Why do people seek information about PM2.5 air pollution? A theory of planned behaviour perspective

Health and environmental agencies are routinely called upon to provide risk-related information to the public-at-large and to more narrowly defi ned audiences, such as children, pregnant women, or labourers. While a large body of guidance is available, it is often general and transferability to new contexts is not well understood. In particular, the relevance of this guidance for South-East Asia is not clear. This paper reports the results of a study, using Q method, that aimed to develop a better understanding of offi cers’ and staff ’s perspectives on health and environmental risk communication within a single regulatory agency in Thailand, the Pollution Control Department. The results demonstrate that there are multiple perspectives, and they are unrelated to roles or experience. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the ways that offi cers and staff within a national agency with important responsibilities for health and environmental risk communication in Thailand think about these responsibilities and how to achieve them.

The impact of environmental damage and pollution on health and the economy has become a global concern in recent years, including in Indonesia. In Indonesia, the average number of deaths caused by air pollution is 123,000 yearly, and a decrease in life expectancy by 1.4 - 2.4 years by WHO guidelines. This study investigates the decomposition of air pollution (CO2 emissions) in Indonesia from 1995 to 2022. We imposed structural variables comprising urbanization, liberalization, and fossil-based energy. We also associate renewable energy and environmental policy stringency index to describe the decarbonization skeleton. This study uses a dynamic autoregressive distributed approach to examine the interaction between independent variables and carbon emission levels. The results show a diverse influence of urbanization, liberalization, and fossil fuel when associated with skeleton variables that impact the pattern of pollution shaping. Renewable energy is the most critical factor in promoting inclusive decarbonization, while institutional quality is central to generating robust environmental policies. The implication is that a firm commitment is needed to achieve carbon neutrality through clean technology innovation and renewable energy.

Health and environmental agencies are routinely called upon to provide risk-related information to the public-at-large and to more narrowly defi ned audiences, such as children, pregnant women, or labourers. While a large body of guidance is available, it is often general and transferability to new contexts is not well understood. In particular, the relevance of this guidance for South-East Asia is not clear. This paper reports the results of a study, using Q method, that aimed to develop a better understanding of offi cers’ and staff ’s perspectives on health and environmental risk communication within a single regulatory agency in Thailand, the Pollution Control Department. The results demonstrate that there are multiple perspectives, and they are unrelated to roles or experience. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the ways that offi cers and staff within a national agency with important responsibilities for health and environmental risk communication in Thailand think about these responsibilities and how to achieve them.

Indonesia as a developing country has air pollution which is mainly caused by motor vehicle emissions and industrial smoke. The most important indoor air pollution is cigarette smoke. The prevalence of smoking among Indonesian men is 45.7%. Of the population, 10.8% are ex-smokers and 43.5% are non-smokers. Among the female population, only 1.8% smoke. There are some important factors that influence the air pollution in Indonesia; this paper identifies the real problems and their impact. The paper reviews various studies that have been carried out in Indonesia which were related to ambient air quality, industrial air pollutants levels (SO2, NOx, Ox, Pb, CO, HC) in large cities in Indonesia have exceeded the acceptable level, especially in industrial trade and heavy traffic areas. The more cigarettes inhaled and the deeper the inhalation, especially the kretek cigarettes, the risk of ling function abnormality becomes greater. Smoking high dose kretek cigarettes, that is > or = 116 cigarettes/day x years, the risk of abnormal lung function is 13-fold that of a non-smoker; if added with the deep inhalation of smoke, the risk becomes 20-fold. Smoking increases the risk of occupational lung disease. The level of dust in some industrial areas exceeded the standard level and correlated with respiratory problems. The existence of industry caused by air pollution in the environment increased the incidence of obstructive airway diseases. We conclude that the main cause of air pollution in Indonesia is motor vehicle emissions, followed by industrial smoke. Cigarette smoke is also related to abnormal lung function.

We investigate how public perceptions of air pollution, risk beliefs and self-reported actions to limit personal exposure to ambient air pollution vary across cities. Our analysis also examines the extent to which a number of individual-level variables are associated to self-protective and information-seeking actions due to bad air quality. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey in four cities with a total sample of 1202 inhabitants. We found a moderate variation in the subjective evaluation of local air pollution between cities, as well as in the levels of annoyance and distress due to air pollution. There was relatively little variation in perceived severity, worry and self-reported actions. No variation was found for self-reported attention to air quality levels and controllability beliefs regarding the risks from air pollution. Preliminary modeling of four self-reported actions suggests that self-reported attention to air quality levels and worry are important predictors of self-protective and information seeking behavior. We conclude that both personal and contextual factors have to be taken into account in order to understand public reactions to outdoor urban air pollution. We discuss the implications in terms of risk and health communication.

