Causal regulations vs. political will: why human zoonotic infections increase despite precautionary bans on animal antibiotics.

Using precautionary principles when facing incomplete facts and causal conjectures raises the possibility of a Faustian bargain. This paper applies systems dynamics based on previously unavailable data to show how well intended precautionary policies for promoting food safety may backfire unless they are informed by quantitative cause-and-effect models of how animal antibiotics affect animal and human health. We focus on European Union and United States formulations of regulatory precaution and then analyze zoonotic infections in terms of the consequences of relying on political will to justify precautionary bans. We do not attempt a political analysis of these issues; rather, we conduct a regulatory analysis of precautionary legal requirements and use Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) to assess a set of policy outcomes. Thirty-seven years ago, the Joint Committee on the Use of Antibiotics in Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine (the Swann Report) warned that uncontrolled use of similar antibiotics in humans and food animals could promote the emergence of resistant strains of foodborne bacteria that could endanger human health. Since then, many countries have either banned or restricted antibiotics as feed additives for promoting animal growth. Others, including the United States, have relied on prudent use guidelines and programs that reduce total microbial loads, rather than focusing exclusively on antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In retrospect, the regulatory strategy of banning or restricting animal antibiotic uses has had limited success: it has been followed in many cases by deteriorating animal health and increases in human illnesses and resistance rates. Conversely, a combination of continued prudent use of antibiotics to prevent and control animal infections, together with HACCP and other improvements, has been followed by large improvements in the microbial safety of chickens and other food animals in the United States, leaving both animals and people better off now than they were decades ago. A quantitative risk assessment model of microbiological risks (Campylobacter because of data availability) suggests that these outcomes may be more than coincidental: prudent use of animal antibiotics may actually improve human health, while bans on animal antibiotics, intended to be precautionary, inadvertently may harm human health.     

Electrical separation of plastics coming from special waste

Minimisation of waste to landfilling is recognised as a priority in waste management by European rules. In order to achieve this goal, developing suitable technologies for waste recycling is therefore of great importance. To achieve this aim the technologies utilised for mineral processing can be taken into consideration to develop recycling systems. In particular comminution and separation processes can be adopted to recover valuable materials from composite waste. In this work the possibility of recycling pharmaceutical blister packaging has been investigated. A suitable comminution process has been applied in order to obtain the liberation of the plastic and aluminium components. Experiments of electrical separation have been carried out in order to point out the influence of the process parameters on the selections of the different materials and to set up the optimum operating conditions.     

Aerospace wetland monitoring by hyperspectral imaging sensors: a case study in the coastal zone of San Rossore Natural Park

The San Rossore Natural Park, located on the Tuscany (Italy) coast, has been utilized over the last 10 years for many remote sensing campaigns devoted to coastal zone monitoring. A wet area is located in the south-west part of the Natural Park and it is characterized by a system of ponds and dunes formed by sediment deposition occurring at the Arno River estuary. The considerable amount of collected data has permitted us to investigate the evolution of wetland spreading and land coverage as well as to retrieve relevant biogeochemical parameters, e.g. green biomass, from remote sensing images and products. This analysis has proved that the monitoring of coastal wetlands, characterized by shallow waters, moor and dunes, demands dedicated aerospace sensors with high spatial and spectral resolution. The outcomes of the processing of images gathered during several remote sensing campaigns by airborne and spaceborne hyperspectral sensors are presented and discussed. A particular effort has been devoted to sensor response calibration and data validation due to the complex heterogeneity of the observed natural surfaces.     

Health risk assessment of air emissions from a municipal solid waste incineration plant--a case study

A health risk assessment of long-term emissions of carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic air pollutants has been carried out for the municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) of the city of Taranto, Italy. Ground level air concentrations and soil deposition of carcinogenic (Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-Dioxins/Furans and Cd) and non-carcinogenic (Pb and Hg) pollutants have been estimated using a well documented atmospheric dispersion model. Health risk values for air inhalation, dermal contact, soil and food ingestion have been calculated based on a combination of these concentrations and a matrix of environmental exposure factors. Exposure of the surrounding population has been addressed for different release scenarios based on four pollutants, four exposure pathways and two receptor groups (children and adults). Spatial risk distribution and cancer excess cases projected from plant emissions have been compared with background mortality records. Estimated results based on the MSWI emissions show: (1) individual risks well below maximum acceptable levels, (2) very small incremental cancer risk compared with background level.     

Photodegradation of pesticides .1. Photolysis rates and half‐life of acylanilides and their major metabolites in water

The photolysis in water solution of three fungicides (Metalaxyl, Benalaxyl, and Furalaxyl) was studied under artificial light. At λ = 254 Benalaxyl and Furalaxyl underwent fast degradation with rearrangement reactions less complex than those of Metalaxyl. Under A = 254–290 the photolysis was very fast and Benalaxyl and Furalaxyl show a common behaviour. This was found to be a kinetic consecutive process leading, at first, to N‐2,6‐xylyl‐D,L‐alaninate (II), which was degraded to 2,6‐dimethylaniline (IV). This amine gives unknown products. Metalaxyl underwent a parallel/consecutive photodegradtion to give (II) and N‐(methoxyacetyl)‐2,6‐dimethylaniline (VI). While (II) was easily converted to (IV) as earlier, (VI) was more stable to photolysis. Under λ > 290 all the fungicides shown very slow degradation with pseudo first order rate constants. The photoproducts were degraded faster than the parent compounds by factors from 13 to 1800. The presence of photosensitizer in water (humic acids or acetone) resulted in total decomposition of fungicides and of their photoproducts.     

Integrated Ambient and Microenvironment Model for Estimation of PM10 Exposures of Children in Annual and Episode Settings

Particulate matter air pollution is estimated to cause in the order of 350,000 excess deaths in the European Union calling for policy development and evaluation tools. In the current work, a model for PM₁₀ exposures of children is developed using microenvironment time activities and infiltration of ambient pollution indoors, both evaluated against observations earlier and integrated with city-wide air quality models in the current work. The model is demonstrated using data from two cities in Italy. High-end short-term exposures are characterized by an episode-day situation in Turin, and annual mean exposures in downtown Bologna. The air quality model was unable to capture the highest levels during the episode, and therefore, the exposure model was adjusted using observed–modeled ratio from a monitoring station. Air quality model performance for the annual levels was significantly better. Annual exposure variability within the target population was 1.5-fold in the downtown area Bologna and tenfold during the episode day in Turin.