Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #107079

IsıL. Irem Budakoglu, Specialist, Department of Public Health, Baskent University, School of Medicine, 12. street. 7/8, 06490, Bahcelievler, Ankara, Turkey, 00-90-312-2120434, sevala@baskent-ank.edu.tr, Hediye Seval Akgün, Professor, Public Health Department, Baskent University, School of Medicine, 12.street.7/9, Bahcelievler, Ankara, 06490, Turkey, Coskun Bakar, MD, Specialist, Public Health Department, Baskent University Medical School, 12.street. 7/9 Bahcelievler, Ankara, 06490, Turkey, and Muhsin Akbaba, Professor, Public Health Department, Cukurova University, Balcali, Adana, Turkey.

A cross-sectional survey was performed among 5574 students between the ages 14-25 educated in five Lycees in 2003-2004 course year in Adana province, Turkey. The objectives of the study are to find out the residual level of water chlorine, the habits of the community on water consumption and the factors affecting them and to determine sanitation services and toilet usage status in different regions / districts in Adana city. A questionnaire was developed consisting of questions on water consumption and the sanitation layout and applied by face-to-face interview. Free level of chlorine in water was measured in every school by special equipment. Water consumption per head is accounted as 4 tones/month, 133 liter/day among the household members of the students. The distribution of water consumption is nearly around 60-115 liters for bathing, 75-110 liters for dish washing, 26 liters for toilet usage, 4 liters for teeth brushing, 4-8 liters for drinking water. 65.6 percent of members of student families were used to take bath twice a week and 24.3 % of them bathed everyday. Standard daily water consumption per capita in the world is 190 liter yet students' usage stays below that volume. Poor personal hygiene is the cause at bottom of contagious diseases. 79.6 percent of the students stated that, they had to use both water and toilet paper; commonly 15 percent of them only shared water; 5.4 percent of them used toilet paper during their toilet cleaning. Chlorination is the most economical and easiest method of water disinfection. 0.5-ppm free chlorine level is enough for disinfection of drinking, consuming and using water. In our lycees, all values of chlorination are determined below this level. We shared the results of our survey with the responsible people in the local municipalities and discussed the possible and urgent precautions and interventions to be taken.

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