Evaluation of ecosystem health for regional development in the southwestern Beijing, China

Ecosystem health assessment is one of the most important issues in regional ecological quality and safety studies. It also has a great significance to ecological conservation and regional development. This study focused on assessing the health status of forest, agriculture and urban ecosystems in the southwestern Beijing, China, including the Fangshan and Fengtai Districts. Based on field surveys and data collection, an assessment index system containing the vigor, organization and resilience factors was developed to measure the ecosystem health. Each index was scored from 1 to 5, representing five levels that contribute to the whole ecosystem health. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was used to measure the weights of each index and three factors, and thus an overall score for a certain ecosystem was calculated. The results show that the forest ecosystem in the Fangshan District had higher health value than the Fengtai District, while the urban ecosystem had a slightly lower value in the Fangshan District than the Fengtai District. Both districts show lower resilience values in forest and urban ecosystems. Maintaining the ecosystem health will definitely benefit the long-term development of two districts. This study suggested that an approach for assessing the regional ecosystem health could be further developed to address spatial and synergy relationships between ecosystems and the three health factors.     

河流健康研究进展与前瞻

河流健康研究是目前河流生态学领域研究热点之一。首先介绍了河流健康概念的产生、发展及其不同的内涵,辨析了河流生态系统健康、流域生态系统健康概念与河流健康概念的区别与联系,认为河流健康是指河流既能保持河流生态系统完整性,又能维持其对人类社会提供的各种服务功能。在分析河流健康内涵的基础上,着重回顾分析了国内外河流健康评价的实践情况以及河流健康评价方法,根据河流健康评价方法的评价原理,河流健康评价方法主要分为预测模型法和多指标方法。针对目前河流健康研究领域存在的主要问题,提出了河流健康研究的发展方向,认为今后开展河流健康评价研究还需在评价指标选取、评价标准确定、评价尺度选取以及河流健康评价与河流管理集成等方面进一步加强。     

A comparison of concentrations of polycyclic aromatic compounds detected in dust samples from various regions of the world

Settled house dust can be a source of human exposure to toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) through non-dietary ingestion and dermal contact. Information regarding the concentrations of various contaminants in house dust would be useful in estimating the risk associated with exposure to these compounds. This study reports on the surface loading, variability and distribution of PAHs in settled house dust collected from homes in three locations: Sumgayit, Azerbaijan; Shanxi Province, China; and southern Texas, United States. The highest PAH floor surface loadings were observed in China, followed by Azerbaijan and Texas. Median concentrations of high molecular weight (four ring and larger) PAHs ranged from a low of 0.11 microg/m(2) in Texas, to 2.9 microg/m(2) in Azerbaijan and 162 microg/m(2) in China. These trends in total surface loading and relative carcinogenicity indicate that the risk of health effects from exposure to PAHs in house dust is highest in the Chinese population and lowest in the Texas population. As anticipated, variability among dust samples from different houses within the same region was high, with coefficients of variation greater than 100%. Alkylated PAHs comprised 30-50% of the total mass of PAHs. Based on a comparison of the composition of specific components, PAHs in China and Azerbaijan were determined to be derived mainly from combustion sources rather than from unburned fossil fuels such as petroleum. These results, coupled with ongoing investigation of appropriate PAH exposure biomarkers in humans, will guide future efforts to identify ways to reduce exposures in the study areas.     

全氟辛烷磺酰基化合物水生生态风险和人体健康风险评价

全氟辛烷磺酰基化合物（Perfluorooctanesulfonate,PFOS ）广泛用于工农业生产,PFOS可通过不同的迁移路径迁移到大气、水和土壤等环境介质中。研究表明,PFOS是一种新的持久性有机物污染物,具有毒性,可通过食物链富集。2006年PFOS被欧盟议会和部长理事会列为限制销售和使用物质。本文引用中国沿海、亚洲海域和美国部分水域的PFOS暴露浓度数据,采用商值法对PFOS的水生生态环境风险进行了评价,建立了5 种因素水平的数学模型,并应用此数学模型对PFOS的人体健康风险进行了评价。结果表明我国部分地区和亚洲沿海PFOS的水生生态风险低于美国水域,亚洲沿海、我国部分地区以及美国部分城市水体中PFOS个人风险大小依次是我国部分地区<亚洲沿海<美国部分城市。     

Mixed uncertainty analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon inhalation and risk assessment in ambient air of Beijing

