Abstract

ALVAREZ ESCOBAR, Boris  and  BOSO GASPAR, Álex. SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF AIR POLLUTION AND WOOD STOVES BETWEEN DIFFERENT SOCIOECONOMIC LEVELS IN TEMUCO, CHILE. Rev. Int. Contam. Ambient [online]. 2018, vol.34, n.3, pp.527-540. ISSN 0188-4999.  https://doi.org/10.20937/rica.2018.34.03.14.

Air pollution is an urgent problem at national level, as it seriously affects the health of millions of people. Temuco is the third most polluted city in Chile, with the residential use of wood stoves as the main source of atmospheric pollution in this area. Despite the efforts to reverse this situation, the emissions reduction has not decreased as expected. A possible explanation for this phenomenon might be the stakeholders’ perceptions about the use of woodstoves and about contamination issues in Temuco. This study aims to describe the social representations of air pollution and woodstoves from the perspective of their users whom reside in Temuco. A transectional descriptive design was employed according to the natural semantic network technique. The results show that participants associate air pollution with smoke, diseases and smog. On the other hand, woodstoves are associated with heat, central heating and pollution. The results reflect a growing awareness of the link between pollution, disease and woodstoves. In addition, woodstoves show in their attributes a multifunctional character beyond heating, cooking and drying of clothes. The economic sectors show different visions about woodstoves and their relationship with air pollution.

Keywords : natural semantic networks; consciousness; environmental behavior.