Saudis’ Attitudes toward Chemical Pollution of the Environment, Al-Baha Region, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

The results of a public opinion survey were used to assess the variation in attitudes toward the chemical pollution of the environment among Saudi residents of the Al-Baha region, Saudi Arabia. A total of 17 statements were given to respondents, addressing general opinions about health risks from chemical pollution. The main findings of this study are: (1) Most Saudis consider the place where they live unhealthful; (2) there was substantial concern about exposure to chemicals with more than 77% of respondents indicating a conscious effort to avoid chemicals in their daily life; (3) chemicals were seen as predominantly being “dangerous” and leading to more harm than good, and they see that the more a person is exposed to chemicals causing cancer the more likely he/she will get cancer; (4) Respondents see that chemicals in the environment are less harmful than chemicals from lifestyle factors and they disagree with the statement that “use of chemicals has improved their health more than it has harmed them”; (5) Saudis are not prepared to accept some health risks in order to benefit the economy. The study did not find any potential relationship between gender, age range, place of residence, and education level and attitude toward chemical pollution among Saudi residents.

Key Words:

• health risks
• attitudes
• chemical hazards
• environmental pollution

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Abdullah M. Alzahrani, Dean of Teachers' College–Al-Baha University for his help and encouragement and for the supporting letter for distribution of the questionnaire. And I thank my wife Khawlah who assisted me in importing the data into SPSS for analysis.