IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0143655.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Link between Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices in Relation to Atmospheric Haze Pollution in Peninsular Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • Laura De Pretto
  • Stephen Acreman
  • Matthew J Ashfold
  • Suresh K Mohankumar
  • Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz

Abstract

Transboundary haze episodes caused by seasonal forest fires have become a recurrent phenomenon in Southeast Asia, with serious environmental, economic, and public health implications. Here we present a cross-sectional survey conducted among people in Kuala Lumpur and surrounds to assess the links between knowledge, attitudes, and practices in relation to the transboundary haze episodes. Of 305 respondents, 125 were amateur athletes participating in a duathlon event and the remainder were surveyed in an inner-city shopping mall. Across the whole sample, people who possessed more factual information about the haze phenomenon showed significantly higher levels of concern. Duathletes were more knowledgeable than non-duathletes and also more concerned about the negative effects of haze, especially on health. For all people who regularly practice outdoor sports (including people interviewed at the shopping mall), higher levels of knowledge and concerned attitudes translated into a greater likelihood of engaging in protective practices, such as cancelling their outdoor training sessions, while those with greater knowledge were more likely to check the relevant air pollution index on a daily basis. Our results indicate that the provision of accurate and timely information about air quality to residents will translate into beneficial practices, at least among particularly exposed individuals, such as amateur athletes who regularly practice outdoor sports.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura De Pretto & Stephen Acreman & Matthew J Ashfold & Suresh K Mohankumar & Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, 2015. "The Link between Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices in Relation to Atmospheric Haze Pollution in Peninsular Malaysia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0143655
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0143655
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0143655
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0143655&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0143655?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. MacKerron, George & Mourato, Susana, 2009. "Life satisfaction and air quality in London," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1441-1453, March.
    2. Manderson, Lenore & Aaby, Peter, 1992. "An epidemic in the field? Rapid assessment procedures and health research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 839-850, October.
    3. Sigit Sudarmadi & Shosuke Suzuki & Tomoyuki Kawada & Herawati Netti & Soeharsono Soemantri & A. Tri Tugaswati, 2001. "A Survey of Perception, Knowledge, Awareness, and attitude in Regard to Environmental Problems in a Sample of two Different Social Groups in Jakarta, Indonesia," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 169-183, June.
    4. Forsyth, Tim, 2014. "Public concerns about transboundary haze: a comparison of Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 56043, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Soomro, Yasir Ali, 2018. "Does subliminal advertisement affect consumer behavior? An exploratory comparative analysis between marketing and non-marketing professionals," MPRA Paper 92124, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Ogonna N O Nwankwo & Ndubuisi Mokogwu & Orighomisan Agboghoroma & Fahmi O Ahmed & Kevin Mortimer, 2018. "Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the health hazards of biomass smoke exposure amongst commercial food vendors in Nigeria," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Nur Fariha Syaqina Zulkepli & Mohd Salmi Md Noorani & Fatimah Abdul Razak & Munira Ismail & Mohd Almie Alias, 2020. "Cluster Analysis of Haze Episodes Based on Topological Features," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-17, May.
    4. Lilin Xiong & Jie Li & Ting Xia & Xinyue Hu & Yan Wang & Maonan Sun & Meng Tang, 2018. "Risk Reduction Behaviors Regarding PM 2.5 Exposure among Outdoor Exercisers in the Nanjing Metropolitan Area, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-13, August.
    5. Yunn Shin Jocelyne Chin & Laura De Pretto & Vivek Thuppil & Matthew J Ashfold, 2019. "Public awareness and support for environmental protection—A focus on air pollution in peninsular Malaysia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-21, March.
    6. Dianyuan Ma & Hui Sun & Xuechao Xia & Yan Zhao, 2022. "The Impact of Government and Public Dual-Subject Environmental Concerns on Urban Haze Pollution: An Empirical Research on 279 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-21, August.
