Place attachment and natural environmental risk

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonaiuto, Marino; Alves, Susana; De Dominicis, Stefano

2016-01-01

Little is known about place attachment affecting natural environmental risk perception and coping. A systematic search of social science databases revealed 31 works (1996–2016) directly addressing place attachment in relation to different types of natural hazard risks (e.g., seismic, volcanic, etc.......). Across different contexts, the research shows: (a) positive and/or negative relationships between place attachment and natural environmental risk perception; (b) positive and/or negative relationships between place attachment and risk coping; and (c) mediating and moderating relationships. In particular......, results show that: (a) highly attached individuals perceive natural environmental risks but underestimate their potential effects; (b) highly attached individuals are unwilling to relocate when facing natural environmental risks and more likely to return to risky areas after a natural environmental...

Environmental risk assessments for transgenic crops producing output trait enzymes

Science.gov (United States)

Tuttle, Ann; Shore, Scott; Stone, Terry

2009-01-01

The environmental risks from cultivating crops producing output trait enzymes can be rigorously assessed by testing conservative risk hypotheses of no harm to endpoints such as the abundance of wildlife, crop yield and the rate of degradation of crop residues in soil. These hypotheses can be tested with data from many sources, including evaluations of the agronomic performance and nutritional quality of the crop made during product development, and information from the scientific literature on the mode-of-action, taxonomic distribution and environmental fate of the enzyme. Few, if any, specific ecotoxicology or environmental fate studies are needed. The effective use of existing data means that regulatory decision-making, to which an environmental risk assessment provides essential information, is not unnecessarily complicated by evaluation of large amounts of new data that provide negligible improvement in the characterization of risk, and that may delay environmental benefits offered by transgenic crops containing output trait enzymes. PMID:19924556

Environmental acceptability of high-performance alternatives for depleted uranium penetrators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kerley, C.R.; Easterly, C.E.; Eckerman, K.F. [and others

1996-08-01

The Army`s environmental strategy for investigating material substitution and management is to measure system environmental gains/losses in all phases of the material management life cycle from cradle to grave. This study is the first in a series of new investigations, applying material life cycle concepts, to evaluate whether there are environmental benefits from increasing the use of tungsten as an alternative to depleted uranium (DU) in Kinetic Energy Penetrators (KEPs). Current military armor penetrators use DU and tungsten as base materials. Although DU alloys have provided the highest performance of any high-density alloy deployed against enemy heavy armor, its low-level radioactivity poses a number of environmental risks. These risks include exposures to the military and civilian population from inhalation, ingestion, and injection of particles. Depleted uranium is well known to be chemically toxic (kidney toxicity), and workplace exposure levels are based on its renal toxicity. Waste materials containing DU fragments are classified as low-level radioactive waste and are regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. These characteristics of DU do not preclude its use in KEPs. However, long-term management challenges associated with KEP deployment and improved public perceptions about environmental risks from military activities might be well served by a serious effort to identify, develop, and substitute alternative materials that meet performance objectives and involve fewer environmental risks. Tungsten, a leading candidate base material for KEPS, is potentially such a material because it is not radioactive. Tungsten is less well studied, however, with respect to health impacts and other environmental risks. The present study is designed to contribute to the understanding of the environmental behavior of tungsten by synthesizing available information that is relevant to its potential use as a penetrator.

Methodology of environmental risk assessment management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saša T. Bakrač

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Successful protection of environment is mostly based on high-quality assessment of potential and present risks. Environmental risk management is a complex process which includes: identification, assessment and control of risk, namely taking measures in order to minimize the risk to an acceptable level. Environmental risk management methodology: In addition to these phases in the management of environmental risk, appropriate measures that affect the reduction of risk occurrence should be implemented: - normative and legal regulations (laws and regulations, - appropriate organizational structures in society, and - establishing quality monitoring of environment. The emphasis is placed on the application of assessment methodologies (three-model concept, as the most important aspect of successful management of environmental risk. Risk assessment methodology - European concept: The first concept of ecological risk assessment methodology is based on the so-called European model-concept. In order to better understand this ecological risk assessment methodology, two concepts - hazard and risk - are introduced. The European concept of environmental risk assessment has the following phases in its implementation: identification of hazard (danger, identification of consequences (if there is hazard, estimate of the scale of consequences, estimate of consequence probability and risk assessment (also called risk characterization. The European concept is often used to assess risk in the environment as a model for addressing the distribution of stressors along the source - path - receptor line. Risk assessment methodology - Canadian concept: The second concept of the methodology of environmental risk assessment is based on the so-called Canadian model-concept. The assessment of ecological risk includes risk arising from natural events (floods, extreme weather conditions, etc., technological processes and products, agents (chemical, biological, radiological, etc

2012 Environmental Performance Index and Pilot Trend Environmental Performance Index

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The 2012 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks 132 countries on 22 performance indicators in the following 10 policy categories: environmental burden of...

The Symbiose project: an integrated framework for performing environmental radiological risk assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gonze, M.A.; Mourlon, C.; Garcia-Sanchez, L.; Beaugelin, K.; Chen, T.; Le Dizes, S.

2004-01-01

Human health and ecological risk assessments usually require the integration of a wide range of environmental data and modelling approaches, with a varying level of detail dependent on the management objectives, the complexity of the site and the level of ignorance about the pollutant behaviour/toxicity. Like most scientists and assessors did it recently, we recognized the need for developing comprehensive, integrated and flexible approaches to risk assessment. To meet these needs, IRSN launched the Symbiose project (2002-2006) which aims first, at designing a framework for integrating and managing data, methods and knowledge of some relevance in radiological risk to humans/biota assessment studies, and second, at implementing this framework in an information management, modelling and calculation platform. Feasibility developments (currently completed) led to the specification of a fully integrated, object-oriented and hierarchical approach for describing the fate, transport and effect of radionuclides in spatially-distributed environmental systems. This innovative approach has then been implemented in a platform prototype, main components of which are a user-friendly and modular simulation environment (e.g. using GoldSim toolbox), and a hierarchical object-oriented biosphere database. Both conceptual and technical developments will be presented here. (author)

Needs for Risk Informing Environmental Cleanup Decision Making - 13613

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu, Ming; Moorer, Richard

2013-01-01

This paper discusses the needs for risk informing decision making by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM). The mission of the DOE EM is to complete the safe cleanup of the environmental legacy brought about from the nation's five decades of nuclear weapons development and production and nuclear energy research. This work represents some of the most technically challenging and complex cleanup efforts in the world and is projected to require the investment of billions of dollars and several decades to complete. Quantitative assessments of health and environmental risks play an important role in work prioritization and cleanup decisions of these challenging environmental cleanup and closure projects. The risk assessments often involve evaluation of performance of integrated engineered barriers and natural systems over a period of hundreds to thousands of years, when subject to complex geo-environmental transformation processes resulting from remediation and disposal actions. The requirement of resource investments for the cleanup efforts and the associated technical challenges have subjected the EM program to continuous scrutiny by oversight entities. Recent DOE reviews recommended application of a risk-informed approach throughout the EM complex for improved targeting of resources. The idea behind this recommendation is that by using risk-informed approaches to prioritize work scope, the available resources can be best utilized to reduce environmental and health risks across the EM complex, while maintaining the momentum of the overall EM cleanup program at a sustainable level. In response to these recommendations, EM is re-examining its work portfolio and key decision making with risk insights for the major sites. This paper summarizes the review findings and recommendations from the DOE internal reviews, discusses the needs for risk informing the EM portfolio and makes an attempt to identify topics for R and D in integrated

Assessment of the environmental risk perceptions and environmental attitudes of nursing students.

Science.gov (United States)

Sayan, Betül; Kaya, Hatice

2016-12-01

This is a descriptive study examining nursing students' perceptions of the environmental risks and their environmental attitudes. The study population comprised 2364 nursing students studying at universities in Istanbul in the fall semester of the 2012-2013 academic year. The sampling group was formed by 778 students which were selected by a stratified random sampling procedure. The data were collected using "The Student Personal Information Form", "The Environmental Risk Perception Scale" and "The Environmental Attitudes Scale". The students' mean score on perceptions of environmental risk was 6.04 ± 0.81(min 2.56; max 7.00) and the mean score of their environmental attitudes was 4.02 ± 0.47(min 2.28; max 5.00). It was determined that factors such as gender, interest in environmental issues, endorsement of the college course on environment as necessary, and participation in an environmental activity and awareness of non-government environmental organizations affected the environmental risk perception and environmental attitudes. A moderate positive relationship (r = 0.366, p environmental risk perceptions and their environmental attitudes. Effective environmental education should be planned at all stages of the nursing education.

Quantifying environmental performance using an environmental footprint calculator

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, D.B.; Loney, A.C.; Chan, V. [Conestoga-Rovers & Associates, Waterloo, Ontario (Canada)

2009-07-01

This paper provides a case study using relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the environmental performance of a business. Using recognized calculation and reporting frameworks, Conestoga-Rovers & Associates (CRA) designed the Environmental Footprint Calculator to quantify the environmental performance of a Canadian construction materials company. CRA designed the Environmental Footprint calculator for our client to track and report their environmental performance in accordance with their targets, based on requirements of relevant guidance documents. The objective was to design a tool that effectively manages, calculates, and reports environmental performance to various stakeholders in a user-friendly format. (author)

Quantifying environmental performance using an environmental footprint calculator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, D.B.; Loney, A.C.; Chan, V.

2009-01-01

This paper provides a case study using relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the environmental performance of a business. Using recognized calculation and reporting frameworks, Conestoga-Rovers & Associates (CRA) designed the Environmental Footprint Calculator to quantify the environmental performance of a Canadian construction materials company. CRA designed the Environmental Footprint calculator for our client to track and report their environmental performance in accordance with their targets, based on requirements of relevant guidance documents. The objective was to design a tool that effectively manages, calculates, and reports environmental performance to various stakeholders in a user-friendly format. (author)

Method for environmental risk analysis (MIRA) revision 2007

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-04-01

OLF's instruction manual for carrying out environmental risk analyses provides a united approach and a common framework for environmental risk assessments. This is based on the best information available. The manual implies standardizations of a series of parameters, input data and partial analyses that are included in the environmental risk analysis. Environmental risk analyses carried out according to the MIRA method will thus be comparable between fields and between companies. In this revision an update of the text in accordance with today's practice for environmental risk analyses and prevailing regulations is emphasized. Moreover, method adjustments for especially protected beach habitats have been introduced, as well as a general method for estimating environmental risk concerning fish. Emphasis has also been put on improving environmental risk analysis' possibilities to contribute to a better management of environmental risk in the companies (ml)

Risk analysis within environmental impact assessment of proposed construction activity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zeleňáková, Martina; Zvijáková, Lenka

2017-01-15

Environmental impact assessment is an important process, prior to approval of the investment plan, providing a detailed examination of the likely and foreseeable impacts of proposed construction activity on the environment. The objective of this paper is to develop a specific methodology for the analysis and evaluation of environmental impacts of selected constructions – flood protection structures using risk analysis methods. The application of methodology designed for the process of environmental impact assessment will develop assumptions for further improvements or more effective implementation and performance of this process. The main objective of the paper is to improve the implementation of the environmental impact assessment process. Through the use of risk analysis methods in environmental impact assessment process, the set objective has been achieved. - Highlights: This paper is informed by an effort to develop research with the aim of: • Improving existing qualitative and quantitative methods for assessing the impacts • A better understanding of relations between probabilities and consequences • Methodology for the EIA of flood protection constructions based on risk analysis • Creative approaches in the search for environmentally friendly proposed activities.

