| Popis: |
Background: Waste management challenges, including transboundary sanitary sewage overflows (SSOs), have continuously been of concern along the US-Mexico border region. Sewage contamination contains high concentrations of pathogens excreted in human and animal feces increasing health-related risks and hindering quality of life. Limited literature exists on environmentally related risk perception studies in rural border town thus we aim to better understand risk perception in a rural border town school community after experiencing adjacent sewage effluent. Methods: This paper aims to characterize students’ spatial behavior and hand/object-to-mouth patterns to inform a risk assessment. Risk assessments often use published human behavior parameter values that may not be culturally or geographically representative. Parents and school staff were surveyed during several school events and provided with a link to an online survey. Results: Reported student behavior show a lower hand/object-to-mouth frequency for children ages 4-11, and a wider range of hand-to-mouth frequency for students ages 12-16, when compared to other values in the literature. Offensive odors, negative feelings, and general concerns mainly using informal language were frequently cited. Conclusions: Findings suggest a lack of information and understanding around SSOs, as well as a lack of communication, could contribute to a perceived low-risk or uncertainty around these events. Risk perception is a critical factor of vulnerability, thus effectively disseminating culturally appropriate risk information is an important part in decreasing exposure. |
