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The awareness of citizens concerning the health risks caused by environmental pollution is growing, but studies on determinants of pro-environmental behaviors have rarely examined health-related aspects. In this study, we investigated these determinants using data from a large survey among Italian university students (15 Universities: 4778 filled questionnaires). Besides the health-related aspects, represented by environmental health risk perception and functional health literacy, we considered social and demographic characteristics (gender, area of residence, sources of information, trust in institutional and non-institutional subjects, and students’ capacity of positive actions, indicated as internal locus of control). The attitudes towards pro-environmental behaviors were positive for more than 70% of students and positively related with health risk perception, internal locus of control, and health literacy. The correspondence between the positive attitudes towards pro-environmental behaviors and the real adoption of such behaviors was approximately 20% for most behaviors, except for the separate collection of waste (60%). Such a discrepancy can be attributable to external obstacles (i.e., lack of time, costs, lack of support). The health-related aspects were linked to the pro-environmental attitudes, but to a lesser extent to pro-environmental behaviors, owing to the complexity of their determinants. However, they should be taken in account in planning education interventions.

Objectives: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease with still unknown etiology. We aimed at investigating the association between environmental and occupational factors with ALS risk. Methods: We performed a population-based case-control study in four Italian provinces (Catania, Modena, Novara, and Reggio Emilia) by administration of tailored questionnaires to ALS cases (n = 95) and randomly selected population referents (n = 135). We estimated ALS risk by calculating the odds ratio (OR) with its 95% confidence interval (CI) using an unconditional logistic regression model. Results: We found a positive association with disease risk for history of occupation in the agricultural sector (OR = 2.09, 95% CI 0.79&ndash, 7.54), especially for longer than 10 years (OR = 2.72, 95% 1.02&ndash, 7.20). Overall occupational exposure to solvents also suggested a positive association, especially for thinners (OR = 2.27, 95% CI 1.14&ndash, 4.54) and paint removers (OR = 2.01, 95% CI 0.90&ndash, 4.48). Both occupational and environmental exposure to electromagnetic fields show a slightly increased risk with OR = 1.69 (95% CI 0.70&ndash, 4.09) and 2.41 (95% CI 1.13&ndash, 5.12), respectively. Occupational but not environmental exposure to pesticides (OR = 1.22, 95% CI 0.63&ndash, 2.37), particularly fungicides, and exposure to metals (OR = 4.20, 95% CI 1.88&ndash, 9.38), particularly lead, mercury, and selenium, showed an imprecise but positive association. Finally, there was an indication of increased risk for living in proximity to water bodies. Conclusions: Despite the caution that needs to be used due to some study limitations, such as the low number of exposed subjects and the possibility of recall bias, these results suggest the potential role of some environmental and occupational factors in ALS etiology.