Abstract

This paper describes a multi‐stakeholder process designed to assess thepotential health risks associated with adverse air quality in an urban industrial neighborhood. The paper briefly describes the quantitative health risk assessment conducted by scientific experts, with input by a grassroots community group concerned about the impacts of adverse air quality on theirhealth and quality of life. In this case, rather than accept the views of the scientific experts, the community used their powers of perception toadvantage by successfully advocating for a professionally conducted community health survey. This survey was designed to document, systematically and rigorously, the health risk perceptions community members associated with exposure to adverse air quality in their neighborhood. This paper describes theinstitutional and community contexts within which the research is situated as well as the design, administration, analysis, and results of the community health survey administered to 402 households living in an urban industrial neighborhood in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. These survey results served tolegitimate the community's concerns about air quality and tohelp broaden operational definitions of ‘health.’ In addition, the resultsof both healthrisk assessment exercises served to keep issues of air quality on the localpolitical agenda. Implications of these findings for our understanding of theenvironmental justice process as well as the ability of communitiesto influence environmental health policy are discussed.

Keywords

GrassrootsAir quality indexNeighbourhood (mathematics)StakeholderCommunity healthEnvironmental healthEnvironmental justiceEnvironmental planningHealth impact assessmentPerceptionPsychologyBusinessPublic relationsGeographyPublic healthPolitical scienceMedicineNursing

MeSH Terms

Air PollutionAttitudeEnvironmental ExposureEnvironmental HealthHumansMultivariate AnalysisOntarioPerceptionPublic HealthRisk AssessmentUrban Population

Affiliated Institutions

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Publication Info

Year
1999
Type
article
Volume
19
Issue
4
Pages
621-634
Citations
125
Access
Closed

Social Impact

Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions

Citation Metrics

125
OpenAlex
9
Influential
122
CrossRef

Cite This

Susan J. Elliott, Donald C. Cole, Paul Krueger et al. (1999). The Power of Perception: Health Risk Attributed to Air Pollution in anUrban Industrial Neighbourhood. Risk Analysis , 19 (4) , 621-634. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.1999.tb00433.x

Identifiers

DOI
10.1111/j.1539-6924.1999.tb00433.x
PMID
10765426

Data Quality

Data completeness: 81%