Indoor air pollution and public policy

In recent years, scientist have come to realize that contaminated air inside buildings is a major route of human exposure to certain air pollutants. While scientific interest in the problem continues to grow, efforts to measure indoor pollution concentrations, define exposure levels, and estimate health risks remain in their infancy. Within this arena, policymakers must deal with the question of how best to protect public health and safety in the face of incomplete and often contradictory information. In the past, official response to environmental pollution has traditionally taken the form of “control by regulation.” However, creation of a regulatory framework for indoor air quality poses special policy issues that suggest the need to explore alternative modes of intervention. Ambient outdoor air is a public good, in the sense that enjoyment by one individual in no way detracts from use or enjoyment by others. Indoor air, on the other hand, is not a public good, especially in private residences. Costs and benefits of maintaining adequate indoor air quality are internalized within households, suggesting the possibility of a private demand for clean indoor air. Promulgation of indoor air quality standards and other regulations must confront the fact that individuals are already making decisions about their own air quality. Regulations might or might not improve these decisions. Development of effective and reasonable policy requires an appreciation of the scope for private action and consideration of the likelihood that public intervention will foster improved private choices. Among the logical and relatively inexpensive modes of intervention are public information programs, development of simple warning devices, and product testing and labeling.     

Increased binding of autoantibody to erythrocytes treated with cigarette smoke extract

When human erythrocytes were incubated with cigarette smoke (CS) exract for 1 h, the cells were oxidized as assessed by the decrease of cytoplasmic glutathione level. Because the ability of the CS extract pretreated with antioxidants and enzymes that destroy superoxide and hydrogen peroxide was lower, various oxidants in the extract may be responsible for the reduction of cytoplasmic glutathione levels. The binding of autologous IgG to the CS extract-treated cells as assessed by enzyme immunoassay was dramatically increased. Autologous IgG responsible for the binding may be anti-band 3 autoantibody, because inhibitors of anti-band 3 autoantibody binding effectively inhibited the IgG binding. The results indicate that oxidants in CS extract rendered erythrocytes susceptible to binding of anti-band 3 autoantibody, a known antibody that binds to senescent erythrocytes.     

Integrating information for better environmental decisions

As more is learned about the complex nature and extent of environmental impacts from progressive human disturbance, scientists, policy analysts, decision makers, educators, and communicators are increasingly joining forces to develop strategies for preserving and protecting the environment. The Eco-Informa Foundation is an educational scientific organization dedicated to promoting the collaborative development and sharing of scientific information. The Foundation participated in a recent international conference on environmental informatics through a special symposium on integrating information for better environmental decisions. Presentations focused on four general themes: (1) remote sensing and data interpretation, including through new knowledge management tools; (2) risk assessment and communication, including for radioactively contaminated facilities, introduced biological hazards, and food safety; (3) community involvement in cleanup projects; and (4) environmental education. The general context for related issues, methods and applications, and results and recommendations from those discussions are highlighted here.     

The potential for anaerobic mineralisation of hydrocarbon constituents of oily drill cuttings from the North Sea seabed

The potential for natural attenuation of hydrocarbons in oily drill cuttings from the seabed beneath a North Sea oil platform was investigated. The study focused on the anaerobic degradation of n-hexadecane, n-octacosane and naphthalene using additions of 14C-labelled analogues to drill cuttings samples and was conducted under realistic seabed conditions (except pressure) over an 11-month period. No mineralisation of naphthalene was detected over this time period and mineralisation of octacosane represented only 0.5-1.5% of the added label. In contrast, mineralisation of hexadecane was 10-49% after 11 months of incubation. Selective inhibition of key functional bacterial groups revealed the key role of both sulfate reduction and methanogenesis in the degradation process. This study demonstrates the potential for natural attenuation of at least some hydrocarbon constituents of oily drill cuttings under realistic environmental conditions and highlights the involvement of a wide functional consortium in the natural attenuation process.     

什么是清洁生产技术的未来问题?

把注意力集中在清洁生产技术的技术方面可以提高工业和政府的效率,使功能最佳化并且避免产生废物,鉴于当前对于与可持续的生产和消费系统有关的成就的挑战,必须把更广泛的社会和工作质量评价结合进目前的清洁生产概念中去,为了使可持续发展性成为可能,必须强调一系列的挑战.例如,在关注职业安全、环境和社会责任的同时,把清洁生产和生命周期方法结合进正在出现的生产技术.     

Habitat-induced changes in song consistency affect perception of social status in male chickadees

The ability of male black-capped chickadees to maintain consistent internal structure between successive iterations of their songs is affected by both their social rank and the quality of their habitat. Lab studies reveal that female chickadees discriminate between songs of dominant and subordinate males, which vary in acoustic structure. We investigate whether males also rely on acoustic structure to assess rival quality during agonistic interactions, and whether habitat-induced differences in song consistency affect the perception of male rank. We conducted a playback experiment to simulate territorial intrusions by dominant, stimuli males into the territories of dominant, subject males; stimuli males were recorded either in low-quality (young forest) or high-quality (mature forest) habitats. Stimuli from low-quality habitat had lower song consistency than those from high-quality habitats, despite being recorded from males of equivalent social rank. Subject males for playbacks (also socially dominant males) were chosen from either habitat type. Subject males in mature forest responded less to young-forest stimuli compared to mature-forest stimuli, despite the stimuli in both cases being recorded from dominant males. Conversely, male subjects in young forest did not differentiate between stimuli, but their response to both stimuli was lower than that of mature-forest subject males to mature-forest stimuli. We demonstrate that the ability to maintain internal song structure in the black-capped chickadee constitutes a signal that appears to be used by males to assess the level of threat of intruders, and that this perception is affected by habitat from which the stimulus males were recorded.     

基于集对分析的中小机场运行风险水平态势评估

中小机场是我国航空运输业最重要的终端,也是民航风险事故最容易发生的地方。利用集对分析理论,建立了中小机场运行风险的同异反模型。根据集对势分析计算结果,再利用偏联系数分析系统发展动态趋势。结果表明,所建立的同异反风险评价模型能很好地对风险趋势进行合理的预测,在实际应用中具有很强的操作性,再加上合理的权重计算方法,使评价结果更加科学可靠。     

Amenity values of public and private forests: examining the value-attitude relationship

Public values toward forests have changed since the late 1980s, from a commodity-oriented perspective toward a more inclusive (commodity and non-commodity) orientation. This study examines the influence of four indicators of population diversity (age, ethnic background, place of residence, and gender) on amenity values of forests, environmental attitudes, and forest value-attitude correspondence. Four values of public and private forests were assessed, wood production (utilitarian value), clean air (a life support value), scenic beauty (an aesthetic value), and heritage (a spiritual value). Environmental attitudes were measured using a modified version of the New Environmental Paradigm scale. Five hundred and forty-eight randomly selected residents of households in 13 states of the Southern United States participated in a telephone interview. Age and ethnic background were found to moderate the value-attitude relationship, with the strength of the association being dependent upon the type of forest (i.e., public or private) and the forest value (i.e., utilitarian, life support, spiritual, and aesthetic). Females, younger persons (less than 43 years old), and whites reported lower utilitarian values of forests than their respective counterparts. Results are interpreted within the context of an emerging post-material society, in which a biocentric orientation to forests and the natural environment may be favored more by a younger (versus older) generation and increasingly racially diverse U.S. population. Implications for managing forests using a multiple-values (versus multiple-uses) approach are discussed.