Risk analysis within environmental impact assessment of proposed construction activity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zeleňáková, Martina; Zvijáková, Lenka

2017-01-01

Environmental impact assessment is an important process, prior to approval of the investment plan, providing a detailed examination of the likely and foreseeable impacts of proposed construction activity on the environment. The objective of this paper is to develop a specific methodology for the analysis and evaluation of environmental impacts of selected constructions – flood protection structures using risk analysis methods. The application of methodology designed for the process of environmental impact assessment will develop assumptions for further improvements or more effective implementation and performance of this process. The main objective of the paper is to improve the implementation of the environmental impact assessment process. Through the use of risk analysis methods in environmental impact assessment process, the set objective has been achieved. - Highlights: This paper is informed by an effort to develop research with the aim of: • Improving existing qualitative and quantitative methods for assessing the impacts • A better understanding of relations between probabilities and consequences • Methodology for the EIA of flood protection constructions based on risk analysis • Creative approaches in the search for environmentally friendly proposed activities.

Risk from environmental chemicals

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Somers, E [Environmental Health Directorate, Health Protection Branch, Health and Welfare Canada, Ontario

1982-01-01

The elements of risk assessment, namely risk identification, risk estimation, risk evaluation and risk management, are described with respect to the control of environmental chemicals. The methodology of risk estimation is outlined and examples given of its application to regulatory decision-making for a number of chemicals in Canada. Finally, the extent and limitations of the process of risk evaluation are considered together with the need to recognize the importance of the public's perception of the level of risk.

Needs for Risk Informing Environmental Cleanup Decision Making - 13613

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhu, Ming; Moorer, Richard [U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC 20585 (United States)

2013-07-01

This paper discusses the needs for risk informing decision making by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM). The mission of the DOE EM is to complete the safe cleanup of the environmental legacy brought about from the nation's five decades of nuclear weapons development and production and nuclear energy research. This work represents some of the most technically challenging and complex cleanup efforts in the world and is projected to require the investment of billions of dollars and several decades to complete. Quantitative assessments of health and environmental risks play an important role in work prioritization and cleanup decisions of these challenging environmental cleanup and closure projects. The risk assessments often involve evaluation of performance of integrated engineered barriers and natural systems over a period of hundreds to thousands of years, when subject to complex geo-environmental transformation processes resulting from remediation and disposal actions. The requirement of resource investments for the cleanup efforts and the associated technical challenges have subjected the EM program to continuous scrutiny by oversight entities. Recent DOE reviews recommended application of a risk-informed approach throughout the EM complex for improved targeting of resources. The idea behind this recommendation is that by using risk-informed approaches to prioritize work scope, the available resources can be best utilized to reduce environmental and health risks across the EM complex, while maintaining the momentum of the overall EM cleanup program at a sustainable level. In response to these recommendations, EM is re-examining its work portfolio and key decision making with risk insights for the major sites. This paper summarizes the review findings and recommendations from the DOE internal reviews, discusses the needs for risk informing the EM portfolio and makes an attempt to identify topics for R and D in

Risk Mitigation Measures: An Important Aspect of the Environmental Risk Assessment of Pharmaceuticals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Markus Liebig

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Within EU marketing authorization procedures of human and veterinary medicinal products (HMP and VMP, an environmental risk assessment (ERA has to be performed. In the event that an unacceptable environmental risk is identified, risk mitigation measures (RMM shall be applied in order to reduce environmental exposure to the pharmaceutical. Within the authorization procedures of HMP, no RMM have been applied so far, except for specific precautions for the disposal of the unused medicinal product or waste materials. For VMP, a limited number of RMM do exist. The aim of this study was to develop consistent and efficient RMM. Therefore, existing RMM were compiled from a summary of product characteristics of authorized pharmaceuticals, and new RMM were developed and evaluated. Based on the results, appropriate RMM were applied within the authorization procedures of medicinal products. For HMP, except for the existing precautions for disposal, no further reasonable measures could be developed. For VMP, two specific precautions for disposal and 17 specific precautions for use in animals were proposed as RMM.

Environmental risk analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lima-e-Silva, Pedro Paulo de

1996-01-01

The conventional Risk Analysis (RA) relates usually a certain undesired event frequency with its consequences. Such technique is used nowadays in Brazil to analyze accidents and their consequences strictly under the human approach, valuing loss of human equipment, human structures and human lives, without considering the damage caused to natural resources that keep life possible on Earth. This paradigm was developed primarily because of the Homo sapiens' lack of perception upon the natural web needed to sustain his own life. In reality, the Brazilian professionals responsible today for licensing, auditing and inspecting environmental aspects of human activities face huge difficulties in making technical specifications and procedures leading to acceptable levels of impact, furthermore considering the intrinsic difficulties to define those levels. Therefore, in Brazil the RA technique is a weak tool for licensing for many reasons, and of them are its short scope (only accident considerations) and wrong a paradigm (only human direct damages). A paper from the author about the former was already proposed to the 7th International Conference on Environmetrics, past July'96, USP-SP. This one discusses the extension of the risk analysis concept to take into account environmental consequences, transforming the conventional analysis into a broader methodology named here as Environmental Risk Analysis. (author)

U.S. Department of energy worker health risk evaluation methodology for assessing risks associated with environmental restoration and waste management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blaylock, B.P.; Legg, J.; Travis, C.C.; Scofield, P.A.

1995-06-01

This document describes a worker health risk evaluation methodology for assessing risks associated with Environmental Restoration (ER) and Waste Management (WM). The methodology is appropriate for estimating worker risks across the Department of Energy (DOE) Complex at both programmatic and site-specific levels. This document supports the worker health risk methodology used to perform the human health risk assessment portion of the DOE Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) although it has applications beyond the PEIS, such as installation-wide worker risk assessments, screening-level assessments, and site-specific assessments

U.S. Department of Energy worker health risk evaluation methodology for assessing risks associated with environmental restoration and waste management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blaylock, B.P.; Legg, J.; Travis, C.C. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Center for Risk Management; Simek, M.A.; Sutherland, J. [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Scofield, P.A. [Office of Environmental Compliance and Documentation (United States)

1995-06-01

This document describes a worker health risk evaluation methodology for assessing risks associated with Environmental Restoration (ER) and Waste Management (WM). The methodology is appropriate for estimating worker risks across the Department of Energy (DOE) Complex at both programmatic and site-specific levels. This document supports the worker health risk methodology used to perform the human health risk assessment portion of the DOE Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) although it has applications beyond the PEIS, such as installation-wide worker risk assessments, screening-level assessments, and site-specific assessments.

Environmental performance data in environmental report 2008

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sato, Yoshinori; Noritake, Kazumitsu; Kawasaki, Takanori; Nemoto, Asako

2009-02-01

Japan Atomic Energy Agency published the Environmental Report 2008 concerning the activities of FY 2007 in August, 2008 under 'Law Concerning the Promotion of Business Activities with Environmental Consideration by Specified Corporations, etc, by Facilitating Access to Environmental Information, and Other Measures'. This report has been edited to show detailed environmental performance data in FY 2007 as the base of the Environmental Report 2008. This report would not only ensure traceability of the data in order to enhance the reliability of the environmental report, but also make useful measures for promoting activities of environmental considerations in JAEA. The environmental objectives in FY 2007 were to reduce the amounts of electric power consumption, fossil fuel usage, carbon dioxide emissions, and water usage by more than one percent in comparison with those in the previous fiscal year. The detailed environmental performance data in this report has shown that the numerical targets of the environmental objectives in FY 2007 were achieved. (author)

Managing Reputational Risk through Environmental Management and Reporting: An Options Theory Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan Pineiro-Chousa

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Reputation is a complex and multidimensional concept that may be organized in downside and upside reputational risk. In this article, we present a formal modelling for the management capabilities of environmental management and reporting over reputational risk, considering that reputational risk is becoming increasingly important for organizations and it directly depends on the information available about companies’ environmental performances. As long as the effectiveness of communication and disclosure plays a key role in the process, the usefulness of environmental management and reporting as a hedging instrument for reputational risk is addressed through different levels of information transparency. When considering a scenario of voluntary reporting, we show that environmentally concerned companies can reduce the cost of environmental management as a reputational risk strategy, as well as reducing the potential loss of reputational value from reputational threats and increasing the potential profit from reputational opportunities. In the context of mandatory reporting, we highlight the role of assurance companies as bearers of the risk of bad reputations for non-concerned companies. As a result, this novel approach applies theoretical oriented research from options theory to reputational risk management literature, so that it benefits from the option’s well known theory, robustness, and conclusions.

Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI)

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — EPA’s Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) is a geographically-based model that helps policy makers and communities explore data on releases of toxic...

Risk-return Performance of Residential Property Investment in Abuja ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Sultan

2017-06-20

Jun 20, 2017 ... Keywords: property investment performance, risk-return analysis, ANO VA and HSD-tukey test. ATBU Journal of Environmental Technology 10, 1, June 2017. 95 ... minimizing the effect of risk, therefore return .... listed companies and UACN within a given .... information on rent and sales between 2001 and.

Environmental risk assessment system for phosphogypsum tailing dams.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Xin; Ning, Ping; Tang, Xiaolong; Yi, Honghong; Li, Kai; Zhou, Lianbi; Xu, Xianmang

2013-01-01

This paper may be of particular interest to the readers as it provides a new environmental risk assessment system for phosphogypsum tailing dams. In this paper, we studied the phosphogypsum tailing dams which include characteristics of the pollution source, environmental risk characteristics and evaluation requirements to identify the applicable environmental risk assessment methods. Two analytical methods, that is, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy logic, were used to handle the complexity of the environmental and nonquantitative data. Using our assessment method, different risk factors can be ranked according to their contributions to the environmental risk, thereby allowing the calculation of their relative priorities during decision making. Thus, environmental decision-makers can use this approach to develop alternative management strategies for proposed, ongoing, and completed PG tailing dams.

The perception of exposure to environmental risks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pautard, Eric

2014-10-01

This publication reports and comments the results of a survey performed every 6 years on the perception of exposure to environmental risks. It notably comments the evolution between 2007 and 2013 of the perception of exposure to different types of risks: seismic risks, terrorism, major industrial risks, flooding risks, nuclear risks, food-related risks, risks related to climate change, unemployment, air pollution, and cancer. The perceptions of inhabitants of cities exposed or not exposed to some risks (industrial, climate, flooding) are compared. Risks are ranked from very important to not important at all. The influence of the existence of a risk when choosing to settle in a dwelling is also assessed, as well as the already lived consequences of catastrophes, the level of concern about possible consequences of a catastrophe, the respective roles of the State and citizen in the field of risk prevention, the opinions on law efficiency to protect people and goods, the knowledge of prevention arrangements against natural and technological risk, the level of confidence in public action regarding risks to which interviewed people are actually exposed (industrial risks, risks related to climate, flooding)

Assessment of transportation risk for the U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management programmatic environmental impact statement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, S.Y.; Monette, F.A.; Biwer, B.M.; Lazaro, M.A.; Hartmann, H.M.; Policastro, A.J.

