An Evaluation of Air Pollution Health Impacts and Costs in São Paulo, Brazil

The need to determine cost estimates of the hazardous effects of diseases is important in order to establish the priorities of actions for prevention and health management. The evaluation of air pollution impacts on health, based on expenditures, has been carried out, but there are obvious comparison difficulties among countries, as the health-per-capita investment varies enormously. In order to achieve a standard indicator, we applied the Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) method to estimate the health burden and cost estimate due to air pollution in São Paulo, Brazil. The basic methodology was the utilization of dose–response curves of epidemiological studies conducted in São Paulo to assess air pollution and its health effects. DALY attributable to air pollution in São Paulo added up to 28,212 years annually. An indirect health cost attributable to air pollution resulted in US$ 3,222,676. This estimate refers to the children and the elderly population. These results give a preliminary and underestimated value of the burden of diseases promoted by air pollution.     

Radiosensitivity of subterranean bacteria in the Hungarian Upper Permian Siltstone Formation

The main purpose of this work was to study the radioresistance of subterranean aerobic and anaerobic isolates from the Hungarian Upper Permian Siltstone (Aleurolite) Formation, in order to assess the safety of potential sites of future underground repositories for nuclear waste. A total of 93 isolates were studied. The radiosensitivities of these aerobic and anaerobic bacteria isolates were determined: the D10 values (decimal reducing doses) of the aerobic spore-formers lay in the range 0.80 -2.44 kGy, and those of the anaerobic spore-formers lay in the range 1.86 4.93 kGy. The D10 values of the aerobic and anaerobic vegetative isolates were much lower, in the ranges 0.11 0.57 and 0.22-0.40 kGy. respectively. The variability in bacterial radioresistance indicates the biodiversity at this potential disposal site. These results can affect the construction of a future underground repository, since knowledge of the most resistant microorganism may be of importance as concerns calculation of the time required to inactivate the bacteria surrounding the containers.     

Linking academic and local knowledge: community-based research and service learning for sustainable rural development in Hungary

Discussions about the potential role of academic and research institutions in regional sustainability initiatives (RSIs) inevitably raise the issue of the role of science in society in general. In democratic societies, it can be argued that science–society relationships should be based on establishing and institutionalizing mutual dialogues, making public concerns not only visible but the public as equal partner. In order to fulfil the social responsibilities of academic institutions involved in RSIs through establishing dialogues with diverse stakeholders, a possible methodology is conducting participatory action research (PAR) combined with the educational model of service learning. The PAR project reported here aims at facilitating a bottom-up, micro-region level sustainability planning and development process in one of the most socio-economically disadvantaged rural areas of north-east Hungary. Some of the main results of this university–community partnership were its contribution to sustainability, including the activation of local capabilities and networking across various local stakeholder groups through various small-scale projects and the co-production of a socially grounded and landscape-based rural development plan for the micro-region.