Ecological Risk Assessment of Arsenic and Metals in Surface Sediments from Estuarine and Coastal Areas of the Southern Bohai Sea,China

Distribution and magnitude of arsenic and metals in surface sediments collected from the coastal and estuarine areas of the southern Bohai Sea, China, were investigated. Sediments from the estuarine and coastal areas of the Jie and Xiaoqing Rivers contained highest concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, copper, mercury, and zinc. Mean concentrations of Cu, Zn, Cr, Pb, and Cd were higher than background concentrations determined for the areas. The magnitude of both enrichment factors (EF) and geoaccumulation indices (I_geo) suggested that pollution with As and metals was occurring along estuarine and coastal areas of the southern Bohai Sea. Risk analysis also suggested that concentrations of As and metals were sufficiently elevated as to cause adverse biological effects in the study area. According to the ecological risk index (RI) values, the upstream of the Jie River has a very high ecological risk for the waterbody. The data provided in this study are considered crucial for controlling and remediation of As and metals’ pollution of the southern Bohai Sea.     

State-space modeling clarifies productivity regime shifts of Japanese flying squid

Regime shifts of climatic and environmental conditions potentially affect the productivity of fishery resources, posing challenges in stock management. The stocks of the Japanese flying squid (Todarodes pacificus) are suspected to suffer from regime shifts, but detecting the occurrence of regime shifts in this species is generally difficult and unreliable because the short-lived nature of this species inherently confounds the effect of regime shifts with observation and process errors. Here we developed a new state-space assessment model to evaluate the influence of regime shifts on the spawner-recruit relationship of the Japanese flying squid. The model simultaneously estimates the population dynamics of multiple stocks that could share some life history parameters, thereby stabilizing parameter inference. We demonstrate that two regime shifts in productivity around 1991 and 2015 caused two- to threefold changes of maximum sustainable yields. The model with regime shifts clarifies the relationship between fishing pressure and spawner abundance that is difficult to detect in a model with no regime shift. The state-space approach is a promising tool for accurately assessing stock status by separating the recruitment process from observation errors and is expected to contribute to the effective management of marine biological resources sensitive to regime shifts.     

Health Risk Assessment of Petrol Station Workers in the Inner City of Bangkok,Thailand, to the Exposure to BTEX and Carbonyl Compounds by Inhalation

The occupational health risk of petrol station workers from exposure to BTEX and carbonyl compounds via inhalation was estimated in the inner city of Bangkok. Personal sampling was performed within the workers’ breathing zone using 2,4 dinitrophenylhydrazine cartridges and charcoal glass tubes connected to a personal air pump during eight working hours at six petrol stations. BTEX and carbonyl compounds were quantitatively analyzed by GC/FID and HPLC/UV, respectively. Of all detectable BTEX and carbonyl compounds, the levels of the four most prevalent compounds (benzene, ethylbenzene, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde) were used to assess the lifetime cancer risk and 95% confidence interval of the risk levels were found to be totally higher than acceptable criteria for benzene (1.82 × 10^–4–2.50 × 10^–4), formaldehyde (7.81 × 10^–6–1.04 × 10^–5), ethylbenzene (4.11 × 10^–6–5.52 × 10^–6), and acetaldehyde (1.39 × 10^–6–2.45 × 10^–6). Thus, petrol station workers in the inner city of Bangkok have a potentially high cancer risk through inhalation exposure. With respect to the noncarcinogenic agents, toluene, m,p-xylene, o-xylene, and propionaldehyde, all non-cancer health risk were within hazard quotients of 1 and of acceptable risk.     

Trust and risk in a German chemical town

This article examines the relationship between trust and risk in one of the centres of the global chemical industry, Ludwigshafen in Germany. A single industry town associated for 150 years with BASF, the dominant outlook among those living or working there has been one of trust, confidence and pride in the corporation which has ‘put the town on the map’. Yet beneath the surface, subtle shifts in public assumptions and expectations about BASF and the town's chemical industry are now occurring. We describe the parameters of public reflection about trust and risk, analyse how characterizations of BASF are changing, and consider how far recent writing on trust helps in understanding its salience in this particular industrial town.     

Evaluation of the sustainability of contrasted pig farming systems: breeding programmes

The sustainability of breeding activities in 15 pig farming systems in five European countries was evaluated. One conventional and two differentiated systems per country were studied. The Conventional systems were the standard systems in their countries. The differentiated systems were of three categories: Adapted Conventional with focus on animal welfare, meat quality or environment (five systems); Traditional with local breeds in small-scale production (three systems) and Organic (two systems). Data were collected with a questionnaire from nine breeding organisations providing animals and semen to the studied farming systems and from, on average, five farmers per farming system. The sustainability assessment of breeding activities was performed in four dimensions. The first dimension described whether the market for the product was well defined, and whether the breeding goal reflected the farming system and the farmers’ demands. The second dimension described recording and selection procedures, together with genetic change in traits that were important in the system. The third dimension described genetic variation, both within and between pig breeds. The fourth dimension described the management of the breeding organisation, including communication, transparency, and technical and human resources. The results show substantial differences in the sustainability of breeding activities, both between farming systems within the same category and between different categories of farming systems. The breeding activities are assessed to be more sustainable for conventional systems than for differentiated systems in three of the four dimensions. In most differentiated farming systems, breeding goals are not related to the system, as these systems use the same genetic material as conventional systems. The breeds used in Traditional farming systems are important for genetic biodiversity, but the small scale of these systems renders them vulnerable. It is hoped that, by reflecting on different aspects of sustainability, this study will encourage sustainable developments in pig production.     