    7. Ka Ker Coco Chin & Janardan Mahanta & Tapan Kumar Nath, 2023. "Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices toward Plastic Pollution among Malaysians: Implications for Minimizing Plastic Use and Pollution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-13, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yunn Shin Jocelyne Chin & Laura De Pretto & Vivek Thuppil & Matthew J Ashfold, 2019. "Public awareness and support for environmental protection—A focus on air pollution in peninsular Malaysia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-21, March.
    2. Ming, Yaxin & Deng, Huixin & Wu, Xiaoyue, 2022. "The negative effect of air pollution on people's pro-environmental behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 72-87.
    3. Aznarul Islam & Sanat Kumar Guchhait, 2017. "Search for social justice for the victims of erosion hazard along the banks of river Bhagirathi by hydraulic control: a case study of West Bengal, India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 433-459, April.
    4. Carmenta, Rachel & Cammelli, Federico & Dressler, Wolfram & Verbicaro, Camila & Zaehringer, Julie G., 2021. "Between a rock and a hard place: The burdens of uncontrolled fire for smallholders across the tropics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    5. Annie Young Song, 2023. "Beyond intergovernmental cooperation: domestic politics of transboundary air pollution in Korea and Singapore," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 397-413, December.
    6. Welsch, Heinz & Ferreira, Susana, 2014. "Environment, Well-Being, and Experienced Preference," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 7(3-4), pages 205-239, December.
    7. Ambrey, Christopher L. & Fleming, Christopher M., 2011. "Valuing scenic amenity using life satisfaction data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 106-115.
    8. Zhang, Xin & Zhang, Xiaobo & Chen, Xi, 2017. "Happiness in the air: How does a dirty sky affect mental health and subjective well-being?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 81-94.
    9. Qianqian Liu & Guanpeng Dong & Wenzhong Zhang & Jiaming Li, 2022. "The Influence of Air Pollution on Happiness and Willingness to Pay for Clean Air in the Bohai Rim Area of China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-13, May.
    10. O'Donnell, Gus & Oswald, Andrew J., 2015. "National well-being policy and a weighted approach to human feelings," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 59-70.
    11. Christopher Ambrey & Christopher Fleming, 2014. "Public Greenspace and Life Satisfaction in Urban Australia," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(6), pages 1290-1321, May.
    12. Berlemann, Michael, 2015. "Hurricane Risk, Happiness and Life Satisfaction. Some Empirical Evidence on the Indirect Effects of Natural Disasters," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113073, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    13. Juncal Cuñado & Fernando Gracia, 2013. "Environment and Happiness: New Evidence for Spain," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 112(3), pages 549-567, July.
    14. Mary Abed Al Ahad, 2024. "Air Pollution Reduces the Individuals’ Life Satisfaction Through Health Impairment," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 19(3), pages 1049-1073, June.
    15. Jasper N. Meya, 2018. "Environmental Inequality and Economic Valuation," Working Papers V-416-18, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2018.
    16. Trundle, Catherine & Phillips, Tarryn, 2023. "Defining focused ethnography: Disciplinary boundary-work and the imagined divisions between ‘focused’ and ‘traditional’ ethnography in health research – A critical review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    17. Zhiming Cheng & Haining Wang & Russell Smyth, 2014. "Happiness and job satisfaction in urban China: A comparative study of two generations of migrants and urban locals," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(10), pages 2160-2184, August.
    18. Manfred Lenzen & Robert A. Cummins, 2013. "Happiness versus the Environment—A Case Study of Australian Lifestyles," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-19, May.
    19. Jean De Beir & Céline Emond & Yannick L'Horty & Laetitia Tuffery, 2015. "Protecting biodiversity by developing bio-jobs: a multi-branch analysis with an application on French data," Working Papers 2015.03, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    20. Ferreira, Susana & Akay, Alpaslan & Brereton, Finbarr & Cuñado, Juncal & Martinsson, Peter & Moro, Mirko & Ningal, Tine F., 2013. "Life satisfaction and air quality in Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1-10.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0143655. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.