Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior of Disaster Volunteers towards Preventing Asbestos Exposure in Disasters

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-774-8_5How to use a DOI?

Keywords

knowledge; attitudes; behavior; prevention of asbestos exposure

Abstract

Asbestos is a material commonly used in various sectors, particularly in building construction. However, asbestos exposure poses serious health risks, including lung diseases, mesothelioma, and cancer. This study aims to assess disaster volunteers’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding asbestos exposure prevention during disaster response. The study population includes all active disaster volunteers or individuals who have previously participated in disaster management efforts in Indonesia. The sampling technique employed accidental sampling, yielding a total of 500 volunteer respondents. Data were analyzed using univariate analysis. The majority of respondents were male (73%), aged under 30 years (58.2%), held a college degree (56%), and did not possess a volunteer certification (63.4%). Most respondents (91%) were aware that asbestos is commonly used in buildings and infrastructure. However, only 60% recognized asbestos as a hazardous material capable of causing severe lung diseases. More than 60% of respondents felt prepared to protect themselves from asbestos exposure during disasters. However, 12.5% expressed uncertainty, and 24% felt unprepared. Regarding the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), 42% reported always using appropriate PPE, 12% occasionally used PPE, and 45% never used PPE when interacting with materials potentially containing asbestos. These findings highlight the urgent need for a structured asbestos awareness and prevention program for disaster relief volunteers in Indonesia. Given the limited knowledge of asbestos hazards and inconsistent preventive behaviors, volunteers remain at significant risk of exposure, which may lead to long-term health consequences. To mitigate these risks, comprehensive training, improved access to PPE, and regular health risk assessments are essential.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Anna Suraya
AU  - Charles Putra Ricardo
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/06/26
TI  - Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavior of Disaster Volunteers towards Preventing Asbestos Exposure in Disasters
BT  - Proceedings of the 2nd World Conference on Health and Social Sciences (WCHSS 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 40
EP  - 52
SN  - 2468-5739
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-774-8_5
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-774-8_5
ID  - Suraya2025
ER  -