Understanding the return on health, safety and environmental investments

INTRODUCTION: Traditionally, health safety and environmental (HS & E) investments have been viewed as expensive but necessary. HS & E professionals had a difficult task of providing data showing that these investments can also contribute to business success. An ORC task force developed a way for traditional financial analysis methods to be applied to HS & E investments and decisions. METHOD: The result of the task force effort is the software called the ORC Return on Health, Safety and Environmental Investments (ROHSEI), a supporting tool to provide a comprehensive look at health, safety or environmental investment projects and their potential financial impacts. RESULTS: Since its development, more than 200 companies, government agencies, and educational institutions have been trained in the ROHSEI process and software. CONCLUSIONS: HS & E professionals who are able to evaluate and communicate the business value of health, safety and environmental efforts will improve understanding of the impacts HS & E projects and contribute to better decision making by their organizations.     

安太堡露天煤矿职业健康安全管理体系绩效分析

通过对安太堡露天煤矿职业健康安全管理体系认证前后安全生产管理基础数据的调查和统计,采用定性和定量的分析方法对该企业的安全管理水平进行了绩效对比分析和模型分析。结果表明,对于露天煤矿企业,建立职业健康安全管理体系有利于提高企业安全管理的水平;同时证明,该绩效分析方法具有分析过程简单、分析结果科学实用等优点。     

Food Supply Chain Governance And Public Health Externalities: Upstream Policy Interventions And The UK State

Contemporary food supply chains are generating externalities with high economic and social costs, notably in public health terms through the rise in diet-related non-communicable disease. The UK State is developing policy strategies to tackle these public health problems alongside intergovernmental responses. However, the governance of food supply chains is conducted by, and across, both private and public spheres and within a multilevel framework. The realities of contemporary food governance are that private interests are key drivers of food supply chains and have institutionalized a great deal of standards-setting and quality, notably from their locations in the downstream and midstream sectors. The UK State is designing some downstream and some midstream interventions to ameliorate the public health impacts of current food consumption patterns in England. The UK State has not addressed upstream interventions towards public health diet at the primary food production and processing stages, although traditionally it has shaped agricultural policy. Within the realities of contemporary multilevel governance, the UK State must act within the contexts set by the international regimes of the Common Agricultural Policy and the World Trade Organization agreements, notably on agriculture. The potential for further upstream agricultural policy reform is considered as part of a wider policy approach to address the public health externalities issuing from contemporary food supply chains within this multilevel governance context.     

Metal Contamination in the Republic of Armenia

/ Air, soil, and water samples were collected throughout the Republic of Armenia both before and after its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Reported analyses of those samples indicated that levels of several trace metal concentrations (Ag, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mo, Ni, Pb, Ti, and Zn) exceeded the maximum allowable concentrations established by the former Soviet Union (FSU) and subsequently adopted by Armenia. Although industrial production has declined by more than 80% since the 1980s, the economy is improving and there is potential for a significant increase in the generation of industrial metal emissions. These include automobile emissions, which are now considered to be the primary source of atmospheric lead. Historically, the Soviet Union did not strictly enforce environmental standards, and Armenia is now faced with the resulting environmental problems and the associated risks to public health. Since some trace metal concentrations may be at or near potentially toxic levels, there is a need to accurately assess the extent of metal contamination in order to devise cleanup plans and develop long-term environmental protection and public health strategies in Armenia.     

Snowblower injuries in Vermont, 1981–1984

The Vermont Department of Health carried out two studies of snowblower injuries in Vermont during the winters of 1982–1983 and 1983–1984. The first was a case-control study in which we assessed risk factors that predisposed operators to injury during snowblower use. We found 20 persons who had been injured by snowblowers and matched 28 controls to these by neighborhood. In this study, owning a snowblower for 1 year or less and having operated a snowblower for 10 days or less in one's lifetime were significantly associated with injury. The second study was population-based. We estimated that approximately 1.5% of Vermont residents owned snowblowers during the winter of 1982–1983 and that, among snowblower owners, injuries occurred at a rate of 1.3/1,000 person-years of ownership (0.1% chance of injury).     

