Characteristic profile of forest fire risk from social perception: A study with Spanish population.

Jaime Senabre^1,2

¹Director of SINIF.

² Research Group on Climate and Territorial Planning. University of Alicante. Spain.

Forest fires represent an evolutionary opportunity for some species and, at times, a tragedy for human societies. The devastating fires of 2017 in Portugal and 2018 in Greece are a clear example of this. Forest fires have been considered by many researchers as a Natural Hazard or Risk, something that makes us disagree, given that the human being has a predominant influence on the origin of most ignitions and, in the evolution and consequences thereof.

From an anthropogenic vision of the fires, we are convinced that not only must we work on prevention, self-protection and integral management of the territory, but also on proactive fire education programs.

For this reason, we present a characteristic profile of forest fire risk, developed from the study of the social perception of this threat with a population resident in Spain. There is no doubt that there are many factors that can affect the social perception of risks: cultural, sociological, situational, psychological, psychosocial and those related to the qualitative characteristics of the source of risk. All these factors are interrelated.

The evaluation of the qualitative characteristics of forest fire risk based on the study of social perception, will allow us to better understand the reasons for not acting proactively in the face of the threat of forest fire. Also, it can be useful when designing campaigns to raise awareness and prevent forest fires, in short, as a tool for education on environmental safety issues.

WC Climate Change 2018: Impacts & Responses

September 13-15, 2018 | Rome, Italy 

Citation: Senabre, J. (2018). Characteristic profile of forest fire risk from social perception: A study with Spanish population. WC Climate Change 2018: Impacts & Responses. Rome, Italy. Book of abstracts. pp45. https://innovinc.org/images/preconference/vi_30.pdf

The air pollution caused by wildland fires and the effects on health.

Jaime Senabre

SINIF, Spain
University of Alicante, Spain

Abstract 

Wildland fires are a source of polluting emissions into the atmosphere whose main origin is anthropogenic, as is amply demonstrated by causality studies and statistics. Air pollution by such disturbance is due to combustion of forest biomass that mainly generates CO2 and H2O, and other inorganic and organic gases, and particles. During fires, and by the action of fire, the ordinary characteristics of both the fuel and the oxidizer are modified, being able to change state and suffering different reactions at the molecular level. The composition and molecular structure of the combustion gases, the concentration or dose received and the exposure time act as modulators of the possible effects on the health of the exposed persons. The harmful substances of a forest fire penetrate the body, mainly through the respiratory tract and the skin. According to recent research, in Spain it is estimated that there are about 17% of the population living less than 5 km from a source that emits carcinogenic substances. There are areas of the country which has been detected excess mortality from leukemia and certain cancers, such as those related to the digestive, respiratory, prostate, breast, ovarian and gallbladder. These findings have been related to cities or municipalities with high industrial activity. There seems to be little doubt about the association of the effects of industrial pollution and the development of certain types of cancer. In our study, we evaluated the relationship between the areas of Spain with the most industrial pollution and the areas with the highest prevalence of wildland fires, in order to determine if forest fires may be contributing: First, to an impoverishment of the quality of the air we breathe; second, an increase in vulnerability and a greater risk to the health of people.

citation: Senabre, J. (2018).  The air pollution caused by wildland fires and the effects on health. In Journal of Environmental & Analytical Toxicology, 2018, Volume 8, pp22. DOI: 10.4172/2161-0525-C1-011 

Link pdf:  https://www.omicsonline.org/conference-proceedings/2161-0525-C1-011-006.pdf

Link book: https://www.omicsonline.org/conference-proceedings/environment-health-congress-2018-tracks.digital/files/assets/basic-html/page-1.html#

Link Journal of Environmental & Analytical Toxicology (ISSN: 2161-0525) https://www.omicsonline.org/proceedings/the-air-pollution-caused-by-wildland-fires-and-the-effects-on-health-89952.html

Secondary traumatic stress in fire fighters because of the interaction with the victims.

