Increasing the safety of children's vehicle travel: from effective risk communication to behavior change

INTRODUCTION: When installed and used correctly, child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 71% for infants and 54% for toddlers. However, four out of five safety seats are unintentionally misused. Yet, parents fail to participate in safety-seat checks and other child seat interventions aimed at correcting misuse. METHOD: Such lack of participation is the focus of this article, which argues that most caregivers are na?ve to their own vulnerability for misusing their child's seat. Research on risk perception is discussed as a guide to understanding both the high misuse rate and the lack of participation in interventions designed to correct this public safety problem. RESULTS AND IMPACT: A comprehensive intervention plan that incorporates risk communication techniques for maximum parental participation is proposed that includes three essential components: (a) establishing community locations for parents to turn for safety seat advice, (b) making these locations well known to the public, and (c) increasing caregivers' perceptions of risk of misusing their children's seats.     

Beneficial use of dredged material for habitat creation, enhancement, and restoration in New York-New Jersey Harbor

A comprehensive Dredged Material Management Plan (DMMP) has been developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, New York District (USACE-NYD) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANY/NJ). The primary objective of the DMMP is to identify cost-effective and environmentally acceptable alternatives for the placement of dredged material derived from ongoing and proposed navigation improvements within the PANY/NJ. A significant portion of this dredged material is classified as unsuitable for open-ocean disposal. One suite of alternatives presented within the DMMP is the beneficial use of dredged material for habitat creation, enhancement, and restoration within the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary. Proposed beneficial use/habitat development projects include the use of dredged material for construction of artificial reefs, oyster reef restoration, intertidal wetland and mudflat creation, bathymetric recontouring, filling dead-end canals/basins, creation of bird/wildlife islands, and landfill/brownfields reclamation. Preliminary screening of the proposed beneficial use alternatives identified advantages, disadvantages, potential volumes, and estimated costs associated with each project type. Continued study of the proposed beneficial use alternatives has identified areas of environmental research or technology development where further investigation is warranted.     

Wildlife conservation through people-centred approaches to natural resource management programmes and the control of wildlife exploitation

While the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) introduced a new and progressive outlook on conservation, the South African government has failed to produce a comprehensive legal body of legislation to give effect to its varied obligations. Inconsistency and incompleteness of regulations governing wildlife conservation in conjunction with the failure to implement objectives to conserve wildlife through restricted exploitation with the political, social and economic motives of community conservation must be seen as major contributions to failed conservation goals. This paper analyses post-apartheid conservation laws and policies and argues that current plans for people-centred approaches to natural resource management programmes have been unsuccessful in operationalizing policy goals of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development into transparent plans for implementation. In fact, legal instruments and implementation plans seem to focus on the benefit-sharing components of community participation and therefore fail to address important issues of resource exploitation. It is suggested that where communities are expected to take part in the management of wildlife resources, the responsibility for sustainable wildlife management must be linked to the benefit-sharing instruments of the programmes. However, these would not deal with 'outsiders' like poachers and poaching driven by commercial interests. The paper proposes a model that allows communities to take control over wildlife resources.     

A conceptual model of the role of complex science in local authority consultations about air quality management

There exists a clear imperative across the EU and within the UK towards the enhanced integration of community knowledge in environmental and health decision-making processes. The underlying social force that underpins this dynamic is the drive for a more accountable, transparent and publicly acceptable decision-making arena. However, relatively little research has been undertaken on the evaluation of local air quality management consultation in particular. In this context, the paper presents an evaluation of evidence resulting from questionnaire survey and case study research undertaken in the first round of the statutory process of local air quality management (LAQM), in which local authorities are required to consult on their air quality findings and intentions. We suggest that local authority perceptions of the relative abilities of differing stakeholders' grasp of air quality science, the process that translates that science into policy, and the institutional and organizational status of stakeholders (i.e. whether they are statutory or non-statutory stakeholders) may tend to transitively determine the choice of consultation methods used, the communication strategies chosen and the relative integration of stakeholder feedback into the LAQM decision-making process. In order to interrogate this potentially problematic chain of risk communication events, a preliminary conceptual model has been developed to enable the interrogation of the pathways through, and the obstacles to, the translation of air quality knowledge. The task is to unveil the sequential chains of association that comprise the LAQM risk communication process.     

Orange/lemon-scented beetles: opposite enantiomers of limonene as major constituents in the defensive secretion of related carabids

The major constituent in the pygidial gland defensive fluid of the carabid beetle Ardistomis schaumii is (R)-(+)-limonene, whereas that of Semiardistomis puncticollis is (S)-(−)-limonene. This was an unanticipated result, since it is not very common to find the opposite enantiomers of the same compound among the secondary metabolites of related species. Moreover, the glandular liquid of A. schaumii contains 1,8-cineole, and that of S. puncticollis has β-pinene, β-phellandrene, sabinene, and p-cymene. Of about 500 carabid species that have been chemically investigated, this is the first report of the presence of such complex mixtures of monoterpenes in their defensive secretions.     

Household evacuation characteristics in American Samoa during the 2009 Samoa Islands tsunami

Tsunamis represent significant threats to human life and development in coastal communities. This quantitative study examines the influence of household characteristics on evacuation actions taken by 211 respondents in American Samoa who were at their homes during the 29 September 2009 M_w 8.1 Samoa Islands earthquake and tsunami disaster. Multiple logistic regression analysis of survey data was used to examine the association between evacuation and various household factors. Findings show that increases in distance to shoreline were associated with a slightly decreased likelihood of evacuation, whereas households reporting higher income had an increased probability of evacuation. The response in American Samoa was an effective one, with only 34 fatalities in a tsunami that reached shore in as little as 15 minutes. Consequently, future research should implement more qualitative study designs to identify event and cultural specific determinants of household evacuation behaviour to local tsunamis.     

Residues of p,p’-DDT and hexachlorobenzene in human milk from Indonesian women

Milk from Indonesian women (n = 4) was analysed for p,p’-DDT and the fungicide, hexachlorobenzene (HCB). p,p’-DDT was found in all of the samples and at levels that are amongst the highest reported anywhere in the world in 3 of the samples. HCB was found in all 4 samples, 1 sample had an exceptionally high level. The high residue of HCB suggested exposure by eating dressed grain, major environmental contamination or direct exposure when handling the fungicide. These are the first data on pesticide residues in milk from Indonesian women which demonstrate general exposure to p,p’-DDT and HCB.