劳动安全卫生标准化现状及建议

本文着重阐述了劳动安全卫生标准化工作的内涵与意义,分析了劳动安全卫生标准化工作的国内外现状,针对问题提出了加快我国劳动安全卫生标准发展的几项建议。     

Fostering sustainability through sourcing from small businesses: public sector perspectives

This article examines the opportunities for fostering sustainable development through public sector sourcing from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Buying from small businesses can make such contributions in a variety of forms, ranging from a contribution to local economic development through providing innovative green products and services, particularly in the food sector, to helping the public sector organisation to better align its operations with its community. Sourcing from small businesses also has implications for the governance of sourcing processes and can benefit from a partnership approach. Barriers to public sector sourcing from small businesses are discussed and suggestions made on how these can be overcome.     

美国环境健康损害赔偿立法及其对我国的启示

美国尚未制定专门的环境健康损害赔偿立法。由环境保护法律中的相关规定、涉及环境侵权赔偿或者补偿的相关立法以及环境健康损害赔偿典型判例构成的法规体系,为环境健康保护提供了重要的法律依据。从《超级基金法》、《詹姆斯.扎德加9.11健康与赔偿法案》、《联邦侵权赔偿法》和《联邦雇员补偿法》等立法以及Sterling诉Velsicol化学公司案、普莱斯诉美国海军案等判例中总结的美国经验主要包括:适时制定专门立法;建立损害赔偿社会化机制;适用惩罚性赔偿机制;科学确定赔偿范围和数额;明确公职人员的法律责任。我国应当基于自身国情,充分借鉴美国的成熟经验,加快环境健康损害赔偿立法进程。     

南京市PM2.5中金属元素污染特征及健康风险

监测分析了南京市浦口区典型工业区(2016年12月—2017年10月)PM 2.5中金属元素的浓度,分析了季节差异及来源,评价了健康风险。结果表明,PM 2.5年均值为61.24μg/m 3,全年有33.33%的天数超过《环境空气质量标准》(GB 3095—2012)的日均限值。绝大多数金属元素的平均值为:冬季>春季>秋季>夏季。As的全年平均值为(2.01±1.09)ng/m 3,较为接近我国环境标准限值。PM 2.5中金属元素主要来自工业排放、自然过程、金属冶炼及交通活动,Cr、Ni、As、Cd、Cu、Zn和Pb的富集性较高。健康风险评价结果显示,Mn的非致癌风险最高,所有金属对儿童和成人的总非致癌风险值为0.0884,低于安全阈值1;Cr(Ⅵ)的致癌风险最高,所有金属对儿童和成人的总致癌风险分别为6.23×10-7和2.49×10-6,均在可接受水平内。     

Antioxidative potential of metformin: Possible protective mechanism against generating OH radicals

• Metformin consumes O₂−• and OH• induced by PM are proposed. • OH• dominated the oxidation of metformin compared with O₂−• • Metformin can prevent the harm of ROS induced by PM to human health. • Antioxidative potential of metformin was first proposed to provide measures. Exposure to particulate matter (PM) can lead to the excessive accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which causes oxidative stress and endangers human health. In this study, the effects of metformin on PM-induced radicals were investigated, and the antioxidation reaction mechanism of metformin was analyzed by the density functional theory (DFT) method. The corresponding results revealed that the consumption rate of dithiothreitol (DTT) increased as the metformin concentration (0–40 mmol/L) increased under exposure to PM active components. Moreover, the OH radical content decreased as the metformin concentration increased. This result may be related to the consumption of PM-induced OH radicals by metformin, which promotes the DTT consumption rate. Additionally, because the initiation reaction has a high barrier, the oxidation reaction rate between metformin and •O₂− is not very fast, although various catalysts may be present in the human environment. Importantly, we found that the barrier of metformin induced by OH radicals is only 9.6 kcal/mol while the barrier of metformin induced by oxygen is 57.9 kcal/mol, which shows that the rate of the •OH-initiated oxidative reaction of metformin is much faster and that this reaction path occurs more easily. By sample analysis, the mean OH radical generation was 55 nmol/min/g (ranging from 5 to 105 nmol/min/g) on haze days and 30 nmol/min/g (ranging from 10 to 50 nmol/min/g) on non-haze days. Moreover, OH radical generation was higher on haze days than on neighboring non-haze days. Taken together, all data suggest that metformin could consume the PM-induced radicals, such as OH radicals and •O₂−, thereby providing health protection.