Air Quality - Recognition and Perception of Problems by Individuals

Ambio

Air pollution is one of the primary concerns of our society for its effect on human health and the environment. Among the policy measures that can be put in place to limit air pollutant emissions, end-of-pipe technologies and/or regulatory instruments may be implemented through legislative acts. Also, equally important are behavioural measures, requiring citizens’ active involvement. The success of any measure to limit pollutant emissions requires the acceptance by the citizens that, in turn, implies a correct perception of the main pollutant emission drivers. We present here the comparison between the public perception of air pollution sources and the real-world situation through a survey carried out in seven European countries and involving 16 101 respondents. Our study shows a dramatic underestimation of the contribution of the agri-food sector to air pollution. This result is common to all respondents in the seven countries examined and only to a small extent depends on gender, ...

Przegląd Politologiczny

This article aims to present the impact of air pollution on the quality of life of EU residents. With the aid of institutional-legal and statistical analysis an attempt has been undertaken to answer the following research questions: 1) negative concentrations whose pollution exceeds norms set out at EU levels, 2) causes of above-norm pollution concentrations and 3) impact of pollution on the health of Europeans. During the conducted research it was demonstrated that the quality of life of Europeans is being lowered by a continuing above-norm concentration of air pollution whose exposure is related to people feeling worse, numerous diseases related to the breathing system, circulation, nervous and even reproductive system as well as increased death rate and shortening of life expectancy. The estimated number of premature deaths in 2014 resulting from exposure to fine dust, ozone and carbon dioxide in the EU amounted to 487,600. As the investigation shows, the best quality of life, taking into consideration air quality, is afforded by Finland, Ireland and Sweden.

Epidemiology, biostatistics, and public health, 2017

Background : From November 2015 to January 2016, the routine air monitoring showed a peak of air pollution (in particular of PM10) that caused alarm in many Italian cities and was widely reported by mass media. After some weeks from this alarm, we tried to evaluate the citizen awareness and interest towards air pollution together with their positive behaviors, using different information sources. Methods: From September 2015 to March 2016, in parallel with the number of exceedances of the PM10 in Italy we evaluated the press coverage, the average monthly searches on Google and the interest on Twitter. Moreover, a qualitative content analysis on daily newspapers was conducted and a self-compiled questionnaire on the attitudes and behaviors about environmental issues and their determinants was administered to 598 parents involved in the project MAPEC_LIFE (LIFE12 ENV/IT/00614). Results: The media coverage of the theme of air pollution was very high from the end of 2015 to the beginnin...

Epidemiology, 2004

This paper analyses social constraints influencing air quality governance in four European Union (EU) countries. The comparative analysis carried out here is the outcome of the EU FP7 SEFIRA project. Starting from study of implemented measures the paper marks out the structure of double-delegation in policy-making for air quality governance; that is to say the delegation from the EU to national governments who further delegate to regional and local authorities the burden to put in place concrete measures. Therefore, our analysis has followed a multi-level approach considering all the territorial level down to the urban scale. In doing so, we found out commonalities in the strategies which have been followed by policy-makers. The comparison has been made possible through the analysis of operationalised categories such as Domain, Objectives and Modalities on air quality plans. The analysis went further: through interviews with selected key stakeholder the social constraints which may limit the choices made by institutions have been investigated. The-lack of-success in attaining EU requirements for the air quality cannot be considered only as the outcome of the −lack of-awareness of which may be the best practices or choices, rather as the result of complex entanglements of social forces. Indeed, one of the main outcomes of this explorative investigation has been the breakdown of such complexity into its social component in a comparative study. The paper finally points out the need to promote an integrated approach for air quality policy as a strategy for the design of new measures for the future.

THE BULLETIN OF THE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE FROM IAŞI - CHEMISTRY and CHEMICAL ENGINEERING Section, 2020

Air pollution continues to be a concern for both the scientific community and the general population. Promoting pollution events and the impact they could have on the environment and human health must be an ongoing challenge. This paper presents a case study on ambient air quality by monitoring particle concentrations (PM10) in the northeastern part of Romania. The analysis of a survey on the opinion of the general population regarding air quality is also presented. The research began with our concern about the data issued by the WHO (World Health Organization) which shows that tens of thousands of people are lost, annually, prematurely due to pollution. Experimental data show that in some areas the concentration of PM10 is much exceeded. Moreover, in some areas this concentration is exceeded no less than 82 times in 7 months. At the same time, the survey shows that people  56 Mihaela-Victoria Branişte believe they are responsible for the well-being of the environment but are not sufficiently informed about the quality of the air they breathe.

2021

The European Union's clean air policies work along several lines. The European Union regulates air pollutant emissions from a multitude of sources, sets standards for concentrations of selected harmful substances in ambient air, and sets the obligation of providing information to the public. In this report, we focus on how information on air quality is provided to and perceived by the public and look at actions the cities and the civil society takes towards improvements of the quality of air. Public awareness and understanding have a central role. Air pollution is the single largest environmental risk to the health of the Europeans and is receiving increasing attention in the public space. It is comprehensively regulated in the EU, addressing air pollutants concentrations as well as emissions from numerous sources. Authorities in the Member States are obliged to take actions to improve air quality where legal standards are exceeded and to maintain it where it is good. The legisl...

2008

This ETC/ACC Technical Paper has not been subjected to European Environment Agency (EEA) member country review. It does not represent the formal views of the EEA.

This article assesses the variety of public attitudes towards air pollution. The objective is to analyse how people differently understand and react to air pollution. In particular, we attempt to discern different profiles of people in terms of their attitudes towards air pollution by means of the Q method. The Q method is a qualitative but statistical approach enabling us to discover a variety of attitudinal profiles or discourses concerning an issue from reduced samples. Our results reveal two different attitudinal profiles: annoyed-aware and optimistic-unaware. Nonetheless, there is an important shared discourse among these two groups regarding their behavioural responses to air pollution, levels of worry, self-efficacy and desire for more information. The results have implications for potential health and environmental communication interventions.

2013

Public perception on the state of air quality is an unclear and hazy concept whereby every individual has different opinions and views. In fact, the state of air quality is a major concern in many countries, including in Malta. This problem arises from the emissions of a number of pollutants to the atmosphere from a host of processes such as the combustion of fuel to generate electricity and the internal combustion engines to manoeuvre cars. Amongst these pollutants, there are benzene and nitrogen dioxide, which are very hazardous since they cause problems related to human health and contribute in the formation of ground ozone. The levels of these pollutants are continuously being measured by the Malta Environmental and Planning Authority by means of diffusion tubes distributed in various localities. This competent authority was appointed by the 2008 Directive on Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe, which also set up annual limits for the atmospheric pollutants. This research study aims to analyse the actual diffusion tube readings of benzene and nitrogen dioxide levels in Malta and their distribution trends along the island throughout the previous decade. This would eventually be compared with the opinions perceived by the public on the state of air quality collected by questionnaires by using appropriate statistical tests.