乡镇工业职业卫生服务与初级卫生保健相结合初探

针对我国乡镇工业职业卫生面临的“高需求、低服务”。以及与农村初级卫生保健(PHC)相脱节问题。提出实施乡镇企业职业卫生与PHC相结合的必要性和迫切性。结合WHO职业卫生合作中心(上海)在华东地区的试点探索,提出两者结合的内容和方式的若干设想,强调从更新观念全面认识PHC和把职业卫生与安全作为PHC组成部分入手,深入实践,共同为卫生部领导下的全国性探索作贡献。     

INTERBASIN TRANSFERS: DO WE NEED THEM?'

ABSTRACT
Three main issues are discussed: the demands for additional water stemming from population dispersion; supply alternatives to large-scale interbasin transfers; and the displacement of agriculture from nonprofit regions. It is concluded that population dispersion is unlikely to increase aggregate water demands; that large additional supplies are available from other sources at lesser costs; and that a very likely consequence of large-scale transfers will be the displacement of agriculture in other parts of the country.     

The Truth about Public Health Protection and Community Sewerage and Water Supply Sanitation in Developing Countries

Since the establishment, following World War II, of the World System, by which the affluent industrialized countries established various international assistance agencies (including the multilateral development banks, UN affiliates, and Bilaterals), these assistance agencies have invested very large sums in helping finance planning and construction of community sewerage and water supply facilities in the developing countries. However, much of this large investment has been ineffective and wasted, primarily because of the lack of understanding by the staff of the assistance agencies that the design criteria for the facilities must be modified to suit the socio-economic status of the developing country. The developing countries are relatively very poor in terms of available finances, hence cannot afford to emulate Western environmental standards and design practices, especially as related to operation and maintenance, hence much simpler approaches must be used. Experiences in several Asian countries are discussed, and a recommendation is made on how to go about resolving this problem.     

The Cost of Developing Site-Specific Environmental Regulations: Evidence from EPA's Project XL

The flagship of the Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory reinvention initiative, Project XL has been touted as a regulatory blueprint for a site-specific, performance-based pollution-control system, but widespread complaints about the costs of the program beg the question of whether the costs of tailoring regulations to individual facilities are manageable. To address this question, this paper presents original survey data on a sample of 11 XL projects. We find that the fixed costs of putting in place XL agreements are substantial, averaging over $450,000 per firm. While stakeholder negotiations are widely cited as the principal source for these costs, we find that they actually arise mainly from interaction between participating facilities and the EPA. Moreover, EPA management problems are perceived by our survey respondents as having inflated project development costs. Finally, we find that the key factors that explains differences in costs across XL projects are the scope and complexity of the project proposal. These findings suggest that Project XL favors large firms that can afford to pay significant project development costs, that EPA management problems must be resolved to reduce costs, and that there may be a significant economic bias against complex and innovative proposals—precisely the type of proposals that Project XL was designed to foster in order to improve the efficiency of the regulatory system.     

Environmental Health Policy: Analytic “Framing” of the Great Lakes Picture

/ The International Joint Commission (IJC) has overseen the implementation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between Canada and the United States for 25 years. Part of its mandate has been to facilitate international cooperation among a diversity of stakeholders focusing on the "waters" and the "ecosystem." In the 1970s policy focused on phosphorus reduction and individual contaminants, with some efforts (after 1978) to take an ecosystem (ecological perspectives) approach. In the last 15 years human health effects from (real and perceived) environmental causes have received considerable recognition. By contrast, less concern has been expressed for what is traditionally considered "environment" issues (such as protecting fish species). This shift at the policy level is well illustrated in the manner in which human health is increasingly used as a way for mobilizing environmental agendas. This paper analyzes nine IJC biennial reports to track how the framing of Great Lakes issues has shifted from concern for its waters to concern for human neurobehavior and reproductive systems. Frame analysis is used to conceptualize the controversies that are expressed through the Great Lakes policy documents. The analysis of the reports also reveals a shift in operational frames, used by the IJC to mobilize decision-makers into action.     

