Landlords,fear, and children's respiratory health: an untold story of environmental injustice in the central city

Recent research has explored the role of environmental inequalities in explaining health disparities, especially in urban environments. This paper investigates the role of the landlord in shaping indoor environmental injustices. Specifically, we rely on interview data from low-income parents in South Phoenix, AZ, with elementary-aged children with asthma. We found families living in poor quality rental housing that impacted children's breathing. Landlords were directly involved in keeping the homes in poor condition, even when asked by the tenant to fix the property, and immigrants were especially at risk. In general, relationships between landlords and tenants were unequal and coloured by the tenant's poverty and fears of eviction. Among the immigrant tenants, many had accompanying fears of authorities and deportation. The cycle of fear, poverty, and a lack of power compounded as tenants were hesitant to report problems, which reinforced the power of the landlord over the tenant and did nothing to improve living conditions. Recognising the role of landlords in creating substandard housing conditions is important as they represent a group that can be targeted for interventions.     

The Role of Local Government in Environmental Action in Slovakia

In the period of transition from communism, the countries of central and eastern Europe have made considerable efforts to adopt new environmental legislation and to create new institutions. However, the implementation of these powers, particularly at the level of local government, remains problematic. This article reviews the arguments for developing capacity for taking environmental action at the municipal level, and then examines the actual experience of one such country, the Slovak Republic. While Slovakia displays many of the features of policy making familiar to other transitional countries, it has faced some particular political problems. Recent legislation has given formal competencies in the field of environmental protection to local government, but it remains fragmented and relatively poorly resourced. Nevertheless, there is evidence that, through a combination of mutual support through national associations and the establishment of international links, local authorities are adopting a number of innovative approaches and strategies which should be better able to address the changing character of environmental problems.     

Glass buildings on river banks as “polarized light traps” for mass-swarming polarotactic caddis flies

The caddis flies Hydropsyche pellucidula emerge at dusk from the river Danube and swarm around trees and bushes on the river bank. We document here that these aquatic insects can also be attracted en masse to the vertical glass surfaces of buildings on the river bank. The individuals lured to dark, vertical glass panes land, copulate, and remain on the glass for hours. Many of them are trapped by the partly open, tiltable windows. In laboratory choice experiments, we showed that ovipositing H. pellucidula are attracted to highly and horizontally polarized light stimulating their ventral eye region and, thus, have positive polarotaxis. In the field, we documented that highly polarizing vertical black glass surfaces are significantly more attractive to both female and male H. pellucidula than weakly polarizing white ones. Using video polarimetry, we measured the reflection-polarization characteristics of vertical glass surfaces of buildings where caddis flies swarmed. We propose that after its emergence from the river, H. pellucidula is attracted to buildings by their dark silhouettes and the glass-reflected, horizontally polarized light. After sunset, this attraction may be strengthened by positive phototaxis elicited by the buildings' lights. The novelty of this visual-ecological phenomenon is that the attraction of caddis flies to vertical glass surfaces has not been expected because vertical glass panes do not resemble the horizontal surface of waters from which these insects emerge and to which they must return to oviposit.     

Why do <Emphasis Type="Italic">Manduca sexta</Emphasis> feed from white flowers? Innate and learnt colour preferences in a hawkmoth

Flower colour is an important signal used by flowering plants to attract pollinators. Many anthophilous insects have an innate colour preference that is displayed during their first foraging bouts and which could help them locate their first nectar reward. Nevertheless, learning capabilities allow insects to switch their colour preferences with experience and thus, to track variation in floral nectar availability. Manduca sexta, a crepuscular hawkmoth widely studied as a model system for sensory physiology and behaviour, visits mostly white, night-blooming flowers lacking UV reflectance throughout its range in the Americas. Nevertheless, the spectral sensitivity of the feeding behaviour of naïve moths shows a narrow peak around 450 nm wavelengths, suggesting an innate preference for the colour blue. Under more natural conditions (i.e. broader wavelength reflectance) than in previous studies, we used dual choice experiments with blue- and white-coloured feeders to investigate the innate preference of naïve moths and trained different groups to each colour to evaluate their learning capabilities. We confirmed the innate preference of M. sexta for blue and found that these moths were able to switch colour preferences after training experience. These results unequivocally demonstrate that M. sexta moths innately prefer blue when presented against white flower models and offer novel experimental evidence supporting the hypothesis that learning capabilities could be involved in their foraging preferences, including their widely observed attraction to white flowers in nature.     

Ventral polarization vision in tabanids: horseflies and deerflies (Diptera: Tabanidae) are attracted to horizontally polarized light

Adult tabanid flies (horseflies and deerflies) are terrestrial and lay their eggs onto marsh plants near bodies of fresh water because the larvae develop in water or mud. To know how tabanids locate their host animals, terrestrial rendezvous sites and egg-laying places would be very useful for control measures against them, because the hematophagous females are primary/secondary vectors of some severe animal/human diseases/parasites. Thus, in choice experiments performed in the field we studied the behavior of tabanids governed by linearly polarized light. We present here evidence for positive polarotaxis, i.e., attraction to horizontally polarized light stimulating the ventral eye region, in both males and females of 27 tabanid species. The novelty of our findings is that positive polarotaxis has been described earlier only in connection with the water detection of some aquatic insects ovipositing directly into water. A further particularity of our discovery is that in the order Diptera and among blood-sucking insects the studied tabanids are the first known species possessing ventral polarization vision and definite polarization-sensitive behavior with known functions. The polarotaxis in tabanid flies makes it possible to develop new optically luring traps being more efficient than the existing ones based on the attraction of tabanids by the intensity and/or color of reflected light.     