1995-01-01

In its Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), the Office of Environmental Management (EM) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is considering a broad range of alternatives for the future management of radioactive and hazardous waste at the facilities of the DOE complex. The alternatives involve facilities to be used for treatment, storage, and disposal of various wastes generated from DOE environmental restoration activities and waste management operations. The evaluation includes five types of waste (four types of radioactive waste plus hazardous waste), 49 sites, and numerous cases associated with each alternative for waste management. In general, the alternatives are evaluated independently for each type of waste and reflect decentralized, regionalized, and centralized approaches. Transportation of waste materials is an integral component of the EM PEIS alternatives for waste management. The estimated impact on human health that is associated with various waste transportation activities is an important component of a complete appraisal of the alternatives. The transportation risk assessment performed for the EM PEIS is designed to ensure through uniform and judicious selection of models, data, and assumptions that relative comparisons of risk among the various alternatives are meaningful and consistent. Among other tasks, Argonne National Laboratory is providing technical assistance to the EM PEIS on transportation risk assessment. The objective is to perform a human health risk assessment for each type of waste relative to the EM PEIS alternatives for waste management. The transportation risk assessed is part of the overall impacts being analyzed for the EM PEIS to determine the safest, most environmentally and economically sound manner in which to satisfy requirements for waste management in the coming decades

The Economic Dimension Of Environmental Risk Management in Knowledge-Based Society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana-Maria DINU

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Environmental risk for the majority of companies is the deterioration of bottom-line performance from: increased regulation on energy usage, eroded reputation, brand name and market share from an environmental incident, increased operating costs from the effects of global warming, higher fuel costs as natural resources are depleted and loss of market share to more environmentally “savvy” competitors with marketing campaigns which portray social responsibility.

Network television news coverage of environmental risks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greenberg, M.R.; Sandman, P.M.; Sachsman, D.V.; Salomone, K.L.

1989-01-01

Despite the criticisms that surround television coverage of environmental risk, there have been relatively few attempts to measure what and whom television shows. Most research has focused analysis on a few weeks of coverage of major stories like the gas leak at Bhopal, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, or the Mount St. Helen's eruption. To advance the research into television coverage of environmental risk, an analysis has been made of all environmental risk coverage by the network nightly news broadcasts for a period of more than two years. Researchers have analyzed all environmental risk coverage-564 stories in 26 months-presented on ABC, CBS, and NBC's evening news broadcasts from January 1984 through February 1986. The quantitative information from the 564 stories was balanced by a more qualitative analysis of the television coverage of two case studies-the dioxin contamination in Times Beach, Missouri, and the suspected methyl isocyanate emissions from the Union Carbide plant in Institute, West Virginia. Both qualitative and quantitative data contributed to the analysis of the role played by experts and environmental advocacy sources in coverage of environmental risk and to the suggestions for increasing that role

A framework for techno-economic & environmental sustainability analysis by risk assessment for conceptual process evaluation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Loureiro da Costa Lira Gargalo, Carina; Sin, Gürkan; Carvalho, Ana

2016-01-01

for techno-economic and environmental sustainability analysis through risk assessment is proposed for the early-stage design and screening of conceptual process alternatives. The alternatives within the design space are analyzed following the framework’s work-flow, which targets the following: (i) quantify...... the economic risk; (ii) perform the monetary valuation of environmental impact categories under uncertainty; (iii) quantify the potential environmental risk; (iv) measure the alternatives’ eco-efficiency identifying possible trade-offs; and, lastly (v) propose a joint risk assessment matrix......The need to achieve a sustainable process performance has become increasingly important in order to keep a competitive advantage in the global markets. Development of comprehensive and systematic methods to accomplish this goal is the subject of this work. To this end, a multi-level framework...

A framework for techno-economic & environmental sustainability analysis by risk assessment for conceptual process evaluation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Loureiro da Costa Lira Gargalo, Carina; Sin, Gürkan; Carvalho, Ana

2016-01-01

the economic risk; (ii) perform the monetary valuation of environmental impact categories under uncertainty; (iii) quantify the potential environmental risk; (iv) measure the alternatives’ eco-efficiency identifying possible trade-offs; and, lastly (v) propose a joint risk assessment matrix......The need to achieve a sustainable process performance has become increasingly important in order to keep a competitive advantage in the global markets. Development of comprehensive and systematic methods to accomplish this goal is the subject of this work. To this end, a multi-level framework...... for techno-economic and environmental sustainability analysis through risk assessment is proposed for the early-stage design and screening of conceptual process alternatives. The alternatives within the design space are analyzed following the framework’s work-flow, which targets the following: (i) quantify...

Environmental performance reviews. Estonia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-01-01

This review of Estonia is the first environmental performance review (EPR) carried out under the auspices of the ECE Committee on Environmental Policy. This pilot ECE study builds, inter alia, on the experience gained in the preparation of pilot environmental performance reviews of Poland and Bulgaria, which were carried out in 1994-1995 by OECD in cooperation with ECE. The report focuses on capacity building; air, water, waste, and nature management; the integration of environmental and economic policies both generally and more specifically within the energy sector; and cooperation of Estonia with the international community. The review examines the current situation, recent and likely future trends, pressures, policy responses and their effectiveness. The principal conclusions and recommendations for improving Estonia's environmental performance are brought together in the concluding chapter.

Predicting the environmental risks of radioactive discharges from Belgian nuclear power plants.

Science.gov (United States)

Vandenhove, H; Sweeck, L; Vives I Batlle, J; Wannijn, J; Van Hees, M; Camps, J; Olyslaegers, G; Miliche, C; Lance, B

2013-12-01

An environmental risk assessment (ERA) was performed to evaluate the impact on non-human biota from liquid and atmospheric radioactive discharges by the Belgian Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) of Doel and Tihange. For both sites, characterisation of the source term and wildlife population around the NPPs was provided, whereupon the selection of reference organisms and the general approach taken for the environmental risk assessment was established. A deterministic risk assessment for aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems was performed using the ERICA assessment tool and applying the ERICA screening value of 10 μGy h(-1). The study was performed for the radioactive discharge limits and for the actual releases (maxima and averages over the period 1999-2008 or 2000-2009). It is concluded that the current discharge limits for the Belgian NPPs considered do not result in significant risks to the aquatic and terrestrial environment and that the actual discharges, which are a fraction of the release limits, are unlikely to harm the environment. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ethical and affective evaluation of environmental risks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bohm, G.; Pfister, H.R.

1998-01-01

Full text of publication follows: the present paper will be concerned with environmental risk perception, with special emphasis on those environmental risks that pertain to global change phenomena, such as climate change and ozone depletion. Two determinants of risk judgments are investigated that seem particularly relevant to environmental risks: ethical and affective evaluations. It is assumed that the focus of risk evaluation can be on one of two aspects: a) on an evaluation of potential losses, or b) on ethical considerations. We assume that both, potential loss and violation of ethical principles elicit emotional evaluations, but that these two judgmental aspects are associated with different specific emotions. Following cognitive emotion theories, we distinguish loss-based emotions, such as worry and fear, from ethical emotions, e.g., guilt and anger. A study is presented that investigates the role of ethical and affective evaluations in risk judgments. Various environmental risks were presented to subjects, e.g., air pollution, ozone depletion, climate change and destruction of ecological balance. For each environmental risk, subjects indicated in free-response format as well as on rating scales the extent to which ethical principles were violated, and the intensity of both loss-based and ethical emotions. The correlational structure of the emotion ratings confirms the distinction between loss-based and ethical emotions. Risk judgments co-vary with the strength of ethical evaluation and with the intensity of loss-based emotions, but are independent of ethical emotions. The implications of these findings for the risk appraisal process are discussed. (authors)

Predicting the environmental risks of radioactive discharges from Belgian nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vandenhove, H.; Sweeck, L.; Vives i Batlle, J.; Wannijn, J.; Van Hees, M.; Camps, J.; Olyslaegers, G.; Miliche, C.; Lance, B.

2013-01-01

An environmental risk assessment (ERA) was performed to evaluate the impact on non-human biota from liquid and atmospheric radioactive discharges by the Belgian Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) of Doel and Tihange. For both sites, characterisation of the source term and wildlife population around the NPPs was provided, whereupon the selection of reference organisms and the general approach taken for the environmental risk assessment was established. A deterministic risk assessment for aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems was performed using the ERICA assessment tool and applying the ERICA screening value of 10 μGy h −1 . The study was performed for the radioactive discharge limits and for the actual releases (maxima and averages over the period 1999–2008 or 2000–2009). It is concluded that the current discharge limits for the Belgian NPPs considered do not result in significant risks to the aquatic and terrestrial environment and that the actual discharges, which are a fraction of the release limits, are unlikely to harm the environment. -- Highlights: • Impact of radioactive discharges by the Belgian NPPs of Doel and Tihange on wildlife was evaluated. • Deterministic risk assessment for aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems performed with the ERICA tool. • NPP discharge limits do not result in significant risks to the aquatic and terrestrial environment. • Actual discharges, a fraction of the release limits, are unlikely to harm the environment

Cancer risk assessments and environmental regulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scroggin, D.G.

1990-01-01

Governmental regulation of toxic substances, such as carcinogens and radiation, prompts both legal and scientific controversies. Industry, environmental activist groups, government regulators, and the general public are all concerned with the question of how environmental risk to public health is to be measured and what level of risk warrants government action under the environmental laws. Several recent events shed light on the fundamental scientific and legal problems inherent in such regulation, and these events may affect the direction of future developments. These events include implementation of generic Risk Assessment Guidelines by the US EPA, litigation challenging EPA's regulation of carcinogenic substances, new scientific understanding of the relative risks from human exposure to natural and man-made sources, and the continuing growth of toxic tort litigation in which victims of cancer seek large damages from industrial emitters of pollution

Profiling the environmental risk management of Chinese local environmental agencies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

He, G.; Zhang, L.; Mol, A.P.J.; Lu, Y.

2013-01-01

The increasing frequency and impact of environmental accidents have pushed the issue of environmental risk management (ERM) to the top of the Chinese governments’ agendas and popularized the term ‘emergency response.’ Although the boundary between environmental accidents and other types of accidents

Environmental Performance Report 2015

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2016-07-01

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) Environmental Performance Report provides a description of the laboratory's environmental management activities for 2015, including information on environmental and sustainability performance, environmental compliance activities and status, and environmental protection programs, highlights, and successes. The purpose of this report is to ensure that U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the public receive timely, accurate information about events that have affected or could adversely affect the health, safety, and security of the public or workers; the environment; or the operations of DOE facilities. This report meets the requirements of the Annual Site Environmental Report and is prepared in accordance with the DOE Order 231.1B, Environment, Safety and Health Reporting.