This research is explaining a problem in environmental management that need more attention because the impact of environmental problems involves all elements of the government, private sector, and society. The purpose of this paper is to review which one is the best practice for environmental problems related to air pollution in the government’s efforts. This research focuses on the issue of environmental pollution on air pollution in Indonesia. The theory used is the Collaborative Governance model of Ansell and Gash and De Seve. The research uses a qualitative approach with Systematic Literature Review and secondary data. Perspective in Collaborative Governance. The Literature approach is applied to scientific journals published in the database. The author found that several policies related to environmental problems have been implemented. But not running optimally. The government needs to use its authority to solve existing problems, including the problem of poor air quality.

Risk perception and information seeking behaviors are affected by individual psychological and situational factors. In the background of COVID-19 prevailing for a long period, this study examined Chinese people's information seeking and processing behavior by the RISP model, which focused on the impact of individual risk perception, affective response, perceived information-gathering capacity, and media trust and the impact of the above factors on information seeking. This study designed an online survey with gender and age quotas among the Chinese population, including a total of 675 valid samples. It was found that the Chinese public's risk perception to pandemic had a positive effect on perceived information-gathering capacity and media trust. Furthermore, both positive emotional responses and negative emotional responses had a positive effect on information seeking behavior. Nurturing positive emotion engendered a holistic perception in pandemic information seeking. In addition, media trust, perceived information-gathering capacity, and subjective norms also positively impact information seeking behavior.

Clean air is a basic necessity, but air pollution in Indonesia's major cities has increased significantly. The lack of air quality monitoring facilities in certain areas leads to a lack of public awareness of air pollution levels, which can adversely affect health. As a solution, the development of AeroSenseMonitor, an Arduino Uno-based air quality monitoring tool with DHT11 and MQ135 sensors, is proposed. This tool is expected to provide accurate information on air quality, enabling people to take preventive measures and protect their health. By raising awareness of the importance of clean air, it is hoped that the AeroSenseMonitor can be the first step in addressing the negative impacts of air pollution in Indonesia.

The problem of the “sick” building-facts and implications: Identifying and measuring indoor nonbiologic agents

The problem of air pollution in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta, makes the society pay attention to this Indonesian’s capital city, and they give some opinion in social media such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or other’s platform. The Jakarta’s government gave some responses through Instagrams platform, at @pandemictalks account about the Jakarta’s air pollution. This research is conducted to figure out how the use of linguistic feature, especially speech act used by the Jakarta’s government in facing the societies responses about the air pollution issue. Heru Budi as the PIC of Jakarta’s Governor, produced some illocutionary speech act such as representative, expressive, and directive illocutionary act. The researchers found not only the locution and illocutionary act, but also the perlocutionary act and its meaning that showed in the comment column of Instagram written by the public as the response of Heru’s utterances about air pollution problem. The researchers used descriptive qualitative method by Djajasudarma (2006) for data analyses and explained the data by describing through words. Data sources taken from the Instagram in @pandemictalks account, and the data are 7 slides of Jakarta’s government statement, also the response with the most like from the comment column. In analyzing the meaning of illocutionary act (Yule,1996), the researchers seeing from the contextual appear from the utterances. The data also showed that one utterance consists of two illocutionary acts meaning, such as representative + directive, and representative + expressive. The research findings are 4 data illocutionary act found in the object of study, and 3 perlocutionary act taken from the most love get from the public users of Instagram in that post, that represent about what the public opinion toward Heru’s statement about air pollution. Heru Budi uttered 2 data representative directive, 1 data representative expressive, and 1 data expressive act. In conclusion, the researchers also find most of society are disappointed by Budi’s statement, represent through 1 data representative directive act, 1 data expressive act, and 1 data representative expressive act.

An increasing number of Chinese individuals rely on social media, particularly WeChat, to acquire cancer-related health information through active information-seeking and less active information-scanning behaviors. These behaviors have been shown to influence individuals’ health perceptions and practices. Therefore, understanding the determinants of the Chinese public’s cancer-related health information-seeking and -scanning behaviors on WeChat, as well as their behavioral outcomes, is essential. In response, this study applies the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking (CMIS) to examine the antecedents, interrelationships, and behavioral outcomes of cancer information-seeking and scanning behaviors on WeChat. A cross-sectional online survey of 1478 WeChat users aged 18–69 was conducted between December 20 and 24, 2023. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed that perceived susceptibility, perceived credibility, and perceived utility were positively associated with WeChat users’ information-scanning and -seeking behaviors, whereas perceived severity had a negative effect. WeChat self-efficacy was not significantly associated with either behavior. Additionally, individuals who frequently scanned cancer information were more likely to engage in information-seeking behavior, and both behaviors were positively associated with cancer-preventive behaviors. This study extends the CMIS framework to a non-Western social media context by examining cancer information-scanning and -seeking behaviors on WeChat, thereby strengthening its applicability to digital health information behaviors. The findings provide practical implications for health practitioners and library and information science professionals in designing more effective cancer communication and information services tailored to WeChat’s media ecosystem.

