Occupational hygiene in a waste incineration plant

The Turku incineration plant was renovated in 1995 to meet the emission requirements of modern waste combustion facilities. It treats presorted municipal waste from 170,000 residents in the Turku area. In the plant, the incineration process produces several types of by-products having importance in terms of occupational hygiene. Although not obligated by the law, the management of the plant has a keen interest in occupational hygiene at the plant, which was studied from 1998 to 2001. Concentrations of microbes, endotoxins, and dust and the noise level were investigated in three different working areas. Microbe measurements were conducted with a six-stage impactor and using the CAMNEA method. Especially in the measurements of viable fungi and actinomycetes, the six-stage impactor gave better results than the CAMNEA method. Concentrations of bio-aerosols and the level of noise were high enough in the waste bunker to be occasionally harmful to the health of employees. The endotoxin concentration could also be harmful to health in the combustion area, and the noise level there exceeded the Finnish threshold value of 85dBA. The total number of microbes (viable+dead) was high in a few measurements in the crane room. One reason for these high numbers was prior moisture damage, which was repaired in 2000. The use of ear protectors is advised in the bunker area and in the combustion area. Use of respirators (class P3) is advised in the bunker area to prevent the exposure of employees to bio-aerosols.     

Food chain enrichment of organochlorine compounds and mercury in clean and polluted lakes of Finland

Lakes polluted by pulp mill and urban wastes including chlorobleaching of pulp, semipolluted lakes and reference lakes in nearly natural condition in Central Finland were studied for contents of mercury, methyl mercury and organochlorine compounds in sediment, plankton, roach and pike. Chlorobleaching had caused a 30-fold concentration of Hg in bottom sediment related to that of the purest reference lake. This was not reflected to the mercury levels in fish which were highest at one natural condition (humic) lake and rather high also at semipolluted lake Päijänne. Mercury in fish was shown to be mostly methylated but not completely and its time trends could be estimated. Chloroform showed no but carbon tetrachloride, tetrachloroethylene and chlorinated cymenes significant bioaccumulation in fish. Levels of chlorophenols from bleaching had strongly decreased but pentachlorophenol and 2,3,4,6-tetrachlorphenol levels remained related to earlier results. Using fat basis attenuated the power of estimation of food chain enrichment by a three throphic level model for lipohilic biocides and a strong proof was obtained of the enrichment of hexachlorobenzene. The time trends at Päijänne were decreasing for mercury and DDE but increasing for PCB.     

Sustainability as an educational agenda

The mounting evidence about human-induced environmental change, and about its expected detrimental effects on humans and their societies ( [IPCC, 2007], [Reid et?al., 2010] and [Rockstr?m et?al., 2009]), has turned out to be exceedingly difficult to turn into political action to mitigate the change and adapt to its consequences. Economic self-interest creates friction between nation-states, within regional alliances like the EU, and across the divide between the developing and developed world. A significant factor is a vocal and well-funded group of climate skeptics, who question the credibility of mainstream earth system science, overemphasize the disagreements within the scientific community, argue for more research before any action is warranted, and in general create doubt to justify inaction or delay (Oreskes and Conway, 2010). A further problem is that both the decision-makers and the public have a very superficial understanding of the issues, cannot intellectually handle complex problems and uncertainty, and do not always know what and whom to believe. This constitutes a challenge to the education establishment.     

Nutrient Abatement Potential and Abatement Costs of Waste Water Treatment Plants in the Baltic Sea Region

We assess the physical potential to reduce nutrient loads from waste water treatment plants in the Baltic Sea region and determine the costs of abating nutrients based on the estimated potential. We take a sample of waste water treatment plants of different size classes and generalize its properties to the whole population of waste water treatment plants. Based on a detailed investment and operational cost data on actual plants, we develop the total and marginal abatement cost functions for both nutrients. To our knowledge, our study is the first of its kind; there is no other study on this issue which would take advantage of detailed data on waste water treatment plants at this extent. We demonstrate that the reduction potential of nutrients is huge in waste water treatment plants. Increasing the abatement in waste water treatment plants can result in 70 % of the Baltic Sea Action Plan nitrogen reduction target and 80 % of the Baltic Sea Action Plan phosphorus reduction target. Another good finding is that the costs of reducing both nutrients are much lower than previously thought. The large reduction of nitrogen would cost 670 million euros and of phosphorus 150 million euros. We show that especially for phosphorus the abatement costs in agriculture would be much higher than in waste water treatment plants.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-013-0435-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Fetal granulocytes in maternal venous blood detected by in situ hybridization

Fetal male cells from maternal venous blood were detected by a non-radioactive in situ hybridization method using the biotinylated Y-specific DNA probe pY431. The hybridizations were performed on Ficoll-Paque-isolated nucleated blood cells obtained from 11 pregnant women in the seventh to 31st week of gestation. A Y-specific signal was detected in both granulocytes and lymphocyte-like cells in seven of the 11 women studied. These women gave birth to boys. In one of the four remaining cases, a Y-specific signal was detected in the lymphocyte-like cells but not in the granulocytes. This woman gave birth to a girl. The other three women had no cells with a Y-specific signal and all three gave birth to girls. Altogether, 83 500 nucleated cells were analysed. One hundred and three cells showed a Y-specific signal. Of these Y-specific cells, 62 per cent were granulocytes and 38 per cent lymphocyte-like cells. Our results suggest that fetomaternal transfer of granulocytes is common and that it occurs as early as in the seventh week of gestation. None of the ten non-pregnant female control samples showed positive cells with the Y-chromosome-specific probe; approximately 97 per cent of the cells from the five adult male controls showed a Y-specific signal. Our results indicate that in situ hybridization using a Y-specific DNA probe performed on granulocytes in maternal blood can be used for fetal male sex determination.     

