The use of state workers' compensation administrative data to identify injury scenarios and quantify costs of work-related traumatic brain injuries

PROBLEM: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a public health problem but little is known about the nature of that problem in the working population. METHOD: The author used a national definition to identify cases in Washington State from workers' compensation (WC) hospital billing data, quantified the cost of WC insurance benefits using actuarial cost estimates, and identified high risk industries using ANSI Z16.2 typology. RESULTS: There were 928 cases of TBI with a lifetime claim cost of $159 million from the Washington State Fund (1994-2001). Sixty percent of injuries resulted in death or disability. The highest risks of TBI are concentrated in 16 industrial insurance risk classes and the highest costs in 19 North American Industry Classification codes. Injury scenarios were identified for nine industrial insurance risk classes. CONCLUSIONS: TBI is a disabling and costly workplace injury in the state of Washington, affecting even teenagers and seniors who are not generally considered to be part of the workforce. Injury typology codes provide useful information for improving workplace safety. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: This research provides industry with quantitative information regarding the cost of work-related traumatic brain injury and the usefulness of using workers' compensation claims data to reduce the burden of workplace injury.     

Carnivore-Caused Livestock Mortality in Trans-Himalaya

The loss of livestock to wild predators is an important livelihood concern among Trans-Himalayan pastoralists. Because of the remoteness and inaccessibility of the region, few studies have been carried out to quantify livestock depredation by wild predators. In the present study, we assessed the intensity of livestock depredation by snow leopard Uncia uncia, Tibetan wolf Canis lupus chanku, and Eurasian lynx Lynx l. isabellina in three villages, namely Gya, Rumtse, and Sasoma, within the proposed Gya-Miru Wildlife Sanctuary in Ladakh, India. The three villages reported losses of 295 animals to these carnivores during a period of 2.5 years ending in early 2003, which represents an annual loss rate of 2.9% of their livestock holdings. The Tibetan wolf was the most important predator, accounting for 60% of the total livestock loss because of predation, followed by snow leopard (38%) and lynx (2%). Domestic goat was the major victim (32%), followed by sheep (30%), yak (15%), and horse (13%). Wolves killed horses significantly more and goats less than would be expected from their relative abundance. Snow leopards also killed horses significantly more than expected, whereas they killed other livestock types in proportion to their abundance. The three villages combined incurred an estimated annual monetary loss of approximately $USD 12,120 amounting to approximately $USD 190/household/y. This relatively high total annual loss occurred primarily because of depredation of the most valuable livestock types such as yak and horse. Conservation actions should initially attempt to target decrease of predation on these large and valuable livestock species.     

A Decision-Aid Framework to Provide Guidance for the Enhanced Use of Best Available Techniques in Industry

Best Available Techniques (BATs) contribute significantly to the reduction of industrial environmental burdens with respect to air pollution, wastewater, and solid wastes. In Europe, the application of BATs is prescribed by Directive 96/61/EC, which, however, leaves the selection of specific BATs to plant operators. In making their choices, installations have to consider not only the environmental benefits of BATs, but also all relevant cost components. In assessing the economic attractiveness of potential BATs and their combinations, as well as incentives and disincentives to be instituted, the cost of environmental externalities, usually not reflected in market prices, should be taken into account. In this paper, a decision-aid framework combining an assessment of environmental externalities and the utilization of multicriteria methods and, more specifically, Multiobjective Mathematical Programming, capable of addressing all these issues in a comprehensive and coherent manner, is presented. This is illustrated by its application for the region of Attica in Greece, where over 50% of the industrial basis and Athens, with its 4 million inhabitants, are located. The implementation of the framework and its associated tools to 800 installations led to the identification of the specific BATs, alone or in combination, that provide the most cost-effective reductions of four air pollutants (PM10, SO₂, NO_x, VOC) and CO₂. The results also clearly demonstrate the increased pollution reductions that would result from the adoption of BATs made economically attractive by the inclusion of externalities. Estimates of investments and net present values with and without incentives/disincentives are also provided.     

