Consumers' perceptions of chemical household products and the associated risks.

Autor: Buchmüller K; Consumer Behavior, Institute for Environmental Decisions, ETH Zurich, Universitaetstrasse 22, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: kim.buchmueller@hest.ethz.ch., Bearth A; Consumer Behavior, Institute for Environmental Decisions, ETH Zurich, Universitaetstrasse 22, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland., Siegrist M; Consumer Behavior, Institute for Environmental Decisions, ETH Zurich, Universitaetstrasse 22, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Food and chemical toxicology : an international journal published for the British Industrial Biological Research Association [Food Chem Toxicol] 2020 Sep; Vol. 143, pp. 111511. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Jun 29.
DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2020.111511
Abstrakt: Accidents with chemical household products are prevalent worldwide and often involve young children. Previous research has shown that consumers use both analytical factors (e.g., warning symbols) and potentially misleading heuristics to evaluate the riskiness. However, it remains unclear whether consumers intuitively think of the specific risks of these products when handling them. We conducted an online survey with Swiss consumers (N = 1109) aiming to investigate consumer's spontaneous and prompted risk perception of chemical household products. First, we asked them about their free associations to laundry detergent, descaler, mold remover and essential oils. While participants were aware of the risks when prompted about them, they did not name them intuitively, but mainly thought of the possible uses and attributes of the product. Next, we examined prerequisites to safe handling of chemical household products. This included applied knowledge about the products, but also factors like perceived barriers to safe use. Finally, we assessed the predictors of perceived severity of accidents in order to estimate the potential behavioral changes that these predictors might elicit. For interventions, particular attention should be accorded to personal risk awareness and the perception of potential barriers, which were significantly related to the perceived severity of accidents.
(Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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