For whom does safety pay? The case of major accidents

Government agencies regularly use the argument that ‘safety pays’ as a way of motivating employers to attend to occupational health and safety. This paper looks at the effectiveness of this argument in the case of catastrophic hazards. It suggests that, while it may be true that safety pays in an abstract sense, this is irrelevant unless it can be shown that safety pays for relevant decision makers. All too often it does not. The article illustrates its claims by drawing on the literature on the Zeebrugge, Bhopal and Piper Alpha disasters, as well as on a study of a mine disaster in Australia.     

噪声对人体健康的危害及个体防护

工业噪声对工人的身心健康危害极大,甚至会导致工伤事故率的增高.本文阐述了工业噪声对人的危害,并提出了防护办法.     

Environmental impact assessment of sprayed-on asbestos in buildings

This study evaluated the environmental impacts of sprayed-on asbestos, which had been used as insulation material in buildings, from multiple perspectives, mainly at the disposal stage. The health risks from asbestos emission and energy consumption were estimated. Two disposal scenarios were assumed for the asbestos: melting for reduced-risk disposal and ordinary packaging/landfilling. We estimated the asbestos emission and health risk in the case of packaging/landfilling, assuming uncontrolled management of the landfill site. A difficulty with introducing health-risk concepts into life cycle assessment (LCA) is the pulse–flux problem, which is discussed in the light of these estimations. In order to solve this problem, we proposed a method using a conversion factor representing exposure-dose/emission, and showed that emission could be converted into health risk. We also estimated the energy consumption for melting asbestos in the disposal stage, which can decrease the health risk. If we consider the energy consumption for the life cycle of asbestos, only a little energy is required for melting, compared with the large amount of energy saved in the use stage owing to the insulating effect of the asbestos. The trade-off relationship between health risk and energy consumption for the disposal scenarios indicated the need for weighting methods to handle trade-offs such as this. Received: July 2, 1998 / Accepted: December 20, 1999     

大气中部分新污染物浓度特征、来源解析及健康风险评估

基于电迁移率颗粒物粒径数分布仪（SMPS）、气相色谱-质谱联用（GC-MS）、X-荧光（XRF）方法,于2022—2023年在南京市开展了部分大气新污染物的在线监测,并利用美国国家环境保护局（US EPA）健康风险评价模型评估其健康风险,进一步结合正定矩阵因子分解（PMF）模型对污染物及其健康风险进行来源解析。结果表明,南京市大气中新污染物浓度与其他地区报道的可比,且在遭遇污染过程时显著升高,锰元素的升幅最大（116.3%）。各类新污染物的健康风险均在安全阈值之内。PMF共分解出大气新污染物的5类来源,其中,超细颗粒物（UFPs）主要来自交通源（49%）、光化学（23%）和工业源（28%）;重金属主要来自工业源（74%）,而挥发性有机物（VOCs）则由工业源（52%）、交通源（25%）和燃烧源（13%）贡献。南京市大气新污染物的非致癌风险由工业源主导,而致癌风险则分别来自交通源、轮船源和工业源。     

浅谈儿童行为对电梯门区安全保护的影响

当儿童跟随大人乘坐电梯时,经常发生在电梯门区儿童受伤安全事故.本文介绍了儿童的好奇和探险行为、有限的认知能力以及有限的运动神经控制能力等天性行为,并通过对一些典型电梯事故案例中的儿童天性行为的分析,提出儿童的天性行为是导致这些电梯安全事故的根本原因,并指出儿童在乘坐针对成年人设计的电梯产品时存在的安全隐患,给电梯的设计...     