This article presents the application of an integrated method that estimates the dispersion of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in air, and assesses the human health risk associated with PAHs inhalation. An uncertainty analysis method consisting of three components were applied in this study, where the three components include a bootstrapping method for analyzing the whole process associated uncertainty, an inhalation rate (IR) representation for evaluating the total PAH inhalation risk for human health, and a normally distributed absorption fraction (AF) ranging from 0% to 100% to represent the absorption capability of PAHs in human body. Using this method, an integrated process was employed to assess the health risk of the residents in Beijing, China, from inhaling PAHs in the air. The results indicate that the ambient air PAHs in Beijing is an important contributor to human health impairment, although over 68% of residents seem to be safe from daily PAH carcinogenic inhalation. In general, the accumulated daily inhalation amount is relatively higher for male and children at 10 years old of age than for female and children at 6 years old. In 1997, about 1.73% cancer sufferers in Beijing were more or less related to ambient air PAHs inhalation. At 95% confidence interval, approximately 272–309 individual cancer incidences can be attributed to PAHs pollution in the air. The probability of greater than 500 cancer occurrence is 15.3%. While the inhalation of ambient air PAHs was shown to be an important factor responsible for higher cancer occurrence in Beijing, while the contribution might not be the most significant one.     

某油田企业职业健康体检结果分析与对策

对2007年度某油田企业职业健康体检结果样本进行了分析,并提出相应对策。     

城市饮用水源地水质健康风险评价

介绍饮用水水源受到基因毒物质和躯体毒物质所致的健康危害的风险度计算模型,并应用于西安市饮用水源地饮水途径健康风险评价,分别计算出了各类污染物的风险度。结果表明：（1）基因毒物质镉所致健康风险大约为10^-7a^-1,躯体毒物质所致风险在10^-12～10^-10之间。所以,基因毒物质是首先控制的污染物质。（2）对于躯体毒物质,铅的风险度是最高的,躯体毒物质所致的风险度大小排序为Pb〉NH3-N〉Hg〉挥发酚。（3）饮用水中的所有有害物质的健康危害总风险度未超过国际辐射防护委员会（ICRP）推荐的最大可接受限值5.0×10^-5a^-1,也没超过瑞典环保局、荷兰建设和环境部推荐的最大可接受水平6.0×10^-5a^-1。研究结果可直接确定该市地表水源水质的风险污染物的主次及治理的优先顺序,为该市地表水源水质风险管理提供了帮助。     

兰州市道路交通噪声污染与人体健康的分析

随着环保事业的发展,人们已认识到环境系统的健康与人体的健康状况有着密切的关系。笔者采用流行病学研究方法和SPSS 11.0forWindows的统计软件,对居住在交通干线两旁的居民,按照不同个体特征和不同居住环境所受交通噪声影响的程度进行了对比分析,其结果表明,中年人比老年人和青年人受噪声影响明显;不同性别受噪声影响程度没有明显差异;各功能区特征不同,混合区受噪声影响最严重;在道路交通噪声较高的区域,该地区居民的受影响程度也相对较高。最后,提出了在新城建设和旧城改造过程之中考虑城市道路规划设计,居民自身也应加强个人防护的防治对策     

Synthesis and recommendations of the economic evaluation of OHS interventions at the company level conference

PROBLEM: In today's economic environment, enterprises may not be able to fund every new project aimed at promoting health and safety in the workplace. Company level economic evaluation of interventions can provide guidance in sound business decision-making. The Economic Evaluation of Occupational Health and Safety Interventions at the Company Level Meeting brought together members of the global occupational safety and health community interested in encouraging the use of economic knowledge and tools to evaluate economic gains from occupational health and safety interventions. DISCUSSION: Discussions of the six models presented explored similarities, reliability, and potential use by corporate enterprises, small and medium enterprises, developing and transitioning nations, and economic theorists. Each group provided specific projects that could be pursued to advance knowledge in the area of economic evaluation at the company level. CONCLUSION: This conference established pathway to incorporate economic evaluation of health and safety interventions or programs at the workplace.     

Value Orientation and Forest Management: The Forest Health Debate

Among both forest practitioners and the general public, “forest health” has become an issue of contention. Whereas the debate over which treatments will best achieve healthy forests has been framed largely by the popular media and politicians as a struggle between industry and environmentalists, the views of the general public remain unexplored. Survey results from Oregon and Washington residents were used to assess the relationships between respondents’ self-described environmental or economic priorities and the following two variables: (1) acceptability of forest management practices and (2) perceived threats to forest health. Findings indicate that active management was generally accepted by a majority of respondents regardless of their environmental or economic orientation. Disagreement emerged, however, when the appropriateness of specific management practices within specific forest conditions was examined. Additionally, strong evidence was found for a relationship between self-described environmental or economic orientation and perceived threats to forest health. Those with an environmentally oriented viewpoint tended to perceive human-caused factors as the largest threats, whereas those with an economic orientation saw naturally occurring processes as the greatest threats. These findings suggest that the issue of contention is not active management per se. Rather, the major divisions in the forest health debate are defined by specific contexts and circumstances, as well as the management practices used.