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PubMed2004

Emission trading and public health.

Emission trading policies are increasingly important in environmental protection, especially in controlling air pollution in the United States. Their popularity results in part from the limitations and frustrations of centralized command and control regulation. Well-designed emission trading programs can achieve the same or better environmental and health outcomes as command and control regulations but provide regulated industries with greater flexibility. This lowers costs and improves the process of negotiating environmental policy. We present key concepts and important applications of emission trading, focusing on health impacts. These programs generally are well-designed, speeding emission abatement; improving health outcomes; and reducing compliance costs. Flaws have stopped a few poorly designed emission trading programs. A key issue in evaluating emission trading is our inability to know what the environmental outcome would have been under another approach.

Air Pollution↗
PubMed2005

Lessons learned for the assessment of children's pesticide exposure: critical sampling and analytical issues for future studies.

In this article we examine sampling strategies and analytical methods used in a series of recent studies of children's exposure to pesticides that may prove useful in the design and implementation of the National Children's Study. We focus primarily on the experiences of four of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/ Children's Centers and include University of Washington studies that predated these centers. These studies have measured maternal exposures, perinatal exposures, infant and toddler exposures, and exposure among young children through biologic monitoring, personal sampling, and environmental monitoring. Biologic monitoring appears to be the best available method for assessment of children's exposure to pesticides, with some limitations. It is likely that a combination of biomarkers, environmental measurements, and questionnaires will be needed after careful consideration of the specific hypotheses posed by investigators and the limitations of each exposure metric. The value of environmental measurements, such as surface and toy wipes and indoor air or house dust samples, deserves further investigation. Emphasis on personal rather than environmental sampling in conjunction with urine or blood sampling is likely to be most effective at classifying exposure. For infants and young children, ease of urine collection (possible for extended periods of time) may make these samples the best available approach to capturing exposure variability of nonpersistent pesticides; additional validation studies are needed. Saliva measurements of pesticides, if feasible, would overcome the limitations of urinary metabolite-based exposure analysis. Global positioning system technology appears promising in the delineation of children's time-location patterns.

Child↗
PubMed2000

Public health law in a new century: part II: public health powers and limits.

The Constitution allocates public health powers among the federal government and the states. Federal public health powers include the authority to tax, spend, and regulate interstate commerce. These powers enable the federal government to raise revenues, allocate resources, economically penalize risk behavior, and broadly regulate in the public's interest. States have an inherent authority to protect, preserve, and promote the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the people, termed police powers. Police powers enable states to preserve the public health in areas ranging from injury and disease prevention to sanitation, waste disposal, and environmental protection. The Rehnquist Court has emphasized the limits of federal powers and the primacy of states in public health issues affecting local concerns. Finally, the Constitution safeguards individual interests in autonomy, privacy, liberty, and property. The Supreme Court often defers to public health authorities in matters of public health, but engages in strict scrutiny if government interferes with fundamental freedoms or discriminates against a suspect class. Provided that they act justly and reasonably to avert a serious health threat, the Court should cede to agencies the power to act for the communal good. JAMA. 2000.

Contracts↗
PubMed2001

Control of chemical risks during the treatment of soil contaminated with chlorophenol, creosote and copper-chrome-arsenic-wood preservatives.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to chemicals in polluted soil was studied during the remediation of four polluted sites. They are sawmill areas contaminated with chlorophenols and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furanes (PCDD/F), wood impregnating plants contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from creosote oil, old gas works area contaminated with PAH, and a wood impregnation plant contaminated with copper-chromium-arsenic (CCA) preservative. METHODS: The exposure levels were determined by both air and biological monitoring. RESULTS: Air monitoring showed that the exposure levels were generally well below the current occupational exposure limits. The calculations indicated, however, that the lowest acceptable daily intake value recommended for PCDD/F by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was exceeded. Chlorophenol exposure was generally low. Exposure to volatile PAH was 0.038-0.884 mg/m(3) and that to particulate PAH was 0.004-0.183 mg/m(3). The biomonitoring results (urinary 1-pyrenol) suggested that some exposure occurs, probably through the contamination of hands or skin absorption. At the sites contaminated with CCA salts, no exposure limits were exceeded. CONCLUSIONS: The results generally suggest that the exposure of cleanup workers is generally below the current occupational exposure limits but that short-term high exposure cannot be excluded. There was also some indication of poor skin protection, which should be improved when soil contaminated with PAH and creosote oil is handled.

Arsenic↗
PubMed2001

A paradigm of international environmental law: the case for controlling the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes.