EFFLUENT FEES,AN ALTERNATIVE SYSTEM FOR ACHIEVING WATER QUALITY: A CASE STUDY1

This paper reports the findings of a case study of the relative costs of a uniform standards system and an effluent fee system of water quality control. A 30-mile stretch of the Black Warrior River in Alabama is considered. The analysis demonstrates that the dischargers could reduce total pollution abatement costs by 33 percent under the suggested effluent fee system.     

COST REDUCTIONS DUE TO SEASONAL VARIATION IN MUNICIPAL WASTE WATER TREATMENT LEVELS1

ABSTRACT: Varying treatment levels to meet seasonal variation in assimilative capacity of streams can reduce total costs of treatment. A mathematical model of a Pennsylvania stream based on a theoretically sound approximation of the physical relationships underlying the distribution of DO in a river system was used to determine discharge constraints for an economic optimization model which produced estimates of sewage treatment cost savings. Increasing the number of flow periods during the year enhances cost reducing opportunities even when land application processes are considered. Also, the least cost treatment process for year around operation may not be the least costly under multiple flow period management.     

Occupational safety and health education under the lifelong learning framework in Serbia

Serbia is aligning with European Union requirements and the occupational safety and health (OSH) administration is one of the most representative sectors of this alignment. Many efforts were made in this field, by introducing new laws and regulations, but it turned out to be insufficient. OSH professionals need to renovate and strengthen their knowledge in accordance with continuous, updated and improved OSH standards and regulation. Lifelong learning (LLL) programmes can contribute to forming professionals who are always up to date. This paper presents an implemented LLL programme, over the duration of two academic years, dedicated to OSH professionals, and investigates whether this programme will be helpful and accepted by professionals. The results from the study show that the given LLL programme had indeed a positive influence on the professional careers of the participants and that the LLL presents the future trend in OSH education.     

Temporal dynamics of arsenic uptake and distribution: food and water risks in the Bengal basin

Abstract

Contaminated food chain is a serious contender for arsenic (As) uptake around the globe. In Nadia, West Bengal, we trace possible means of transfer of As from multiple sources reaching different trophic levels, and associated seasonal variability leading to chronic As uptake. This work considers possible sources-pathways of As transfer through food chain in rural community. Arsenic concentration in groundwater, soil, rice, and vegetable-samples collected detected in different harvest seasons of 2014 and 2016. Arsenic level in shallow groundwater samples ranged from 0.1 to 354?µg/L, with 75% of the sites above the prescribed limit by WHO (10?µg/L) during the boro harvest season. High soil As content (～20.6?mg/kg), resulted in accumulation of As in food crops. A positive correlation in As conc. with increase over period in all sites indicating gradual As accumulation in topsoil. Unpolished rice samples showed high As content (～1.75?mg/kg), polishing reduced 80% of As. Among vegetables, the plant family Poaceae with high irrigation requirements and Solanaceae retaining high moisture, have the highest levels of As. Contaminated animal fodder (Poaceae) and turf water for cattle are shown to contaminate milk (0.06 to 0.24?µg/L) and behoves strategies, practices to minimize As exposure.     

“Food Metaphors and Ethics: Towards More Attention for Bodily Experience”

Official Dutch food information apparently tries to avoid images but is implicitly shaped by the metaphor that food is fuel. The image of food as fuel and its accompanying view of the body as a machine are not maximally helpful for integrating two important human desires: health and pleasure. At the basis of the split between health and pleasure is the traditional mind–body dichotomy, in which the body is an important source of evil and bodily pleasure is sinful and dangerous. In the search for alternatives, new metaphors are proposed that integrate mind and body as well as pleasure and health. The relevance of metaphors for ethics is at least twofold. (1) Moral thought and theory are at least partly shaped by metaphors. In the light of this growing recognition, the analysis of morality needs innovation. (2) With regard to food, new metaphors, such as slow food, or the image of enjoyment as an art, enable a new search for morally responsible forms of hedonism, based on more love and respect for human as well as animal bodies. But new metaphors are specific and selective, just like old ones. I argue that a search for the best overall metaphor would be misguided, but that more diverse forms of attention to bodily aspects of life, including experiences related to food, will result in richer vocabularies of the body, the mind, and body–mind relations. This holds a promise of moral progress.