Using transparency to increase awareness of chemical hazards.pptx
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Miriam Weil, MPH, ScD Work Environment Policy UMASS Lowell
*Funding for this project was provided by NIOSH through the
Harvard ERC and by the National Science Foundation
UMASS Lowell 12/12/2011
Research Ques+on � How can the internet help provide timely and useful
health and safety information to people working with chemicals around academic laboratories?
� Hypothesis: For web-based chemical hazard information to be useful to researchers and workers at universities, it must be embedded so that action can be taken to reduce or
prevent exposures.
UMASS Lowell 12/12/2011
What is Embeddedness? � Three elements determine whether a message is
“embedded” in the users’ decision-making process:
� Relevance: pertinent to user decisions. � Compatibility: with the user’s language and
‘socioeconomic’ or workplace culture. � Accessibility : easily found and consistent with the
conventional patterns for finding information.
� Source: Fung Graham and Weil, 2007
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Par+cipants � Subjects:
� Students (17) � Laboratory Staff (18)
� Sites: � UMASS Lowell � Harvard University
UMASS Lowell 12/12/2011
Method: Exercise Format
For 2 and 3 : Rate the relevance, compatibility, accessibility of each website towards pursuing the problem using a 5 point rating scale: where 1 is worst and 5 is best
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Four parts to the experiment: 1. Pre-test- Background questions 2. Ethylene Glycol hypothetical question 3. Acetonitrile hypothetical question 4. Exit interview
Exercise Format Rate the relevance, compatibility, accessibility of
each website towards pursuing the problem using the following rating scale:
� 1 Disagree strongly � 2 Disagree � 3 Neither agree nor disagree � 4 Agree � 5 Agree strongly
UMASS Lowell 12/12/2011
Websites in the Study ATSDR Google Tox Town ICSC NJ RTK EWG CHE
U.S. Govt. -‐ Centers for Disease Control
Publically Held Company
U.S. Govt. National Library of Medicine
Intl. Agencies: UNEP, ILO
State of New Jersey Dept of Heath and Senior Services
NGO: Env. Working Group -‐ Research, Advocacy
NGO : Collab. for Health and Env. – Research, Advocacy
UMASS Lowell 12/12/2011
Results: Average Website Ra1ngs
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Relevance Compatibility Accessibility
Average Website Ratings
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* indicates significant at 0.05 level
Controlling for work status and web searching history. Measured occurrence: An increase of 1=increase in revisit.
Rela+onships between ra+ngs and stated inten+on to revisit
Relationships between ratings and stated intentions to revisit
The Google Effect
� Google is the default. � May not find best information. � Lab culture requires speed. � Miss other valuable sites
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Findings/Conclusions � Criteria rankings influenced favorable choices.
� ATSDR, NJ and ICSC rated highly. � The internet can provide helpful and useful informa+on.
� Chemical safety sites require useful content and a high Google ranking
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