Heat illness among high school athletes--United States, 2005-2009

Introduction

Heat illness is a leading cause of death and disability among U.S. high school athletes.

Methods

To examine the incidence and characteristics of heat illness among high school athletes, CDC analyzed data from the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study for the period 2005–2009.

Results

During 2005–2009, the 100 schools sampled reported a total of 118 heat illnesses among high school athletes resulting in ≥ 1 day of time lost from athletic activity, a rate of 1.6 per 100,000 athlete-exposures, and an average of 29.5 time-loss heat illnesses per school year. The average corresponds to a weighted average annual estimate of 9,237 illnesses nationwide. The highest rate of time-loss heat illness was among football players, 4.5 per 100,000 athlete-exposures, a rate 10 times higher than the average rate (0.4) for the eight other sports. Time-loss heat illnesses occurred most frequently during August (66.3%) and while practicing or playing football (70.7%). No deaths were reported.

Conclusions

Consistent with guidelines from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, to reduce the risk for heat illness, high school athletic programs should implement heat-acclimatization guidelines (e.g., set limits on summer practice duration and intensity). All athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, and parents/guardians should be aware of the risk factors for heat illness, follow recommended strategies, and be prepared to respond quickly to symptoms of illness. Coaches also should continue to stress to their athletes the importance of maintaining proper hydration before, during, and after sports activities.

Impact of industry

By implementing preventive recommendations and quickly recognizing and responding to heat illness, coaches, athletic trainers, and the sporting community can prevent future deaths.     

The contemporary Asian silver cycle: 1-year stocks and flows

The stocks and flows of silver throughout the Asian economy for 1997 have been quantified, with major flows examined over their entire life cycle, including mining, production, fabrication, and manufacture, product use, and waste management. By compiling the findings of 11 country-level material flow analyses, a regional analysis was created. The reliability and availability of the data varied, with the most confidence given to the earlier life stages and the most uncertainty existing later. Overall, Asia is a net importer of silver, requiring nearly 7000 Mg of silver in 1997. Approximately 2200 Mg Ag are mined, and production waste totals about 640 Mg Ag. The flow of silver into use equals 9900 Mg Ag, with a considerable build-up of 7100 Mg Ag entering in-use stock. Silver waste sent directly to the environment, in addition to landfilled waste, totals 1600 Mg Ag. Much variation exists when examining country-level silver flows on a per capita basis. India and Thailand’s fondness for silver jewelry greatly increases their silver flows into use and in-use stock. Japan’s high overall consumption reflects its high GDP per capita. Regionally, a significant potential exists to tap the silver contained in the in-use stocks and to enhance the recycling rates.     

Defining reference conditions for acidified waters using a modern analogue approach

Analogue matching is a palaeolimnological technique that aims to find matches for fossil sediment samples from a set of modern surface sediment samples. Modern analogues were identified that closely matched the pre-disturbance conditions of eight of the UK Acid Waters Monitoring Network (AWMN) lakes using diatom- and cladoceran-based analogue matching. These analogue sites were assessed in terms of hydrochemistry, aquatic macrophytes and macro-invertebrates as to their suitability for defining wider hydrochemical and biological reference conditions for acidified sites within the AWMN. The analogues identified for individual AWMN sites show a close degree of similarity in terms of their hydrochemical characteristics, aquatic macrophytes and, to a lesser extent, macro-invertebrate fauna. The reference conditions of acidified AWMN sites are inferred to be less acidic than today and to support a wider range of acid-sensitive aquatic macrophyte and macro-invertebrate taxa than that recorded in the AWMN lakes over the period of monitoring since 1988.     

