Assessing a country's drink driving situation: an overview of the method used in 6 low- and middle-income countries

The International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) has developed an international program to reduce drink driving as part of its strategy for Global Actions on Harmful Drinking. The program focuses on capacity building, training, and the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of regional and local pilot projects in 6 participating low- and middle-income countries. The first step in developing an effective program that addresses specific problems in a region or country is to assess the current drink driving situation. In order to meet this key requirement, ICAP developed a situation assessment approach based largely on the recommendations of Chapter 2 of the good practice manual on drinking and driving produced by the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) Road Safety Collaboration. The aim of the assessment was to provide the foundation for preparing a prioritized and effective suite of projects using the good practice recommended by the GRSP/UN manual. Its output is intended to assist with determining program objectives, design, and evaluation so that the benefits from the investments in drink driving programs can be maximized and data led, focusing on the priorities identified by the assessment. The situation assessment approach was produced as a set of guidelines containing a detailed and structured list of questions. The questions are organized into 6 main groups or elements and they enable a comprehensive and systematic collection of existing information about the extent and nature of the drink driving problem, the strengths and weaknesses of the current prevention practices, and the capacity for improvements. Situation assessments using these guidelines have been completed in the 6 focus countries and the resulting information is now being used for capacity building and developing appropriate and relevant pilot projects, taking into consideration the country's culture with respect to transportation, enforcement, health care, and alcohol consumption.     

Improving the Urban Stream Restoration Effort: Identifying Critical Form and Processes Relationships

Stream restoration projects are often based on morphological form or stream type and, as a result, there needs to be a clear tie established between form and function of the stream. An examination of the literature identifies numerous relationships in naturally forming streams that link morphologic form and stream processes. Urban stream restoration designs often work around infrastructure and incorporate bank stabilization and grade control structures. Because of these imposed constraints and highly altered hydrologic and sediment discharge regimens, the design of urban channel projects is rather unclear. In this paper, we examine the state of the art in relationships between form and processes, the strengths and weaknesses of these existing relationships, and the current lack of understanding in applying these relationships in the urban environment. In particular, we identify relationships that are critical to urban stream restoration projects and provide recommendations for future research into how this information can be used to improve urban stream restoration design. It is also suggested that improving the success of urban restoration projects requires further investigation into incorporating process-based methodologies, which can potentially reduce ambiguity in the design and the necessity of using an abundant amount of in-stream structures.     

Protective role of epigallocatechin 3-gallate against lead-induced toxicity in human neuroblastoma cells

Lead (Pb) is a heavy metal, known to induce oxidative stress and produce damage to the antioxidant defence system ultimately leading to cell death. Antioxidants such as epigallocatechin 3-gallate (EGCG), a green tea polyphenol, was shown to play a protective role during Pb-exposure. In this study, human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells were exposed to different concentrations (0.01–10?µM) of Pb for 48?h to determine effects on the viability of cells. It was observed that IC₅₀ was at 5?µM and at this concentration the cells exhibited a significant increase in caspase-3 activity, an indicator of apoptosis at least by 10-fold and the decrease of 59.4% in glutathione (GSH) content. The total cellular prostaglandin-E₂ (PGE₂) level was found to be elevated at least 10-fold upon Pb exposure. However, the effects of Pb on cells pre-incubated with 50?µM EGCG followed by 5?µM Pb showed 40% inhibition in cell viability, 17.3% decrease in caspase-3 activity, 23% increase in GSH content, and 11.4% fall in PGE₂ levels when compared with cells exposed to Pb only. Data suggest that EGCG exerted a significant protection to cell viability in preventing cell death and elevation in levels of GSH in cells exposed to Pb. However, EGCG did not elicit any significant effect on release of PGE₂ indicating the nature of EGCG as an effective anti-apoptotic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory agent.     

Mercury pollution in the Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh,India, and its health impacts

The Sonbhadra district in the Singrauli area of Uttar Pradesh, India, has many coal mines and thermal power plants and is a critically polluted area. Many residents of this area reported adverse health conditions which may be linked to metal pollution, especially of mercury investigated here.

In May 2012, samples of water (23), soil (7), blood, hair, and nails from persons showing adverse health conditions selected at random were collected and analyzed for total mercury by atomic absorption spectrometry.

Twenty percent drinking water samples contained mercury from 3 to 26 μg L^?1 (3–26 times the permissible limit). Soil samples had 0.5–10.1 mg kg^?1 Hg.

The average concentrations of mercury in human blood, hair, and nails were found to be 34 μg L^?1, 7.4 mg kg^?1, and 0.8 mg kg^?1, respectively. Mercury concentrations in the blood of these persons were 45 and 28 μg L^?1 on average in the case of men and women. This is much higher than the safe level of 5.8 μg L^?1 set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).

It was concluded that all residents of Sonbhadra sampled could be suffering from mercury toxicity as the area is polluted by Hg released from the coal-fired thermal power plants.     

Assessment of hydrocarbon emissions from diesel invert mud residues treated in a bioreactor

Hydrocarbon emissions from a diesel invert mud residue (DIMR) were monitored while the hydrocarbons were being biodegraded in a solid‐phase bioreactor. Five to twenty percent of the reduction in diesel hydrocarbons was attributed to evaporation depending on the treatment, i.e. homogenization, cultivation, and aeration. Most of these volatile hydrocarbons were linear C₈ — C₁₂ alkanes and one‐ring aromatics. Of the treatments aeration had the largest effect on emissions; forced air through the bottom of the bioreactor cells increased emissions by three times over that of the non‐aerated cells. Cultivation increased hydrocarbon emission concentration as much as twofold over the pre‐cultivation value, however, emissions returned to the original levels within 12 hours. Homogenization had the least effect of all treatments. Diurnally, the emission rate was 40% higher in late afternoon than at midnight; the cause of which was probably atmospheric fluctuations such as temperature and solar radiation. The effects of daily atmospheric fluctuations were empirically modeled and taken into account for determining the total volume of emissions.     

Effect of agrochemicals on earthworms

This review describes the toxic effects of agrochemicals on earthworms. Carbamates are described as extremely toxic to earthworms in comparison to organophosphorus insecticides. Some pesticides have drastic effect on the nervous system of the earthworm. Earthworm can accumulate heavy metals from the soil in higher levels than any other animal. Mercury is twenty times more toxic than chromium.