Risk perception, risk management and vulnerability to landslides in the hill slopes in the city of La Paz, Bolivia. A preliminary statement

The article begins by describing the difficult living conditions of many people in the hill slopes (laderas) of La Paz, Bolivia, demonstrating that they are exposed to a combination of natural and social hazards. ¹ It shows that residents, community leaders and city planners tend to underestimate or deny risk, with important consequences for risk management, such as a failure to raise risk awareness. The article then proposes some hypotheses to explain risk perceptions in La Paz, discarding the usual single-approach interpretations and suggesting instead more nuanced theoretical explanations to account for why people build their homes in such hazardous environments.     

Nickel sulfate induces numerous defects in Caenorhabditis elegans that can also be transferred to progeny

Whether the multiple biological toxicities from nickel exposure could be transferred to progeny has not been clarified. In this report, we explored the Caenorhabditis elegans to analyze the multiple toxicities of nickel and their possibly transferable properties. The nickel toxicity caused multiple biological defects in a concentration-dependent manner. Moreover, most of these toxicities could be transferred and could be only partially rescued in progeny. Some specific phenotypes in progeny were also found to exhibit no obvious rescue phenotypes or to show even more severe defects than their parents. The defects caused by nickel exposure could be classified into four groups according to their transferring properties. That is, the defects caused by nickel exposure could be largely, or partially, or unable to be rescued, or became even more severe in progeny animals. Therefore, most of the nickel exposure-caused defects can be transferred from parents to their progeny to different degrees in C. elegans.     

PFOS青春期暴露对成年期雄性大鼠的生殖毒性

为探究青春期的PFOS暴露对成年后的SD大鼠的生殖毒性,对出生后第21天(PND21)的SD大鼠经口灌胃不同剂量的PFOS(5、10和20mg·kg~(-1)),连续染毒7d,在出生后第56天(PND56)时,对各染毒组SD大鼠的体质量、精子数量、血清中的睾酮浓度,以及睾丸间质细胞睾酮合成的相关基因mRNA水平进行了检测。结果显示,10mg·kg~(-1)剂量组大鼠体质量较对照组明显下降(P<0.01);精子数量在10mg·kg~(-1)和20mg·kg~(-1)剂量组明显降低(P<0.05);血清中睾酮浓度随着PFOS剂量的加大有明显下降的趋势,20mg·kg~(-1)剂量组显著低于对照组(P<0.05);类/胆固醇相关基因star和cyp11α1的mRNA表达水平明显下调。研究表明,青春期的PFOS暴露会导致睾酮合成途径中相关因子的功能缺失,破坏成熟睾丸间质细胞的功能,致使睾酮水平降低,并抑制精子生成,从而破坏生殖系统的功能。     

航空用2D12铝合金在海洋大气环境中的腐蚀行为研究

在海南万宁试验站开展2D12铝合金海洋大气暴露试验,通过质量损失分析、力学性能分析和金相显微形貌分析,研究了2D12铝合金在海洋大气环境中腐蚀的规律和行为。结果表明,2D12铝合金的腐蚀质量损失与暴露时间的关系可用幂函数回归;随暴露时间的延长,2D12铝合金的抗拉强度先下降、后趋于平稳,断后伸长率则逐渐降低;金相显微分析表明,2D12铝合金的腐蚀由初始的点蚀逐渐发展成晶间腐蚀。     

生物标志物在水环境研究中的应用

生物标志物是指示污染物危害效应的生物信号．可分为两类,一类指示生物体对有害物质的暴露;另一类指示污染物的毒性效应．与其它手段相比,生物标志物具有专一性、预警性和广泛适用性．本文介绍了指示水环境污染的主要几类生物标志物．生物转化酶和金属硫蛋白能有效地表征水体中的有机物和重金属对生物的影响．DNA加合物将有机污染与遗传物质变异相关联,因此成为生态毒理学研究的新热点．文中还讨论了生物标志物的缺陷和不足,并展望了该领域的应用前景．     

珠三角地区臭氧来源特征的数值模拟研究

采用WRF/CAMx模型及臭氧源解析技术(OSAT)模块研究珠三角地区臭氧季节性时空分布特征,对不同污染天气型下的臭氧来源进行解析,评估珠三角各城市臭氧暴露水平,并探究如何根据实际天气状况为不同城市提出切实有效的管控措施.研究结果表明,珠三角地区臭氧浓度遵循夏秋季高、冬季低的季节变化特征.在所有季节中,珠三角地区以外的...     

