What motivates you to help the air?
When you think about air pollution, what gets your attention most? Is it the effects on your own health, the impact on the environment or what air pollution, and how you might be contributing to it, are costing you in dollars and cents?
Yup – air pollution is proving to be costly to our environment, our health and our pocketbooks.
Check out this air pollution website created by The School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong. This innovative calculator shows the various ‘costs’ air pollution has on individuals in that country and the cost of collective health.
But air pollution is a problem that impacts us all – 100 per cent of the time – no matter where we live or the state of our health. And in order to improve anything, we have to be willing to change. Starting with our own behaviour.
So we want to know – what makes you care most about the quality of the air we share? Is it a healthier body, bank account or community?
The question of personal motivators is one we think about a lot when we’re developing social marketing campaigns about the outdoor environment and its effects on health. Our goal of making people more aware of an issue, helping them understand it and see how it is relevant to them personally, is the precursor to motivating people to take action – to change their own behaviour.
Not unlike other social topics, people feel connected to issues in different ways – and these connections are what motivate them to do something.
When it comes to air quality, parents who have kids suffering from asthma are more likely to be motivated by health concerns. Others may be motivated by their passion for the earth and all its species. What about you? Maybe it’s only relevant when the day comes that you are asked not to drive to work because of high health risk from particulate matter in the air. Or the cost of gas is so high you realize it’s not worth it to idle your car unnecessarily. Will it be the financial considerations that are the kicker to making you care about the air?
Protecting our air for environmental and human health reasons is a continuous challenge. Behaviour change is a slow process. The more we know about what motivates people to think about air quality, the better able we are to shape these conversations about our most vital life sustaining resource – air — in a way that will get more people to sit up and listen.
Can you help? Leave a comment on what your top motivator is, and tell us what country or province/state you are from.
Take a partner
It’s an ongoing challenge in public health outreach and promotion — reaching as many people as possible in the most effective ways possible. So, as health communicators, what strategies can we use to tackle that mountain?
Over the last few years we’ve spoken several times at conferences and public health events about the benefits of identifying and fostering relationships with stakeholder groups in support of improved personal health.
The rationale – awareness and understanding of a health topic will be more accepted and more likely to be acted upon when it comes from a voice people believe in – a doctor, a therapist, support group leader, or non-profit health organization, etc.
Well planned and executed partnership programs rely on a network of like-minded groups to share health promotion messages through their existing communication channels and tools without heavily impeding on their resources. The benefits of this model include increased credibility, cost effectiveness, consistency of message and expanded reach within a health promotion campaign.
Easy to say, harder to do.
At Communication Solutions, we’ve developed an Integrated Health Promotion outline — a short series of questions for project leaders and managers to consider when planning an outreach initiative, which can help form the basis of a measureable stakeholder partnership model.
These questions include:
- Are there opportunities to align or connect with organizations in support of my program or initiative?
- How could my messages align with those being shared by other groups? Would the messages appeal to their audiences?
- Are there new or additional opportunities to create champions of my program or initiative?
- What communication channels and tools could be created or accessed to maximize increased education and information sharing?
In the end, thoughtful investment in a partner program makes it easier for stakeholders to share information and promote action even after funding dollars run out. What successful public health partnerships have you or your organizations been involved in?
Run towards clean air
I consider myself a recreational runner. I lace up my shoes and hit the roads three to four times a week for anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. I never once thought about the air quality until I started working closely with some of our company’s air and health clients. That knowledge instilled a new level of awareness in me when it came to outdoor running and how the air might be affecting my health.
Poor air quality and its impact on athletes is a hot topic in the media with the 2012 Olympics looming and the controversy over London’s air quality.
A topic not addressed as much is what poor air quality means for the recreational athletes – the ones who lace up their sneakers for a run or bike ride four times a week to get some cardiovascular exercise in. Even if their work out is only 30 – 60 minutes a day it has the potential to be detrimental when it comes to long-term health if the air quality is bad.
We breathe more deeply and rapidly than normal when exercising and this allows more air pollution to enter the lungs. Air pollution tends to be higher in the afternoon when there is more traffic and the mixture of heat and air begins to worsen air quality. Therefore, when possible, runners should try to work out in the morning.
But what about those who cannot? Is it better to run through poor air quality than not run at all?
According to this report by the Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC), if the air quality is poor runners are better to reduce the amount of time they work out, take the day off or consider taking their workout inside.
Bottom line is it’s important for recreational athletes to be aware of the air quality in their community by getting in the habit of checking it the way they would check the weather before lacing up for a run.
Their lungs – and health – will thank them.
Do you regularly check the air quality in your community before exercising outdoors?
The Power of 7 (Million)
We are constantly searching for, and evaluating, communication and outreach efforts related to air quality, health and environmental stewardship. And our curiosity has no borders. We are as interested in community consultation about air quality in Beijing, China as we are to our home province of British Columbia.
Pan Shiyi is founder of SOHO China, the largest real estate development company in Beijing. He is one of the most influential business leaders in China. He’s my age (middle?), obviously ambitious and extremely savvy when it comes to using social media. His personal blog is hosted on more than 10 major portals and gets visits in the millions. He’s active on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, where he has 7 million followers.
Recently, Pan Shiyi focused some of his corporate citizenship karma on the issue of air quality in Beijing.
Interesting how a few days ago, the Ministry of Environmental Protection in China, responding to increased public pressure, made a commitment to providing improved monitoring and access to information on air pollution. They announced new air quality monitoring standards to include the minute levels of particulate matter known as PM 2.5 as well ozone and C02 levels – by 2016.
Health and environment scientists the globe over concur that PM2.5 is harmful to health. China’s concentrations of PM2.5 are currently several times higher than what the World Health Organization considers safe. It’s also credited as one of the major causes of Beijing haze – haze that is not only harmful to health but to Beijing’s economy as well.
Any surprise the Ministry of Environmental Protection in China announced new commitments not long after someone as influential as Pan Shiyi jumped on the air pollution band wagon – potentially empowering the voices of many millions in China.
Was Pan Shiyi moved to advocate for improved air quality by moral motives, or did he recognize the economic costs associated with air pollution? People don’t want to live and work (or buy expensive condos) where they can’t breathe?
Whatever his motive, we salute him. Active public involvement is driving political change.