Initiatives and outcomes of green supply chain management implementation by Chinese manufacturers

This paper aims to explore the green supply chain management (GSCM) initiatives (implementation) of various manufacturing industrial sectors in China and examine the links between GSCM initiatives and performance outcomes. We conducted a survey to collect data from four typical manufacturing industrial sectors in China, namely, power generating, chemical/petroleum, electrical/electronic and automobile, and received 171 valid organizational responses for data analysis. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data. The results are consistent with our prediction that the different manufacturing industry types display different levels of GSCM implementation and outcomes. We specifically found that the electrical/electronic industry has relatively higher levels of GSCM implementation and achieves better performance outcomes than the other three manufacturer types. Implications of the results are discussed and suggestions for further research on the implementation of GSCM are offered.     

基于投资结构视角的企业环保投资与财务绩效

通过回归分析法研究造纸与印刷业上市公司的环保投资与财务绩效的相关性,发现两者之间呈显著的正向线性关系。将环保投资按不同结构分类,发现污染预防投资比末端治理投资带来的财务绩效更明显,环保固定资产投资比技术投资在短期内带来的财务效益更明显。     

我国环境污染事故源解析研究

收集了2000²010年我国环境污染事故统计数据,并从污染事故的风险致灾因子、引发原因和主要涉及行业3个角度,对11年间的1065起污染事故案例展开深度剖析。结果表明:20002010年我国环境污染事故统计数据,并从污染事故的风险致灾因子、引发原因和主要涉及行业3个角度,对11年间的1065起污染事故案例展开深度剖析。结果表明:2000²010年间我国环境污染事故的主要风险致灾因子是工业废水,其造成的污染事故占事故总数的比例高达43%,应成为环境风险管理关注重点;人为因素引起的环境污染事故占事故总数的87.98%,是引发环境污染事故的主要原因;污染事故主要涉及的行业包括采矿业、制造业、电力燃气水的生产和供应业、交通运输业及废物治理业,其中,化学原料及化学品制造业发生的环境污染事故累计次数较高,达82起。因此企业需积极提高自身,同时相关部门需加强对重点行业、主要风险因子的监督审查力度。     

畜禽粪便沼气池使用中的注意事项和常见故障的排除方法

讨论了畜禽粪便沼气池使用过程中的注意事项及常见故障的排除。     

环境责任险试点行业定量化选取标准研究——以河南省化工行业为例

将经济规模、污染特征、国家名录制定、国家行业政策、环境风险事故5个方面作为行业选取的影响因素进行分析,构建了行业选取的定量化指标体系,采用层次分析法对权重进行赋值,并制定了不同指标等级判别标准。同时以河南省化工行业为实例进行了细类行业的选取研究,并进一步制定15个行业清单,建议其作为河南省环境责任险制度的试点行业,为管理部门的精细化和针对性管理提供了科学依据。     

Urbanization and environmental policy effects on the future availability of grazing resources on the Mongolian Plateau: Modeling socio-environmental system dynamics

The rangelands of the Mongolian Plateau are dynamic socio-environmental systems that are influenced by a complex network of drivers, including climate, social institutions, market forces, and national-scale policies affecting land access and management. The sustainability and resilience of rangelands in this region depend on the ability of residents and policy makers to quickly respond by adapting livelihoods and land uses to changes in environmental and socio-economic conditions, but the responses of the system to these changes are often non-linear and difficult to predict. We developed a system dynamics model to understand how the human, natural, and land-use processes in the Mongolian rangeland ecosystem interact to produce dynamic outcomes in both grassland productivity and livestock populations. We developed two separate models based on a common integrative framework for two case study areas: Suhkbaatar Aimag in Mongolia and Xilingol League in Inner Mongolia. We used future scenarios for each region generated with stakeholder input to forecast trends in grassland area, livestock numbers, and biomass under alternative climate, socioeconomic, and land-use futures. By incorporating stakeholder-developed scenarios, we were able to explore future scenarios tailored to the particular questions and concerns relevant to the individual study areas. We find that while there are many similarities in the factors driving system dynamics in the two countries, the trajectories of key grassland resources are quite different, both between the two study regions and across the individual scenarios. Environmental policies play a key role in Xilingol, while economic development is a key driver in Sukhbaatar. Urbanization dynamics will be a major influence on the availability of grassland resources in the future.     

燕山石化公司工业废渣填埋场环境现状分析

在简单介绍工业废渣填埋场工程、运行管理、填埋废物情况的基础上，对渣场及周边环境状况进行分析，并对今后工作提出改进建议。