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| Michinori Kabuto, | |
| National Institute for Environmental Studies | |
| 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0058 JAPAN | |
| tel: +81-298-50-2333 fax: +81-298-50-2571 | |
| e-mail: kabuto@nies.go.jp |
85,000,000
(FY 1999; 28,052,000 Yen)
As an approach to effective managements of the so-called "transboundary risks" in which acid rain and other global environmental issues are included, general status of knowledge and perception of the environmental issues/risks were surveyed for the lay people consisted of around 1000 each in 5 urban areas in China and 3 in Indonesia (around 8000 people altogether) and more than hundreds of villages in rural areas in India, Bangladesh and Nepal Major environmental risks, in case of urban areas, have been evaluated on the basis of the existing statistics with some additional measurements and questionnaire of respiratory symptoms and infectious diseases among children. As for villages, environmental risks have also been evaluated with the existing rough risk assessment data, interview studies as well as, especially in Bangladesh, clinical examinations on the possible effects of arsenic in drinking water All of the data obtained have been analyzed to assess the status of risk perception as a function of the stage of environmental risk transition. A series of logistic regression analyses showed the odds ratios of awareness of the local environmental issues, perception of their health risks as well as needs of counteractions among the lay people tended to be higher in the cities with heavier industrial pollution compared to Shanghai or the reference city in China (Table 1), whereas they were much less regardless of the cities in Indonesia with an exception for the highly educated group in Jakarta. In China, the above tendency was also consistent when the sub-areas classified by land use were considered. In Chongqin, where industrial pollution has been the most serious in China, percent people who are thinking the pollution is hazardous for their own health, was the highest in the industrial area or 98 %, for example. Their possible differences by cities or sub-divided areas were not significant.
China, Indonesia, South Asia, transboundary risks, risk assessment/management, risk awareness and perception, traditional risks, education