Browsing by Author "Burgos, Soledad"

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    Environmental health risk perception: Adaptation of a population-based questionnaire from latin america
    (MDPI AG, 2021) Cortés Arancibia, Sandra Isabel; Burgos, Soledad; Adaros, Héctor; Lucero, Boris; Quiróz-Alcalá, Lesliam; CEDEUS (Chile)
    BACKGROUND: Environmental risk assessments and interventions to mitigate environmental risks are essential to protect public health. While the objective measurement of environmental hazards is important, it is also critical to address the subjective perception of health risks. A population’s perception of environmental health hazards is a powerful driving force for action and engagement in safety and health behaviors and can also inform the development of effective and more sustainable environmental health policies. To date, no instruments are available to assess risk perception of environmental health hazards in South America even though there are many concerning issues in the region, including mining. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to adapt and validate an environmental health risk perception questionnaire in a Chilean population affected by mining activity among other risks frequently reported in Latin American countries and included the collection of information on trust on public information sources. METHODS: We adapted an Australian risk perception questionnaire for validation in an adult population from a Chilean mining community. This adaptation included two blinded translations (direct, inverse), a pre-test study (n = 20) and a review by environmental health experts. Principal Component Analyses (PCA) was used to identify factors within major domains of interest. The Bartlett test of sphericity, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure and the Cronbach α test were used to assess the instrument’s validity and reliability. The instrument was pilot tested in 205 adults from a mining community in Chañaral. RESULTS: The final adapted questionnaire proved to be a good instrument to measure risk perception in a community chronically exposed to mining waste. For community risks, four factors explained 59.4% of the variance. “Global Issues” (30.2%) included air pollution, contamination of mining, ozone layer depletion and vector diseases. For personal risks, the first two components explained 59.5% of the variance, the main factor (36.7%) was “unhealthy behaviors within the household”. For trust in information, the first factor (36.2%) included as main sources “Media and authorities”. The Cronbach α ranged between 0.68 and 0.75; and the KMO test between 0.7 to 0.79 for community and personal risks and trust. CONCLUSIONS: The final questionnaire is a simple, reliable and useful instrument that can assist in evaluating environmental health risk perceptions in Latin American countries.
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    Urinary Metal Levels in a Chilean Community 31 Years After the Dumping of Mine Tailings
    (2016) Cortés Arancibia, Sandra Isabel; Molina Lagos, Lucía; Burgos, Soledad; Adaros, Héctor; Ferreccio Readi, Fresia Catterina
    Background. Between 1938 and 1975, the city of Chañaral, located in the north of Chile, received 200 megatons of unregulated mining waste, which created an artificial beach 10 kilometers long and covering an area larger than 4 km2. In 1983, this deposit was classified as a serious case of marine pollution in the Pacific Ocean, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In 1989, dumping ceased due to a judicial order. Until now, the effects of this pollution on the population living around these mine tailings has been unknown. Objective. To determine the revalence of exposure to metals by dust from mine tailings in Chañaral, a city located in the northern mining area of Chile. Methods. The level of urinary metals in a representative sample of adults from Chanaral was determined. Results. Urinary levels of total arsenic (44.6 μg/L), inorganic arsenic (17.0 μg/L) and nickel (2.8 μg/L) were higher than in other areas of Chile. Levels of copper (17.9 μg/L), mercury (1.6 μg/L) and lead (0.9 μg/L) exceeded international values. Of the total subjects, 67.5%, 30.4%, 29.4%, 16.9%, 13.2 and 9.3% presented with high levels of copper, nickel, total arsenic, inorganic arsenic, mercury and lead, respectively. Conclusion. Thirty-one years after suspension of the discharge of mining waste, the local population in this area remains exposed to metals from the mine tailings. Surveillance and remedial actions addressing the Chañaral mine tailings are needed. Patient Consent. Obtained Ethics Approval. The protocols and informed consent documents were approved by the Ethics Committee for Human Research of the School of Medicine of the University of Chile. Competing Interests. The authors declare no competing financial interests.