galkina Cleary ◽  
Allison P Patton ◽  
Hsin-Ching Wu ◽  
Alan Xie ◽  
Joseph Stubblefield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Environmental Health Literacy ◽  
Reference Correction

Development of Environmental Health Literature Models in Keeping Sustainable Peatland Ecosystems

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 926
Author(s):  
Dessyka FEBRIA ◽  
Gusman VIRGO ◽  
Riski Novera YENITA ◽  
INDRAWATI INDRAWATI
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Functional Literacy ◽  
Surrounding Environment ◽  
Environmental Health Literacy

This article discusses the development of a model of environmental health literacy to maintain a sustainable ecosystem on peatlands. In maintaining the sustainable peatland ecosystem, an environmental health literacy model is needed so that the community can follow up on the health of the surrounding environment. To make informed decisions, communities must have the ability to obtain, process and understand health and environmental information. The approaches used in environmental health literacy are 1 - basic, and functional literacy with efforts to evaluate environmental health information, 2 - communicative interactive and awareness literacy in reducing health and environmental risks and 3 - improving quality of life and protecting the environment with provide education so as to change people's behavior. Ultimately, efforts to develop this model of environmental health literacy are intended to prevent the occurrence of peatland ecosystem damage and can empower communities through an increased understanding of health risks and environmental risks that affect health and the environment.

scholarly journals Making Air Pollution Visible: A Tool for Promoting Environmental Health Literacy

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. e16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Galkina Cleary ◽  
Allison P Patton ◽  
Hsin-Ching Wu ◽  
Alan Xie ◽  
Joseph Stubblefield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Environmental Health Literacy

scholarly journals What Do Childcare Providers Know about Environmental Influences on Children’s Health? Implications for Environmental Health Literacy Efforts

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 5489
Author(s):  
Brenda D. Koester ◽  
Stephanie Sloane ◽  
Elinor M. Fujimoto ◽  
Barbara H. Fiese ◽  
Leona Yi-Fan Su
Keyword(s):  
Health Literacy ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
The United States ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Environmental Health Literacy ◽  
Childcare Providers

Children are uniquely vulnerable to toxicant exposures in their environment, which can have long-lasting impacts on their health. Childcare providers are an important population to target for environmental health literacy, as most children in the United States under five years of age spend a significant number of waking hours in non-parental care. There is an increasing body of evidence that children are exposed to toxicants in the childcare environment, and yet little is known about what childcare providers know about environmental influences on the health of children in their care. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 36 home- and center-based Illinois childcare providers to better understand their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors as they relate to environmental influences on children’s health. We found that the majority of providers had a low level of understanding of potential sources of exposure in the childcare environment, and they did not feel that environmental exposures posed a significant risk to children. Future efforts to increase environmental health literacy should focus on raising awareness and knowledge of environmental health issues for childcare providers before addressing ways that providers can reduce or prevent toxicant exposures to children in their care.

Environmental health risks

2013 ◽  
pp. 178-187
Author(s):  
Roscoe Taylor ◽  
Charles Guest
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Health Risk Assessment ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
Health Protection ◽  
Health Threat ◽  
Environmental Health Risks ◽  
Environmental Health Risk

This chapter will help you to understand the environmental health in the rapidly changing context of health protection, the usefulness of having a framework for environmental health risk assessment, and the process of identifying, evaluating, and planning a response to an environmental health threat.

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