Mass effects mediate coexistence in competing shrews

Recent developments in metacommunity theory have raised awareness that processes occurring at regional scales might interfere with local dynamics and affect conditions for the local coexistence of competing species. Four main paradigms are recognized in this context (namely, neutral, patch-dynamics, species-sorting, and mass-effect), which differ according to the role assigned to ecological or life-history differences among competing species, as well as to the relative time scale of regional vs. local dynamics. We investigated the patterns of regional and local coexistence of two species of shrews (Crocidura russula and Sorex coronatus) sharing a similar diet (generalist insectivores) over four generations, in a spatially structured habitat at the altitudinal limit of their distributions. Local populations were small, and regional dynamics were strong, with high rates of extinction and recolonization. Niche analysis revealed significant habitat differentiation on a few important variables, including temperature and availability of winter resting sites. In sites suitable for both species, we found instances of local coexistence with no evidence of competitive exclusion. Patterns of temporal succession did not differ from random, with no suggestion of a colonization-competition trade-off. Altogether, our data provide support for the mass-effect paradigm, where regional coexistence is mediated by specialization on different habitat types, and local coexistence by rescue effects from source sites. The strong regional dynamics and demographic stochasticity, together with high dispersal rates, presumably contributed to mass effects by overriding local differences in specific competitive abilities.     

Ablagerung toxischer Chemieabfälle im August 2006 in Abidjan, Republik Côte d’Ivoire: Versuch einer Rekonstruktion

Background

Globally, every year several hundred million tons of problematic, e.g. chemical, wastes are generated stemming to more than 90% from the 25 OECD countries. Due to their partly considerable toxicity special and often expensive measures are required for their disposal. According to the Secretary of the ‘Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and Their Disposal’ annually at least 8.5 million tons of wastes are transboundarily traded. Although the ‘Basel Convention’ has set up rules how to handle international waste streams, certain waste amounts are illegally transported from the OECD countries to developing countries — basically for reasons of expenses. Often an environmental safe treatment of toxic waste is not ensured or even not possible in the receiving countries. As set forth in a report of the European Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) published in 2006, the illegal trade with toxic waste has steadily increased. 3000 shipping documents of 17 European seaports were examined and 258 cargo holds were inspected showing that 68 of 140 waste shippings were illegal. Preventing illegal transports of waste meets with various obstacles. Controlling measures require considerable personal, technical, and logistic resources that are not sufficiently available in each country concerned. Missing or ineffective administrative structures hamper fast actions to stop illegal waste disposal. Partly, the political will to take the necessary steps is lacking. An additional problem is the fact that waste that is obtained from the regular shipping business is not subject to the Basel Convention but to the ‘International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships’. The implementing statures are summarized in the document MARPOL 73/78; the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is responsible. Identifying the origin of waste and thus defining the responsibility occasionally raises difficulties. This background provides a basis to try to reconstruct the course of events concerning the disposal of chemical waste in Abidjan.

Methods

Several information sources were utilized to reconstruct the course of events at Abidjan in August 2006; e.g. public press, declarations of international governmental organizations, especially of the UN and of its subsidiary organizations, communiqués of the Secretary of the Basel Convention, and statements of several NGOs. Nevertheless a complete reconstruction of the incident is impossible, since a detailed and reliable historical report is not available. Furthermore the responsible politicians have not undertaken significant efforts to shed light upon the incident. Additionally relevant documents of the participating companies are not available to the public.

Conclusions

The analyzed incident makes obvious that the control mechanisms of the Basel Convention can be circumvented. It remains unclear who has to take the political responsibility for the death of 10 people and for the health defects of thousands of humans. Possible civil and criminal consequences are not foreseeable for the actors and company owners involved in the illegal waste dumping. The people of Abidijan are confronted with unresolved questions regarding the occurrence of chronic diseases and possible long-term effects of remaining waste portions.

Recommendations and Perspectives

The incident demonstrates that the control of the transboundary transport and disposal of hazardous waste needs to be enforced and legal grey areas should be eliminated. It should be a task of the OECD countries and of all other economically and technically developed countries and organizations to support the developing countries’ efforts to build up the personal, technical, and infrastructural capacities for an efficient control of waste imports.     

