The objective of this paper is to describe how communities located near large chemical and petrochemical facilities manifest their anxiety about these plants. The paper is a case study based on seventy interviews with residents living in areas situated closer or farther from the industrial facilities or differently exposed to pollutants. Within a context characterized by precarious working and environmental conditions, these residents developed models or perception and representation for pollutants and accidents, which combine empirical elements with mystical-religious components. The paper discusses the impacts of business and media risk communication models on the perceptions of the environment held by the surveyed population. It also pinpoints the role of these models in legitimizing and amplifying the catastrophic beliefs of the community, which suggested that a catastrophic plant explosion would kill all. The community blamed individuals, the government, and the business structure for the "collective punishment" that the explosion signified. The paper concludes with the notion that these beliefs reveal, at the same time and paradoxically, the community's political weakness and the desire to become a main actor regarding the industrial policy that increased unemployment and popular frustration.
Learning Objectives: 1) Describe the environmental and occupational health problems created by petrochemical facilities in neighboring communities 2) Analyze community responses to environmental pollution within its own systems of beliefs and culture 3) Develop community/worker-friendly risk communication policies and procedures
Keywords: Environmental Justice, Risk Communication
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.