Development and evaluation of RAMP I – a practitioner’s tool for screening of musculoskeletal disorder risk factors in manual handling

RAMP I is a screening tool developed to support practitioners in screening for work-related musculoskeletal disorder risk factors related to manual handling. RAMP I, which is part of the RAMP tool, is based on research-based studies combined with expert group judgments. More than 80 practitioners participated in the development of RAMP I. The tool consists of dichotomous assessment items grouped into seven categories. Acceptable reliability was found for a majority of the assessment items for 15 practitioners who were given 1?h of training. The usability evaluation points to RAMP I being usable for screening for musculoskeletal disorder risk factors, i.e., usable for assessing risks, being usable as a decision base, having clear results and that the time needed for an assessment is acceptable. It is concluded that RAMP I is a usable tool for practitioners.     

Quantifying the impact of vegetation-based metrics on species persistence when choosing offsets for habitat destruction

Developers are often required by law to offset environmental impacts through targeted conservation actions. Most offset policies specify metrics for calculating offset requirements, usually by assessing vegetation condition. Despite widespread use, there is little evidence to support the effectiveness of vegetation-based metrics for ensuring biodiversity persistence. We compared long-term impacts of biodiversity offsetting based on area only; vegetation condition only; area × habitat suitability; and condition × habitat suitability in development and restoration simulations for the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. We simulated development and subsequent offsetting through restoration within a virtual landscape, linking simulations to population viability models for 3 species. Habitat gains did not ensure species persistence. No net loss was achieved when performance of offsetting was assessed in terms of amount of habitat restored, but not when outcomes were assessed in terms of persistence. Maintenance of persistence occurred more often when impacts were avoided, giving further support to better enforce the avoidance stage of the mitigation hierarchy. When development affected areas of high habitat quality for species, persistence could not be guaranteed. Therefore, species must be more explicitly accounted for in offsets, rather than just vegetation or habitat alone. Declines due to a failure to account directly for species population dynamics and connectivity overshadowed the benefits delivered by producing large areas of high-quality habitat. Our modeling framework showed that the benefits delivered by offsets are species specific and that simple vegetation-based metrics can give misguided impressions on how well biodiversity offsets achieve no net loss.     

A Watershed-based Cumulative Risk Impact Analysis: Environmental Vulnerability and Impact Criteria

Swine Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) have received much attention in recent years. As a result, a watershed-based screening tool, the Cumulative Risk Index Analysis (CRIA), was developed to assess the cumulative impacts of multiple CAFO facilities in a watershedsubunit. The CRIA formula calculates an index number based on: 1) the area of one or more facilities compared to the area of the watershed subunit, 2) the average of the environmental vulnerability criteria, and 3) the average of the industry-specific impact criteria. Each vulnerability or impact criterion is ranked on a 1 to 5 scale, with a low rank indicating low environmental vulnerability or impact and a high rank indicating high environmental vulnerability or impact. The individual criterion ranks, as well as the total CRIA score, can be used to focus the environmental analysis and facilitate discussions with industry, public, and other stakeholders in the Agency decision-making process.     

微量营养物质对有机废水厌氧消化过程的调控作用

通过向处理酸性葡萄酒蒸馏废水的厌氧移动床生物膜反应器中投加微量营养物质的试验,得出利用微量营养物质调控厌氧消化过程在技术上是可行的。Fe、Ni、Co组合不仅能加快挥发性有机酸(VFA),特别是丙酸的降解速率,进而提高厌氧反应器的溶解COD去除率,同时,还有利于厌氧反应器有机负荷的快速提升和较强pH缓冲能力的形成。B族维生素对厌氧移动床生物膜反应器运行效果影响不大。Fe对厌氧移动床生物膜反应器运行有一定影响,但效果也不十分明显。     

普通车床工件工具飞出伤人事故树分析

针对普通车床常见、多发的工件、工具飞出伤人事故,采用事故树分析事故原因,并提出安全对策措施.     

Pesticide Impact Rating Index – A Pesticide Risk Indicator for Water Quality

Pesticide users, natural resource managers, regulators, government agencies and many others are concerned about the off-site impact of pesticides on the environment. Systematic methods of the assessment of potential risk of pesticides to environmental components can serve as valuable tools in decision making and policy formulation. Simple risk indicators have been developed which cover a range of scenarios such as toxicity to organisms, health of farm workers, consumer health, and residues in harvested produce. The authors have developed a software package named Pesticide Impact Rating Index (PIRI) that outputs an improved pesticide risk indicator for water quality. PIRI is a standalone, user-friendly, platform-independent program. It can be used to (i) rank pesticides in terms of their relative pollution potential to groundwater or surface water, and (ii) to compare different land uses in a catchment or at a regional scale in terms of their relative impact on water quality. It is based on pesticides use; the pathway through which the pesticides are released to the water resources (drift, runoff, erosion, leaching) and the value of the water resources threatened. Each component is quantified using pesticide characteristics (including toxicity to organisms at different trophic levels, i.e. fish, daphnia, algae, etc.), environmental and site conditions (e.g. organic carbon content of soil, water input, slope of land, soil loss, recharge rate, depth of water table, etc.). This paper describes two case studies of the application of PIRI in Australia. The comparison of the risk assessment by PIRI on these revealed that PIRI correctly estimated the pollution potential of pesticides in greater than 80% of cases. A GIS version of PIRI is described in a companion paper in this volume. An erratum to this article is available at .     

