Beyond the Prevention of Harm: Animal Disease Policy as a Moral Question

European animal disease policy seems to find its justification in a “harm to other” principle. Limiting the freedom of animal keepers—e.g., by culling their animals—is justified by the aim to prevent harm, i.e., the spreading of the disease. The picture, however, is more complicated. Both during the control of outbreaks and in the prevention of notifiable, animal diseases the government is confronted with conflicting claims of stakeholders who anticipate running a risk to be harmed by each other, and who ask for government intervention. In this paper, we first argue that in a policy that aims to prevent animal diseases, the focus shifts from limiting “harm” to weighing conflicting claims with respect to “risks of harm.” Therefore, we claim that the harm principle is no longer a sufficient justification for governmental intervention in animal disease prevention. A policy that has to deal with and distribute conflicting risks of harm needs additional value assumptions that guide this process of assessment and distribution. We show that currently, policies are based on assumptions that are mainly economic considerations. In order to show the limitations of these considerations, we use the interests and position of keepers of backyard animals as an example. Based on the problems they faced during and after the recent outbreaks, we defend the thesis that in order to develop a sustainable animal disease policy other than economic assumptions need to be taken into account.     

Increasing exfiltration from pervious concrete and temperature monitoring

Pervious concrete typically has an infiltration rate far exceeding any expectation of precipitation rate. The limiting factor of a retention based pervious concrete system is often defined by how quickly the underlying soil subgrade will infiltrate the water temporarily stored within the concrete and/or aggregate base. This issue is of particular importance when placing a pervious concrete system on compacted fine textured soils. This research describes the exfiltration from twelve pervious concrete plots constructed on a compacted clay soil in eastern Tennessee, USA. Several types of treatments were applied to the clay soil prior to placement of the stone aggregate base and pervious concrete in an attempt to increase the exfiltration rate, including: 1) control – no treatment; 2) trenched – soil trenched and backfilled with stone aggregate; 3) ripped – soil ripped with a subsoiler; and 4) boreholes – placement of shallow boreholes backfilled with sand. The average exfiltration rates were 0.8 cm d⁻¹ (control), 4.6 cm d⁻¹ (borehole), 10.0 cm d⁻¹ (ripped), and 25.8 cm d⁻¹ (trenched). The trenched treatment exfiltrated fastest, followed by the ripped and then the borehole treatments, although the ripped and borehole treatments were not different from one another at the 5% level of significance. The internal temperature of the pervious concrete and aggregate base was monitored throughout the winter of 2006–2007. Although the temperature of the pervious concrete dropped below freezing 24 times, freezing concrete temperatures never coincided with free water being present in the large pervious concrete pores. The coldest recorded air temperature was −9.9 °C, and the corresponding coldest recorded pervious concrete temperature was −7.1 °C. The temperature of the pervious concrete lagged diurnal air temperature changes and was generally buffered in amplitude, particularly when free water was present since the addition of water increases the thermal capacity of the pervious concrete greatly. The temperature of the aggregate base was further buffered to diurnal changes, and no freezing temperatures were recorded.     

SIMPLE TROPHIC STATE CLASSIFICATION OF THE CANADIAN NEARSHORE WATERS OF THE GREAT LAKES1

ABSTRACT: Trophic classification of the Canadian nearshore waters of the Great Lakes is attempted using summer, surface water quality data for the early 1970's. A generalized Composite Trophic Index is developed using paired linear relationships for total phosphorus, chlorophyll a, and Secchi depth data for 66 defined nearshore regions. The chlorophyll a and total phosphorus relationship indicates that the nearshore waters contain a low chlorophyll a concentration for a given total phosphorus concentration than observed for the open waters of the Great Lakes or for smaller Canadian lakes. The most eutrophic nearshore regions occur in areas of relatively restricted circulation and/or high nutrient loadings. These include the Bay of Quinte, Toronto and Hamilton harbours, and portions of Lake We's Western Basin. Lakes Huron and Superior are generally oligotrophic, except for some embayments. Although nearshore water quality is highly variable, this apprach represents a reasonable compromise with respect to analytical complexity. The Composite Trophic Index removes biases introduced through the use of a single trophic state indicator and uniquely describes the nearshore water quality in terms generally comparable to other water bodies.     

SOIL WATER CHARACTERISTICS OF TWO SOIL CATENAS IN ILLINOIS: IMPLICATIONS FOR IRRIGATION1

ABSTRACT: Soil water was monitored by neutron scattering in six soils, three each within two drainage catenas in east-central Illinois, over a 15-month time span. The prairie soils have formed in: (1) 76–152 cm of silt loam, eolian sediments (bess) over glacial till (Catlin-Flanagan-Drummer catena), and (2) bess greater than 152 cm in thickness (Tama-Ipava-Sable catena). We characterized the water content of these soils over the total time span and for wet and dry climatic subsets, as an aid to potential irrigation decisions. Soils of the thin bess, C-F-D catena dried out to lower water contents and had greater soil water variability than did the thick bess soils. Under wet conditions, soil water contents in the two catenas were quite similar. Alleviation of surface and subsurface drying via irrigation would thus be more advantageous to yields on the C-F-D soils than on the T-I-S soils.     

