Using evidence to improve reproductive health quality along the Thailand-Burma border

The Mae Tao Clinic, located on the Thailand-Burma border, has provided health services for illegal migrant workers in Thailand and internally displaced people from Burma since 1989. In 2001, the clinic launched a project with the primary aim of improving reproductive health services and the secondary aim of building clinic capacity in monitoring and evaluation (M&E). This paper first presents the project's methods and key results. The team used observation of antenatal care and family-planning sessions and client exit interviews at baseline and follow-up, approximately 13 months apart, to assess performance on six elements of quality of care. Findings indicated that improving programme readiness contributed to some improvement in the quality of services, though inconsistencies in findings across the methods require further research. The paper then identifies lessons learned from introducing M&E in a resource-constrained setting. One key lesson was that a participatory approach to M&E increased people's feelings of ownership of the project and motivated staff to collect and use data for programme decision-making to improve quality.     

Aquatic leeches (Hirudinea) as bioindicators of organic chemical contaminants in freshwater ecosystems

Freshwater leeches from an industrially polluted creek were found to contain very high residues of chlorophenols, when compared with fish, tadpoles and most other benthic invertebrates. Leeches are recommended as possible bioindicators of aquatic organic contamination.     

Environmental community relations: A vital component in TQEM

In the current regulatory climate, environmental professionals are becoming increasingly involved with a side of the business that has often been given low priority in the past: communicating with the public about environmental and health risk issues. This article describes effective approaches to such communication, and demonstrates their implementation success.     

WATER QUALITY IN THE PAWTUXET RIVER: METAL MONITORING AND GEOCHEMISTRY1

ABSTRACT: The Pawtuxet River flows from a relatively rural area through some of the more highly industrialized sections of Rhode Island. During its journey, the river receives many municipal, industrial, and ground water sources of metal constituents. The present report is the first in a two part series in which the water quality of this urban river was evaluated by a chemical monitoring study of the sources, transport mechanisms, and fate of cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, and nickel in the river. The second paper will use the chemical data to derive and calibrate a steady-state water quality model for this river. The metal concentrations In the river tended to increase from the headwaters to the mouth with river stations nearest to point source outfalls showing elevated values. In some sections of the river, levels of a few of the metals could not be explained by the point sources; and other inputs, including sediment resuspension, axe proposed to make up this apparent unbalance. The ability of a municipal secondary treatment plant to remove metals was demonstrated, and the tie-in of the effluent from a major chemical company to the plant did not cause any observable deterioration in treatment efficiency.     

NEW HAMPSHIRE WATER LAW: AN INTERPRETIVE OVERVIEW1

ABSTRACT: New Hampshire's riparian water law, first modified judicially, has been more drastically changed by recent legislative and administrative action. As it stands, however, the judicially enforced doctrine of reasonable use appears to be utterly inadequate to handle increasing water demands. The protection of the public interest has imposed substantial limitations on the use of riparian water rights, all under the guise of the exercise of the police power, i.e., the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare. The efficient use of the state's water resources has been further crippled by the widespread and indiscriminate exercise of eminent domain. As a result, the state is now considering the imposition of a permit system that has the potential to streamline the allocation of water. Such a system should take into consideration the public interest factors that have recently frustrated the exercise of riparian rights and the effective use of the state's water resources.     

Fitting Data to Linear Combinations of Covariograms

We pursue a regression model for spatially-indexed data whose spatial correlation is determined by a linear combination of simple covariograms. The main interest lies in the estimation of the spatial parameters. As several common techniques appear ineffective for this setting, an algorithm is proposed to obtain parameter estimates and is assessed through simulation. It is found to provide greater stability than other methods of estimation. We discuss the influence of parametrization and site location on the efficacy of the estimation algorithms, and develop some guidelines as to the placement of sampling sites to improve the algorithm's performance. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Trends in ambient concentrations of agrochemicals in humans and the environment of the United States

Uses of pesticides and related agrochemicals have been regulated in the United States since 1948. The United States government has supported human and environmental monitoring for pesticides and selected toxic chemicals for the past 15 yr. The initial ambient monitoring systems were designed to determine average concentrations of pesticides and related chemicals in human and environmental media on a nationwide basis and determine changes in these concentrations over time. The results of these surveys showed that almost all of the general human population and various environmental components contained low concentrations of chlorinated pesticides. As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) restricted many uses of the chlorinated pesticides, the organophosphorous and carbamate pesticides which replaced them were not as easily monitored by ambient surveys. Special monitoring studies had to be done more frequently to produce data on these compounds which were not as persistent or accumulative in the environment. Currently, a re-evalution has begun to determine pesticide monitoring data needs for the next 5 to 10 yr, modify existing ambient surveys, and plan needed short-term studies to efficiently meet regulatory data needs. Ambient monitoring for trends in chemical levels in humans and the environment will continue in the United States at a reduced level, and many exposure data needs will be met with use-specific monitoring studies.Presented at the International Conference on Environmental Hazards of Agrochemicals in Developing Countries, 8–12 November, 1983 in Alexandria, Egypt.     

Mechanisms of electron acceptor utilization: implications for simulating anaerobic biodegradation

Simulation of biodegradation reactions within a reactive transport framework requires information on mechanisms of terminal electron acceptor processes (TEAPs). In initial modeling efforts, TEAPs were approximated as occurring sequentially, with the highest energy-yielding electron acceptors (e.g. oxygen) consumed before those that yield less energy (e.g., sulfate). Within this framework in a steady state plume, sequential electron acceptor utilization would theoretically produce methane at an organic-rich source and Fe(II) further downgradient, resulting in a limited zone of Fe(II) and methane overlap. However, contaminant plumes often display much more extensive zones of overlapping Fe(II) and methane. The extensive overlap could be caused by several abiotic and biotic processes including vertical mixing of byproducts in long-screened monitoring wells, adsorption of Fe(II) onto aquifer solids, or microscale heterogeneity in Fe(III) concentrations. Alternatively, the overlap could be due to simultaneous utilization of terminal electron acceptors. Because biodegradation rates are controlled by TEAPs, evaluating the mechanisms of electron acceptor utilization is critical for improving prediction of contaminant mass losses due to biodegradation. Using BioRedox-MT3DMS, a three-dimensional, multi-species reactive transport code, we simulated the current configurations of a BTEX plume and TEAP zones at a petroleum-contaminated field site in Wisconsin. Simulation results suggest that BTEX mass loss due to biodegradation is greatest under oxygen-reducing conditions, with smaller but similar contributions to mass loss from biodegradation under Fe(III)-reducing, sulfate-reducing, and methanogenic conditions. Results of sensitivity calculations document that BTEX losses due to biodegradation are most sensitive to the age of the plume, while the shape of the BTEX plume is most sensitive to effective porosity and rate constants for biodegradation under Fe(III)-reducing and methanogenic conditions. Using this transport model, we had limited success in simulating overlap of redox products using reasonable ranges of parameters within a strictly sequential electron acceptor utilization framework. Simulation results indicate that overlap of redox products cannot be accurately simulated using the constructed model, suggesting either that Fe(III) reduction and methanogenesis are occurring simultaneously in the source area, or that heterogeneities in Fe(III) concentration and/or mineral type cause the observed overlap. Additional field, experimental, and modeling studies will be needed to address these questions.