Drug information–seeking intention and behavior after exposure to direct-to-consumer advertisement of prescription drugs

Introduction: Air pollution is an unseen threat to children's health as it increases the risk of respiratory infection by impairing immune responses to the respiratory tract. Nevertheless, health promotion emphasizing the impact of air pollution is not popular, even among health professionals. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the perceptions of paediatricians regarding its impact on children’s health in Indonesia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional design using an online questionnaire was employed in this study. It was composed of 30 items and divided into 4 sections, i.e. section 1 explored the demographic variables, section 2 measured the respondent’s information-seeking behavior on the issue of air pollution, section 3 measured the perception of issues related to air pollution and its impact on children’s health, and section 4 explored the respondent’s experience in practicing environmental health education with respect to their patients. Only completed surveys were analysed. Results: Of the 171 pediatricians who were accessed for the survey, 120 (70.2%) completed it. The majority of respondents (69%) resided in Java island and worked in urban areas (84%). About 41.7% of the respondents had little to no information on the impact of air pollution on children’s health. More than 80% of the respondents received information from scientific articles, followed by seminars (61.5%), the internet (53.8%), colleagues (30.7%), and workshops/training (17.3%). Nearly one-third of the respondents considered air quality as poor in their working environment. Almost all agreed that air pollution can affect children’s health and increase the risk of respiratory allergies and even the risk of skin allergies for children under two years of age. In daily practice, most respondents (53.3%) admitted that they never or rarely treated patients with diseases related to air pollution. About one-third of the respondents (36.7%) had never or rarely asked their patients about their living environment. Conclusion: Pediatricians are aware of the impact of air pollution on the risk of respiratory allergies and infection, and therefore often provide environmental health education to patients. This study has reported that the majority of pediatricians in Indonesia have an understanding of the impact of air pollution on children’s health; however, there is still a lack of health promotion to be communicated to the patients and their families in their daily practice.

Air is very vital for the survival of living things, therefore it is important to maintain air quality to avoid pollution. One of the causes of air pollution is high carbon dioxide emissions resulting from economic and industrial activities which are trapped in the atmosphere, causing a greenhouse gas effect. This research aims to determine the influence of GDP, coal exports and fossil energy consumption on air pollution in Indonesia in terms of CO 2 emissions . This research also aims to test whether the Environmental Kuznet Curve (EKC) hypothesis applies in Indonesia. The type of data used in this research is secondary data in the form of quantitative data obtained from BPS, World Bank, etc. This research was conducted in all provinces in Indonesia. The data analysis technique used in this research is the Error Correction Model ( ECM). The research results show that in the short and long term the variables GDP, coal exports and energy consumption simultaneously have a significant effect on the level of CO 2 emissions . GDP in the short term and long term does not partially have a significant effect on the level of CO 2 emissions . Meanwhile, GDP squared in the short term partially has no significant effect and in the long term it partially has a positive and significant effect. This shows that the EKC hypothesis does not apply in Indonesia. Coal exports in the short term and long term partially do not have a significant effect. Fossil energy consumption in the short term and long term partially has a positive and significant effect. Considering the importance of air for human life, it is necessary to pay attention to the factors that influence air pollution.

Inflation could likely cause devastating impacts where high inflation can harmful economic and social circumstances. However, only limited studies try to find the impact of inflation on the quality of air. The aim of this study is to investigate the empirical linkage between inflation and air pollution in Indonesia covering the period of 1981 until 2017 by using an error correction model (ECM) methodological approach. The result of study suggests that in the short run, higher inflation is causing the lower level of air pollution. Similarly, in the long run, higher inflation is also affecting the lower level of air pollution. While there are a lot of negative impacts of inflation in Indonesia, the finding in this study indicates a positive impact of inflation in Indonesia, which is higher inflation can reduce the air pollution. The results seem contradict with the target of central bank of Indonesia to have a low but positive rate of inflation. Based on the findings, the study suggests the policymakers in Indonesia to support a robust role of inflation stability in achieving targets related to the reduction of air pollution.