Assessing public opinion regarding potential ATV-related policies

Problem

States with laws regarding ATV use and safety have lower mortality and injury rates than states with few or no restrictions. Our objective was to assess the attitudes of registered Ohio voters concerning potential legislation regarding ATV use and safety to determine the feasibility of its enactment.

Method

A statewide telephone survey of 838 registered Ohio voters was conducted and results were weighted by region to accurately represent all Ohio voters.

Results

Registered voters were in favor of restricting the use of ATVs by children < 16 years (81%), prohibiting passengers on ATVs (81%), requiring helmets (78%), and requiring all ATV owners and users to take a safety class (77%). ATV riders indicated that a mandatory helmet law would increase helmet use.

Impact on Industry

Assessing public opinion regarding public health and safety laws is a critical first step when considering legislation to improve ATV safety.     

Fibre reinforced polymers in the sports industry – Life Cycle Engineering methodology applied to a snowboard using anisotropic layer design

Technological development has had huge impacts in sports performance throughout the years, fostering the development of specific materials and manufacturing processes for sports-related products. Within this context, a new technology for snowboards was developed taking advantage of the internal coupling effects of Fibre Reinforced Plastics (FRP) using an anisotropic layer design. This work deals with the technical, economic and environmental evaluation of a snowboard made of three alternative materials, namely carbon, glass and flax fibre reinforced plastics. It shows how a life cycle analysis can support the design and development of products by applying a Life Cycle Engineering methodology to the design process of a snowboard using an innovative technology. In this case, both the material choice and the fiber placement angles have a significant impact on the stiffness of the resulting FRP and thus in the three dimensions of analysis - cost, environmental and technical. The natural fiber is the most sustainable option environmentally, the glass fiber is the best one economically and the carbon fibre is the best in terms of technical performance. Therefore, the importance attributed to each dimension of analysis is pondered and traded-off to allow an aggregated analysis of the alternatives and a well-informed decision-making.     

Future land use and land cover in Southern Amazonia and resulting greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural soils

Regional Environmental Change - The calculation of robust estimates of future greenhouse gas emissions due to agriculture is essential to support the framing of the Brazilian climate change...     

Simulation of carrier-facilitated transport of phenanthrene in a layered soil profile

The appropriate prediction of the fate of the contaminant is an essential step when evaluating the risk of severe groundwater pollutions-in particular in the context of natural attenuation. We numerically study the reactive transport of phenanthrene at the field scale in a multilayer soil profile based on experimental data. The effect of carrier facilitation by dissolved organic carbon is emphasized and incorporated in the model. Previously published simulations are restricted to the saturated zone and/or to homogeneous soil columns at the laboratory scale. A numerical flow and transport model is extended and applied to understand and quantify the relevant processes in the case of a strongly sorbing hydrophobic organic compound that is subject to carrier facilitation in the unsaturated zone. The contaminant migration is investigated on long- and short-term time scales and compared to predictions without carrier facilitation. The simulations demonstrate the importance of carrier facilitation and suggest strongly to take this aspect into account. By carrier facilitation breakthrough times at the groundwater level decreased from 500 to approximately 8 years and concentration peaks increased by two orders of magnitude in the long-term simulation assuming a temporary spill in an initially unpolluted soil with a non-sorbing carrier.     

Kinetics of ammonium removal with suspended and immobilized nitrifying bacteria in different reactor systems

The degradation of ammonium by free and immobilized bacteria in different reactor systems was investigated. It was found that the start-up of a nitrifying system is enhanced if a reservoir of immobilized bacteria is present. It was also found that in a single stage system with suspended nitrifying bacteria a stable ammonium removal > 95 % could be established up to an influent ammonium concentration of 1000 mg/1 and a volumetric loading rate (VLR) of 2.3 kg NH₄⁺ m⁻³ d⁻¹. The oxygen uptake rate (OUR) due to nitrification processes was greatly enhanced with increasing volumetric loading rates. Using nitrifying bacteria immobilized on Siran material it was demonstrated that the ammonium degradation rate was directly proportional to the initial ammonium concentration.     

Behaviour and redox sensitivity of antimicrobial residues during bank filtration

The behaviour of residues of antibiotic drugs during bank filtration was studied at a field site in Berlin, Germany, where bank-filtered water is used for the production of drinking water. The neighbouring surface water used for bank filtration is under the influence of treated municipal wastewater. Seven out of 19 investigated antimicrobial residues were found in the surface water with median concentrations between 7 and 151ngL(-1). Out of the seven analytes detected in the surface water only three (anhydroerythromycin, clindamycin and sulfamethoxazole) were found with median concentrations above their limits of quantitation in bank filtrate with a travel time of one month or less. With the exception of sulfamethoxazole, none of the 19 analytes were present in bank filtrate with a residence time larger than one month or in the water-supply well itself. Sulfamethoxazole found with a median concentration of 151ngL(-1) in the surface water was the most persistent of all antimicrobial residues. Nevertheless, it was also removed by more than 98% and only found with a median concentration of 2ngL(-1) in the water-supply well. The degradation of clindamycin and sulfamethoxazole appear to be redox-dependent. Clindamycin was eliminated more efficiently under oxic infiltration conditions while sulfamethoxazole was eliminated more rapidly under anoxic infiltration conditions. A slight preference for an improved degradation under oxic (clarithromycin and roxithromycin) or anoxic (anhydroerythromycin) conditions was also observed for the macrolide antibiotics. Nevertheless, all macrolides were readily removable by bank filtration both under oxic and anoxic conditions.