Doctoral Dissertation Research: Risk Perceptions as Potential Mediators of Environmental Toxicants Associated with Biomass Fuel Use

每年约有290万人因室内空气污染而过早死亡。很大一部分病例是由于家庭依赖生物质燃料和接触生物质烟雾中的空气传播有毒物质。美国政府为防止风险暴露而投入了大量资金。然而，改善空气质量的干预措施的潜在支出的成本效益和可持续性取决于对当地情况的了解，包括对减轻环境污染风险的战略及其与社区健康模式的相互作用的看法。已知空气中的有毒物质暴露对处于不利社会经济地位的个人产生不成比例的影响。这项研究，培养研究生在严格的，实证的数据收集和分析的方法，探讨风险和脆弱性的文化观念之间的变化，污染暴露和生物结果。此外，该项目将通过国际科学合作建设能力和科学基础设施，并通过向从事与空气污染有关问题的组织广泛传播研究结果来提高公众的科学认识。大卫狄龙在佛罗里达大学的克里斯托弗麦卡蒂博士的监督下，将调查风险和脆弱性的看法是否介导人类暴露于来自生物质燃料的空气中有毒物质。这项研究在赞比亚的东部省进行，这是研究空气中有毒物质风险的理想场所;在撒哈拉以南非洲，家庭空气污染（HAP）在高疾病负担的十大风险因素中排名第四。以前关于生物质燃料使用的研究表明，传统炉灶的风险认知和文化方面对个人接触水平有很大影响。本研究采用了一个有目的的匹配抽样设计，分层家庭的家庭燃料的主要来源，同时捕捉当地人口的变化。共同PI测试假设连接文化构建的风险认知具体和可测量的生物学结果使用人种学数据收集通过半结构化访谈和空气中有毒物质暴露的环境健康数据。在智力上，这项研究的发现有助于理解风险认知和当地生物学如何影响人类与环境的相互作用和健康不平等的模式。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Approximately 2.9 million people die prematurely from conditions arising from indoor air pollution annually. A significant proportion of cases are due to household reliance on biomass fuels and exposure to airborne toxicants in biomass smoke. Significant expenditures are made by the U.S. government to combat exposure. The cost-effectiveness and sustainability of potential spending on interventions to improve air quality depend on understanding the local context, however, including perceptions of strategies to mediate risk from environmental pollution and their interaction with community health patterns. Airborne toxicant exposure are already known to disproportionately impact individuals from disadvantaged socioeconomic status. This study, which trains a graduate student in methods of rigorous, empirical data collection and analysis, explores variation between cultural perceptions of risk and vulnerability to pollution exposure and biological outcomes. Further, this project will build capacity and scientific infrastructure through international scientific cooperation, and enhance public scientific understanding by broadly disseminating findings to organizations engaged in issues related to air pollution.David Dillon, under the supervision of Dr. Christopher McCarty of the University of Florida, will investigate whether perceptions of risk and vulnerability mediate human exposure to airborne toxicants from biomass fuels. The research takes place in Eastern Province, Zambia, an ideal setting for studying airborne toxicant risk; in sub-Saharan Africa, household air pollution (HAP) is fourth in the top ten list of risk factors for high burden of disease. Previous research on biomass fuel use demonstrates that both risk perception and cultural aspects of traditional cookstoves significantly influence individual exposure levels. This study employs a purposive matched sampling design that stratifies households by the primary source of household fuel while capturing variation in local demography. The co-PI tests hypotheses linking culturally constructed risk perception to specific and measurable biological outcomes using ethnographic data collected through semi-structured interviews and environmental health data on airborne toxicant exposure. Intellectually, findings from this research contribute to understanding how risk perception and local biology contribute to patterns of human-environment interaction and health inequalities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.