Environmental Performance Report 2016

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Braus, Genevieve [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-09-06

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) Environmental Performance Report provides a description of the laboratory's environmental management activities for 2016, including information on environmental and sustainability performance, environmental compliance activities and status, and environmental protection programs, highlights, and successes. The purpose of this report is to ensure that U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the public receive timely, accurate information about events that have affected or could adversely affect the health, safety, and security of the public or workers; the environment; or the operations of DOE facilities. This report meets the requirements of the Annual Site Environmental Report and is prepared in accordance with the DOE Order 231.1B, Environment, Safety and Health Reporting.

The Performance and Risk Management Implications of Multinationality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Juul Andersen, Torben

Multinational enterprise in control of dispersed overseas resources and capabilities has been linked to strategic flexibility that allows the firm to take advantage of opportunities and manage exposures imposed by changing environmental conditions. This paper analyzes the implied performance...... and risk management effects in a comprehensive sample of public firms and finds supportive evidence for the proposition that multinationality can enhance performance across industries. However, the ability to exploit upside potential and avoid downside risk is industry specific. The positive effects...... of multinationality are found particularly pronounced among firms operating in knowledge intensive service industries while firms in capital-intensive primary industries display the inverse relationships. Keywords: Strategic flexibility, Real options, Risk management...

Social anxiety disorder: A review of environmental risk factors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christina A Brook

2008-03-01

Full Text Available Christina A Brook, Louis A SchmidtDepartment of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, CanadaAbstract: Social anxiety disorder (SAD is a debilitating and chronic illness characterized by persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations, with a relatively high lifetime prevalence of 7% to 13% in the general population. Although the last two decades have witnessed enormous growth in the study of biological and dispositional factors underlying SAD, comparatively little attention has been directed towards environmental factors in SAD, even though there has been much ongoing work in the area. In this paper, we provide a recent review and critique of proposed environmental risk factors for SAD, focusing on traditional as well as some understudied and overlooked environmental risk factors: parenting and family environment, adverse life events, cultural and societal factors, and gender roles. We also discuss the need for research design improvements and considerations for future directions.

Environmental risk analysis of hazardous material rail transportation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saat, Mohd Rapik, E-mail: mohdsaat@illinois.edu [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1243 Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory, 205 North Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States); Werth, Charles J.; Schaeffer, David [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1243 Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory, 205 North Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States); Yoon, Hongkyu [Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87123 (United States); Barkan, Christopher P.L. [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1243 Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory, 205 North Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States)

2014-01-15

Highlights: • Comprehensive, nationwide risk assessment of hazardous material rail transportation. • Application of a novel environmental (i.e. soil and groundwater) consequence model. • Cleanup cost and total shipment distance are the most significant risk factors. • Annual risk varies from $20,000 to $560,000 for different products. • Provides information on the risk cost associated with specific product shipments. -- Abstract: An important aspect of railroad environmental risk management involves tank car transportation of hazardous materials. This paper describes a quantitative, environmental risk analysis of rail transportation of a group of light, non-aqueous-phase liquid (LNAPL) chemicals commonly transported by rail in North America. The Hazardous Materials Transportation Environmental Consequence Model (HMTECM) was used in conjunction with a geographic information system (GIS) analysis of environmental characteristics to develop probabilistic estimates of exposure to different spill scenarios along the North American rail network. The risk analysis incorporated the estimated clean-up cost developed using the HMTECM, route-specific probability distributions of soil type and depth to groundwater, annual traffic volume, railcar accident rate, and tank car safety features, to estimate the nationwide annual risk of transporting each product. The annual risk per car-mile (car-km) and per ton-mile (ton-km) was also calculated to enable comparison between chemicals and to provide information on the risk cost associated with shipments of these products. The analysis and the methodology provide a quantitative approach that will enable more effective management of the environmental risk of transporting hazardous materials.

Environmental risk analysis of hazardous material rail transportation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saat, Mohd Rapik; Werth, Charles J.; Schaeffer, David; Yoon, Hongkyu; Barkan, Christopher P.L.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Comprehensive, nationwide risk assessment of hazardous material rail transportation. • Application of a novel environmental (i.e. soil and groundwater) consequence model. • Cleanup cost and total shipment distance are the most significant risk factors. • Annual risk varies from $20,000 to $560,000 for different products. • Provides information on the risk cost associated with specific product shipments. -- Abstract: An important aspect of railroad environmental risk management involves tank car transportation of hazardous materials. This paper describes a quantitative, environmental risk analysis of rail transportation of a group of light, non-aqueous-phase liquid (LNAPL) chemicals commonly transported by rail in North America. The Hazardous Materials Transportation Environmental Consequence Model (HMTECM) was used in conjunction with a geographic information system (GIS) analysis of environmental characteristics to develop probabilistic estimates of exposure to different spill scenarios along the North American rail network. The risk analysis incorporated the estimated clean-up cost developed using the HMTECM, route-specific probability distributions of soil type and depth to groundwater, annual traffic volume, railcar accident rate, and tank car safety features, to estimate the nationwide annual risk of transporting each product. The annual risk per car-mile (car-km) and per ton-mile (ton-km) was also calculated to enable comparison between chemicals and to provide information on the risk cost associated with shipments of these products. The analysis and the methodology provide a quantitative approach that will enable more effective management of the environmental risk of transporting hazardous materials

Integrating physical and financial approaches to manage environmental financial risk

Science.gov (United States)

Characklis, Gregory; Meyer, Eliot; Foster, Benjamin

2017-04-01

Physical and/or engineered solutions have long been used to manage risks associated with adverse environmental events. Examples include reservoirs as a tool for mitigating drought-related supply risk, levees for managing flood risk and dredging of inland waterways to ensure navigability during low flow periods. These measures can reduce many types of risk (e.g., loss of life), but are often employed as a means of protecting against financial losses. When the focus is on managing environmental financial risk, physical solutions can be effective, but also costly. In many cases, non-physical tools can provide a less expensive means of managing financial risk, with these often taking the form of financial instruments such as hedging contracts, contingency funds or insurance. Some of these instruments, such as flood insurance, are widely available, but historically many environmental financial risks have been managed primarily (or solely) via physical solutions without much consideration of alternatives, thereby opening opportunities for innovation in developing financial solutions. Recent research has demonstrated that financial instruments can play a significant role in managing drought-related financial risk in sectors as diverse as water utilities, energy generation and inland navigation. Nonetheless, this work has largely considered the use of these instruments within systems in which physical solutions are already in place (but failing to achieve desired performance). The next step in the evolution of managing environmental financial risk involves developing methods for designing risk management strategies that do not assume an established physical system. Here the goal is to identify the relative role that physical solutions and financial instruments should play as they are integrated into a comprehensive risk management strategy. This is not a straightforward challenge as one approach reduces the risk of financial losses and the other redistributes those losses

Assessing the Environmental Risks of Nanomaterials

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grieger, Khara Deanne; Hansen, Steffen Foss; Baun, Anders

to a wide range of technical limitations. For instance, serious knowledge gaps remain within e.g. the detection of NM in the environment, developing adequate testing equipment and protocols, and toxicity endpoints (Grieger et al., 2009). In the past few years, many scientists and organizations have...... considered. Furthermore, we recommend the use of biomonitoring in some environmental ‘hot spots’ to serve as early warning detectors while the field of NM environmental risk assessment matures, as recommended in our previous work. Ultimately, this analysis may aid the advancement of environmental risk...

Role of emotion in public information on environmental risk and pre-environmental behaviour

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Meijnders, A.L.; Midden, C.J.H.; Wilke, H.A.M.

1996-01-01

What role does emotion play in the provision of public information about· the risks of environmental pollution? This is a question that is asked in the research project on the 'Role of emotion in public information on environmental risks and pro-environmental behaviour'. This article describes the

Performance criteria for solidified high-level radioactive wastes. Environmental impact statement. Revision 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1977-09-01

This draft Environmental Impact Statement on performance criteria for solidified high-level radioactive wastes (PCSHLW) covers: considerations for PCSHLW development, the proposed rulemaking, characteristics of the PCSHLW, environmental impacts of the proposed PCSHLW, alternatives to the PCSHLW criteria, and cost/benefit/risk evaluation. Five appendices are included to support the technical data required in the Environmental Impact Statement

An integrated risk assessment approach: Risk assessment in the programmatic environmental impact statement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morris, J.M.

1994-01-01

The following paper is an informal summary of salient points made in the presentation entitled open-quotes An Integrated Risk Assessment Approach: Risk Assessment in the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS).close quotes. This presentation was given at the U.S. DOE Integrated Planning Workshop in Denver, Colorado on June 2, 1994. Integrated decision analysis is very important in environmental restoration and waste management in the evaluation of such things as land use planning, waste load forecasting, cost analyses, and technology development activities. Integrated risk assessment is an approach that addresses multiple components of risk, including: risks from surplus facilities as well as typical environmental restoration sites, risks to the public, risks to workers, ecological risk, risks before, during and after remediation activities, and others

Towards integrating environmental performance in divisional performance measurement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Collins C Ngwakwe

2014-08-01

Full Text Available This paper suggests an integration of environmental performance measurement (EPM into conventional divisional financial performance measures as a catalyst to enhance managers’ drive toward cleaner production and sustainable development. The approach is conceptual and normative; and using a hypothetical firm, it suggests a model to integrate environmental performance measure as an ancillary to conventional divisional financial performance measures. Vroom’s motivation theory and other literature evidence indicate that corporate goals are achievable in an environment where managers’ efforts are recognised and thus rewarded. Consequently the paper suggests that environmentally motivated managers are important to propel corporate sustainability strategy toward desired corporate environmental governance and sustainable economic development. Thus this suggested approach modestly adds to existing environmental management accounting (EMA theory and literature. It is hoped that this paper may provide an agenda for further research toward a practical application of the suggested method in a firm.

Environmental risk assessment of pesticides: state of the art and prospective improvement from science.

Science.gov (United States)

Boivin, Arnaud; Poulsen, Véronique

2017-03-01

Pesticide risk assessment in the European regulatory framework is mandatory performed for active substances (pesticides) and the plant protection products they are constituents of. The aim is to guarantee that safe use can be achieved for the intended use of the product. This paper provides a feedback on the regulatory environmental risk assessment performed for pesticide registration at the EU and member state levels. The different steps of pesticide registration are addressed considering both exposure and hazard. In this paper, we focus on the environmental fate and behaviour in surface water together with the aquatic ecotoxicity of the substances to illustrate pesticide regulatory risk assessment performed for aquatic organisms. Current methodologies are presented along with highlights on potential improvements. For instance, as regards exposure aspects, moving from field based to landscape risk assessments is promising. Regarding ecotoxicology, ecological models may be valuable tools when applied to chemical risk assessment. In addition, interest and further developments to better take into account mitigation measures in risk assessment and management are also presented.

Environmental risk assessment: an Australian perspective. Supervising Scientist Report 102

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beer, T.; Ziolkowski, F.

