The living environment and children's fears following the Indonesian tsunami

The tsunami that struck South-east Asia on 26 December 2004 left more than 500,000 people in Aceh, Indonesia, homeless and displaced to temporary barracks and other communities. This study examines the associations between prolonged habitation in barracks and the nature of fears reported by school-age children and adolescents. In mid-2007, 30 months after the tsunami, the authors interviewed 155 child and parent dyads. Logistic regression analysis was used to compare the fears reported by children and adolescents living in barracks with those reported by their peers who were living in villages. After adjusting for demographic factors and tsunami exposure, the data reveals that children and adolescents living in barracks were three times more likely than those living in villages to report tsunami-related fears. The study demonstrates that continued residence in barracks 30 months after the tsunami is associated with higher rates of reporting tsunami-related fears, suggesting that barracks habitation has had a significant impact on the psychological experience of children and adolescents since the tsunami.     

Bioaccumulation and the soil factors affecting the uptake of arsenic in earthworm, Eisenia fetida

To better understand arsenic (As) bioaccumulation, a soil invertebrate species was exposed to 17 field soils contaminated with arsenic due to mining activity. Earthworms (Eisenia fetida) were kept in the soils for 70 days under laboratory conditions, as body burden increased and failed to reach equilibrium in all soils. After 70 days of exposure, XANES spectra determined that As was biotransformed to a highly reduced form. Uptake kinetics for As was calculated using one compartment model. Stepwise multiple regression suggested that sorbed As in soils are bioaccessible, and uptake is governed by soil properties (iron oxide, sulfate, and dissolved organic carbon) that control As mobility in soils. As in soil solution are highly related to uptake rate except four soils which had relatively high chloride or phosphate. The results imply that uptake of As is through As interaction with soil characteristics as well as direct from the soil solution. Internal validation showed that empirically derived regression equations can be used for predicting As uptake as a function of soil properties within the range of soil properties in the data set.     

Evaluation of the effect of long-range transport of air pollutants on coastal atmospheric monitoring sites in and around Taiwan

Long-range transport of pollution outflow from Asian mainland has been noticed and expected to play a significant role in Pacific background. Since 1993 the Taiwanese Environmental Protection Administration (TEPA) is conducting ground-based observations of various particulate and gaseous pollutants at 74 monitoring stations in Taiwan. One of these stations, Heng-Chun at the south coast of Taiwan can be considered as a background station with only negligible amounts of local pollution, and another one, Wan-Li at the north coast, predominantly receives air that has not passed over Taiwan, so that background air can be analysed by means of sectorisation. In this work, the sectorised 13-year time series of measurements of CO, SO₂, O₃, NO_x and PM₁₀, from the Wan-Li station are presen and compared to data from the Heng-Chun station and another TEPA background station off the coast of mainland China, Ma-Zu. The CO and O₃ measurements are also compared to data from the Yonaguni station, a Pacific island site, part of the Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) network.The similarity of the sectorised data from the Wan-Li station with the data of the other station indicates that atmospheric measurements from the Wan-Li site can be used to make inferences about trends in western Pacific background air pollution and the effect of long-range transport of pollutants. The measurement time series from 1993 to 2006 do not indicate a significant trend in the monthly mean O₃ concentrations in accordance with other research about ozone in tropical latitudes. An increasing trend in CO concentrations of 2.8% per annum is observed between 1999 and 2006 for long-range transport to northern Taiwan, and a doubling of the SO₂ and NO_x concentrations observed at the Wan-Li and Heng-Chun sites within the period 2001–2006. SO₂ concentrations are found to quadruple at Ma-Zu within the same period. The data suggest that pollution from the Asian mainland enhances significantly the background air pollution over the Pacific.     

Characterization of PM2.5-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Atlanta—Seasonal variations at urban,suburban, and rural ambient air monitoring sites

Twenty-eight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and methylated PAHs (Me-PAH) were measured in daily PM_2.5 samples collected at an urban site, a suburban site, and a rural site in and near Atlanta during 2004 (5 samples/month/site). The suburban site, located near a major highway, had higher PM_2.5-bound PAH concentrations than did the urban site, and the rural site had the lowest PAH levels. Monthly variations are described for concentrations of total PAHs (∑PAHs) and individual PAHs. PAH concentrations were much higher in cold months than in warm months, with average monthly ∑PAH concentrations at the urban and suburban-highway monitoring sites ranging from 2.12 to 6.85 ng m^?3 during January–February and November–December 2004, compared to 0.38–0.98 ng m^?3 during May–September 2004. ∑PAH concentrations were found to be well correlated with PM_2.5 and organic carbon (OC) within seasons, and the fractions of PAHs in PM_2.5 and OC were higher in winter than in summer. Methyl phenanthrenes were present at higher levels than their un-substituted homologue (phenanthrene), suggesting a petrogenic (unburned petroleum products) input. Retene, a proposed tracer for biomass burning, peaked in March, the month with the highest acreage and frequency of prescribed burning and unplanned fires, and in December, during the high residential wood-burning season, indicating that retene might be a good marker for burning of all biomass materials. In contrast, potassium peaked only in December, indicating that it might be a more specific tracer for wood-burning.     

