The health policy implications of individual adaptive behavior responses to smog pollution in urban China

Jie Ban; Lian Zhou; Yi Zhang; G Brooke Anderson; Tiantian Li

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2017.06.010

The health policy implications of individual adaptive behavior responses to smog pollution in urban China

Environ Int. 2017 Sep:106:144-152. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2017.06.010. Epub 2017 Jun 23.

Authors

Jie Ban¹, Lian Zhou², Yi Zhang¹, G Brooke Anderson³, Tiantian Li⁴

Affiliations

¹ National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China, No.7 Panjiayuannanli, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100021, China.
² Jiangsu Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing, China, No.172 Jiangsu Road, Nanjing 210019, China.
³ Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University, USA. Electronic address: Brooke.anderson@colostate.edu.
⁴ National Institute of Environmental Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China, No.7 Panjiayuannanli, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100021, China. Electronic address: tiantianli@gmail.com.

PMID: 28651244
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2017.06.010

Abstract

Smog pollution is a serious public health issue in urban China, where it is associated with public health through a range of respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses. Despite the negative health impacts of smog pollution, individual adaptive behaviors are poorly understood. This knowledge gap hinders the development of effective public policy to support and encourage the adoption of individual adaptive and mitigating behaviors to smog pollution. A questionnaire survey of 1141 randomly sampled individuals in a typical PM_2.5-polluted Chinese city was designed to establish smog concerns and behavior changes during smog events. The results demonstrate a variety of behavior responses associated with risk perception, experience of smog, age, and gender of respondents. An understanding of these variations is critical to the development of effective public policy and ultimately to the improvement of public health in cities affected by smog.

Keywords: Air pollution; China; Environmental adaptation; Individual behavior; Smog.

MeSH terms

Adaptation, Psychological*
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Air Pollutants*
Air Pollution*
China
Cities
Female
Health Policy*
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Smog*
Young Adult

Substances

Air Pollutants
Smog