1995-01-01

Environmental risk assessment can be used as a strategic tool to set environmental priorities and as a tactical tool to set environmental standards. This report is designed to inform Australian environmental managers about the techniques and applications of environmental risk assessment and to familiarize risk analysts with some of the issues that are of concern to environmental managers. The use of risk assessment is illustrated by applying its techniques to five case studies which include: risk from chemicals and from contaminated sites; risk to people and to the natural environment from development, such as uranium mining; climate change; and risk associated with political decision-making. Then, by considering Australian and overseas practice, a generic framework is presented within which environmental risk assessment in Australia can be undertaken, and possible methods of implementation are discussed. refs., 38 figs

Environmental performance data in environmental report 2012

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzuki, Yurina; Tatebe, Kazuaki; Ohtake, Masaki; Shirato, Seiichi

2013-03-01

In September, 2012 Japan Atomic Energy Agency published the Environmental Report 2012 concerning the activities of FY 2011 under 'Law Concerning the Promotion of Business Activities with Environmental Consideration by Specified Corporations, etc, by Facilitating Access to Environmental Information, and Other Measures'. This report has been edited to show detailed environmental performance data in FY 2011 as the base of the Environmental Report 2012. This report would not only ensure traceability of the data in order to enhance the reliability of the environmental report, but also make useful measures for promoting activities of environmental considerations in JAEA. (author)

Environmental performance data in environmental report 2015

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzuki, Yurina; Kanai, Katsuta; Sato, Sadayuki; Tatebe, Kazuaki

2016-03-01

In September, 2015 Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) published the Environmental Report 2015 concerning the activities of FY 2014 under 'Law Concerning the Promotion of Business Activities with Environmental Consideration by Specified Corporations, etc., by Facilitating Access to Environmental Information, and Other Measures'. This report has been edited to show detailed environmental performance data in FY 2014 as the base of the Environmental Report 2015. This report would not only ensure traceability of the data in order to enhance the reliability of the environmental report, but also make useful measures for promoting activities of environmental considerations in JAEA. (author)

Environmental performance data in environmental report 2009

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sato, Yoshinori; Noritake, Kazumitsu; Kawasaki, Takanori; Suzuki, Yurina; Nemoto, Asako

2010-02-01

In July, 2009 Japan Atomic Energy Agency published the Environmental Report 2009 concerning the activities of FY 2008 under 'Law Concerning the Promotion of Business Activities with Environmental Consideration by Specified Corporations, etc, by Facilitating Access to Environmental Information, and Other Measures'. This report has been edited to show detailed environmental performance data in FY 2008 as the base of the Environmental Report 2009. This report would not only ensure traceability of the data in order to enhance the reliability of the environmental report, but also make useful measures for promoting activities of environmental considerations in JAEA. (author)

Environmental performance data in environmental report 2013

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzuki, Yurina; Ohtake, Masaki; Shirato, Seiichi; Tatebe, Kazuaki

2014-03-01

In September, 2013 Japan Atomic Energy Agency published the Environmental Report 2013 concerning the activities of FY 2012 under 'Law Concerning the Promotion of Business Activities with Environmental Consideration by Specified Corporations, etc, by Facilitating Access to Environmental Information, and Other Measures'. This report has been edited to show detailed environmental performance data in FY 2012 as the base of the Environmental Report 2013. This report would not only ensure traceability of the data in order to enhance the reliability of the environmental report, but also make useful measures for promoting activities of environmental considerations in JAEA. (author)

Participatory Risk Assessment for Environmental Decision-Making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Homan, Jacqueline; Petts, Judith

2001-01-01

Recent research, discussion and practice in the role environmental decision-making as an integral part of a democratic society have resulted in legislation, policy and guidance that encourage, and indeed may require, greater participation. The focus of this research paper is to explore these participatory ideas in the context of environmental risk assessment. Participation methods have generic application. However, the importance of fitting method to purpose requires that different contexts and issues relative to the objectives be addressed. In relation to environmental risk assessment these issues include: the complexity of risk issues per se; the inherent uncertainty that dominates any risk assessment; the quantitative nature of many risk assessments and the difficulty of dealing with low probability-high consequence outconies; the possibility of controversy in relation to decisions involving risk and thus the careful attention needed to the process and identification of participants; the traditional role and culture of experts in risk decisions and the challenge of reconciling this with the role of lay knowledge and the potential for the public to act as quality assurers in the risk decision process; the tendency for people to need reassurance when confronted with risk, even during a participation process; the need to acknowledge the public's ability to deal with complex technical issues and the need for information and data to respond to their questions, and the fact that 'risk' per se will often not be the only issue of public concern. The contributions to the risk debate from the social sciences are having considerable influence on the practice of environmental decision-making. Calls for increased stakeholder involvement in risk decisions are requiring greater access to and engagement with environmental risk assessments. Mechanisms for this level of involvement, however, are not well defined. For these aspirational calls to be realised in practice, decision

Participatory Risk Assessment for Environmental Decision-Making

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Homan, Jacqueline; Petts, Judith [Univ. of Birmingham (United Kingdom). Centre for Environmental Research and Training; Pollard, Simon; Twigger-Ross, Clare [National Centre for Risk Analysis and Options Appraisal, London (United Kingdom)

2001-07-01

Recent research, discussion and practice in the role environmental decision-making as an integral part of a democratic society have resulted in legislation, policy and guidance that encourage, and indeed may require, greater participation. The focus of this research paper is to explore these participatory ideas in the context of environmental risk assessment. Participation methods have generic application. However, the importance of fitting method to purpose requires that different contexts and issues relative to the objectives be addressed. In relation to environmental risk assessment these issues include: the complexity of risk issues per se; the inherent uncertainty that dominates any risk assessment; the quantitative nature of many risk assessments and the difficulty of dealing with low probability-high consequence outconies; the possibility of controversy in relation to decisions involving risk and thus the careful attention needed to the process and identification of participants; the traditional role and culture of experts in risk decisions and the challenge of reconciling this with the role of lay knowledge and the potential for the public to act as quality assurers in the risk decision process; the tendency for people to need reassurance when confronted with risk, even during a participation process; the need to acknowledge the public's ability to deal with complex technical issues and the need for information and data to respond to their questions, and the fact that 'risk' per se will often not be the only issue of public concern. The contributions to the risk debate from the social sciences are having considerable influence on the practice of environmental decision-making. Calls for increased stakeholder involvement in risk decisions are requiring greater access to and engagement with environmental risk assessments. Mechanisms for this level of involvement, however, are not well defined. For these aspirational calls to be realised in

Environmental performance reviews. Croatia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-01-01

The Environmental Performance Review of Croatia began with the preparatory mission in June 1998. This report was prepared on the basis of the team's review mission to Croatia in March 1999. Its draft was submitted to the ECE Committee on Environmental Policy at its annual session in Geneva on 22 September 1999. A high-level delegation from Croatia attended this evaluation, which was prepared in-depth by two reviewing countries, the Netherlands and Slovakia. At the end of its evaluation, the Committee approved the recommendations as set out in this report. The review of Croatia's environmental performance identified a number of strengths and weaknesses in the implementation of environmental policy and management. The systematic and professional preparation of environmental management measures in the State Directorate for the Protection of Nature and the Environment is often impressive. However, their implementation and enforcement suffer from a lack of institutional weight and cooperation throughout State institutions. Therefore, improving the cooperation with all key partners is an important task. Furthermore, greater involvement of the general public in environmental management might help to strengthen the overall recognition and results of environmental management. Finally, the review also found impediments to better performance with regard to remediation of the environmental consequences of the war - a problem that can be successfully dealt with only if sufficient funds are allocated for that work

Coverage of endangered species in environmental risk assessments at EFSA

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brock, T.C.M.

2016-01-01

The EFSA performs environmental risk assessment (ERA) for single potential stressors such as plant protection products, genetically modified organisms and feed additives, and for invasive alien species that are harmful to plant health. This ERA focusses primarily on the use or spread of such

Managing Complex Environmental Risks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Karlsson, Mikael [Karlstad Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Environmental Sciences

2006-09-15

Environmental and public health risks are often handled in a process in which experts, and sometimes policy makers, try their best to quantitatively assess, evaluate and manage risks. This approach harmonises with mainstream interpretations of sustainable development, which aim at defining a desirable relationship between human and natural systems, for instance by policies that define limit values of different forms of disturbances. However, under conditions of high scientific incertitude, diverging values and distrust, this approach is far from satisfactory. The use of cell phones, hazardous chemicals, nuclear or fossil energy systems, and modern biotechnology are examples of activities causing such risks with high complexity. Against this background, a complementary interpretation of the concept of sustainable development is suggested. This interpretation is operationalised through new formulations of three common principles for public risk management; the precautionary principle, the polluter pays principle and the principle of public participation. Implementation of these reformulated principles would challenge some foundations of present mainstream views on environmental decision-making, but would on the other hand contribute to improved practices for long-term human welfare and planetary survival (full text of contribution)

Managing Complex Environmental Risks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karlsson, Mikael

2006-01-01

Environmental and public health risks are often handled in a process in which experts, and sometimes policy makers, try their best to quantitatively assess, evaluate and manage risks. This approach harmonises with mainstream interpretations of sustainable development, which aim at defining a desirable relationship between human and natural systems, for instance by policies that define limit values of different forms of disturbances. However, under conditions of high scientific incertitude, diverging values and distrust, this approach is far from satisfactory. The use of cell phones, hazardous chemicals, nuclear or fossil energy systems, and modern biotechnology are examples of activities causing such risks with high complexity. Against this background, a complementary interpretation of the concept of sustainable development is suggested. This interpretation is operationalised through new formulations of three common principles for public risk management; the precautionary principle, the polluter pays principle and the principle of public participation. Implementation of these reformulated principles would challenge some foundations of present mainstream views on environmental decision-making, but would on the other hand contribute to improved practices for long-term human welfare and planetary survival (full text of contribution)

Environmental Risk Assessment System for Phosphogypsum Tailing Dams

OpenAIRE

Xin Sun; Ping Ning; Xiaolong Tang; Honghong Yi; Kai Li; Lianbi Zhou; Xianmang Xu

2013-01-01

This paper may be of particular interest to the readers as it provides a new environmental risk assessment system for phosphogypsum tailing dams. In this paper, we studied the phosphogypsum tailing dams which include characteristics of the pollution source, environmental risk characteristics and evaluation requirements to identify the applicable environmental risk assessment methods. Two analytical methods, that is, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy logic, were used to handle the...

Environmental risk analysis for offshore oil and gas activities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brude, Odd Willy; Aspholm, Ole O.; Rudberg, Anders [Det Norske Veritas (Brazil)

2008-07-01

Offshore oil and gas activities always have a risk for environmental impact due to potential accidental releases of oil and gas. The environmental risk can be calculated as a combination of the frequency of such accidents to occur and their environmental consequences in terms of environmental damage to habitats or populations. A method for conducting environmental risk analysis has been in use in Norwegian offshore waters for a decade, with a continuously refinement of methodology over the past years. This paper outlines the principles in the MIRA method and gives examples and discussions regarding use in different environmental compartments. The risk assessment starts with identification of oil spill scenarios with frequencies of potential release rates and spill durations. The next step is to model the oil drift for each accidental oil spill scenario. Drift and fate of oil is modeled probabilistic. Based on the oil spill scenarios and their probability of oil pollution, the potential environmental damage is quantified for each scenario. The endpoint of environmental damage is reduction of a population and the resulting recovery time (in years) for various species and habitats. Environmental risk levels are then evaluated against the operating companies' environmental acceptance criteria. (author)

Performance assessment - risk assessment vive la differences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nitschke, R.L.

