Department of Psychology, CRAMC (Research Center for Behavior Assessment), Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain.
Laboratory of Toxicology and Environmental Health, TECNATOX, School of Medicine, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus, Spain.
PLoS One. 2021 Mar 17;16(3):e0249058. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249058. eCollection 2021.
The petrochemical industry has made the economic development of many local communities possible, increasing employment opportunities and generating a complex network of closely-related secondary industries. However, it is known that petrochemical industries emit air pollutants, which have been related to different negative effects on mental health. In addition, many people around the world are being exposed to highly stressful situations deriving from the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns adopted by national and regional governments. The present study aims to analyse the possible differential effects on various psychological outcomes (stress, anxiety, depression and emotional regulation strategies) stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown experienced by individuals living near an important petrochemical complex and subjects living in other areas, nonexposed to the characteristic environmental pollutants emitted by these kinds of complex. The sample consisted of 1607 subjects who answered an ad hoc questionnaire on lockdown conditions, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS) and the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). The results indicate that people living closer to petrochemical complexes reported greater risk perception [K = 73.42, p < 0.001, with a medium size effect (η2 = 0.061)]. However, no significant relationship between psychological variables and proximity to the focus was detected when comparing people living near to or far away from a chemical/petrochemical complex. Regarding the adverse psychological effects of the first lockdown due to COVID-19 on the general population in Catalonia, we can conclude that the conditions included in this survey were mainly related to changes in the participants' impulsivity levels, with different total impulsivity scores being obtained if they had minors in their care (p<0.001), if they had lost their jobs, if they were working (p<0.001), if they were not telecommuting (p<0.001), if they went out to work (p<0.001) or if they established routines (p = 0.009). However, we can also be fairly certain that the economic effects are going to be worse than those initially detected in this study. More research will be necessary to corroborate our results.
石化工业使许多地方社区的经济发展成为可能，增加了就业机会，并形成了一个复杂的相关二级产业网络。然而，众所周知，石化工业排放的空气污染物与心理健康的不同负面影响有关。此外，世界上许多人正面临着源自 COVID-19 大流行和各国政府采取的封锁措施的高度紧张局势。本研究旨在分析由于 COVID-19 大流行和随后的封锁而对生活在重要石化综合体附近的个体以及生活在其他地区（未接触到这些综合体排放的特有环境污染物）的个体的各种心理结果（压力、焦虑、抑郁和情绪调节策略）产生的可能差异影响。该样本由 1607 名参与者组成，他们回答了关于封锁条件、感知压力量表（PSS）、医院焦虑和抑郁量表（HADS）、巴雷特冲动量表（BIS）和情绪调节问卷（ERQ）的特定问卷。结果表明，生活在石化综合体附近的人报告了更大的风险感知[K = 73.42，p < 0.001，具有中等大小效应（η2 = 0.061）]。然而，当比较生活在化学/石化综合体附近和远离综合体的人时，没有发现心理变量与接近度之间存在显著关系。关于 COVID-19 首次封锁对加泰罗尼亚普通人群的不良心理影响，我们可以得出结论，这项调查中的条件主要与参与者冲动水平的变化有关，如果他们有未成年人在照顾（p<0.001）、失去工作、工作（p<0.001）、不远程办公（p<0.001）、外出工作（p<0.001）或建立日常生活（p = 0.009），则会获得不同的总冲动分数。然而，我们也可以相当肯定，经济影响将比本研究最初发现的更严重。需要进行更多的研究来证实我们的结果。