The production of large quantities of wastes globally has created a commercial activity involving the transfrontier shipments of hazardous wastes, intended to be managed at economically attractive waste-handling facilities located elsewhere. In fact, huge quantities of hazardous wastes apparently travel the world in search of "acceptable" waste management facilities. For instance, within the industrialized countries alone, millions of tonnes of potentially hazardous waste cross national frontiers each year on their way for recycling or to treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs) because there is no local disposal capacity for these wastes, or because legal disposal or reuse in a foreign country may be more environmentally sound, or managing the wastes in the foreign country may be less expensive than at home. The cross-boundary traffic in hazardous wastes has lately been under close public scrutiny, however, resulting in the accession of several international agreements and laws to regulate such activities. This paper discusses and analyzes the most significant control measures and major agreements in this new commercial activity involving hazardous wastes. In particular, the discussion recognizes the difficulties with trying to implement the relevant international agreements among countries of vastly different socioeconomic backgrounds. Nonetheless, it is also noted that global environmental agreements will generally be a necessary component of ensuring adequate environmental protection for the world community-and thus a need for the careful implementation of such agreements and regulations.

Environmental Pollution↗
PubMed2005

Co-occurrence of triclocarban and triclosan in U.S. water resources.

Triclocarban (TCC) and triclosan (TCS) are antimicrobial additives in personal care products. Whereas TCS has been studied extensively, the environmental fate of TCC remains largely unknown. To address this data gap, we performed quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analyses that suggested a propensity of TCC to persist in various environmental compartments with predicted half-lives ranging from 0.75 days in air to 540 days in sediment. Moreover, concentrations of both antimicrobials were measured in 42 environmental samples from the Greater Baltimore region using a combination of solid-phase extraction, liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry, and isotope dilution. The co-occurrence of TCC and TCS was observed, owing to similar properties, usage, disposal, and environmental half-lives. A linear empirical correlation (R2 = 0.9882) fit the log-log-transformed data from diverse aquatic media and spanned 5 orders of magnitude in concentration. Occurrences of TCC predicted for 85 U.S. streams were statistically indistinguishable from experimental regional data (alpha < or = 0.05). Annual loading of antimicrobials to water resources probably is dominated by activated sludge treatment plants (39-67%), followed by trickling filters (31-54%) and combined and sanitary sewer overflows (2-7% and <0.2%, respectively). Study results suggest that TCC is a previously unrecognized contaminant of U.S. water resources nationwide, likely ranking in the top 10 in occurrence rate and in the top 20 in maximum concentration among 96 organic pollutants considered. The magnitude and frequency of TCC contamination (regional, 6750 ng/L, 68%; predicted nationwide for 1999--2000, 1150 ng/L, 60%) were markedly higher than non-peer-reviewed numbers (240 ng/L, 30%, U.S.) currently used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for evaluating TCC's ecological and human health risks.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Temporal variability of benzene exposures for residents in several New Jersey homes with attached garages or tobacco smoke.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) previous TEAM studies of personal exposure to VOCs for 700 residents in several U.S. cities found that indoor air concentrations were often higher than outdoor levels. Several potential sources of benzene exposure were identified, including environmental tobacco smoke and materials or activities associated with attached garages. Indoor, personal, and outdoor monitoring was conducted at eleven New Jersey homes over multiple 12-hr monitoring periods. One study objective was to assess the impact of attached garages on human exposure to benzene and the variability of benzene exposure across time. Benzene was also measured in several homes inhabited by smokers and in homes without known combustion sources for comparative purposes. At homes with a garage or environmental tobacco smoke, mean indoor and personal benzene concentrations were two to five times higher than outdoor levels at all but one home. Mean personal exposures ranged from 8 to 31 micrograms/m3. Indoor/outdoor ratios were calculated and ranged from 0.8 to 11. Benzene levels in the four garages ranged from 3 to 196 micrograms/m3 and usually were higher than either indoor living areas or personal levels. Multi-zone air exchange rates were measured, and benzene source strengths in each zone were estimated. Garage source strength estimates for benzene ranged from 310 to 52,000 micrograms/h. The mass transfer of benzene from sources in the garage to home living areas was also large in three of the homes, ranging from 730 to 26,000 micrograms/h. Materials or activities in the garage were a source of benzene exposure for the residents in these three homes. Large temporal variations (factors of 2 to 30) were observed in indoor and personal benzene concentrations, indoor/outdoor ratios, and source strengths over the six or ten monitoring periods at each home. Changes in outdoor air benzene levels were an underlying factor in changing exposure levels, with indoor sources further elevating indoor air levels and personal exposures.

