TY - JOUR TT - WATER CONSUMPTION HABITS OF FAMILIES IN CONSUMER SOCIETY AU - Özcan, Ayşegül AU - Şermet-kaya, Şenay AU - Özdil, Kamuran AU - Sezer, Fatma PY - 2017 DA - June JF - The Turkish Journal Of Occupational / Environmental Medicine and Safety JO - turjoem PB - Engin TUTKUN WT - DergiPark SN - 2149-4711 SP - 390 EP - 397 VL - 2 IS - 1(3) KW - WATER CONSUMPTION HABITS OF FAMILIES IN CONSUMER SOCIETY N2 - AbstractIntroductionand Objective: To meet water needs of families, it is important to know the kind ofwater they use, their usage reasons and storage conditions, to raise awareness ofthe community and individuals about the water usage habits in terms of directingwater policy. So, this research was  planned to determine the water consumptionhabits of families.Materialand Method: The universeconsisted of the families living in seven districts in the center of the AvanosDistrict, Nevşehir and the sample was 126 voluntary families. The data werecollected with  the face-to-faceinterviews using a 20-question questionnaire created in the light of theliterature and descriptive statistics (number, percentage distribution) andchi-square analysis were used in the evaluation.. The research was conducted withnecessary permissions.Findings: 63.4% of the familiespreferred 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% werefound to obtain information about the water from commercials, and education andincome 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 obtaininformation about water consumption habits from related official institutionsand organizations, and commercials affecting people should direct them towards thecreation of a conscious society, and incentive activities should be promoted.IntroductionWater is directly related to all internal reactions of livingthings, and the conversion of  foodstuffsand their residues into solution, the disposal of them after being used inbodies depends on water. Approximately 70% of our body, about 80% of blood and90% of a developing embryo is water (1). These values ​​reveal the importanceof water. Besides these, the regulation of the pH balance of the body, thetransport of nutrients to the tissues and cells, the occurence of metabolicreactions in the cells in the aquatic environment, the vast majority of the hormones and secretions consisting ofwater and the regulation of heat in the body all reveal the importance of waterin human life. Water loss in the human body causes negative effects such asthirst, the decline in physical activity, the deterioration of bodytemperature, headaches, fatigue, trembling, fainting and loss of consciousness(2). The fulfillment of the cell's vital activities and body functions ispossible with the protection of the body's water balance(1).Despite the fact that every living creature has right to access to clean waterfor free as one of the most essential parts of life, the uncontrollableconsumption of water, environmental pollution and industrialization, access toclean water resources are rapidly diminishing, It is not possible to protectthe bacteriological standards of waters and ensure the health of the people ina  community. In many countries in theworld, bacteriological pollution-related diseases cause major outbreaks andloss of life. Among the causes of infant deaths, water borne diseases also playan important role (3). Each year, 250 million people are suffering from waterborne epidemics and about 10 million people are losing their lives (4,5). Forthis reason, the inability of people to meet their water needs adequately andsafely is becoming an important public health problem. Water, which is such aprecious asset for the existence and development of life, is very common onearth. 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 lethalchemicals and mining activities contaminate drinking water and irrigation waterresources chemically, radioactively and biologically as well as domesticwastes, industrial wastes and chemicals used as agricultural fertilizers. Wateris the most important source of life in plants, animals and human life.Whatever the cause is, water's  exposureto pollution is an undeniable fact that threatens the health of all livingbeings that need water. (3) Water pollution is a major worldwide problem, and 7million people die from water borne diseases per year. Water related problemsaffect the least developed countries most. 34% of the total population of developingcountries is under moderate or severe water stress.It has been determined that two-thirds of low-income countries will facemoderate or severe water stress in 2025 and other low-income countries that arenot under stress in terms of consumption will face a crisis due to the absenceof institutional and technological capacities in pollution and in the use ofwater resources. Worldwide, theproportion of the population accessing healthy water to the total population is82%. 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 waterand 2.3 billion people long for healthy water (6). This reality has increasedthe value of water, changed in consumers' water consumption habits and played amajor role in their preference to use bottled water because they consider it tobe cleaner and more reliable as drinking water. In Turkey, the average annualconsumption 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 189liters in Italy, 165 liters in Germany and 123 liters in Spain, the consumptionof bottled water in Turkey seems to be reaching the consumption levels in theEuropean Union (EU) countries (7). The microbiological quality of some brands'drinking water dispensers they put on the market for consumption is closelyrelated to the hygienic quality of the water and the containers used duringfilling. Because of this, the containers where water is stored may becomepolluted depending on the conditions and duration of use and pump’s contactwith water may constitute a potential risk for public health (8). In Turkey,unhealthy conditions may be encountered, especially during the distribution tohouses or due to the conditions violated by producers during bottled waterproduction (7). According to the research, many types of plastics have featuresthat will adversely affect human health. These are especially developmental andendocrine system disorders and cancers (9). For this reason, in order to meet water needs of families, who are the smallest unitof society, it is important to know the kind of water they prefer to use (tapor bottled water etc.), their usage reasons and storage conditions, to raiseawareness of the community and especially individuals about the water usagehabits in terms of directing water policy. Therefore, this research was  planned to determine the water consumptionhabits of families. CR - Ayşegül ÖZCAN1 Şenay ŞERMET-KAYA1 Kamuran ÖZDİL1 Fatma SEZER1 1 Department of Public Health Nursing, Semra ve Vefa Küçük Health High School, University of Hacı Bektaş Veli, Nevşehir, Turkey UR - https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/turjoem/issue//328400 L1 - https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/349762 ER -