Exploring the risk information gap. Research into information supply and information demand of different parties concerned

The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), a governmental research institute, provides information on environmental and health risks. The primary contractors’ information demands are served well. But the risk information available from the RIVM does not always correspond to the desires and requirements of other parties concerned. It became apparent that – to a certain extent – an information gap exists, arising from a difference between the institute’s information supply and the information demand of the different parties concerned.This explorative study focuses on the information demand and supply with regard to three different risks: flooding by rivers, air pollution and food related risks.For each risk, the information supply was determined by listing the available risk information in RIVM reports. In a second step, the information demand of the five different parties, as well as different channels of communication, were examined. The parties’ perceptions and requirements concerning risk information were identified in interviews and focus group discussions.The public, which in general appeared to be quite unfamiliar with the institute and its information sources, preferred risk information tailored to its personal circumstances. Policy makers mainly appreciated personal contacts in order to keep up to date on risk topics, whereas NGOs and fellow researchers judged the institute’s website and reports to be more relevant. Press releases appeared to add little to satisfying the information demand of the media.     

Ectomised conductors in the golden orb-web spider, Nephila plumipes (Araneoidea): a male adaptation to sexual conflict?

Male genitalia may facilitate sperm protection by acting as a plug that prevents or hinders future matings. The pedipalps (intromittant organs) of males of the orb-web spider, Nephila plumipes, have a conductor with a peculiarly curved ending and a triangular process near the terminal end. The tip of the conductor, including the process, breaks during most matings and remains inside the female genital tract. We explored the possible function of the conductor as a mating plug using the double-mating sterile-male technique. Our data are not consistent with a plug function because males use only one pedipalp in each mating, thus leaving an unobstructed insemination duct available for future matings; conductors of males mating with virgin females are not more likely to break than those of males mating with mated females, and second males show no preference for used or unused spermathecae. In addition, males that inserted their palp in the insemination duct that contained a tip of the conductor from a previous male obtained a share in the paternity of the female's clutch of eggs. Interestingly, the conductor is more likely to break if it is inserted in an unused spermatheca. We argue that several lines of evidence suggest that the conductor breaks as a result of intersexual conflict over the duration of copulation.     

CCall--healthy and successful work in call centres.

Call centre workplaces are in many ways a challenge to occupational health and safety. The occupation itself can be described as an IT information technology-supported, communication-intensive form of work with often unusual working hours and a high rate of part-time employment. Data on the employee turnover as well as absenteeism related to occupational disability is quite contradictory. Occupational safety and its proponents still have to find new ways into the corporate structures and cultures of this relatively new and rapidly growing branch of industry. In a 2-year research and development project, using a holistic approach and under consideration of all the relevant disciplines, call centre workplaces were studied, and organisational measures were developed and field tested by putting them into practice. Practical help was developed for a sustainable strategy for successful and healthy work in call centres.     

Suggested protocol for collecting, handling and preparing peat cores and peat samples for physical, chemical, mineralogical and isotopic analyses

For detailed reconstructions of atmospheric metal deposition using peat cores from bogs, a comprehensive protocol for working with peat cores is proposed. The first step is to locate and determine suitable sampling sites in accordance with the principal goal of the study, the period of time of interest and the precision required. Using the state of the art procedures and field equipment, peat cores are collected in such a way as to provide high quality records for paleoenvironmental study. Pertinent field observations gathered during the fieldwork are recorded in a field report. Cores are kept frozen at -18 degree C until they can be prepared in the laboratory. Frozen peat cores are precisely cut into 1 cm slices using a stainless steel band saw with stainless steel blades. The outside edges of each slice are removed using a titanium knife to avoid any possible contamination which might have occurred during the sampling and handling stage. Each slice is split, with one-half kept frozen for future studies (archived), and the other half further subdivided for physical, chemical, and mineralogical analyses. Physical parameters such as ash and water contents, the bulk density and the degree of decomposition of the peat are determined using established methods. A subsample is dried overnight at 105 degree C in a drying oven and milled in a centrifugal mill with titanium sieve. Prior to any expensive and time consuming chemical procedures and analyses, the resulting powdered samples, after manual homogenisation, are measured for more than twenty-two major and trace elements using non-destructive X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) methods. This approach provides lots of valuable geochemical data which documents the natural geochemical processes which occur in the peat profiles and their possible effect on the trace metal profiles. The development, evaluation and use of peat cores from bogs as archives of high-resolution records of atmospheric deposition of mineral dust and trace elements have led to the development of many analytical procedures which now permit the measurement of a wide range of elements in peat samples such as lead and lead isotope ratios, mercury, arsenic, antimony, silver, molybdenum, thorium, uranium, rare earth elements. Radiometric methods (the carbon bomb pulse of (14)C, (210)Pb and conventional (14)C dating) are combined to allow reliable age-depth models to be reconstructed for each peat profile.     

Biodegradation studies of selected priority acidic pesticides and diclofenac in different bioreactors

The biodegradation of selected priority acidic pesticides MCPP, MCPA, 2,4-D, 2,4-DP and bentazone and the acidic pharmaceutical diclofenac was investigated using a membrane bioreactor (MBR) and a fixed-bed bioreactor (FBBR). A pilot plant MBR was fed with raw water spiked with the selected compounds. The experiment was repeated every week during four weeks to enhance the adaptation of microorganisms. In order to further study the biodegradability of these compounds, degradation studies in a FBBR were carried out. All the samples were analysed by solid phase extraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPE-GC-MS). The results indicate that in the MBR compounds except for bentazone were eliminated within the first day of the experiment at rates ranging from 44% to 85%. Comparing these results with the degradation rates in the FBBR showed that in the latter only MCPP, MCPA 2,4-D and 2,4-DP were degraded after a much longer adaptation phase of microorganisms.     

