Applications of life cycle assessment and cost analysis in health care waste management

The establishment of rules to manage Health Care Waste (HCW) is a challenge for the public sector. Regulatory agencies must ensure the safety of waste management alternatives for two very different profiles of generators: (1) hospitals, which concentrate the production of HCW and (2) small establishments, such as clinics, pharmacies and other sources, that generate dispersed quantities of HCW and are scattered throughout the city. To assist in developing sector regulations for the small generators, we evaluated three management scenarios using decision-making tools. They consisted of a disinfection technique (microwave, autoclave and lime) followed by landfilling, where transportation was also included. The microwave, autoclave and lime techniques were tested at the laboratory to establish the operating parameters to ensure their efficiency in disinfection. Using a life cycle assessment (LCA) and cost analysis, the decision-making tools aimed to determine the technique with the best environmental performance. This consisted of evaluating the eco-efficiency of each scenario. Based on the life cycle assessment, microwaving had the lowest environmental impact (12.64 Pt) followed by autoclaving (48.46 Pt). The cost analyses indicated values of US$ 0.12 kg^?1 for the waste treated with microwaves, US$ 1.10 kg^?1 for the waste treated by the autoclave and US$ 1.53 kg^?1 for the waste treated with lime. The microwave disinfection presented the best eco-efficiency performance among those studied and provided a feasible alternative to subsidize the formulation of the policy for small generators of HCW.     

Interactions between metals accumulated in the narrow-clawed crayfish Astacus leptodactylus (Eschscholtz, 1823) in Dikilitaş Lake,Turkey

The accumulations of Al, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn in the exoskeleton, gills, hepatopancreas and abdominal muscles of crayfish Astacus leptodactylus (Eschscholtz, 1823) were determined. The strongest correlation observed was between Cr and Ni in the gills (r?=?0.904); moderate to strong correlations between Al, Cr, Fe, Ni and Cu were also observed in gill tissue. Disregarding the gills, the strongest correlation was found between Cu and Zn in the hepatopancreas (r?=?0.808); the correlation between these two metals might have been a result of metallothionein activity. The accumulation of Pb was found to correlate with that of Cd in the exoskeleton, Cd and Zn in the gills, Zn and Cu in the hepatopancreas and Cu in the abdominal muscle. None of these correlations were present in lakewater and sediment samples, suggesting that the crayfish metabolism may be responsible for the co-accumulation of metal–metal pairs. As all correlations in non-gill tissues are observed between divalent metals, a shared transporter such as divalent metal transporter 1 might be involved in the accumulation of these metals.     

Ambivalence and conservation behaviour: An exploratory study on the recycling of metal cans

As resource conservation is an imperative for sustainable development, it is crucial to achieve a deeper understanding of the factors involved in people's decisions to recycle. This is even more so because the level of environmental concern is usually higher than the level of ecological behaviours. In this paper we take this fact as indicating that decision-making regarding conservation behaviours happens in the context of an internal debate where contradictory ideas are weighed up and the possibility of ambivalence arises. The main aim of this paper is therefore to explore how contradiction and ambivalence impact upon the attitudes, intentions and pro-ecological behaviours of the private sphere. The paper focuses specifically on the separation and deposition of metal cans, and compares the predictive capacity of beliefs, attitudes and intentions for two groups of respondents – one with a high and another with a low level of ambivalence, as assessed with a direct measure. The role of personal identity and the influence of structural constraints are also explored. Results demonstrate a clear moderating effect of experienced ambivalence, and show how beliefs, particularly negative ones, present a higher predictive capacity of the attitude in the high-ambivalence group, and personal identity plays a relevant role in predicting behaviour in both groups. We discuss the importance of pursuing the study of ambivalence when analysing decision-making in the conservation area.     

The role of tending ants in host plant selection and egg parasitism of two facultative myrmecophilous butterflies

Ovipositing adult females of myrmecophilous lycaenids are expected to select plants based on ant presence in order to maximize the survivorship of immature stages. Usually, larvae feed ants with honey-like solutions and, in turn, ants ward off parasitoids. Nonetheless, a rarely investigated approach is whether ant partners can also extend their protective behavior towards lycaenids eggs. Here, we investigated the ant-related oviposition pattern of Allosmaitia strophius and Rekoa marius; then, we compared egg parasitism according to the presence of ants. Lycaenid oviposition and egg parasitism (in percent) were experimentally compared in ant-present and ant-excluded treatments. The study plant, Heteropterys byrsonimifolia, is an extrafloral nectaried shrub which supports several ant species. We sampled 280 eggs, of which 39.65 % belonged to A. strophius and 60.35 % to R. marius. Both lycaenids eggs were significantly more abundant on branches with ants, especially those with Camponotus crassus and Camponotus blandus, two ant species known to attend to lycaenids. A. strophius and R. marius parasitism was 4.5- and 2.4-fold higher, respectively, in ant-present treatments, but the results were not statistically significant. Our study shows that ant-mediated host plant selection in lycaenids might be much more widespread than previously thought, and not restricted to obligate myrmecophilous species. Tending ants may be inefficient bodyguards of lycaenid eggs, because unlike larvae which release sugared liquids, eggs do not offer obvious rewards to ants. Ants can ward off parasitoids of larvae, as observed elsewhere, but our findings show that positive ant–lycaenid interactions are conditional and depend on immature ontogeny.     

Prenatal diagnosis in three cases of iniencephaly with unusual postmortem findings

Iniencephaly is a rare and lethal congenital malformation of the neural tube characterized by occipital bone defect, cervical dysraphism, fixed retroflexion of the fetal head and severe lordosis of the cervicothoracic spine. The etiology is unknown. Prenatally diagnosed cases of iniencephaly are rare because careful and early ultrasonographic evaluation is necessary. We present three cases of iniencephaly prenatally diagnosed by sonography at 20–22 weeks' gestation in which therapeutic abortion was induced. The sonographic findings were compatible with the postmortem findings. The present cases of iniencephaly were found to carry unusual associated malformations such as two lobes in the right lung and chorangiosis of the placenta. Only hypoplastic lungs have been reported by previous authors. We also studied the 677C→T mutation on the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene in the parents in one of the present cases. The mother was found to be heterozygous for the 677CT polymorphism. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.