Air Pollution, Indoor↗
PubMed1995

[Importance of risk assessment in occupational medicine].

The principles of risk assessment and its relevance in the working environment are discussed. Occupational health protection is a complicated process comprising risk assessment, health monitoring and eventually treatment of irreversible health effects. Risk assessment consists of the following four steps: hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment and risk characterization. Although established for environmental protection, risk assessment is also used in occupational hazard identification and determination of priorities and risk management in occupational health and safety. In Croatia, the methodology of risk assessment is still undeveloped. The paper emphasises the role of occupational health in risk assessment and in implementation of the results of this complex process in the working environment.

Humans↗
PubMed1997

ENVIRONMENTAL AUDITING: A Synoptic Approach for Assessing CumulativeImpacts to Wetlands

/ The US Environmental Protection Agency's Wetlands ResearchProgram has developed the synoptic approach as a proposed method forassessing cumulative impacts to wetlands by providing both a general and acomprehensive view of the environment. It can also be applied more broadly toregional prioritization of environmental issues. The synoptic approach is aframework for making comparisons between landscape subunits, such aswatersheds, ecoregions, or counties, thereby allowing cumulative impacts tobe considered in management decisions. Because there is a lack of tools thatcan be used to address cumulative impacts within regulatory constraints, thesynoptic approach was designed as a method that could make use of availableinformation and best professional judgement. Thus, the approach is acompromise between the need for rigorous results and the need for timelyinformation. It is appropriate for decision making when quantitative,accurate information is not available; the cost of improving existinginformation or obtaining better information is high; the cost of a wronganswer is low; there is a high demand for the information; and the situationcalls for setting priorities between multiple decisions versus optimizing fora single decision. The synoptic approach should be useful for resourcemanagers because an assessment is timely; it can be completed within one totwo years at relatively low cost, tested, and improved over time. Anassessment can also be customized to specific needs, and the results arepresented in mapped format. However, the utility of a synoptic assessmentdepends on how well knowledge of the environment is incorporated into theassessment, relevant to particular management questions.KEY WORDS: Cumulative impact assessment; Landscape ecology; Regionalprioritization

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

What Is Source Reduction? A Critique and Comparative Analysis of Polish and American Students.

/ Source reduction is recognized as the preferred form of waste management, but its definition is ambiguous. This study proposes four underlying dimensions of the source reduction concept. Source reduction is foremost a preventive activity that reduces the number or extent of environmental impacts. Second, source reduction can prevent both resource consumption and pollution generation impacts. Third, source reduction may be viewed as both a producer and consumer activity. Lastly, it may include frugal and more efficient activities. In surveys exploring these fourdimensions, Polish and American university students evaluated whether 20 activities were examples of source reduction. The American students gave higher ratings to preventive activities over adaptive activities. The Polish students most prominently rated efficient over frugal activities. Factor analysis indicated that both samples identified a group of consumer-based resource conservation activities, with the American students recognizing a cluster of recycling activities. In a separate ranking of environmental protection priorities, the Polish students endorsed pollution prevention, whereas the American students favored both efficient and frugal resource conservation. These findings suggest that the conceptualization of source reduction varies according to contextual factors and that prevention is still an obscure environmental management theme. KEY WORDS: Source reduction; Pollution prevention; Resource conservation; Frugality; Poland

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

SMIREP: predicting chemical activity from SMILES.

Most approaches to structure-activity-relationship (SAR) prediction proceed in two steps. In the first step, a typically large set of fingerprints, or fragments of interest, is constructed (either by hand or by some recent data mining techniques). In the second step, machine learning techniques are applied to obtain a predictive model. The result is often not only a highly accurate but also hard to interpret model. In this paper, we demonstrate the capabilities of a novel SAR algorithm, SMIREP, which tightly integrates the fragment and model generation steps and which yields simple models in the form of a small set of IF-THEN rules. These rules contain SMILES fragments, which are easy to understand to the computational chemist. SMIREP combines ideas from the well-known IREP rule learner with a novel fragmentation algorithm for SMILES strings. SMIREP has been evaluated on three problems: the prediction of binding activities for the estrogen receptor (Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Distributed Structure-Searchable Toxicity (DSSTox) National Center for Toxicological Research estrogen receptor (NCTRER) Database), the prediction of mutagenicity using the carcinogenic potency database (CPDB), and the prediction of biodegradability on a subset of the Environmental Fate Database (EFDB). In these applications, SMIREP has the advantage of producing easily interpretable rules while having predictive accuracies that are comparable to those of alternative state-of-the-art techniques.

Algorithms↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Occupational exposure to ethylene oxide: effects and control.

