UCLA

Environmental information programs have the potential to increase public awareness of environmental pollutants and associated health risks, and ultimately lead to the adoption of healthier behaviors and environmentally-friendly practices. In this dissertation, I study the role of information from such programs to mitigate environmental pollution and improve public health protection. My research explores information from two environmental information programs developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – air quality (AQ) information from the AirNow program and toxic chemical releases information from the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI).� One focus of this research is to better understand how the public engages with AQ information from the AirNow program through a mobile application (commonly called app).� We developed an AQ app, AirForU, using data from the AirNow program, recruited about 3000 app users and studied their engagement with the app. Groups that are disproportionately affected by air pollution were more engaged with the app than the general public, however, engagement dropped over time for most app users. Highly engaged app users adopted health protective measures against air pollution directly as a result of the information provided in the app. We tested the effect of various air pollution messages to boost engagement with AQ information using two methods -through an online survey and through a field experiment conducted via the app. Survey results suggest that messages with a strong fear appeal might not be effective at engaging the public in the case of air pollution. For the app experiment, the messages were effective to re-engage less engaged app users, but the content of the message mattered less. Results from this study suggest that targeted messages and timely reminders positively influence engagement with AQ information. Another focus of this research was to develop a robust environmental and economic performance index to evaluate facilities reporting to the TRI.� A novel method, data envelopment analysis, capable of addressing irregularities in TRI data was successfully used to develop this index and allow easy comparison of facility performance within industrial sectors.� This method of analysis could be used to easily communicate and evaluate environmental performance for individual facilities by both the public and the facilities themselves.� Both research efforts were aimed at improving the effectiveness of environmental information programs.