Plant surface wax affects parasitoid’s response to host footprints

The plant surface is the substrate upon which herbivorous insects and natural enemies meet and thus represents the stage for interactions between the three trophic levels. Plant surfaces are covered by an epicuticular wax layer which is highly variable depending on species, cultivar or plant part. Differences in wax chemistry may modulate ecological interactions. We explored whether caterpillars of Spodoptera frugiperda, when walking over a plant surface, leave a chemical trail (kairomones) that can be detected by the parasitoid Cotesia marginiventris. Chemistry and micromorphology of cuticular waxes of two barley eceriferum wax mutants (cer-za.126, cer-yp.949) and wild-type cv. Bonus (wt) were assessed. The plants were then used to investigate potential surface effects on the detectability of caterpillar kairomones. Here we provide evidence that C. marginiventris responds to chemical footprints of its host. Parasitoids were able to detect the kairomone on wild-type plants and on both cer mutants but the response to cer-yp.949 (reduced wax, high aldehyde fraction) was less pronounced. Experiments with caterpillar-treated wt and mutant leaves offered simultaneously, confirmed this observation: no difference in wasp response was found when wt was tested against cer-za.126 (reduced wax, wt-like chemical composition) but wt was significantly more attractive than cer-yp.949. This demonstrates for the first time that the wax layer can modulate the detectability of host kairomones.     

Use of IPCC GHG key sources analysis to Mexico’s environmental policy

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Tier 1 key sources level 1 assessment was applied to the 1994–1994 National Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emission inventory for Mexico in order to identify and analyze the key sources within it. Top key sources were from land use change and energy combustion contributing to about 60% of total national emissions. In addition, a Tier 1 trend assessment revealed some changes with respect to Tier 1 level assessment: Top key sources according to this analysis are waste disposal and delayed emissions from land clearing. Important insight for cost effective preventive mitigation actions can be extracted from this analysis. A comparison with other countries was carried out to find similarities in the GHG national emissions inventories related to common features on economic development.     

Unexpected high PCB and total DDT levels in the breeding population of red kite (Milvus milvus) from Doñana National Park, south-western Spain

This study provides information on the current status of contamination by organochlorines (DDTs, PCBs, PCDDs and PCDFs) in the declining red kite (Milvus milvus L.) population breeding in the Do?ana National Park (DNP), south-western Spain. Analyses were performed in addled eggs collected between 1999 and 2001. DDE concentrations ranged from 0.1 to 33.5 microg/g ww, representing more than 86% of the total DDTs. Of the samples studied, 50% showed DDE levels above those associated with reproductive impairment in other raptor species. Concentrations of ortho PCBs (average 36.8 microg/g ww+/-37.7) in 50% of the eggs were much higher than levels reported to cause reduced hatching success, embryo mortality, and deformities in birds (>20 microg/g ww). It is remarkable that average ortho PCB and DDE concentrations showed an increase of one order of magnitude compared to previous data for the species during the 80s. Total PCDD/Fs showed levels in the low pg/g range (7.2-42 pg/g ww), having PCDDs and PCDFs similar contributions in most samples. Total mean TEQs were 238 pg/g (ww), being the range 7.02-667 pg/g (ww). Spatial variation within DNP was observed for PCBs, DDTs, as well as for TEQs. Since some eggs exceeded the NOEL (67%) and LOEL (33%) reported for other raptor species, we would expect the red kite to experience detrimental effects to dioxin-like toxicity. Our results suggest that organochlorine contaminants should be regarded as an element of concern in the population under study, in addition to other conservation problems already reported. Further investigations should be undertaken to identify potential sources of these chemicals in DNP, and to find out if organochlorine contamination is present in other predator species in the area, as well as their potential health effects on individuals and/or populations.     

Cobalt and secondary poisoning in the terrestrial food chain: data review and research gaps to support risk assessment

Cobalt is a naturally occurring element found in rocks, soil, water, plants, and animals and has diverse industrial importance. It is cycled in surface environments through many natural processes (e.g. volcanic eruptions, weathering) and can be introduced through numerous anthropogenic activities (e.g. burning of coal or oil, or the production of cobalt alloys). The environmental behaviour of cobalt in terrestrial environment is relatively poorly studied and in particular where Co is used in industrial processes, the baseline information to support wider and long-term environmental impacts is widely dispersed. To support the adoption of new EU regulations on the risk assessment of chemicals, we review here the various aspects of the environmental chemistry, fate and transport of Co across environmental interfaces and discuss the toxicology and potential for bio magnification and food chain accumulation. The soil-to-plant transfer of Co appears to be viable route to expose lower trophic levels to biologically significant concentrations and Co is potentially accumulated in biomass and top soil. Evidence for further accumulation through soil-invertebrate transfer and to higher trophic levels is suggested by some studies but this is obscured by the relatively high variability of published transfer data. This variation is not due to one particular aspect of the transfer of Co in terrestrial environments. Influences are from the variability of geological sources within soil systems; the sensitivity of Co mobility to environmental factors (e.g. pH) and the variety of life strategies for metal elimination/use within biological species. Toxic effects of Co have been suggested for some soil-plant animal studies however, uncertainty in the extrapolation from laboratory to field is a major limitation.     

Calibration of a portable HPGe detector using MCNP code for the determination of 137Cs in soils

In situ gamma spectrometry provides a fast method to determine (137)Cs inventories in soils. To improve the accuracy of the estimates, one can use not only the information on the photopeak count rates but also on the peak to forward-scatter ratios. Before applying this procedure to field measurements, a calibration including several experimental simulations must be carried out in the laboratory. In this paper it is shown that Monte Carlo methods are a valuable tool to minimize the number of experimental measurements needed for the calibration.