Changing Human Landscapes Under a Changing Climate: Considerations for Climate Assessments

Climate change is a fundamental aspect of the Anthropocene. Climate assessments are frequently undertaken to evaluate climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity. Assessments are complex endeavors with numerous challenges. Five aspects of a climate assessment that can be particularly challenging are highlighted: choice of assessment strategy, incorporation of spatial linkages and interactions, the constraints of climate observations, interpretation of a climate projection ensemble, uncertainty associated with weather/climate dependency models, and consideration of landscape–climate influences. In addition, a climate assessment strategy that incorporates both traditional “top-down” and “bottom-up” methods is proposed for assessments of adaptation options at the local/regional scale. Uncertainties associated with climate observations and projections and with weather/climate dependency (i.e., response) models are incorporated into the assessment through the “top-down” component, and stakeholder knowledge and experience are included through the “bottom-up” component. Considerable further research is required to improve assessment strategies and the usefulness and usability of assessment findings. In particular, new methods are needed which better incorporate spatial linkages and interactions, yet maintain the fine grain detail needed for decision making at the local and regional scales. Also, new methods are needed which go beyond sensitivity analyses of the relative contribution of land use and land cover changes on local/regional climate to more explicitly consider landscape–climate interactions in the context of uncertain future climates. Assessment teams must clearly communicate the choices made when designing an assessment and recognize the implications of these choices on the interpretation and application of the assessment findings.     

A Bayesian approach for understanding the role of ship speed in whale-ship encounters

Mandatory or voluntary reductions in ship speed are a common management strategy for reducing deleterious encounters between large ships and large whales. This has produced strong resistance from shipping and marine transportation entities, in part because very few studies have empirically demonstrated whether or to what degree ship speed influences ship-whale encounters. Here we present the results of four years of humpback whale sightings made by observers aboard cruise ships in Alaska, representing 380 cruises and 891 ship-whale encounters. Encounters occurred at distances from 21 m to 1000 m (x = 567 m) with 61 encounters (7%) occurring between 200 m and 100 m, and 19 encounters (2%) within 100 m. Encounters were spatially aggregated and highly variable across all ship speeds. Nevertheless a Bayesian change-point model found that the relationship between whale distance and ship speed changed at 11.8 knots (6.1 m/s) with whales encountering ships, on average, 114 m closer when ship speeds were above 11.8 knots. Binning encounter distances by 1-knot speed increments revealed a clear decrease in encounter distance with increasing ship speed over the range of 7-17 knots (3.6-8.7 m/s). Our results are the first to demonstrate that speed influences the encounter distance between large ships and large whales. Assuming that the closer ships come to whales the more likely they are to be struck, our results suggest that reduced ship speed may be an effective management action in reducing the probability of a collision.     

Comparison of translocation methods to conserve metallophyte communities in the Southeastern D.R. Congo

In southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, unique metallophyte communities supporting numerous endemic species occurred on the highly mineralized copper cobalt (Cu–Co) hills throughout the province. These hills are economically valuable mineral reserves; mining activities represent therefore a threat to the long-term persistence of these communities. Ex situ conservation program was set up by a mining company to rescue and conserve the diversity of Cu–Co communities until restoration activities are initiated. Two kinds of Cu–Co communities: the steppe and the steppic savanna, were translocated using topsoil spreading and whole-turf translocation. In this study, we assessed the effectiveness of these two techniques in conserving Cu–Co communities and their potential use in future restoration programs. More than 2 years after the translocation, whole-turf translocation appeared to be the better technique for ex situ conservation of endemic Cu–Co species. Not only did whole-turf successfully translocate numerous target species that were not present in the topsoil areas, but it also resulted in fewer ruderal and non-target species compared to topsoil spreading. Topsoil spreading recorded low seedling emergence from seed bank due to large proportions of dormant seeds or the absence of a seed bank, especially for the steppic savanna. Restoration of the steppe is currently more successful than for steppic savanna where the lack of dominant and structuring species likely contributed to divergence in species composition compared to reference ecosystem. Our study stresses the fact that tropical old-growth grasslands, which require probably several centuries to assemble, are difficult to restore or translocate.     

How to foster agroecological innovations? A comparison of participatory design methods

Facing contemporary environmental crisis implies fostering agroecological innovations that take into account local ecological regulations and rely on multiple stakeholders' innovation capacities. This paper draws on two fields of literature that remain unconnected so far: participatory approaches and design sciences. It proposes an analysis grid to support a reflexive analysis of cases of implementation of three participatory design methods: ComMod (Companion Modelling for concerted management of natural resources), Forage Rummy (simulation-based board game for designing farming systems) and KCP (collective design workshops to foster innovation). This analysis highlights key features of the methods in view of agroecological innovation challenges, focusing on knowledge management and organisation for exploration.