The method matters: A guide for indicator aggregation in ecological assessments

Ecological assessment requires the integration of many physical, chemical, and/or biological quality elements. The choice of the aggregation method of such partial assessments into an overall assessment can considerably affect the assessment outcome – an issue that has been controversially discussed within the scientific community for the last decade. Current practice often considers only two different aggregation methods, the weighted arithmetic mean (additive aggregation) and the one-out, all-out method (minimum aggregation). However, both have important drawbacks. Additive aggregation compensates a bad status of one quality element by a number of elements featuring good status. Minimum aggregation can lead to overly pessimistic assessment results, since only the quality element in the worst status is considered. Here, we introduce a toolbox containing current and new aggregation methods, demonstrate and discuss their properties with simple, didactical examples, and suggest in which situations best to use them. Then, we illustrate the consequences of selected aggregation schemes for ecological river assessment with the case study of the Swiss Modular Concept of stream assessment (SMC), which we apply to ten river reaches in the Mönchaltdorfer Aa catchment in Switzerland. To be able to do so, we used multi-criteria decision analysis, i.e., multi-attribute value theory, to arrange the SMC quality elements into an objectives hierarchy, and to translate their individual assessments into value functions. Our case study revealed that choosing the most appropriate aggregation method particularly matters, if objectives with significantly different qualities are aggregated. We argue that redundant objectives (i.e., quality elements), often found at the lower levels of the objectives hierarchy, should best be aggregated additively allowing for compensation to increase the statistical significance of the results. Further, we suggest that complementary sub-objectives that often occur at higher levels may be optimally aggregated with a mixture of additive and minimum aggregation. Such a mixed method will allow some compensation, but nevertheless penalize for very bad states. Since here we compare commonly used aggregation methods with some which we believe have never been discussed in an assessment context before, our study concurrently informs ecological assessment in theory and in practice.     

Assessment of Fluoride in Three Selected Polluted Environments along the Egyptian Mediterranean Sea: Effects on Local Populations

Fluoride ion (F^?) is a relevant component of concern due to its potential toxicity for humankind. This study clarifies the status of F^? for human health in three polluted regions along the Egyptian Mediterranean Sea coast, and determining its contents in seawater and different fish tissues (muscle, skin, brain, and bone). Fluoride ion concentrations in different fish tissues had a descending trend of brain > skin > muscle > bone with averages of 26.8 ± 26.0, 24.8 ± 6.5, 12.7 ± 2.3, and 9.0 ± 1.6 μg F^?/g wet wt, respectively. The bioconcentration factor for fluoride ion in different fish tissues was determined and multivariate analyses were conducted. The human health hazard assessment from fish consumption and seawater contact using hazard quotient (HQ) and ingestion and dermal absorption dose of whole body for different ages of females and males as well as the specified body parts (legs, arms, and hands) were calculated. Although the calculated daily intake values for ingestion of fish in the present study were lower than some established tolerable daily intake values, their hazard quotients were within 1 ≥ HQ < 10 and may reflect a possible fluoride adverse effect on human health from the consumption of the gathered fish species.     

The New Zealand falcon and wind farms: a risk assessment framework

Abstract

Internationally, birds of prey are often reported as being relatively prone to collision with wind turbines in comparison to other groups of birds. However, as yet it is unclear to what extent New Zealand's only endemic bird of prey, the New Zealand falcon (Falco novaeseelandiae), is at risk. In this paper we summarise the potential for wind farms to impact New Zealand falcon, evaluate the efficacy of a range of risk assessment and post-consent monitoring practices, and present options for mitigating and/or offsetting any residual effects. We conclude that the lack of knowledge on the effects of wind farms on New Zealand falcon is the result of inconsistency in the assessment methods thus far employed and the absence of a coordinated approach to monitoring methods and the dissemination of results. To remedy this we present a risk assessment framework that, if adopted, will provide the information necessary to ensure alternative energy targets can be met without compromising the conservation of this threatened species.     

Chronobiology of Coronary Risk Markers in Greenland Eskimos: A Comparative Study with Caucasians Residing in the Same Arctic Area

We report a comparison of fibrinolytic variables between 10 Caucasians on a predominantly European diet and 10 Greenland Eskimos on a traditional Inuit diet containing a substantial amount of fish and sea animals. We studied the diurnal variation in tissue type plasminogen activator (t-PA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI) antigens and activities during a 24-h period. Blood samples were taken every 4 h. The variations of the sinusoidal curves were evaluated by the Friedman χ² test. t-PA and PAI-1 antigen in plasma fluctuated significantly during the 24 h (Eskimos p < 0.000007 and p < 0.0007; Caucasians p < 0.00003 and p < 0.02), with a peak in the early morning and a nadir in the afternoon. This also held true for PA1 activity (Eskimos p < 0.0008; Caucasians p < O.Ol), whereas t-PA activity showed an inverse but still significant pattern (Eskimos p < 0.006; Caucasians p < 0.0008). Amplitudes, areas underneath, and overall medians of the sinusoidal curves did not deviate between the two groups with respect to t-PA and PAL In contrast to the significant variation of t-PA and PAI, the plasma concentrations of fibrin degradation products (D-Dimer), a measure of effective fibrinolysis, remained constant during the 24 h, and the absolute differences between groups did not reach statistical significance. These findings suggest that circadian variation of fibrinolytic activators and inhibitors is a basic biologic phenomenon, which is not affected by life-style, dietary habits, or ethnic differences. Furthermore, the lack of diurnal variation in D-Dimer raises the question of whether there is a causal relationship between low morning activities of t-PA and the frequent onset of myocardial infarction at that time of day, as suggested by several authors.