Significant social sectors in our region express serious concern over the hazards posed by certain industrial activities, such as the toxic spills during traffic accidents due to the increase in the land transport of hazardous materials. Above all, there is an increasing alarm over pollution and the degradation of the environment. These sectors have learned, through systematic or informal education, of the dangers posed by technological hazards. Other social sectors, especially the urban poor, do not have the necessary information and even if they do, like through the distribution of brochures on the issue, do not seem to care greatly about the matter. Looking into this indifference, it appears that there is a disparity, not so much in the perception of risk itself, as in the perception of how serious it is, leading people to assign different levels of importance to prevention as well.
Greater knowledge seems to go together with a greater interest in vulnerability reduction.
It is here that the appropriate use of the media, of social communication, appears likely to promote a greater commitment to the preservation of our ecosystems. Some technological hazards are easier to perceive than others. Such is the case of accidents or disasters. Latent hazards, on the other hands, are with us in our everyday lives, and yet we ignore them or assume that they are being taken care of by the people responsible for creating them in the first place. Gas and oil pipelines, the electricity grid, fuel distribution centers and outlets, dumps containing pathogenic waste, noise pollution, CO2 emissions, bacteria in drinking water, and the unsafe handling of food are all examples of disasters waiting to happen.