Community Response to Impaired Water: Understanding Averting Behavior with Bottled Water Sales

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maura Allaire ◽  
Taylor Mackay ◽  
Shuyan Zheng ◽  
Upmanu Lall
Keyword(s):  
Community Response ◽  
Bottled Water ◽  
Averting Behavior ◽  
Impaired Water

scholarly journals Detecting community response to water quality violations using bottled water sales

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (42) ◽  
pp. 20917-20922
Author(s):  
Maura Allaire ◽  
Taylor Mackay ◽  
Shuyan Zheng ◽  
Upmanu Lall
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bottled Water ◽  
Water Contaminants ◽  
Averting Behavior ◽  
National Analysis ◽  
Public Notification

Drinking-water contaminants pose a risk to public health. When confronted with elevated levels of contaminants, individuals can take actions to reduce exposure. Yet, few studies address averting behavior due to impaired water, particularly in high-income countries. This is a problem of national interest, given that 9 million to 45 million people have been affected by water quality violations in each of the past 34 years. No national analysis has focused on the extent to which communities reduce exposure to contaminated drinking water. Here, we present an assessment that sheds light on how communities across the United States respond to violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act, using consumer purchases of bottled water. This study provides insight into how averting behavior differs across violation types and community demographics. We estimate the change in sales due to water quality violations, using a panel dataset of weekly sales and violation records in 2,151 counties from 2006 to 2015. Critical findings show that violations which pose an immediate health risk are associated with a 14% increase in bottled water sales. Generally, greater averting action is taken against contaminants that might pose a greater perceived health risk and that require more immediate public notification. Rural, low-income communities do not take significant averting action for elevated levels of nitrate, yet experience a higher prevalence of nitrate violations. Findings can inform improvements in public notification and targeting of technical assistance from state regulators and public health agencies in order to reduce community exposure to contaminants.

Unknown and Under-Researched: The Anatomy of Drinking Under Control Programs

2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 277-288
Author(s):  
Harald Klingemann ◽  
Justyna Klingemann
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Harm Reduction ◽  
Evaluation Studies ◽  
Mission Statements ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Admission Criteria ◽  
Control Programs ◽  
Institutional Order

Abstract. Introduction: While alcohol treatment predominantly focuses on abstinence, drug treatment objectives include a variety of outcomes related to consumption and quality of life. Consequently harm reduction programs tackling psychoactive substances are well documented and accepted by practitioners, whereas harm reduction programs tackling alcohol are under-researched and met with resistance. Method: The paper is mainly based on key-person interviews with eight program providers conducted in Switzerland in 2009 and up-dated in 2015, and the analysis of reports and mission statements to establish an inventory and description of drinking under control programs (DUCPs). A recent twin program in Amsterdam and Essen was included to exemplify conditions impeding their implementation. Firstly, a typology based on the type of alcohol management, the provided support and admission criteria is developed, complemented by a detailed description of their functioning in practice. Secondly, the case studies are analyzed in terms of factors promoting and impeding the implementation of DUCPs and efforts of legitimize them and assess their success. Results: Residential and non-residential DUCPs show high diversity and pursue individualized approaches as the detailed case descriptions exemplify. Different modalities of proactively providing and including alcohol consumption are conceptualized in a wider framework of program objectives, including among others, quality of life and harm reduction. Typically DUCPs represent an effort to achieve public or institutional order. Their implementation and success are contingent upon their location, media response, type of alcohol management and the response of other substance-oriented stake holders in the treatment system. The legitimization of DUCPs is hampered by the lack of evaluation studies. DUCPs rely mostly – also because of limited resources – on rudimentary self-evaluations and attribute little importance to data collection exercises. Conclusions: Challenges for participants are underestimated and standard evaluation methodologies tend to be incompatible with the rationale and operational objectives of DUCPs. Program-sensitive multimethod approaches enabled by sufficient financing for monitoring and accompanying research is needed to improve the practice-oriented implementation of DUCPs. Barriers for these programs include assumptions that ‘alcohol-assisted’ help abandons hope for recovery and community response to DUCPs as locally unwanted institutions (‘not in my backyard’) fuelled by stigmatization.

Cultural perspectives on suicide from a rural Athabascan Alaska Native community: Wellness teams as a strengths-based community response.

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. de Schweinitz ◽  
Cyndi Nation ◽  
Christopher R. DeCou ◽  
Tracy J. Stewart ◽  
James Allen
Keyword(s):  
Alaska Native ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Native Community ◽  
Cultural Perspectives ◽  
Community Wellness

312. Community Response to an Occupational Health Disaster

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Maher ◽  
C. Shrigley ◽  
J. Brophy ◽  
M. Keith ◽  
M. Gilroy
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Community Response

Copepod community response to variable upwelling conditions off central-southern Chile during 2002-2004 and 2010-2012

2014 ◽  
Vol 515 ◽  
pp. 83-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Pino-Pinuer ◽  
R Escribano ◽  
P Hidalgo ◽  
R Riquelme-Bugueño ◽  
W Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Community Response ◽  
Southern Chile ◽  
Copepod Community
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