1997-01-01

In the sister worlds of radioactive waste management disposal and environmental restoration, there are two similar processes and computational approaches for determining the acceptability of the proposed activities. While similar, these two techniques can lead to confusion and misunderstanding if the differences are not recognized and appreciated. In the case of radioactive waste management, the performance assessment process is used to determine compliance with certain prescribed 'performance objectives'. These objectives are designed to ensure that the disposal of radioactive (high-level, low-level, and/or transuranic) waste will be protective of human health and the environment. The environmental link is primarily through assuring protection of the groundwater as a resource. In the case of environmental restoration, the risk assessment process is used to determine the proper remedial action response, if any, for a past hazardous waste release. The process compares the 'no action' or 'leave as is' option with both carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic values for human health to determine the need for any action and to help to help determine just what the appropriate action would need to be. The impacts to the ecological system are evaluated in a slightly, different but similar fashion. Now the common objectives between these two processes notwithstanding. There are some key and fundamental differences that need to be answered that make direct comparisons or a common approach inappropriate. Failure to recognize this can lead to confusion and misunderstanding. This can be particularly problematic when one is faced with an active disposal facility located within the boundaries of an environmental restoration site as is the case at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL). Through a critical evaluation of the performance assessment and risk assessment processes, highlighting both similarities and differences, it is hoped that greater understanding and appreciation

Environmental Risk Assessment Strategy for Nanomaterials

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janeck J. Scott‐Fordsmand

2017-10-01

Full Text Available An Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA for nanomaterials (NMs is outlined in this paper. Contrary to other recent papers on the subject, the main data requirements, models and advancement within each of the four risk assessment domains are described, i.e., in the: (i materials, (ii release, fate and exposure, (iii hazard and (iv risk characterisation domains. The material, which is obviously the foundation for any risk assessment, should be described according to the legislatively required characterisation data. Characterisation data will also be used at various levels within the ERA, e.g., exposure modelling. The release, fate and exposure data and models cover the input for environmental distribution models in order to identify the potential (PES and relevant exposure scenarios (RES and, subsequently, the possible release routes, both with regard to which compartment(s NMs are distributed in line with the factors determining the fate within environmental compartment. The initial outcome in the risk characterisation will be a generic Predicted Environmental Concentration (PEC, but a refined PEC can be obtained by applying specific exposure models for relevant media. The hazard information covers a variety of representative, relevant and reliable organisms and/or functions, relevant for the RES and enabling a hazard characterisation. The initial outcome will be hazard characterisation in test systems allowing estimating a Predicted No-Effect concentration (PNEC, either based on uncertainty factors or on a NM adapted version of the Species Sensitivity Distributions approach. The risk characterisation will either be based on a deterministic risk ratio approach (i.e., PEC/PNEC or an overlay of probability distributions, i.e., exposure and hazard distributions, using the nano relevant models.

Environmental Risk Assessment Strategy for Nanomaterials.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott-Fordsmand, Janeck J; Peijnenburg, Willie J G M; Semenzin, Elena; Nowack, Bernd; Hunt, Neil; Hristozov, Danail; Marcomini, Antonio; Irfan, Muhammad-Adeel; Jiménez, Araceli Sánchez; Landsiedel, Robert; Tran, Lang; Oomen, Agnes G; Bos, Peter M J; Hund-Rinke, Kerstin

2017-10-19

An Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) for nanomaterials (NMs) is outlined in this paper. Contrary to other recent papers on the subject, the main data requirements, models and advancement within each of the four risk assessment domains are described, i.e., in the: (i) materials, (ii) release, fate and exposure, (iii) hazard and (iv) risk characterisation domains. The material, which is obviously the foundation for any risk assessment, should be described according to the legislatively required characterisation data. Characterisation data will also be used at various levels within the ERA, e.g., exposure modelling. The release, fate and exposure data and models cover the input for environmental distribution models in order to identify the potential (PES) and relevant exposure scenarios (RES) and, subsequently, the possible release routes, both with regard to which compartment(s) NMs are distributed in line with the factors determining the fate within environmental compartment. The initial outcome in the risk characterisation will be a generic Predicted Environmental Concentration (PEC), but a refined PEC can be obtained by applying specific exposure models for relevant media. The hazard information covers a variety of representative, relevant and reliable organisms and/or functions, relevant for the RES and enabling a hazard characterisation. The initial outcome will be hazard characterisation in test systems allowing estimating a Predicted No-Effect concentration (PNEC), either based on uncertainty factors or on a NM adapted version of the Species Sensitivity Distributions approach. The risk characterisation will either be based on a deterministic risk ratio approach (i.e., PEC/PNEC) or an overlay of probability distributions, i.e., exposure and hazard distributions, using the nano relevant models.

Environmental risk assessment of low density polyethylene unit using the method of failure mode and effect analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Salati Parinaz

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The ninth olefin plan of Arya Sasol Petrochemical Company (A.S.P.C. is regarded the largest gas Olefin Unit located on Pars Special Economic Energy Zone (P.S.E.E.Z. Considering the importance of the petrochemical unit, its environmental assessment seems necessary to identify and reduce potential hazards. For this purpose, after determining the scope of the study area, identification and measurement of the environmental parameters, environmental risk assessment of the unit was carried out using Environment Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (EFMEA. Using the noted method, sources causing environmental risks were identified, rated and prioritized. Beside, the impacts of the environmental aspects derived from the unit activities as well as their consequences were also analyzed. Furthermore, the identified impacts were prioritized based on Risk Priority Number (RPN and severity level of the consequences imposed on the affected environment. After performing statistical calculations, it was found that the environmental aspects owing the risk priority number higher than 15 have a high level of risk. Results obtained from Low Density Polyethylene Unit revealed that the highest risk belongs to the emergency vent system with risk priority number equal to 48. It is occurred due to imperfect performance of the reactor safety system leading to the emissions of ethylene gas, particles, and radioactive steam as well as air and noise pollutions. Results derived from secondary assessment of the environmental aspects, through difference in calculated RPN and activities risk levels showed that employing modern methods and risk assessment are have remarkably reduced the severity of risk and consequently detracted the damages and losses incurred on the environment.

Approach on environmental risk assessment of nanosilver released from textiles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Voelker, Doris, E-mail: doris.voelker@uba.de [Federal Environment Agency Germany, Section IV 2.2, Wörlitzer Platz 1, 06844 Dessau-Rosslau (Germany); Schlich, Karsten [Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology, Department of Ecotoxicology, Auf dem Aberg 1, 57392 Schmallenberg (Germany); Hohndorf, Lars; Koch, Wolfgang; Kuehnen, Ute [Federal Environment Agency Germany, Section IV 2.2, Wörlitzer Platz 1, 06844 Dessau-Rosslau (Germany); Polleichtner, Christian; Kussatz, Carola [Federal Environment Agency Germany, Section IV 2.4, Schichauweg 58, 12307 Berlin (Germany); Hund-Rinke, Kerstin [Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology, Department of Ecotoxicology, Auf dem Aberg 1, 57392 Schmallenberg (Germany)

2015-07-15

Based on the increased utilization of nanosilver (silver nanomaterials=AgNM) as antibacterial agent, there is the strong need to assess the potential environmental implication associated with its new application areas. In this study an exemplary environmental risk assessment (ERA) of AgNM applied in textiles was performed. Environmental exposure scenarios (via municipal sewage treatment plant (STP)) with wastewater supply from domestic homes) were developed for three different types of textiles equipped with AgNM. Based on these scenarios predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) were deduced for STPs and for the environmental compartments surface water, sediment as well as soil. These PECs were related to PNECs (predicted no effect concentrations). PNECs were deduced from results of ecotoxicity tests of a selected AgNM (NM-300K). Data on ecotoxicology were derived from various tests with activated sludge, cyanobacteria, algae, daphnids, fish, duckweed, macrophytes, chironomids, earthworms, terrestrial plants as well as soil microorganisms. Emission data for the AgNM NM-300K from textiles were derived from washing experiments. The performed ERA was based on the specifications defined in the ECHA Guidances on information requirements and chemical safety assessment. Based on the chosen scenarios and preconditions, no environmental risk of the AgNM NM-300K released from textiles was detected. Under conservative assumptions a risk quotient for surface water close to 1 indicated that the aquatic compartment may be affected by an increased emission of AgNM to the environment due to the high sensitivity of aquatic organisms to silver. Based on the successful retention of AgNM in the sewage sludge and the still ongoing continual application of sewage sludge on farmland it is recommended to introduce a threshold for total silver content in sewage sludge into the respective regulations. Regarding potential risk mitigation measures, it is emphasized to preferably directly

Approach on environmental risk assessment of nanosilver released from textiles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Voelker, Doris; Schlich, Karsten; Hohndorf, Lars; Koch, Wolfgang; Kuehnen, Ute; Polleichtner, Christian; Kussatz, Carola; Hund-Rinke, Kerstin

2015-01-01

Based on the increased utilization of nanosilver (silver nanomaterials=AgNM) as antibacterial agent, there is the strong need to assess the potential environmental implication associated with its new application areas. In this study an exemplary environmental risk assessment (ERA) of AgNM applied in textiles was performed. Environmental exposure scenarios (via municipal sewage treatment plant (STP)) with wastewater supply from domestic homes) were developed for three different types of textiles equipped with AgNM. Based on these scenarios predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) were deduced for STPs and for the environmental compartments surface water, sediment as well as soil. These PECs were related to PNECs (predicted no effect concentrations). PNECs were deduced from results of ecotoxicity tests of a selected AgNM (NM-300K). Data on ecotoxicology were derived from various tests with activated sludge, cyanobacteria, algae, daphnids, fish, duckweed, macrophytes, chironomids, earthworms, terrestrial plants as well as soil microorganisms. Emission data for the AgNM NM-300K from textiles were derived from washing experiments. The performed ERA was based on the specifications defined in the ECHA Guidances on information requirements and chemical safety assessment. Based on the chosen scenarios and preconditions, no environmental risk of the AgNM NM-300K released from textiles was detected. Under conservative assumptions a risk quotient for surface water close to 1 indicated that the aquatic compartment may be affected by an increased emission of AgNM to the environment due to the high sensitivity of aquatic organisms to silver. Based on the successful retention of AgNM in the sewage sludge and the still ongoing continual application of sewage sludge on farmland it is recommended to introduce a threshold for total silver content in sewage sludge into the respective regulations. Regarding potential risk mitigation measures, it is emphasized to preferably directly

2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI)

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks 163 countries on environmental performance based on twenty-five indicators grouped within ten core policy...

Environmental radiation standards and risk limitation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kocher, D.C.

1987-01-01

The Environmental Protection Agency and Nuclear Regulatory Commission have established environmental radiation standards for specific practices which correspond to limits on risk to the public that vary by several orders of magnitude and often are much less than radiation risks that are essentially unregulated, e.g., risks from radon in homes. This paper discusses a proposed framework for environmental radiation standards that would improve the correspondence with limitation of risk. This framework includes the use of limits on annual effective dose equivalent averaged over a lifetime, rather than limits on dose equivalent to whole body or any organ for each year of exposure, and consideration of exposures of younger age groups as well as adults; limits on annual effective dose equivalent averaged over a lifetime no lower than 0.25 mSv (25 mrem) per practice; maintenance of all exposures as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA); and establishment of a generally applicable de minimis dose for public exposures. Implications of the proposed regulatory framework for the current system of standards for limiting public exposures are discussed. 20 refs

Environmental Risk Profiling of the Volta Delta, Ghana

Science.gov (United States)

Nyarko, B. K.; Appeaning-Addo, K.; Amisigo, B.