Ethylene oxide (EO) is widely used in the health care industry as a gas sterilant for medical products that cannot withstand the high temperature and humidity associated with conventional steam sterilization. As a consequence, approximately 100,000 health care workers are exposed to residual EO each year. The acute toxicity of exposure to EO has been well documented, and recent concern about the mutagenic potential of occupational exposure to EO has resulted in an effort to further reduce workplace exposure levels to EO. The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a rebuttal presumption against registration of EO as a pesticide and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) has proposed a sharp reduction in the threshold limit value permitted for EO. Recognizing the need for environmental health personnel to become more familiar with this workplace hazard, it is appropriate to briefly review the toxic effects of acute and chronic exposure to EO residuals. The authors describe a gas sterilization system successfully utilized at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in New Orleans, La., which has demonstrated exposure concentrations well below the EO threshold limit value recently proposed by the ACGIH, while preserving the principal goal of assuring the sterility of reusable medical products which cannot be subjected to steam sterilization.

Central Supply, Hospital↗
PubMed2004

Changes in children's exposure as a function of age and the relevance of age definitions for exposure and health risk assessment.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to review and synthesize the existing exposure information available to support the characterization and estimation of children's environmental health risks as a function of age. METHOD: This includes a review of the existing peer-reviewed literature and reports from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) up through January 1, 2003 for information about exposure data for American children with a focus on identifying the age categories used and data gaps that limit our ability to estimate children's risks from exposure to environmental hazards. RESULTS: On the basis of this synthesis, several key data gaps emerge that suggest some areas in which exposure assessors may want to focus attention, including current breast milk consumption by infants and breastfeeding information for children over age 1 year; children's food-handling practices and how these lead to exposure (eg, by eating with dirty hands or by eating food that has dropped onto a contaminated surface); fish-intake rates for young children and for children whose families include sport fishers or whose families rely on self-caught fish for sustenance; incidental and intentional soil intake by children; soil adherence for dermal exposure; relationships between various microactivities, macroactivities, and microenvironments where children spend time; and a correlation between exposure factors and growth (ie, how children's exposure behaviors change over time). In contrast, relatively good exposure information exists for characterizing children's growth and water ingestion, and at least some exposure information exists for the wide ranges of exposures of regulatory interest. CONCLUSION: Given the currently available data, exposure assessors can estimate children's potential health risks from a number of different types of exposure, but longitudinal data are needed to reduce the significant uncertainties that arise from reliance on currently available data, and a number of dose-response challenges remain.

Aging↗
PubMed2003

Evaluation of NO(x) flue gas analyzers for accuracy and their applicability for low-concentration measurements.

The requirements of the Texas State Implementation Plan of the U.S. Clean Air Act for the Houston-Galveston Ozone Nonattainment Area stipulate large reductions in oxides of nitrogen (NO(x)) emissions. A large number of sources at Dow Chemical Co. sites within the nonattainment area may require the addition of continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) for online analysis of NO(x), CO, and O2. At the outset of this work, it was not known whether the analyzers could accurately measure NO(x) as low as 2 ppm. Therefore, NO(x) CEMS analyzers from five different companies were evaluated for their ability to reliably measure NO(x) in the 2-20 ppm range. Testing was performed with a laboratory apparatus that accurately simulated different mixtures of flue gas and, on a limited basis, simulated a dual-train sampling system on a gas turbine. The results indicate that this method is a reasonable approach for analyzer testing and reveal important technical performance aspects for accurate NO(x) measurements. Several commercial analyzers, if installed in a CEMS application with sampling conditioning components similar to those used in this study, can meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's measurement data quality requirements for accuracy.

Air Pollutants, Occupational↗
PubMed2005

Use of laboratory toxicity tests with bivalve and echinoderm embryos to evaluate the bioavailability of copper in San Diego Bay, California, USA.

Copper concentrations in parts of San Diego Bay (CA, USA) exceed ambient water quality criteria (WQC; currently 3.1 microg/L dissolved, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [U.S. EPA]). In order to better understand the bioavailability of copper to water-column organisms in the bay, toxicity tests were performed with copper added to surface water collected from various sites in the estuary over a three-year period. The species and endpoints used, bivalve and echinoderm embryo-larval development, are among the most sensitive in the U.S. EPA's national toxicity dataset, which is used to derive WQC. No toxicity was observed in ambient bay water samples, as indicated by high proportions of normally developed larvae in control treatments, averaging 93+/-5% across all sites and all sampling events. Median effects concentrations (EC50), obtained by copper spiking of ambient water samples, ranged from 1.7 to 3.4 times lower at sites located near the mouth compared to sites near the back of the bay. These data indicate a gradient in complexation capacity increasing from the mouth to the back of the bay, which is consistent with similar trends in dissolved organic carbon and total suspended solids. For the bay as a whole, estimates for total recoverable and dissolved water-effect ratios (WER) ranged from 2.07 to 2.27 and 1.54 to 1.67, respectively. Water-effect ratios of this magnitude suggest that adoption of a somewhat higher site-specific WQC for San Diego Bay still would achieve the level of protection that is intended by the WQC guidelines.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Detoxification of vinyl chloride to ethene coupled to growth of an anaerobic bacterium.

Tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE) are ideal solvents for numerous applications, and their widespread use makes them prominent groundwater pollutants. Even more troubling, natural biotic and abiotic processes acting on these solvents lead to the accumulation of toxic intermediates (such as dichloroethenes) and carcinogenic intermediates (such as vinyl chloride). Vinyl chloride was found in at least 496 of the 1,430 National Priorities List sites identified by the US Environmental Protection Agency, and its precursors PCE and TCE are present in at least 771 and 852 of these sites, respectively. Here we describe an unusual, strictly anaerobic bacterium that destroys dichloroethenes and vinyl chloride as part of its energy metabolism, generating environmentally benign products (biomass, ethene and inorganic chloride). This organism might be useful for cleaning contaminated subsurface environments and restoring drinking-water reservoirs.

Bacteria, Anaerobic↗
PubMed2002

Combining community-based research and local knowledge to confront asthma and subsistence-fishing hazards in Greenpoint/Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York.

Activists in the environmental justice movement are challenging expert-driven scientific research by taking the research process into their own hands and speaking for themselves by defining, analyzing, and prescribing solutions for the environmental health hazards confronting communities of the poor and people of color. I highlight the work of El Puente and The Watchperson Project--two community-based organizations in the Greenpoint/Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, that have engaged in community-based participatory research (CBPR) to address asthma and risks from subsistence-fish diets. The CBPR process aims to engage community members as equal partners alongside scientists in problem definition, information collection, and data analysis--all geared toward locally relevant action for social change. In the first case I highlight how El Puente has organized residents to conduct a series of asthma health surveys and tapped into local knowledge of the Latino population to understand potential asthma triggers and to devise culturally relevant health interventions. In a second case I follow The Watchperson Project and their work surveying subsistence anglers and note how the community-gathered information contributed key data inputs for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Cumulative Exposure Project in the neighborhood. In each case I review the processes each organization used to conduct CBPR, some of their findings, and the local knowledge they gathered, all of which were crucial for understanding and addressing local environmental health issues. I conclude with some observations about the benefits and limits of CBPR for helping scientists and communities pursue environmental justice.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Investigation of a cluster of leukaemia in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, 1989-1996.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate a cluster of leukaemia among young people and assess the plausibility of a disease-exposure relationship. DESIGN: Descriptive analysis of population-based leukaemia incidence data, review of evidence related to the causation of leukaemia, assessment of environmental exposures to known leukaemogens, and resulting risks of leukaemia. SETTING: Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia, focusing on suburbs between the Port Kembla industrial complex and Lake Illawarra (the Warrawong area). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) for leukaemia; current measured and past estimated ambient air benzene concentrations; and expected leukaemia cases attributable to estimates of ambient air benzene concentrations. RESULTS: In 1989-1996, 12 leukaemia cases among Warrawong residents aged less than 50 years were observed, more than the 3.49 cases expected from the rate in the rest of the Illawarra region (SIR, 343.8; 99% CI, 141.6-691.7). These people lived in suburbs immediately to the south-southwest of a coke byproducts plant (a major industrial source of benzene, one of the few known leukaemogens). The greatest excess was among 15-24-year-olds (SIR, 1085.6; 99% CI, 234.1-3072.4). In 1996, ambient air concentrations of benzene averaged less than 1 part per billion (ppb). Since 1970, ambient air concentrations of benzene were estimated to have averaged up to 3 ppb, about one-thousandth of the level at which leukaemia risk has been identified in occupational epidemiological studies. Using the risk assessment model developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, we estimate that past benzene levels in the Warrawong area could have resulted in 0.4 additional cases of leukaemia in 1989-1996. CONCLUSIONS: The excess occurrence of leukaemia in the Warrawong area in 1989-1996 is highly unusual. Current environmental benzene exposure and the reconstructed past environmental benzene exposure level are too low to explain the large excess of leukaemia. The cause of the cluster is uncertain.

Adolescent↗