Environmental and public health co-benefits of consumer switches to immunity-supporting food

During COVID-19, there has been a surge in public interest for information on immunity-boosting foods. There is little scientific support for immunity-supporting properties of specific foods, but strong evidence for food choice impacts on other health outcomes (e.g. risk of non-communicable disease) and environmental sustainability. Here, we relate online recommendations for “immunity-boosting” foods across five continents to their environmental and human health impacts. More frequently recommended food items and groups are plant based and have lower land use and greenhouse gas emission impacts plus more positive health outcomes (reducing relative risks of mortality or chronic diet-related diseases) per serving of food. We identify trade-offs between environmental outcomes of increasing consumption of recommended food items, with aquatic environment impacts increasing with food recommendation frequency. People’s reliance on the Internet for health information creates an opportunity to consolidate behaviour change towards consuming foods with multiple co-benefits. Our study identifies win–win options for nudging online information-seeking behaviour towards more sustainable choices for terrestrial biodiversity conservation and human health.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01693-w.     

地热水的开发利用对环境和健康的影响

在对我国地热水的分布,理化性状和利用现状调查的基础上,就地热水对环境和人群产生的影响进行了卫生学研究,结果表明地热点周围环境已受到了不同程度的污染,人群健康的远期影响也不容忽视。并提出了今后地热水开发中应重视的问题。     

Windows, view, and office characteristics predict physical and psychological discomfort

Office employees spend a lot of time inside buildings, where the physical conditions influence their well-being and indirectly influence their employers' business performance. With data from a field study conducted in the Netherlands in April to May 2003, we used path analysis to further elucidate the relationship between personal (gender and seasonality of mood shifts), building (view type, view quality, window distance, and social density), and perceived environmental conditions (light quality, and office impression) and physical and psychological discomfort, sleep quality, and environmental utility. The results show that window views, which that are rated as being more attractive, are beneficial to building occupants by reducing discomfort. However, being close to a window and rating the lighting as being of lower quality can result in thermal and glare problems (environmental utility). Reduced discomfort at work can improve sleep quality, indicating that physical conditions at work influence home life.     

Neighborhood attachment and its correlates: Exploring neighborhood conditions, collective efficacy, and gardening

Neighborhood attachment relates to one’s emotional connection to physical and social environments. Such bonds are critical for shaping how people interact with their local environments, connect with others and may be vital for fostering sustainable health behavior change related to nutrition and physical activity. Using data from a population-based survey of neighborhood environments and health in Denver, Colorado (n = 410 respondents; n = 45 block-groups) and hierarchical linear modeling techniques, we examined the relationship between objective and perceived neighborhood conditions (e.g., crime, physical incivilities, sense of safety), social processes (e.g., collective efficacy) and recreational gardening and neighborhood attachment. Results indicate length of residency, collective efficacy, and home and community garden participation are associated with neighborhood attachment. Further research is warranted to consider neighborhood attachment as an intervening mechanism through which gardens and other outdoor everyday places may influence health behavior change.     

Estimating risk at a Superfund site using passive sampling devices as biological surrogates in human health risk models

Passive sampling devices (PSDs) sequester the freely dissolved fraction of lipophilic contaminants, mimicking passive chemical uptake and accumulation by biomembranes and lipid tissues. Public Health Assessments that inform the public about health risks from exposure to contaminants through consumption of resident fish are generally based on tissue data, which can be difficult to obtain and requires destructive sampling. The purpose of this study is to apply PSD data in a Public Health Assessment to demonstrate that PSDs can be used as a biological surrogate to evaluate potential human health risks and elucidate spatio-temporal variations in risk. PSDs were used to measure polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Willamette River; upriver, downriver and within the Portland Harbor Superfund megasite for 3 years during wet and dry seasons. Based on an existing Public Health Assessment for this area, concentrations of PAHs in PSDs were substituted for fish tissue concentrations. PSD measured PAH concentrations captured the magnitude, range and variability of PAH concentrations reported for fish/shellfish from Portland Harbor. Using PSD results in place of fish data revealed an unacceptable risk level for cancer in all seasons but no unacceptable risk for non-cancer endpoints. Estimated cancer risk varied by several orders of magnitude based on season and location. Sites near coal tar contamination demonstrated the highest risk, particularly during the dry season and remediation activities. Incorporating PSD data into Public Health Assessments provides specific spatial and temporal contaminant exposure information that can assist public health professionals in evaluating human health risks.