2017-12-01

Volta Delta communities find it difficult to absorb or bear risk at different levels, because of the physical and economic impacts of environmental hazards. In this regards various agencies and organizations have in recent years launched initiatives to measure and identify risk areas with a set of indicators and indices. The theory underpinning this study is concepts of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). The Cox proportional hazards regression model will be used as the model for the risk profile. Finding the optimal level of environmental risk for activities in the Volta Delta considering the risk required, risk capacity and risk tolerance. Using data from different sources, an environmental risk profile was developed for the Volta Delta. The result indicates that risks are distributed across the Delta. However, areas that have government interventions, such as sea defense system and irrigation facilities have less threat. In addition wealthy areas do effectively reduce the threat of any form of disaster.

Poor environmental tracking can make extinction risk insensitive to the colour of environmental noise

Science.gov (United States)

van de Pol, Martijn; Vindenes, Yngvild; Sæther, Bernt-Erik; Engen, Steinar; Ens, Bruno J.; Oosterbeek, Kees; Tinbergen, Joost M.

2011-01-01

The relative importance of environmental colour for extinction risk compared with other aspects of environmental noise (mean and interannual variability) is poorly understood. Such knowledge is currently relevant, as climate change can cause the mean, variability and temporal autocorrelation of environmental variables to change. Here, we predict that the extinction risk of a shorebird population increases with the colour of a key environmental variable: winter temperature. However, the effect is weak compared with the impact of changes in the mean and interannual variability of temperature. Extinction risk was largely insensitive to noise colour, because demographic rates are poor in tracking the colour of the environment. We show that three mechanisms—which probably act in many species—can cause poor environmental tracking: (i) demographic rates that depend nonlinearly on environmental variables filter the noise colour, (ii) demographic rates typically depend on several environmental signals that do not change colour synchronously, and (iii) demographic stochasticity whitens the colour of demographic rates at low population size. We argue that the common practice of assuming perfect environmental tracking may result in overemphasizing the importance of noise colour for extinction risk. Consequently, ignoring environmental autocorrelation in population viability analysis could be less problematic than generally thought. PMID:21561978

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTAL RISK AND PROTECTION: A TYPOLOGY WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowen, Natasha K; Lee, Jung-Sook; Weller, Bridget E

2007-01-01

Social environmental assessments can play a critical role in prevention planning in schools. The purpose of this study was to describe the importance of conducting social environmental assessments, demonstrate that complex social environmental data can be simplified into a useful and valid typology, and illustrate how the typology can guide prevention planning in schools. Data collected from 532 3(rd) through 5(th) graders using the Elementary School Success Profile were analyzed in the study. A latent profile analysis based on eight child-report social environmental dimensions identified five patterns of social environmental risk and protection. The classes were labeled High Protection, Moderate Protection, Moderate Protection/Peer Risk, Little Protection/Family Risk, and No Protection//School Risk. Class membership was significantly associated with measures of well-being, social behavior and academic performance. The article illustrates how the typology can be used to guide decisions about who to target in school-based preventions, which features of the social environment to target, and how much change to seek. Information is provided about online resources for selecting prevention strategies once these decisions are made.

Environmental pollution risk and insurance

OpenAIRE

Fragnelli, Vito; Marina, Maria Erminia

2002-01-01

We consider environmental risks that are evaluated too much heavy for a single insurance company, but they can be insured by n companies which a premium is assigned to.This is precisely the Italian scenario where a pool of companies co-insures these risks.Under a game theoretic approach we start by analyzing how they should split the risk and the premium in order to be better off. Under suitable hypotheses, there exists an optimal decomposition of the risk, that allow us to define a cooperati...

2008 Environmental Performance Index (EPI)

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The 2008 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) centers on two broad environmental protection objectives: (1) reducing environmental stresses on human health, and (2)...

Modern biogeochemistry environmental risk assessment

CERN Document Server

Bashkin, Vladimir N

2006-01-01

Most books deal mainly with various technical aspects of ERA description and calculationsAims at generalizing the modern ideas of both biogeochemical and environmental risk assessment during recent yearsAims at supplementing the existing books by providing a modern understanding of mechanisms that are responsible for the ecological risk for human beings and ecosystem

Superior eco-efficiency performance in industry: hidden risks and value potential for strategic investors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Whittaker, M.; Kiernan, M.J. [Innovest Strategic Value Advisors Inc., Richmond Hill, ON (Canada)

2000-07-01

It is now widely recognized that high eco-efficiency and competitiveness and financial performance go hand in hand. Innovest assessed more than 60 facets of business development, management and environmental risks in global companies representing the petroleum, chemicals, forest products, electrical utilities and other industries. It did not matter whether return on investment (ROI), return on equity (ROE) or total stock market return was considered as a basis for evaluation. Those companies that ranked at the top on environmental performance outperformed their rivals in the same sector by 17 per cent annually. In addition, the authors noticed variances as large as 500 per cent in the environmental risk profiles of companies whose credit and investment risks were deemed identical. The eco-efficiency helped generate competitive advantage and financial performance by enhancing: (1) cost containment and liability reduction, (2) sales and market share growth, (3) franchise and brand value, (4) stakeholder satisfaction and (5) innovation capacity. 2 refs., 3 figs.

Risk and environmental impact assessment: nuclear and environmental licensing interface

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Costa, Eduardo M.; Monteiro, Iara A.

1997-01-01

The main aims of this paper are the identification and discussion of interfaces and application of common concepts in the existing nuclear and environmental licensing procedures. Risk and impact assessment of nuclear electricity generation are two of these concepts which are discussed detail. The risk concept, which had initially focused on engineering projects, has been extended to many other areas of human activity. Risk resulting from the use of ionization radiation has been associated to the dose for the critical members of the public. Therefore, radiation protection applies basic dose limits which are established in national and international recommendations. These recommendations are increasing the emphasis to keep all the exposures to ionizing radiation as low as reasonable achievable, economical and social factors being taken into account. On the other hand, environmental impact assessment has been used as a tool in planning and decision-making processes, thus including environmental concern in the discussion of social and economical development strategies. This paper aims to discuss the association of these two concepts by presenting the procedures of control of radiological impact during normal operation of a nuclear power plant and the various forms of risk communication to the public in the case of events occurrence. (author). 13 refs

Environmental Proactivity and Environmental and Economic Performance: Evidence from the Winery Sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Virginia Barba-Sánchez

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Environmental sustainability in the winery sector is receiving increased attention from governments, environmental groups, and consumers. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between the degree of proactivity of a firm’s environmental strategies and its business performance. The novelty of this research work lies in its definition of business performance, which includes business environmental performance in terms of reducing the firm’s environmental impacts and eco-efficiency in the use of resources such as water, energy, and raw materials, in addition to its economic performance. A model is proposed and tested using a sample of 312 Spanish wineries. Data were analysed using partial least squares path modelling (PLS-PM. The fitness and robustness of the structural model proved adequate. The results indicate positive correlation of environmental proactivity with economic and environmental performance. Although environmental proactivity improves business performance, it has a greater impact on reducing environmental impacts and improving eco-efficiency.

Approach on environmental risk assessment of nanosilver released from textiles.

Science.gov (United States)

Voelker, Doris; Schlich, Karsten; Hohndorf, Lars; Koch, Wolfgang; Kuehnen, Ute; Polleichtner, Christian; Kussatz, Carola; Hund-Rinke, Kerstin

2015-07-01

Based on the increased utilization of nanosilver (silver nanomaterials=AgNM) as antibacterial agent, there is the strong need to assess the potential environmental implication associated with its new application areas. In this study an exemplary environmental risk assessment (ERA) of AgNM applied in textiles was performed. Environmental exposure scenarios (via municipal sewage treatment plant (STP)) with wastewater supply from domestic homes) were developed for three different types of textiles equipped with AgNM. Based on these scenarios predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) were deduced for STPs and for the environmental compartments surface water, sediment as well as soil. These PECs were related to PNECs (predicted no effect concentrations). PNECs were deduced from results of ecotoxicity tests of a selected AgNM (NM-300K). Data on ecotoxicology were derived from various tests with activated sludge, cyanobacteria, algae, daphnids, fish, duckweed, macrophytes, chironomids, earthworms, terrestrial plants as well as soil microorganisms. Emission data for the AgNM NM-300K from textiles were derived from washing experiments. The performed ERA was based on the specifications defined in the ECHA Guidances on information requirements and chemical safety assessment. Based on the chosen scenarios and preconditions, no environmental risk of the AgNM NM-300K released from textiles was detected. Under conservative assumptions a risk quotient for surface water close to 1 indicated that the aquatic compartment may be affected by an increased emission of AgNM to the environment due to the high sensitivity of aquatic organisms to silver. Based on the successful retention of AgNM in the sewage sludge and the still ongoing continual application of sewage sludge on farmland it is recommended to introduce a threshold for total silver content in sewage sludge into the respective regulations. Regarding potential risk mitigation measures, it is emphasized to preferably directly

The "polyenviromic risk score": Aggregating environmental risk factors predicts conversion to psychosis in familial high-risk subjects.

Science.gov (United States)

Padmanabhan, Jaya L; Shah, Jai L; Tandon, Neeraj; Keshavan, Matcheri S

2017-03-01

Young relatives of individuals with schizophrenia (i.e. youth at familial high-risk, FHR) are at increased risk of developing psychotic disorders, and show higher rates of psychiatric symptoms, cognitive and neurobiological abnormalities than non-relatives. It is not known whether overall exposure to environmental risk factors increases risk of conversion to psychosis in FHR subjects. Subjects consisted of a pilot longitudinal sample of 83 young FHR subjects. As a proof of principle, we examined whether an aggregate score of exposure to environmental risk factors, which we term a 'polyenviromic risk score' (PERS), could predict conversion to psychosis. The PERS combines known environmental risk factors including cannabis use, urbanicity, season of birth, paternal age, obstetric and perinatal complications, and various types of childhood adversity, each weighted by its odds ratio for association with psychosis in the literature. A higher PERS was significantly associated with conversion to psychosis in young, familial high-risk subjects (OR=1.97, p=0.009). A model combining the PERS and clinical predictors had a sensitivity of 27% and specificity of 96%. An aggregate index of environmental risk may help predict conversion to psychosis in FHR subjects. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Risk communication in environmental assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rahm-Crites, L. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Germantown, MD (United States). Washington Operations Office

1996-08-26

Since the enactment of NEPA and other environmental legislation, the concept of `risk communication` has expanded from simply providing citizens with scientific information about risk to exploring ways of making risk information genuinely meaningful to the public and facilitating public involvement in the very processes whereby risk is analyzed and managed. Contemporary risk communication efforts attempt to find more effective ways of conveying increasingly complex risk information and to develop more democratic and proactive approaches to community involvement, in particular to ensuring the participation of diverse populations in risk decisions. Although considerable progress has been made in a relatively short time, risk communication researchers and practitioners currently face a number of challenges in a time of high expectations, low trust, and low budgets.

