Awareness Is Not Enough: Frequent Use of Water Pollution Information and Changes to Risky Behavior

Ashley D. Ross, Abbey Hotard, Manoj Kamalanathan, Rayna Nolen, David Hala, Lauren A. Clay, Karl Kaiser and Antonietta Quigg
Additional contact information
Ashley D. Ross: Department of Marine and Coastal Environmental Science, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX 77544, USA
Abbey Hotard: Department of Marine and Coastal Environmental Science, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX 77544, USA
Manoj Kamalanathan: Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX 77554, USA
Rayna Nolen: Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX 77554, USA
David Hala: Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX 77554, USA
Lauren A. Clay: Department of Health Administration and Public Health, D’Youville College, Buffalo, NY 14201, USA
Karl Kaiser: Department of Marine and Coastal Environmental Science, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX 77544, USA
Antonietta Quigg: Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX 77554, USA

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 20, 1-17

Abstract: Hazard information plays an important role in how risk perceptions are formed and what actions are taken in response to risk. While past studies have shown that information on water and air pollution is associated with changes to individual behavior, there is a need for examination of water quality information in the context of environmental disturbances. This study fills that gap by examining water pollution in an active industrial region of the United States—the Galveston Bay of Texas. Using original survey data collected in 2019 of 525 adults living in the Galveston Bay region, logistic regression was used to analyze the association of awareness and use of water pollution information on changes to outdoor activities and consumption of drinking water and/or seafood. Controls for chronic and acute exposure to environmental hazards, environmental knowledge and experience, and demographics were included in the model. The findings indicate frequent use of water quality information is significantly associated with action to reduce risk. On average, an individual who checks water pollution monitoring every day is 26% and 33% more likely to change their outdoor activities and consumption behavior, respectively, than someone who is not aware of this information. There is a need for improvement in pollution data collection and the development of a risk communication framework that facilitates the dissemination of this information in relevant, accessible, and credible ways.

Keywords: hazard mitigation; water quality; pollution information (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8695/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8695/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:20:p:8695-:d:431778

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().