Planning and design of Berg-en-Dal,a new camp in Kruger National Park

The premise of this article is that the planning and design of new rest camps in conservation areas should be based on ecological principles in such a way that the plant ecology within the camp be an integral part and extension of the natural ecology of its immediate vicinity. This is desirable so that visitors to the camp will be provided not only with facilities for resting, eating, and sleeping, but also be able to enjoy and study the natural environment in a relaxed atmosphere. The Berg-en-Dal rest camp, which was established in Kruger National Park, was planned in such a way and designed according to the principles outlined by the authors in a companion article. The planning included six zones: a control zone, day visitor zone, overnight visitor zone, staff accommodation zone, recreation zone, and service zone. The point is stressed that plant species selected to be used as additional vegetation to those already growing in the camp were endemic to the nine landscape facets identified in the camp. The design allowed for separation of the various land-use zones in such a way that they would complement each other rather than be a hindrance to each other. The camp has been built according to the plans included in this article and has proved to be a great success. The conclusion is drawn that the planning principles are sound and should be used in the future for the planning and design of rest camps for conservation areas in South Africa.     

Recycling as appropriate behavior: a review of survey data from selected recycling education programs in Michigan

Data from surveys conducted by six separate recycling education programs funded under the Clean Michigan Fund are compared. The findings indicate that a strong pro-recycling attitude exists among the populations sampled with a significant percentage of respondents planning to increase their level of recycling in the future. To aid this increase in participation these data suggest that education efforts should focus on helping people become more familiar with the details of how to recycle. And finally, these data support the idea that efforts to promote waste reduction and recycling behavior should focus on non-monetary motives.     

A statistical analysis of the carbon dioxide capture process

Post combustion carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture is one of the most commonly adopted technologies for reducing industrial CO₂ emissions, which is now an important goal given the widespread concern over global warming. Research on amine-based CO₂ capture has mainly focused on improving effectiveness and efficiency of the CO₂ capture process. Our research work focuses on studying the relationships among the significant parameters influencing CO₂ production because an enhanced understanding of the intricate relationships among the parameters involved in the process is critical for improving efficiency of the CO₂ capture process. This paper presents a statistical study that explores the relationships among parameters involved in the amine-based post combustion CO₂ capture process at the International Centre for CO₂ Capture (ITC) located in Regina, Saskatchewan of Canada. A multiple regression technique has been applied for analysis of data collected at the CO₂ capture pilot plant at ITC. The parameters have been carefully selected to avoid issues of multicollinearity, and four mathematical models among the key parameters identified have been developed. The models have been tested, and accuracy of the models is found to be satisfactory. The models developed in this study describe part of the CO₂ capture process and can help to predict performance of the CO₂ capture process at ITC under different conditions. Some results from a preliminary validation process will also be presented.     

Role of Alternative Electron Acceptors (AEA) to control methane flux from waterlogged paddy fields: Case studies in the southern part of West Bengal, India

The rice fields, depleted of O₂, contain large amount of moisture and organic substrates to provide an ideal anaerobic environment for methanogenesis and are one of the principal anthropogenic sources of methane. In order to mitigate this emission Alternative Electron Acceptors (AEA) were altered in the soil. The experiments were carried out in four seasons at the site of Balarampur, near Baruipur, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, namely September–December, 2005 (Cultivar: Sundari), February–May, 2006 (Cultivar: Sundari), September–December, 2006 and February–May, 2007 (Cultivar: Swarna-Pankaj). The seasonal average methane flux (Fe treated), for the cultivar type “Sundari” (season: September–December, 2005), is 4.41 t ha⁻¹, as compared to the value of 6.40 t ha⁻¹ for the untreated soil. Similarly for February–May, 2006, the seasonal average methane flux (Fe treated) is 5.52 t ha⁻¹, whereas the untreated flux is 5.69 t ha⁻¹. In the third and fourth seasons we had two treatments with Ammonium Thiosulphate and Ferric Hydroxide. The seasonal average methane flux (treatment: Ammonium Thiosulphate) is 4.35 t ha⁻¹ and 5.41 t ha⁻¹ respectively, whereas for the ferric hydroxide treated soil it is 4.35 t ha⁻¹ and 6.14 t ha⁻¹ respectively. The properties related to the nutrient quality of the harvested paddy seeds supplement these results.     

Acrylamide monomer leaching from polyacrylamide-treated irrigation furrows

Water-soluble anionic polyacrylamide (WSPAM), which is used to reduce erosion in furrow irrigated fields and other agriculture applications, contains less than 0.05% acrylamide monomer (AMD). Acrylamide monomer, a potent neurotoxicant and suspected carcinogen, is readily dissolved and transported in flowing water. The study quantified AMD leaching losses from a WSPAM-treated corn (Zea mays L.) field using continuous extraction-walled percolation samplers buried at 1.2 m depth. The samplers were placed 30 and 150 m from the inflow source along a 180-m-long corn field. The field was furrow irrigated using WSPAM at the rate of 10 mg L(-1) during furrow advance. Percolation water and furrow inflows were monitored for AMD during and after three furrow irrigations. The samples were analyzed for AMD using a gas chromatograph equipped with an electron-capture detector. Furrow inflows contained an average AMD concentration of 5.5 microg L(-1). The AMD in percolation water samples never exceeded the minimum detection limit and the de facto potable water standard of 0.5 microg L(-1). The risk that ground water beneath these WSPAM-treated furrow irrigated soils will be contaminated with AMD appears minimal.