Table 3.
Concern regarding the impacts of environmental hazards on prenatal and child health.
| Environmental Concern Variables | Responses % (#) 1 |
|---|---|
| Day-to-day exposures can be harmful to child health (n = 1855) 1 | |
| Agree to strongly agree | 91.9 (1704) |
| Strongly disagree to neutral | 8.1 (151) |
| Level of concern about exposure to environmental hazards during pregnancy and potential effects on personal or child health (n = 1859) 1 | |
| Moderately to very concerned | 54.5 (990) |
| Not at all to slightly concerned | 45.5 (869) |
| Hazards of concern (n = 2912) 2 | |
| Toxic chemicals 3 | 23.5 (683) |
| Air pollution | 14.2 (413) |
| Pollution—general | 8.4 (246) |
| Climate change/natural disasters/wildfire smoke | 7.0 (205) |
| Second-hand smoke | 6.8 (197) |
| Pesticides | 6.6 (191) |
| Food exposures | 6.0 (176) |
| Metals (e.g., lead, mercury) | 5.6 (162) |
| Pathogens—disease | 4.2 (121) |
| Drinking water quality | 4.1 (120) |
| Radiation | 2.9 (84) |
| Plastics | 2.4 (69) |
| Workplace exposures | 1.6 (46) |
| Pharmaceuticals | 1.3 (37) |
| Mold | 1.2 (36) |
| Other 4 | 4.3 (126) |
1 Percentages derived from weighted data, n from unweighted data. 2 n is greater than the sample size due to the possibility of multiple responses to this question. 3 Includes general responses (e.g., “toxic chemicals”) and specific substances (e.g., “BPA”, “phthalates”) but excludes metals and pesticides, which were categorized separately. Respondents’ concerns categorized into workplace exposures, pollution, food exposures, drinking water quality, and/or plastics may also reflect concern about toxic chemicals. As such, 23.5% understates the overall concern about toxic chemicals. 4 Examples of “other” reported concerns include alcohol, acid rain, stress, nicotine, and noise pollution.