This paper studies the effects of adaptation and mitigation on the impacts of sea level rise. Without adaptation, the impact
of sea level rise would be substantial, almost wiping out entire countries by 2100, although the globally aggregate effect
is much smaller. Adaptation would reduce potential impacts by a factor 10–100. Adaptation would come at a minor cost compared
to the damage avoided. As adaptation depends on socio-economic status, the rank order of most vulnerable countries is different
than the rank order of most exposed countries. Because the momentum of sea level rise is so large, mitigation can reduce impacts
only to a limited extent. Stabilising carbon dioxide concentrations at 550 ppm would cut impacts in 2100 by about 10%. However,
the costs of emission reduction lower the avoided impacts by up to 25% (average 10%). This is partly due to the reduced availability
of resources for adaptation, and partly due to the increased sensitivity to wetland loss by adaptation.
Occupational exposure limits (OELs) developed by authorities play a key role in the implementation of programs to protect workers against hazardous chemicals. Unfortunately, many hazardous substances do not have OELs or the OEL could be outdated. To assure the health of the workers, it is therefore useful for companies to develop corporate OELs. An inhouse strategy will be presented hereafter. Expertise in toxicology, industrial hygiene, and occupational health should be available within the company and clear selection criteria for substances are needed. A corporate OEL is only developed for hazardous substances (e.g., carcinogenic or reprotoxic) with a high potential for worker exposure when an appropriate national OEL or threshold limit value is not available. The methodology to calculate corporate OELs is based on the existing methods for national or community OELs and also on the guidance from the European Union's (EU) regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). For carcinogenic substances with a nonthreshold mode of action, there is always a residual chance that a cancer develops even when the exposure of workers is low. To establish an OEL for these substances, the “German traffic light model” is recommended. It is pragmatic, defines an unacceptable, tolerable, and acceptable risk level when workers are exposed to these substances, and determines risk management for exposure reduction. Overall, the professional practice to develop OELs is a good example of corporate leadership to proactively protect the health of workers. 相似文献
A nutrient loss reduction strategy is necessary to guide the efforts of improving water quality downstream of an agricultural watershed. In this study, the effectiveness of two winter cover crops, namely cereal rye and annual ryegrass, is explored as a loss reduction strategy in a watershed that ultimately drains into a water supply reservoir. Using a coupled optimization-watershed model, optimal placements of the cover crops were identified that would result in the tradeoffs between nitrate-N losses reduction and adoption levels. Analysis of the 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% adoption levels extracted from the optimal tradeoffs showed that the cover crop placements would provide annual nitrate-N loss reductions of 3.0%–3.7%, 7.8%–8.8%, 15%–17.5%, and 20.9%–24.3%, respectively. In addition, for the same adoption levels (i.e., 10%–75%), sediment (1.8%–17.7%), and total phosphorus losses (0.8%–8.6%) could be achieved. Results also indicate that implementing each cover crop on all croplands of the watershed could cause annual water yield reduction of at least 4.8%, with greater than 28% in the months of October and November. This could potentially be detrimental to the storage volume of the downstream reservoir, especially in drought years, if cover crops are adopted in most of the reservoir's drainage area. Evaluating water yield impacts, particularly in periods of low flows, is thus critical if cover crops are to be considered as best management practices in water supply watersheds. 相似文献
The applications of chlorine have been broadly used in many industrial products, such as bleaching agents, synthetic rubbers, plastics, disinfectants, iron chlorides, fire refractory materials, insecticides, and anti-freezers, etc. According to the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (TEPA), more than 30 thousand tons were used in the year 2000. In addition, there were more than 12 reported incidents from 2000 to 2003—mostly on using chlorine as disinfectants (five) and as process agents (four).
This study investigated 15 chlorine operation plants in central Taiwan. These chlorine usages included bleaching agents, disinfectants, iron chloride, synthesizing rubber plastics, and others. Thirteen plants were located in the industrial parks and two were in or near residential zones. The consequence analysis were used three different methods to analyze the worst-case scenarios (WCSs) and alternative release case scenarios (ACSs) in order to compare impact zones for applying various active and passive mitigation systems, such as confined space, scrubber, water-spray, and so no. For two plants in or near residential zones, multi-layers mitigation systems and operation limits should be implemented in order to enforce more stringent protection measures. However, there was no specific regulation for chlorine plants operated at different locations, such as industrial parks or residential zones. In order to reduce chemical accidents and their impacts on public safety, our results suggest that source mitigation/management and warning systems should be adopted simultaneously. 相似文献