The cancer risk and the non-cancer hazard index for inhabitants exposed to As, Cd, Cu and Zn in the soils and stream waters
of the abandoned Songcheon Au–Ag mine area were evaluated. Mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in agricultural soils
were 230, 2.5, 120, 160, and 164 mg kg−1, respectively. Mean concentrations of As, Cd and Zn of the water in the stream where drinking water was drawn was 246 μg
L−1, 161 μg L−1 and 3899 μg L−1, respectively. These levels are significantly higher than the permissible levels for drinking water quality recommended by
Korea and WHO. The resulting human health risks to farmers who inhabited the surrounding areas due to drinking water were
summarized as follows: (1) the non-cancer health hazard indices showed that the toxic risk due to As and Cd in drinking water
were 10 and 4 times, respectively, greater than those induced by the safe average daily dosages of the respective chemicals.
(2) the cancer risk of As for exposed individuals through the drinking water pathway was 5 in 1000, exceeded the acceptable
risk of 1 in 10,000 set for regulatory purposes. 相似文献
Objective: The ability to detect changing visual information is a vital component of safe driving. In addition to detecting changing visual information, drivers must also interpret its relevance to safety. Environmental changes considered to have high safety relevance will likely demand greater attention and more timely responses than those considered to have lower safety relevance. The aim of this study was to explore factors that are likely to influence perceptions of risk and safety regarding changing visual information in the driving environment. Factors explored were the environment in which the change occurs (i.e., urban vs. rural), the type of object that changes, and the driver's age, experience, and risk sensitivity.
Methods: Sixty-three licensed drivers aged 18–70 years completed a hazard rating task, which required them to rate the perceived hazardousness of changing specific elements within urban and rural driving environments. Three attributes of potential hazards were systematically manipulated: the environment (urban, rural); the type of object changed (road sign, car, motorcycle, pedestrian, traffic light, animal, tree); and its inherent safety risk (low risk, high risk). Inherent safety risk was manipulated by either varying the object's placement, on/near or away from the road, or altering an infrastructure element that would require a change to driver behavior. Participants also completed two driving-related risk perception tasks, rating their relative crash risk and perceived risk of aberrant driving behaviors.
Results: Driver age was not significantly associated with hazard ratings, but individual differences in perceived risk of aberrant driving behaviors predicted hazard ratings, suggesting that general driving-related risk sensitivity plays a strong role in safety perception. In both urban and rural scenes, there were significant associations between hazard ratings and inherent safety risk, with low-risk changes perceived as consistently less hazardous than high-risk impact changes; however, the effect was larger for urban environments. There were also effects of object type, with certain objects rated as consistently more safety relevant. In urban scenes, changes involving pedestrians were rated significantly more hazardous than all other objects, and in rural scenes, changes involving animals were rated as significantly more hazardous. Notably, hazard ratings were found to be higher in urban compared with rural driving environments, even when changes were matched between environments.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates that drivers perceive rural roads as less risky than urban roads, even when similar scenarios occur in both environments. Age did not affect hazard ratings. Instead, the findings suggest that the assessment of risk posed by hazards is influenced more by individual differences in risk sensitivity. This highlights the need for driver education to account for appraisal of hazards’ risk and relevance, in addition to hazard detection, when considering factors that promote road safety. 相似文献
The study used the hypothetical lottery-choice questions to measure risk aversion and a detailed survey collected data on input use, farm production and non-farm activities to specifically assess whether risk aversion, risk perceptions, and socioeconomic factors affect the risk management strategies of farm households in Northern Ghana. Risk aversion significantly increases crop diversification strategies of households but marginally reduces herbicide use by households. Market risk significantly increases the use of improved seed varieties and the application of inorganic fertiliser but reduces diversification into livestock production. Production risk largely increases diversification into livestock production. Farmers’ risk management strategies are affected by socioeconomic variables such as access to extension services, area cultivated, age and gender. Policy effort focused on building pliable on-farm crop related risk management strategies should aim at considering the risk aversion and the perception of market risk whilst those focused on livestock should focus on production risk. 相似文献
Purpose. New light sources including light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have elicited questions about retinal damage, including the blue-light hazard. Some organizations have recommended avoiding using LEDs with correlated color temperatures exceeding 3000?K, since they tend to produce greater short-wavelength energy. This article provides quantitative comparisons among light sources and use cases as they affect the blue-light hazard. Methods. The spectral radiant power characteristics of incandescent, fluorescent, LED and daylight sources were evaluated in terms of blue-light hazard using standard procedures for phakic, aphakic and pseudophakic eyes. Results. Under most use cases, LEDs do not exhibit greater risk for the blue-light hazard than other sources (e.g., incandescent). Because they generally produce little to no ultraviolet energy, LEDs often present less risk to aphakic eyes. Conclusions. LEDs present no special concerns for the blue-light hazard over some other common sources in typical use cases because photophobic responses limit exposure to bright sources. Where photophobic responses might not occur (e.g., eye surgery patients or premature infants) or where individuals suppress these responses (e.g., stage actors), caution is necessary. Evidence remains inconsistent regarding the risk of human retinal damage from long-term exposures to light insufficient to reach acute blue-light hazard thresholds. 相似文献