Environmental Risk Perceptions

Environmental Risk Perception

PSY/460

August 25, 2014

Environmental Risk Perception

A person’s perception of a risk plays a large part in how one responds to that risk. For someone to take protective action against a hazard, he or she must be motivated and believe there is a risk. Often this response is prompted by relying on past behaviors. In this paper two articles will be presented about water pollution, risks will be compared, environmental stressors identified, and a risk assessment shared.

The Great Lakes contain 84% of the United States freshwater, providing drinking water, recreational water, and a waterway heavily traveled by boats transporting material from farms, mines, and manufacturers. The lakes are heavily polluted by these industries, as well as privately owned septic systems on farms and homes that line the lakeshores (Fields, 2005). According to Fields, (2005), humans are the biggest enemy of the Great Lakes and what enters into the lake systems stay there for years. Pollutants float, settle, adhere to surfaces, and even bioaccumlate, becoming concentrated into the body of a living thing (Chapter 2). Consequently, these toxins harbor fish too dangerous to eat and water that is unsafe to drink.

Although the Environment Protection Agency has banned many toxic chemicals that were found in high levels in the Great Lakes decades ago, these substances settle into the settlement and are released back into the water during strong storms or dredging activities. Two of these poisons are polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and mercury. PCB has been linked to reproduction problems, and tremors, deafness, and blindness are symptoms of mercury poisoning. More recently it has been plybrominated diphenyl, or PBDEs, the chemical compound that is a flame retardant in consumer products. “No one paid any attention to these compounds until the last couple of years and now we’re just finding them everywhere”...