Towards a renewed research agenda in ecotoxicology

New concerns about biodiversity, ecosystem services and human health triggered several new regulations increasing the need for sound ecotoxicological risk assessment. The PEER network aims to share its view on the research issues that this challenges. PEER scientists call for an improved biologically relevant exposure assessment. They promote comprehensive effect assessment at several biological levels. Biological traits should be used for Environmental risk assessment (ERA) as promising tools to better understand relationships between structure and functioning of ecosystems. The use of modern high throughput methods could also enhance the amount of data for a better risk assessment. Improved models coping with multiple stressors or biological levels are necessary to answer for a more scientifically based risk assessment. Those methods must be embedded within life cycle analysis or economical models for efficient regulations. Joint research programmes involving humanities with ecological sciences should be developed for a sound risk management.     

Intake fraction distributions for benzene from vehicles in the Helsinki metropolitan area

The intake fraction (iF) gives a measure of the portion of a source's emissions that is inhaled by an exposed population over a defined period of time. This study examines spatial and population-based iF distributions of a known human carcinogen, benzene, from a ubiquitous urban source, local vehicular traffic, in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area using three computational methods. The first method uses the EXPAND model (EXPosure to Air pollution, especially to Nitrogen Dioxide and particulate matter), which incorporates spatial and temporal information on population activity patterns as well as urban-scale and street canyon dispersion models to predict spatial population exposure distributions. The second method uses data from the personal monitoring study EXPOLIS (Air Pollution Exposure Distributions of Adult Urban Populations in Europe) to estimate the intake fractions for individuals in the study. The third method, a one-compartment box model provides estimates within an order-of-magnitude or better for non-reactive agents in an urban area. Population intake fractions are higher using the personal monitoring data method (median iF 30 per million, mean iF 39 per million) compared with the spatial model (annual mean iF 10 per million) and the box model (median iF 4 per million, mean iF 7 per million). In particular, this study presents detailed intake fraction distributions on several different levels (spatial, individual, and generic) for the same urban area.     

Manipulation of precipitation in small headwater catchments at Storgama, Norway: effects on leaching of organic carbon and nitrogen species

Projected changes in climate in Southern Norway include increases in summer and autumn precipitation. This may affect leaching of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from soils. Effects of experimentally added extra precipitation (10 mm week) during the growing season of 3 years (2004-2006) to small headwater catchments at Storgama (59 degrees 0'N, 550-600 m a.s.l.) on leaching of total organic carbon (TOC) and total organic nitrogen (TON) were assessed. Extra precipitation did not have a significant effect on average TOC and TON concentrations in runoff. Thus, fluxes of TOC and TON increased nearly proportionally with water fluxes. This suggests that a store of adsorbed and potentially mobile TOC and TON in catchment soils buffers the concentration of DOM in runoff. The size and dynamics of the pool of TOC and TON depends on the balance between production and leaching rates. Infrequent short droughts had only small effects on TOC and TON fluxes in runoff from the reference catchments.     

Value in sustainability: the process industry perspective

The most important driver for management is successful business that increases its value to shareholders. The adoption of environmentally responsible business practices can open up an additional range of opportunities for companies, for example by improving material efficiency. The choice to improve environmental performance of a company tends to also improve its financial performance. In this paper, our aim is to study the value of sustainability in process and mining industry from the perspective of interest groups such as investors, customers and the public, by using case examples. Interviews and workshops were employed to investigate whether or not investors and customers are interested in sustainability in the process and mining industries. We also illustrate how easy it can be to jeopardize corporate reputation through. The present situation and challenges faced in bringing sustainability into everyday business practices are summarized and proposals made concerning ways to achieve increased sustainability.     

Variability in host plant chemistry: behavioural responses and life-history parameters of the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata)

Summary. Many studies investigating effects of plant chemicals on herbivore performance have reported contradictory results, perhaps because of possible interaction between different chemicals. Also, a herbivore’s performance is not necessarily consistent with its food or oviposition preference. Our aim was to investigate simultaneously antibiosis (larval growth and survival) and antixenosis (oviposition and feeding preferences) responses in herbivore to three plant chemicals, of which one is expected to have positive and two are expected to have negative effects. Antibiosis was measured by correlating the nitrogen and glycoalkaloid levels in host plants to the survival and adult size of Leptinotarsa decemlineata, by rearing larvae on whole plants of three potato varieties. Although host plants differed in their glycoalkaloid levels, survival rate and adult body size did not differ among beetles reared on different potato varieties. This suggests that beetles are quite robust for differences in both foliar α-chaconine and foliar α-solanine content. However, differences in antixenosis were found although they could not be directly predicted from the leaf chemistry. Females preferred to lay their eggs on the variety with high α-solanine content (Nevsky) towards which males showed a tendency to feeding preference. Overall, our results confirm that beetles are well adapted to the chemical defences of potato plants as potato varieties did not significantly affect beetle performance, but differences in oviposition preference may still result in major differences in the amount of damage inflicted on plants in the fields.