Principles and perspectives

BACKGROUND, AIM AND SCOPE: With respect to the enormous increase of chemical production in the last decades and the tens of thousands of individual chemicals on the market, the permanent improvement of chemical management is a permanent target to achieve the goals of sustainable consumption and production set by the WSSD in Johannesburg 2002. MAIN FEATURES: Several approaches exist to describe sustainability of chemistry. However, commonly agreed criteria are still missing. There is no doubt that products of modern chemistry help to achieve important goals of sustainability and that significant improvements have occurred regarding direct releases from production sites, but several facts demonstrate that chemistry is far from being sustainable. Still too many chemicals exhibit hazardous characteristics and pose a risk to health and environment. Too many resources are needed to produce chemicals and finished products. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Therefore, a strategy for sustainability of chemistry should be developed which comprises the following main elements: 1. Sustainable chemicals: sustainable chemical management includes a regulatory framework which makes no difference between new and existing chemicals, contains efficient information flow through the supply chain which allows users to handle chemicals safely and offers an authorisation procedure and/or an efficient restriction procedure for substances of high concern. This regulatory scheme should promote the development of inherently safe chemicals. 2. Sustainable chemical production: Sustainable chemical production needs the development and implementation of emerging alternative techniques like selective catalysis, biotechnology in order to release less CO2 and less toxic by-products, to save energy and to achieve higher yields. Information exchange on best available techniques (BAT) and best environmental practices (BEP) may help to promote changes towards more sustainability. 3. Sustainable products: An integrated product policy which provides a framework for sustainable products promotes the development of products with a long-term use phase, low resource demand in production and use, low emission of hazardous substances and properties suitable for reuse and recycling. This may be promoted by eco-labelling, chemical leasing concepts and extended information measures to enhance the demand of consumers and various actors in the supply chain for sustainable products. RECOMMENDATION AND PERSPECTIVE: Important tools for the promotion of sustainable chemistry are the abolition of barriers for innovation in legislation and within the chemical industry, more transparency for all users of chemical products, a new focus on sustainability in education and research, and a new way of thinking in terms of sustainability.     

Biofiltration of the antibacterial drug sulfamethazine by the species Chenopodium quinoa and its further biodegradation through anaerobic digestion

The biofiltering capacity, distribution patterns and degradation of the antimicrobial sulfamethazine(SMT) by halophyte Chenopodium quinoa under hydroponic conditions and its further biodegradation through anaerobic digestion were evaluated. C. quinoa was cultivated for a complete life cycle under different concentrations of SMT(0, 2 and 5 mg/L) and sodium chloride(0 and 15 g/L). C. quinoa is able to uptake and partially degrade SMT. The higher the SMT concentration in the culture medium, the higher the SMT content in the plant tissue. SMT has different distribution patterns within the plant organs, and no SMT is found in the seeds.Dry crop residues containing SMT have a great potential to produce methane through anaerobic digestion and, in addition, SMT is further biodegraded. The highest specific methane yields are obtained using crop residues of the plants cultivated in the presence of salt and SMT with concentrations between 0 and 2 mg/L.     

Assessing the current state of ecological connectivity in a large marine protected area system

The establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) is a critical step in ensuring the continued persistence of marine biodiversity. Although the area protected in MPAs is growing, the movement of individuals (or larvae) among MPAs, termed connectivity, has only recently been included as an objective of many MPAs. As such, assessing connectivity is often neglected or oversimplified in the planning process. For promoting population persistence, it is important to ensure that protected areas in a system are functionally connected through dispersal or adult movement. We devised a multi-species model of larval dispersal for the Australian marine environment to evaluate how much local scale connectivity is protected in MPAs and determine whether the extensive system of MPAs truly functions as a network. We focused on non-migratory species with simplified larval behaviors (i.e., passive larval dispersal) (e.g., no explicit vertical migration) as an illustration. Of all the MPAs analyzed (approximately 2.7 million km²), outside the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef, <50% of MPAs (46-80% of total MPA area depending on the species considered) were functionally connected. Our results suggest that Australia's MPA system cannot be referred to as a single network, but rather a collection of numerous smaller networks delineated by natural breaks in the connectivity of reef habitat. Depending on the dispersal capacity of the taxa of interest, there may be between 25 and 47 individual ecological networks distributed across the Australian marine environment. The need to first assess the underlying natural connectivity of a study system prior to implementing new MPAs represents a key research priority for strategically enlarging MPA networks. Our findings highlight the benefits of integrating multi-species connectivity into conservation planning to identify opportunities to better incorporate connectivity into the design of MPA systems and thus to increase their capacity to support long-term, sustainable biodiversity outcomes.     

Feeling interrupted—Being responsive: How online messages relate to affect at work

Being constantly connected to others via e‐mail and other online messages is increasingly typical for many employees. In this paper, we develop and test a model that specifies how interruptions by online messages relate to negative and positive affect. We hypothesize that perceived interruptions by online messages predict state negative affect via time pressure and that perceived interruptions predict state positive affect via responsiveness to these online messages and perceived task accomplishment. A daily survey study with 174 employees (a total of 811 day‐level observations) provided support for our hypotheses at the between‐person and within‐person level. In addition, perceived interruptions showed a negative direct association with perceived task accomplishment. Our study highlights the importance of being responsive to online messages and shows that addressing only the negative effects of perceived interruptions does not suffice to understand the full impact of interruptions by online messages in modern jobs.