BACKGROUND: Health literacy (HL) is an important role-play in health risk behaviors such as alcohol drinking and smoking. Inadequate HL in substance use (HLSU) is a barrier to reduce the risk of alcohol and tobacco use. This study aims to investigate the association of HLSU with alcohol consumption and tobacco use among Thai adolescents. Hence, the strengthening of HL program intervention may applied to reduce substance abuse among Thai adolescents. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 1087 university students studying in three universities located in northeastern area with multistage sampling methods by geographical areas. The data were collected by self-administered questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression was applied to determine the effect of HLSU of alcohol consumption and tobacco use. RESULTS: Most adolescents were drinkers (60.7%) and about 20.7% were smokers. Approximately 40% of them reported as inadequate HLSU. Adolescents with inadequate HLSU and a high level of positive alcohol expectancies and smoking outcome expectancies (SOE) were more likely to drink alcohol and smoke. Conversely, those who had a high level of negative alcohol drinking and SOE were less likely to consume alcohol and tobacco. CONCLUSION: Adolescents’ alcohol consumption and tobacco use were influenced by HL, hence improving adolescents’ HLSU could help prevent or reduce the risk of drinking and smoking behaviors.

Air pollution is contamination of the outdoor or indoor environment by any physical, biological or chemical agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere. Air pollution can cause long-term and short-term health effects. An emerging air pollution issue in Thailand is the air toxics problem resulting from transportation and industrial activities. Cancer risk of benzene at Chiang Mai City Hall was within 3.00x10 -6 -1.20x10 -6 and Yupparaj Wittayalai School was within 9.30x10 -6 -1.20x10 -5 respectively. The excess lifetime cancer risk of the population was calculated as the product of the benzene level and the unit risk for benzene. The results indicated that the population was estimated to receive an excess lifetime cancer risk greater than 1.0x10 -5 , which is proposed as the permissible maximum value for individual excess lifetime cancer risk by the Japan Environmental Agency (JEA). As for 1, 3-butadiene, cancer risk at Chiang Mai City Hall was within 3.00x10 -6 -1.20x10 -6 and at Yupparaj Wittayalai School were 9.30x10 -6 -1.20x10 -6 , respectively. The results indicated that the population was estimated to receive an excess lifetime cancer risk less than 1x10 -5 at two stations, which is proposed as the permissible maximum value by Japan Ministry of the Environment.