The Turkish Journal Of Occupational / Environmental Medicine and Safety

Öz

Abstract

Introduction
and Objective: To meet water needs of families, it is important to know the kind of
water they use, their usage reasons and storage conditions, to raise awareness of
the community and individuals about the water usage habits in terms of directing
water policy. So, this research was  planned to determine the water consumption
habits of families.

Material
and Method: The universe
consisted of the families living in seven districts in the center of the Avanos
District, Nevşehir and the sample was 126 voluntary families. The data were
collected with  the face-to-face
interviews using a 20-question questionnaire created in the light of the
literature and descriptive statistics (number, percentage distribution) and
chi-square analysis were used in the evaluation.. The research was conducted with
necessary permissions.

Findings: 63.4% of the families
preferred bottled water to drink. The reasons are its suitibility for patients
(55.8%), children (51.8%)  elderly people
(50%), and its quality (54.8%), naturality (50%), cleannes (56.9%) and healtiness
(56.9%). 89.1% of those using bottled water used plastic bottles. Besides,
64.1% and 26.2% found tap water lime and expensive respectively. 32.7% were
found to obtain information about the water from commercials, and education and
income status did not affect their water consumption habits (p> 0.05).

Conclusion: In line with these findings,
it is proposed that public health professionals should lead families to obtain
information about water consumption habits from related official institutions
and organizations, and commercials affecting people should direct them towards the
creation of a conscious society, and incentive activities should be promoted.

Introduction

Water is directly related to all internal reactions of living
things, and the conversion of  foodstuffs
and their residues into solution, the disposal of them after being used in
bodies depends on water. Approximately 70% of our body, about 80% of blood and
90% of a developing embryo is water (1). These values ​​reveal the importance
of water. Besides these, the regulation of the pH balance of the body, the
transport of nutrients to the tissues and cells, the occurence of metabolic
reactions in the cells in the aquatic environment, the vast majority of the hormones and secretions consisting of
water and the regulation of heat in the body all reveal the importance of water
in human life. Water loss in the human body causes negative effects such as
thirst, the decline in physical activity, the deterioration of body
temperature, headaches, fatigue, trembling, fainting and loss of consciousness
(2). The fulfillment of the cell's vital activities and body functions is
possible with the protection of the body's water balance(1).

Despite the fact that every living creature has right to access to clean water
for free as one of the most essential parts of life, the uncontrollable
consumption of water, environmental pollution and industrialization, access to
clean water resources are rapidly diminishing, It is not possible to protect
the bacteriological standards of waters and ensure the health of the people in
a  community. In many countries in the
world, bacteriological pollution-related diseases cause major outbreaks and
loss of life. Among the causes of infant deaths, water borne diseases also play
an important role (3). Each year, 250 million people are suffering from water
borne epidemics and about 10 million people are losing their lives (4,5). For
this reason, the inability of people to meet their water needs adequately and
safely is becoming an important public health problem. Water, which is such a
precious asset for the existence and development of life, is very common on
earth. However, safe drinking water for people is not available everywhere.
Water resources are exposed to extreme chemical and radioactive pollution. It is obvious that the use of thousands of lethal
chemicals and mining activities contaminate drinking water and irrigation water
resources chemically, radioactively and biologically as well as domestic
wastes, industrial wastes and chemicals used as agricultural fertilizers. Water
is the most important source of life in plants, animals and human life.
Whatever the cause is, water's  exposure
to pollution is an undeniable fact that threatens the health of all living
beings that need water. (3) Water pollution is a major worldwide problem, and 7
million people die from water borne diseases per year. Water related problems
affect the least developed countries most. 34% of the total population of developing
countries is under moderate or severe water stress.
It has been determined that two-thirds of low-income countries will face
moderate or severe water stress in 2025 and other low-income countries that are
not under stress in terms of consumption will face a crisis due to the absence
of institutional and technological capacities in pollution and in the use of
water resources.

Worldwide, the
proportion of the population accessing healthy water to the total population is
82%. This rate is 99% in industrialized countries, 66% in developing countries,
38% in Africa, 63% in Asia and the Pacific, 77% in Latin America and Caribbean,
77% in North Africa and the Middle East and 93%. 1.4 billion people
(approximately 20% of the world's population) lack sufficient drinking water
and 2.3 billion people long for healthy water (6). This reality has increased
the value of water, changed in consumers' water consumption habits and played a
major role in their preference to use bottled water because they consider it to
be cleaner and more reliable as drinking water. In Turkey, the average annual
consumption of bottled water per capita is an average of 126 liters in 2009,
and 128 liters in 2010. Considering that annual per capita consumption is 189
liters in Italy, 165 liters in Germany and 123 liters in Spain, the consumption
of bottled water in Turkey seems to be reaching the consumption levels in the
European Union (EU) countries (7).

The microbiological quality of some brands'
drinking water dispensers they put on the market for consumption is closely
related to the hygienic quality of the water and the containers used during
filling. Because of this, the containers where water is stored may become
polluted depending on the conditions and duration of use and pump’s contact
with water may constitute a potential risk for public health (8). In Turkey,
unhealthy conditions may be encountered, especially during the distribution to
houses or due to the conditions violated by producers during bottled water
production (7). According to the research, many types of plastics have features
that will adversely affect human health. These are especially developmental and
endocrine system disorders and cancers (9). For this reason, in order to meet water needs of families, who are the smallest unit
of society, it is important to know the kind of water they prefer to use (tap
or bottled water etc.), their usage reasons and storage conditions, to raise
awareness of the community and especially individuals about the water usage
habits in terms of directing water policy. Therefore, this research was  planned to determine the water consumption
habits of families.