Estimates of health benefits due to reductions in ambient NO2 levels

A method is presented here by which the actual numbers of individuals in the U.S. population who would be expected to suffer respiratory illness as a result of exposure to ambient nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations in excess of the Federally-designated ambient air quality standard can be estimated. At the same time we have attempted to quantify how these adverse health effects would be alleviated by various degrees of reductions in current ambient concentrations. In addition, the health benefit expected to be derived by various NO_x emission control strategies will be examined utilizing the health benefit estimation method presented.It is estimated that there were approximately 33.2×10⁶ excess cases of respiratory illnesses in the U.S. in 1973 associated with ambient NO₂ concentrations in excess of the national ambient standard. A reduction of approximately 50 to 60 percent below 1973 NO₂ levels is needed to essentially eliminate excess respiratory illness associated with ambient NO₂ concentration.     

Correction to: Renewable energy powered membrane desalination — review of recent development

Environmental Science and Pollution Research -     

Winter arsenic pollution in 10 forest ecosystems in the mountainous border regions of the Czech Republic

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Arsenic (As) concentrations and deposition fluxes were measured in snow and rime at 10 mountain-top sites near the borders between the Czech Republic...     

Operator competence and capacity - Lessons from the Montara blowout

The blowout of the Montara H1 well in the Timor Sea off the northwest coast of Australia in August 2009 was the first such incident in Australian offshore waters for 25 years. This article seeks to draw lessons for management of complex hazardous activities from these events by analysing critical decisions regarding well control barriers. Concepts such as trial and error learning, sensemaking and the need for multiple barriers are used to demonstrate why the organisation was blind to the developing problems and hence why lack of technical competence alone is not sufficient to explain the events that occurred. Three organisational improvements are proposed - providing active supervision, improved technical integrity assurance and better use of risk assessment. The article concludes with an appeal for changes in regulatory policy regarding safety to include organisational issues in addition to the traditional technical focus.     

A method of approach to landscape stability. Part 2: Ecooptimization of experimental territorial landscape segment in Bohemian forest

The method of anthropoecological landscape stability (AELS) has been applied experimentally to a territorial unit, forming a closed watershed with more of less precisely defined material, energy, and population flows. This article presents data-driven results of monitoring and conclusions on optimizing features derived from two object-oriented expert systems—the FORELIS, giving heuristically optimal conditions for forest compositions on the site in the prevailing immission situation, and AGRILIS—the agricultural expert system having the scope of finding suitable forms of agriculture with respect to natural conditions and suitable actual production facilities. The results of the study fully confirmed the feasibility of applying expert systems to actual conditions, and no significant errors in the results of the expert systems compared to indications by monitoring have been disclosed.     

Estimating the economic burden from illnesses associated with recreational coastal water pollution--a case study in Orange County, California

A cost-of-illness framework was applied to health and income data to quantify the health burden from illnesses associated with exposure to polluted recreational marine waters. Using data on illness severity due to exposure to polluted coastal water and estimates of mean annual salaries and medical costs (adjusted to 2001 values) for residents of Orange County, California, we estimated that the economic burden per gastrointestinal illness (GI) amounts to 36.58 dollars, the burden per acute respiratory disease is 76.76 dollars, the burden per ear ailment is 37.86 dollars, and the burden per eye ailment is 27.31 dollars. These costs can become a substantial public health burden when millions of exposures per year to polluted coastal waters result in hundreds of thousands of illnesses. For example, exposures to polluted waters at Orange County's Newport and Huntington Beaches were estimated to generate an average of 36,778 GI episodes per year. At this GI illness rate, one can also expect that approximately 38,000 more illness episodes occurred per year of other types, including respiratory, eye, and ear infections. The combination of excess illnesses associated with coastal water pollution resulted in a cumulative public health burden of 3.3 million dollars per year for these two beaches. This paper introduces a public health cost variable that can be applied in cost-benefit analyses when evaluating pollution abatement strategies.     

Material hygiene: improving recycling of WEEE demonstrated on dishwashers

There must be a change in attitude towards end-of-life products. The view that these products pose a liability must be changed. Secondary material is valuable as raw material. Thus, activities encouraging changes in opinion are important.Two major EU directives guide the recycling process; the Directive of End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) and the Directive of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). Both focus on the input of the recycling system, not on what is coming out of the system.The WEEE Directive is the legislation on the European level that governs the handling and processing of these types of products. The WEEE Directive is not only aimed at stricter handling and reduction of hazardous materials but also encourages EU member states to support technical development in order to facilitate increased recycling.In order to properly address these issues a mind-set, material hygiene, has been introduced. The basic idea is to act, in every life cycle phase of the product, towards highest possible efficiency in recycling. The outcome of useful material is in focus.A study on dishwashers is made with copper outcome as target. The results are based on Swedish conditions but general conclusions can be made. Limited design efforts can raise the outcome of valuable materials, if the recycling process is organized in an optimal manner.A theoretical concept of disassembly structures is used to draw general conclusions on the case study.Increasing product recycling suitability is one side of the problem; another is increasing effectiveness of handling and processing of end-of-life products.The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of “material hygiene” and based on that demonstrate a method for grading structural properties in a recycling perspective. The findings presented in this paper are based on a field study in which a number of dishwashers were disassembled and analyzed.