The characteristics of fatal occupational injuries in Korea’s construction industry, 1997–2004

This study is aimed at exploring the characteristics of fatal occupational injuries in Korea’s construction industry and comparing the causes in various occupations within that industry. There were 10,276 fatal occupational injury victims in Korea over 8 years (1997–2004). The mortality risk due to injuries in construction and non-construction industries was calculated, and their causes were compared. The number of victims of fatal occupational injuries in the construction industry was 4333 (42.2% of the total fatal occupational injuries), and the 1 year mortality risk was higher (23.7/100,000 persons) than in non-construction industries (10.4). Falling was the most frequent (52.7%) cause of fatal injuries. In addition, deaths due to structural collapse and electric shock were significantly higher than in other industries. When the distribution of the causal factors in various occupations within the construction industry was investigated, some factors appeared more frequently in certain occupations than in others. As the construction industry encompasses a large proportion of occupational injuries, a reduction in this field alone will substantially contribute to an overall reduction of occupational injuries in Korea. Further research for effective prevention is needed.     

Review of recycling performance indicators: A study on collection rate in Taiwan

The Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (Taiwan EPA) launched a national Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system after integrating eight private recycling organizations in 1998. After that, the environmental performance of the EPR system brought a lot of attention to policy makers. Many studies show positive environmental effects of the EPR system in Taiwan. However, there are controversial questions remained, such as whether the performance indicators used are the right choice to estimate the environmental effects of the recycling policy? Can those estimated results really reflect the performance of the system?This paper would therefore like to more accurately evaluate the performance indicators of the EPR system based on data observed over the past decade in Taiwan. In the process of evaluating the performance indicators, we have found that the collection rates for durable goods are often ignored in countries that pursue a zero waste policy. This may affect the actual recycling outcome and resource direction targeted by producers. However, in order for the collection rate to be adopted as a policy indicator, how to estimate the amounts of retired or waste products during a period is critical. In this paper, we estimate the collection rate for electrical and electronic waste by using the survival analysis and ownership data analysis approaches. We also provide a comparison of both approaches and put forward suggestions for directions in the future in solid waste management.     

Recycling municipal incinerator fly- and scrubber-ash into fused slag for the substantial replacement of cement in cement-mortars

Fly- and scrubber-ash (weight ratio of approximately 1:3) from municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWI) are a major land-fill disposal problem due to their leaching of heavy metals. We uniformly mixed both types of ash with optimal amounts of waste glass frit, which was then melted into a glassy slag. The glassy slag was then pulverized to a particle size smaller than 38 μm for use as a cement substitute (20–40% of total cement) and blended with sand and cement to produce slag-blended cement-mortar (SCM) specimens. The toxicity characteristics of the leaching procedure tests on the pulverized slag samples revealed that the amount of leached heavy metals was far below regulatory thresholds. The compressive strength of the 28-day cured SCM specimens was comparable to that of ordinary Portland cement mortars, while the compressive strength of specimens cured for 60 or 90 days were 3–11% greater. The observed enhanced strength is achieved by Pozzolanic reaction. Preliminary evaluation shows that the combination of MSWI fly- and scrubber-ash with waste glass yields a cost effective and environmentally friendly cement replacement in cement-mortars.     

The effect of the addition of fly ash to municipal digested sludge on its electroosmotic dewatering

Effective handling of municipal digested sludge requires that the product cake have low water content. To this end, we investigated the change in sludge dewaterability after the addition of fly ash to municipal digested sludge, dewatering of which is difficult because of its high organic content. The performance of the dewatering is compared with that of electroosmotic dewatering (EDW) and conventional mechanical dewatering (CMD). Fly ash classified by sieving to the size of 25–75 μm and >75 μm is added to the municipal digested sludge by 10, 20, and 50 wt% by wet base. When adding fly ash particles to municipal digested sludge, dewatering efficiency improved with smaller fly ash particle size and with increase in the amount. When sludge was dewatered using an electroosmotic dewatering method, the dewatering efficiency is improved about 40% by adding fly ash of 25–75 μm particle size with 20 wt% when compared with conventional mechanical dewatering method without adding the fly ash. It is concluded that fly ash particles rich in inorganic material are helpful in the dewatering process when added to municipal digested sludge and EDW is more effective than CDW.     

Agrarian Ideals and Practices: Comments on Paul B. Thompson’s The Agrarian Vision

In The Agrarian Vision, Thompson argues that a better appreciation of agrarian ideals could lead to a more virtuous, more sustainable way of life. While I agree with Thompson in many respects, there are some aspects of the book that I question and others that I would like to hear Thompson explicate in greater detail. In this paper, I question Thompson’s claim that agrarian farmers and farming communities serve as ideal models of virtuous habits and good character. I challenge Thompson’s use of virtue theory, particularly the notion that farming virtues can be acquired without participating in farming practices. In the end, I make the point that Thompson seems to vacillate between being realistic and being idealistic, which may seriously complicate our notions of responsibility and obligation in practice.