Abstract

(Introduction):  Risk perception studies refer to the reflections and evaluations that people give to the dangers in their environment and the way they make decisions in an exposure situation.

(Objective):  To analyze the risk perception of the communities Mesa de los Laureles and Fraccionamiento Nueva Vizcaya located in El Salto, Jalisco, Mexico, both of which are in the vicinity of the Los Laureles Sanitary Landfill, and to examine the spatial relationship between the location of the inhabitants and diseases sensitive to contamination.

(Methodology):  A quantitative methodology was used, complemented with qualitative elements. The total size of the population was 629 people, 101 surveys were applied, 50.5 % were women and 49.5 % men, the instrument was divided into 4 sections with 21 questions. Descriptive statistics tests and simple linear regression and chi-square analyzes were performed.

(Results):  The population recognizes the changes in their environment, and reports gastrointestinal, respiratory and skin diseases as the most frequent. The quantitative results show that for each unit that the distance to the landfill increases, the frequency of illness decreases. This does not change the perception of the population regarding risk.

(Conclusions):  The population still perceives the risk from a notion of limited space, which prevents inhabitants from reacting to the threat, the population is presented with a portfolio of risks, where living in the mediations of the landfill is not seen as an important threat to its physical well-being.

Keywords: Environmental pollution; diseases; landfill; risk perception; threat