Knowledge and Perception of Air Quality Among Northwest Indiana Residents

This study was conducted for the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission to determine Northwest Indiana residents’ knowledge of air quality issues, the relative importance they place on air quality, their sources of information about air quality, and their awareness of and opinions on specific air quality campaigns. The study entailed a scientific telephone survey of Northwest Indiana residents—specifically, residents of Lake, Porter, and LaPorte Counties—as well as two focus groups with Northwest Indiana residents.

In the survey, Northwest Indiana residents were first asked about their concern with 11 items, one of which was air quality. For each one, residents rated their level of concern on a 0 to 10 scale, with 0 being not at all concerned and 10 being extremely concerned. Of the 11 items presented, concern about air quality falls in the middle, with a mean rating of 7.1; 38% of residents rated their concern for air quality a 9 or 10. Northwest Indiana residents gave the highest ratings of concern for healthcare and education, and the lowest ratings of concern for the unemployment rate and the housing market.

When asked to rate the current air quality in Northwest Indiana on a scale of excellent-good-fair-poor, the results are interesting in light of the above findings. The percentage of residents who rated the air quality as excellent or good (41%) was smaller than the percentage who rated it fair or poor (57%).

Other topics examined in the survey include residents’ knowledge of and information on air quality in Northwest Indiana; their opinions on various air quality campaigns; their propensity to take action on behalf of air quality; and their attitudes toward commuting.

The focus groups helped provide insights into the survey data. For example, it was found that Northwest Indiana residents view industry as the major contributor to poor air quality in the region; the collective impact from individual residents is not seen as comparable to the effect from industry. Similarly, many Northwest Indiana residents appear to be somewhat resistant to the idea of making a special personal effort to improve air quality, believing that the vast majority of air pollution comes from industrial mills and not individual residents. Discussions regarding informational and outreach materials addressing air quality in Northwest Indiana revealed the potential effectiveness of graphic imagery, which may be impactful because it is memorable. By contrast, some focus group participants said that the emphatically positive images used in some informational material seemed at odds with the content of the messages regarding health problems from poor air quality.