Abstract 

Generally, when any type of disaster or catastrophe occurs, be it of natural or human origin, there is much talk about the number of victims and deaths, the magnitude of infrastructure and material goods affected, the economic amounts lost in the event, etc. In the same way, much has been said and written about the psychological impact on victims and the community exposed to such an event. However, there is a type of hidden victims that, in many cases, tend to go unnoticed, perhaps in part because of their resistance to accepting that they are also vulnerable. I am referring to the members of the first response teams in emergencies (fire, police, health, etc.). The presence of the scene, the proximity to the deadly victims and the interaction with the survivors, as well as the work in highly toxic atmospheres or of great risk for the physical integrity, together with problems of organizational, familiar or interpersonal type, will exert a strong impact on these troops, with possible repercussions on their physical and mental health. Moreover, they can be factors of vulnerability to suffer more or less severe episodes of Acute Stress, Post Traumatic Stress and Secondary Traumatic Stress, among others. In the present work an approximation is made to the Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) construct, a type of emerging labor condition in the professionals who develop their tasks of help and rescue with people exposed to critical incidents or vital events, as is the case of the Firefighter Departments. Factors such as the history of personal traumas, the organizational context, the characteristics of the intervention and the individual personality, will significantly condition the capacity of resistance to the traumas in the professionals of the Fire Services. 

Key notes: emotional trauma, secondary traumatic stress, resistant personality, firefighter, critical incident.

4^th International Conference on Depression, Anxiety and Stress Management

Cita:  Senabre, J. (2018). Secondary traumatic stress in fire fighters because of the interaction with the victims. In Journal of Depression and Anxiety 2018, Volume 7, pp 69-70. DOI: 10.4172/2167-1044-C1-005  ISSN: 2167-1044

 https://www.omicsonline.org/proceedings/secondary-traumatic-stress-in-fire-fighters-because-of-the-interaction-with-the-victims-85539.html

 https://www.omicsonline.org/conference-proceedings/2167-1044-C1-005-016.pdf

Social perception of natural hazards in a region of the Spanish Mediterranean.

Abstract

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Natural disasters are socio-natural phenomena whose effects are not always distributed equally over the population. The risk of disaster arises from the product between threats and vulnerability. The impact of natural risks influences the sustainable development of a society. The way in which the human being relates to nature and the human action, are prone to generate situations of danger. The likelihood of a natural hazard materializing seems to have been assumed. For that reason, the human being lives in constant risk on the Earth, something that is not new. The climate models indicate an increase in climate irregularity in the Mediterranean regions. In general, climate change poses scenarios of greater risk in the face of natural hazards. From environmental psychology, the study of risk perception as a factor for risk analysis is addressed. From this perspective, this study is proposed, with the purpose of knowing some aspects such as: the perception of threat, the risk exposure, the awareness of the damage, the evolution of the risk, the elements of concern, the level of concern, the elements of exposure, the mode of attribution, knowledge of natural risk and, in particular, the knowledge of forest fire risk. The study population is made up of citizens of the Valencia community, a region of Eastern Spain that has a singular climate and topography, which makes it more susceptible to have episodes of droughts, floods, strong winds from the west, heat waves and wild land fires, mainly. It is necessary to know how society perceives risk due to adverse natural phenomena, for this reason, we hope that the results of this study will contribute to the improvement of the risk reduction programs in this region of the Spanish Mediterranean.

World Summit on Climate Change and Global WarmingJune 21-22, 2018 Paris, France

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Jaime Senabre (University of Alicante, Spain)

Expert Opinion on Environmental Biology. ISSN: 2325-9655

Cita: Senabre, J. (2018). Social perception of natural hazards in a region of the Spanish Mediterranean. In Expert Opin Environ Biol 2018 volume: 7, pp 27. DOI: 10.4172/2325-9655-C1-020

https://www.scitechnol.com/proceedings/social-perception-of-natural-hazards-in-a-region-of-the-spanish-mediterranean-6081.html

Forest fires and society in a changing environment.

Forest fires are an environmental problem in which many factors influence, but they also represent a natural process in many ecosystems and an evolutionary opportunity. The ecological problem of forest fires arises when the balance between what is considered “natural” and sustainable is broken. From the Environmental Psychology we propose as a latent risk that can compromise the socio-economic development of future generations. The Iberian Peninsula leads the worst records in Europe. The current fire regime is likely to change due to its relation to the climate, but this does not generate or generate a greater number of these, although it may provide conditions that facilitate more virulent and large fire scenarios. The human being is the main detonator of forest fires. The real “change” has to focus on a necessary change of thought and attitude at all levels.

Cita bibliográfica: Senabre Pastor, Jaime Andrés. “Incendios forestales y sociedad en un entorno cambiante”. En: Cutillas Orgilés, Ernesto (Coord.). Convergencia y transversalidad en humanidades. Actas de las VII Jornadas de Investigación de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad de Alicante (Alicante, 6 y 7 de abril de 2017). Alicante: Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Alicante, 2018. ISBN 978-84-948233-2-9, pp. 337-342
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/74209   FullText: https://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/10045/74209/1/Convergencia-y-transversalidad-en-humanidades_48.pdf