“十三五”时期中国环境监管体制改革的形势、目标与若干建议

本文构建了包括监管的立法、组织体系、监管权力配置、监管工具与程序、问责机制、监管能力等要素在内的环境监管体制分析框架,从污染物排放趋势、国家制度建设等角度分析了"十三五"时期中国环境监管体制改革面临的挑战、目标和思路。"十三五"时期是中国生态文明建设的重要时期,完善环境监管制度是推进生态文明制度体系建设的重要内容。面对严重环境污染所带来的挑战,在此期间加快环境监管体制改革、提高环境监管有效性是切实实现治污减排的根本保证。完善环境监管体系、改进监管方式、创新监管手段是建立治污减排长效机制的基础和前提,也是完善环境治理体系的重要内容。按照市场经济条件下政府依法行政的要求,中国环境监管体制改革的目标,就是要按照合法性、独立性、透明性、可问责性、专业性和执法能力、可信性等原则建立和完善现代环境监管体制,为此必须从专门立法、组织结构、权力分配、问责机制、监管程序与工具、监管能力建设等各方面推进改革。本文提出了"十三五"时期环境监管体制改革的思路及若干建议,主要包括:加快修订环保法律法规,提高法律的可操作性,推进环境司法常态化、规范化和专门化,进一步提升环境监管法治化水平;从纵向、横向上优化环境监管组织结构,强化区域层级的监管与督查功能,强化中央层级环境监管机构对环境信息的获取能力;优化环境保护主管部门机构设置以及相关职能,建立并完善内部机构的协调机制;完善环境监管的内外部问责机制,把做实对监管者的监管机制作为优化环境监管体制的抓手;强化对监管工具的顶层设计,做实监管程序中关键环节,建立环境监管影响评估制度;加强环境监管能力建设,推进环境监管制度队伍职业化发展,保障各级环境监管机构具有充分履职的能力。环境监管体制的改革和完善,是国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要内容。     

Does the Temporal Resolution of Precipitation Input Influence the Simulated Hydrological Components Employing the SWAT Model?

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of sub‐daily precipitation time steps on model performance and hydrological components by applying the Green and Ampt infiltration method using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Precipitation was measured at a resolution of 0.1 mm and aggregated to 5‐, 15‐, 30‐, and 60‐min time steps. Daily discharge data over a 10‐year period were used to calibrate and validate the model. Following a global sensitivity analysis, relevant parameters were optimized through an automatic calibration procedure using SWAT‐CUP for each time step. Daily performance statistics were almost equal among all four time steps (NSE ≈ 0.47). Discharge mainly consisted of groundwater flow (55%) and tile flow (42%), in reasonable proportions for the investigated catchment. In conclusion, model outputs were almost identical, showing simulations responded nearly independently of the chosen precipitation time step. This held true for (1) the selection of sensitive parameters, (2) performance statistics, (3) the shape of the hydrographs, and (4) flow components. However, a scenario analysis revealed that the precipitation time step becomes important when saturated hydraulic conductivities are low and curve numbers are high. The study suggests that there is no need in using precipitation time steps <1 h for lowland catchments dominated by soils with a low surface runoff potential if daily flow values are being considered. Editor's note : This paper is part of the featured series on SWAT Applications for Emerging Hydrologic and Water Quality Challenges. See the February 2017 issue for the introduction and background to the series.     

Health benefits valuation of regulatory intervention for air pollution control in thermal power plants in Delhi,India

This study estimates minimum marginal health benefits (morbidity reduction only) of air pollution control and total health benefits arising from regulatory intervention regarding the adoption of the World Bank emission guidelines (WBEG) for thermal power plants (TPPs) in Delhi. The Industrial Source Complex-Short-Term Version–3 (ISCST3) model has been used to estimate the contribution to air pollution from TPPs. The household health production function (avertive behaviour) has been used to value health benefits of air pollution control. The study revealed that the ambient air pollution due to TPPs is reduced by between 62.17% to 83.45% by adopting the WBEG. Annual marginal benefit due to reduction in exposure to air pollution by 1 μg m^?3 is estimated to be US$0.353 per person. Total annual health benefits for adopting the WBEG for TPPs are estimated at US$235.19 million. This study provides a novel methodology to evaluate health benefits of regulatory intervention.     

Accumulation and mobility of zinc in soil amended with different levels of pig-manure compost

Applying manure compost not only results in zinc accumulation in the soil but also causes an increase in zinc mobility and enhances zinc leaching. In this study, the physical and chemical characteristics of zinc, zinc profiles, and zinc balance were investigated to characterise the fate of zinc in fields where the quality and amount of pig manure compost applied have been known for 13 years. Moreover, we determined zinc fractionation in both 0.1 mol L^?1HCl-soluble (mobile) and -insoluble (immobile) fractions. Adsorption of zinc in the soil was enhanced with increasing total carbon content following the application of pig manure compost. The 159.6 mg ha^?1 year^?1manure applied plot (triplicate) exceeded the Japanese regulatory level after only 6 years of applying pig manure compost, whereas the 53.2 mg ha^?1 year^?1 manure applied plot (standard) reached the regulatory level after 13 years. The zinc loads in the plots were 17.0 and 5.6 kg ha^?1 year^?1, respectively. However, 5.9 % and 17.2 % of the zinc loaded in the standard and the triplicate pig manure compost applied plots, respectively, were estimated to be lost from the plough layer. Based on the vertical distribution of mobile and immobile zinc content, a higher rate of applied manure compost caused an increase in the mobile zinc fraction to a depth of 40 cm. Although the adsorption capacity of zinc was enhanced following the application of pig manure compost, a greater amount of mobile zinc could move downward through the manure amended soil than through non manure-amended soil.