电子封装行业化学有害因素职业暴露评价

以法规及风险评价模型为基础,对电子封装行业内通常使用的化学有害因素进行职业暴露分析,将健康风险进行分级、定量评价,得出结论:行业中回流焊工艺可能产生的铅烟、电镀车间存在的硝酸、失效分析中使用的氢氟酸等,其职业暴露风险为中等风险水平;但由于化学物质的健康危害等级HR因其固有性而相对不变,而其会随控制措施的效果高低而变化的暴露等级ER是一个可变的要素,不同企业的控制措施的水平高低不同,其最终的风险等级可能是不同的。行业中使用的氢氧化钾、氢氧化钠的职业暴露风险为低风险水平,前提也是在合理有效的控制措施环境下。因此,控制措施的水平就是决定风险等级的最重要因素。时时地运行和维护有效的控制措施,是确保风险水平不发生变化的关键。     

The efficiency of using non-culpable crash-claim involvements from insurance data as a means of estimating travel exposure for road user sub-groups

Introduction

Induced exposure has a long history of development and usage in traffic safety research but a major question has always concerned the extent to which the accumulation of culpable and non-culpable involvements can be considered independent.

Method

Culpability assessments of 32,630 vehicles' crash-claim involvements adjudicated by insurance adjusters were matched with vehicle odometer readings taken at emission testing using consistent identification of vehicles and principal operators over a 5-year period.

Result

It was found that the accumulation of culpable crash involvements was not entirely independent of that for non-culpable involvements. However, the rate of non-culpable involvements was determined to be an acceptable surrogate for travel exposure rate where sample sizes were large.

Discussion

The relationship between the rate of non-culpable involvements and the rate of travel exposure for data subsets when both were normalized by the overall sample rates was reminiscent of an accident-volume curve for roadway locations in traffic engineering theory. This suggested that only a portion of non-culpable involvements actually related directly to travel and this lead to a correction factor that could be applied.

Impact on Industry

While lack of independence of involvement rates may be problematic for a direct risk ratio application, it does not invalidate the use of non-culpable involvements to predict travel. For insurers that have a need to estimate travel amounts for different driver/vehicle groups as part of the insurance rating purposes, this can be a useful application.     

不同臭氧熏气方式对油菜光合速率、生物量和产量的影响

为准确评价臭氧(O3)浓度升高对农作物的影响,运用田间原位开顶气室(open-topchamber,OTC)研究了高浓度O3对油菜光合作用、生物量和产量的影响.实验包括3种O3水平,一种为经活性炭过滤的空气(CF),两种高浓度O3处理:经活性炭过滤后的空气加入恒定浓度为100nL·L-1的O(3CF100);经活性炭过滤后的空气加入具有日变化特征,其平均浓度和剂量与CF100相同的O3(CF100D).结果表明,CF100和CF100D均能使油菜叶片膜透性和H2O2自由基含量增加,光合色素含量和光合速率(photosynthesisrate,Pn)降低,最终导致油菜生物量和产量降低.与CF相比,CF100和CF100D熏气下油菜单位面积产量分别降低3.7%和18.6%.同时,实验还表明,CF100D对油菜的影响大于相同剂量的CF100.以上结果表明:1)高浓度的O(3CF100和CF100D)能够破坏细胞膜系统,减少光合色素数量,降低光合速率,从而降低作物生物量和产量;2)相同平均浓度和剂量的高浓度O3对油菜的影响因熏气方式的不同而有明显差异,目前采用的O3平均浓度和O3剂量指标不能准确评价O3浓度升高对油菜的影响.     

Heavy Metal Load Of Soil, Water And Vegetables In Peri-Urban Delhi

Peri-urban lands are often used for production of vegetables for better market accessibility and higher prices. But most of these lands are contaminated with heavy metals through industrial effluents, sewage and sludge, and vehicular emission. Vegetables grown in such lands, therefore, are likely to be contaminated with heavy metals and unsafe for consumption. Samples of vegetables i.e., spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) and okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.); soil and irrigation water were collected from 5 peri-urban sites of New Delhi to monitor their heavy metal loads. While heavy metal load of the soils were below the maximum allowable limit prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was higher in irrigation water and vegetable samples. The spinach and okra samples showed Zn, Pb and Cd levels higher than the WHO limits. The levels of Cu, however, were at their safe limits. Metal contamination was higher in spinach than in okra. Spatial variability of metal contamination was also observed in the study. Bio-availability of metals present in soil showed a positive relationship with their total content and organic matter content of soil but no relationship was observed with soil pH. Washing of vegetables with clean water was a very effective and easy way of decontaminating the metal pollution as it reduced the contamination by 75 to 100%.