Objective:

Description of social representations of the impact of environmental risk factors on the health of rural populations in the Central Region (Argentina) and analysis of health care behaviors.

Methodology:

Qualitative, descriptive and comparative research design. Study unit: 9 rural towns. Discourse analysis, comparison and risk weighting.

Results:

Preliminary results of 3 populations studied: there are divergent views of the impact on health of environmental determinants. In social representations of the air factor as risk, the economic-productive aspects prevail over health and place the population at a crossroads. Various factors linked to agricultural production and water quality share the same risk weight in the three localities of Santa Fe.

Limitations:

Empirical difficulties in identifying localities with a single production system exclusively focused on livestock and extensive agriculture.

Conclusions:

The homogeneous spatial morphology of populations with less than 5,000 inhabitants would condition the social sphere that is in conjunction with structuring and distribution of roles.