Characterising performance of environmental models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bennett, N.D.; Croke, B.F.W.; Guariso, G.; Guillaume, J.H.A.; Hamilton, S.H.; Jakeman, A.J.; Marsili-Libelli, S.; Newham, L.T.H.; Norton, J.; Perrin, C.; Pierce, S.; Robson, B.; Seppelt, R.; Voinov, A.; Fath, B.D.; Andreassian, V.

2013-01-01

In order to use environmental models effectively for management and decision-making, it is vital to establish an appropriate level of confidence in their performance. This paper reviews techniques available across various fields for characterising the performance of environmental models with focus

Vested interest and environmental risk communication

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

De Dominicis, Stefano; Crano, William D.; Ganucci Cancellieri, Uberta

2014-01-01

Vested interest theory (VIT), first investigated on environmental risk, suggests that the hedonic relevance of an attitude object moderates relations between attitudes, intentions, and responses to danger. Emphasizing vested interest may maximize impacts of risk communications. Study 1 (N=215...... method of developing effective risk announcements.......) assessed differences between inhabitants of two flood-risk areas in Italy on past experience, risk perceptions, concerns, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. Objectively, higher risk areas' residents reported more experience, and greater perceived risk and concern, while no preparedness differences were...

Operating performance and environmental and safety risks: A preliminary comparison of majors and independents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pulsipher, A.G.; Iledare, W.O.; Baumann, R.H.; Mesyanzhinov, D.

1995-01-01

The objective is to compare the safety and environmental records of oil and gas companies operating on the OCS in the Gulf of Mexico over the past decade. The reason for doing so is to help inform public sector policy-makers and private sector decision-makers about the potential safety and environmental risks associated with the expected increased presence of smaller independents in the domestic oil and gas industry in general and on the federal OCS in particular. The preliminary conclusion is that although independents have had a modestly high incidence of fires and explosions than the majors, the difference is not significant statistically and is largely attributable to a few ''bad actors'' rather than demonstrably poorer practice by the group as a whole

Offshore wind turbine risk quantification/evaluation under extreme environmental conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taflanidis, Alexandros A.; Loukogeorgaki, Eva; Angelides, Demos C.

2013-01-01

A simulation-based framework is discussed in this paper for quantification/evaluation of risk and development of automated risk assessment tools, focusing on applications to offshore wind turbines under extreme environmental conditions. The framework is founded on a probabilistic characterization of the uncertainty in the models for the excitation, the turbine and its performance. Risk is then quantified as the expected value of some risk consequence measure over the probability distributions considered for the uncertain model parameters. Stochastic simulation is proposed for the risk assessment, corresponding to the evaluation of some associated probabilistic integral quantifying risk, as it allows for the adoption of comprehensive computational models for describing the dynamic turbine behavior. For improvement of the computational efficiency, a surrogate modeling approach is introduced based on moving least squares response surface approximations. The assessment is also extended to a probabilistic sensitivity analysis that identifies the importance of each of the uncertain model parameters, i.e. risk factors, towards the total risk as well as towards each of the failure modes contributing to this risk. The versatility and computational efficiency of the advocated approaches is finally exploited to support the development of standalone risk assessment applets for automated implementation of the probabilistic risk quantification/assessment. -- Highlights: ► A simulation-based risk quantification/assessment framework is discussed. ► Focus is on offshore wind turbines under extreme environmental conditions. ► Approach is founded on probabilistic description of excitation/system model parameters. ► Surrogate modeling is adopted for improved computational efficiency. ► Standalone risk assessment applets for automated implementation are supported

Transportation risk assessment for the US Department of Energy Environmental Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, S.Y.; Monette, F.A.; Biwer, B.M.; Lazaro, M.A.; Hartmann, H.M.; Policastro, A.J.

1994-01-01

In its Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), the Office of Environmental Management (EM) of the US Department of Energy (DOE) is considering a broad range of alternatives for the future management of radioactive and hazardous waste at the facilities of the DOE complex. The alternatives involve facilities to be used for treatment, storage, and disposal of various wastes generated from DOE's environmental restoration activities and waste management operation. Included in the evaluation are six types of waste (five types of radioactive waste plus hazardous waste), 49 sites, and numerous cases associated with each different alternative for waste management. In general, the alternatives are evaluated independently for each type of waste and reflect decentralized, regionalized, and centralized approaches. Transportation of waste materials is an integral component of the EM PEIS alternatives for waste management. The estimated impact on human health that is associated with various waste transportation activities is an important element leading to a complete appraisal of the alternatives. The transportation risk assessment performed for the EM PEIS is designed to ensure -- through uniform and judicious selection of models, data, and assumptions -- that relative comparisons of risk among the various alternatives are meaningful and consistent

Environmental performance reviews. Latvia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-01-01

The ECE Committee on Environmental Policy included the Environmental Performance Review of Latvia in its work programme in May 1997. The review team prepared a report on the environmental performance of Latvia before, during and after the review mission in Riga in April 1998. The report by the review team, including draft recommendations for the solution of existing problems in national environmental policy and management, was submitted for evaluation to the ECE Committee on Environmental Policy at its annual session in Geneva, on 1 October 1998. A high-level delegation from Latvia attended this session. It was headed by the State Minister for Environmental Protection and also included representatives of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Welfare. The evaluation by the Committee was based on the in-depth preparation by two reviewing countries, Portugal and Ukraine. At the end of its evaluation, the Committee agreed on a final set of recommendations for inclusion in this publication. The consideration of the EPR report confirmed the strategy that has been applied to Latvian environmental policy and management during the transition period. The inherited acute environmental problems have been tackled essentially on a case by case basis. The long-term solution of the problems will have to be accompanied also by strategic orientations for environmental policy. The development of such orientations in co-operation with both governmental and non-governmental partners is a need also related to the efforts by Latvia to approach European practices of environmental management. The Latvian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development is fully aware of the considerable resources that are required at all levels for the full transformation to such practices

Environmental risk allocation in the asset rationalization process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kruhlak, R.M.; Miller, S.R.

1999-01-01

Public concern regarding the state of the environment has resulted in improved enforcement of existing laws related to protection of the environment. This has had an impact on oil and gas transactions. One of the factors which affects the nature of oil and gas acquisitions and dispositions is the risk associated with environmental conditions. For example, the purchaser of an oil or gas asset may acquire threats of prosecution under existing legislation, or may acquire significant costs associated with remediation or clean-up. Vendors may also be affected by environmental risks resulting from divestiture. Risks include increased liability, continuing liability, and a growing uncertainty over the potential extent and nature of environmental problems. These problems mean that lawyers must find adequate methods of allocating risk. The best approach is to place more emphasis on rigorous due diligence, disclosure and contractual accommodation of identifiable environmental problems at the time of the acquisition or disposition. 2 figs

Risk-based priority scoring for Brookhaven National Laboratory environmental restoration programs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morris, S.C.; Meinhold, A.F.

1995-05-01

This report describes the process of estimating the risk associated with environmental restoration programs under the Brookhaven National Laboratory Office of Environmental Restoration. The process was part of an effort across all Department of Energy facilities to provide a consistent framework to communicate risk information about the facilities to senior managers in the DOE Office of Environmental Management to foster understanding of risk activities across programs. the risk evaluation was a qualitative exercise. Categories considered included: Public health and safety; site personnel safety and health; compliance; mission impact; cost-effective risk management; environmental protection; inherent worker risk; environmental effects of clean-up; and social, cultural, political, and economic impacts

Bladder cancer, a review of the environmental risk factors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Letašiová Silvia

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Many epidemiological studies and reviews have been performed to identify the causes of bladder cancer. The aim of this review is to investigate the links between various environmental risk factors and cancer of the bladder. Methods A systematic literature search was performed using PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Scholar Google and Russian Google databases to identify reviews and epidemiological studies on bladder cancer risk factors associated with the environment published between 1998 and 2010. Only literature discussing human studies was considered. Results Smoking, mainly cigarette smoking, is a well known risk factor for various diseases, including bladder cancer. Another factor strongly associated with bladder cancer is exposure to arsenic in drinking water at concentrations higher than 300 µg/l. The most notable risk factor for development of bladder cancer is occupational exposure to aromatic amines (2-naphthylamine, 4-aminobiphenyl and benzidine and 4,4'-methylenebis(2-chloroaniline, which can be found in the products of the chemical, dye and rubber industries as well as in hair dyes, paints, fungicides, cigarette smoke, plastics, metals and motor vehicle exhaust. There are also data suggesting an effect from of other types of smoking besides cigarettes (cigar, pipe, Egyptian waterpipe, smokeless tobacco and environmental tobacco smoking, and other sources of arsenic exposure such as air, food, occupational hazards, and tobacco. Other studies show that hairdressers and barbers with occupational exposure to hair dyes experience enhanced risk of bladder cancer. For example, a study related to personal use of hair dyes demonstrates an elevated bladder cancer risk for people who used permanent hair dyes at least once a month, for one year or longer. Conclusion Smoking, in particular from cigarettes, exposure to arsenic in drinking water, and occupational exposure to aromatic amines and 4,4'-methylenebis(2-chloroaniline

Integrated environmental risk assessment and whole-process management system in chemical industry parks.

Science.gov (United States)

Shao, Chaofeng; Yang, Juan; Tian, Xiaogang; Ju, Meiting; Huang, Lei

2013-04-19

Chemical industry parks in China are considered high-risk areas because they present numerous risks that can damage the environment, such as pollution incidents. In order to identify the environmental risks and the principal risk factors in these areas, we have developed a simple physical model of a regional environmental risk field (ERF) using existing dispersal patterns and migration models. The regional ERF zoning was also conducted and a reference value for diagnostic methods was developed to determine risk-acceptable, risk-warning, and risk-mitigation zones, which can provide a risk source layout for chemical industry parks. In accordance with the environmental risk control requirements, this study focused on the three stages of control and management of environmental risk and established an environmental risk management system including risk source identification and assessment, environmental safety planning, early risk warning, emergency management, assessment of environmental effects, and environmental remediation of pollution accidents. By using this model, the environmental risks in Tianjin Binhai New Area, the largest chemical industry park in China, were assessed and the environmental risk zoning map was drawn, which suggested the existence of many unacceptable environmental risks in this area. Thus, relevant suggestions have been proposed from the perspective of the adjustment of risk source layout, intensified management of environmental risk control and so on.

Integrated Environmental Risk Assessment and Whole-Process Management System in Chemical Industry Parks

Science.gov (United States)

Shao, Chaofeng; Yang, Juan; Tian, Xiaogang; Ju, Meiting; Huang, Lei

2013-01-01

Chemical industry parks in China are considered high-risk areas because they present numerous risks that can damage the environment, such as pollution incidents. In order to identify the environmental risks and the principal risk factors in these areas, we have developed a simple physical model of a regional environmental risk field (ERF) using existing dispersal patterns and migration models. The regional ERF zoning was also conducted and a reference value for diagnostic methods was developed to determine risk-acceptable, risk-warning, and risk-mitigation zones, which can provide a risk source layout for chemical industry parks. In accordance with the environmental risk control requirements, this study focused on the three stages of control and management of environmental risk and established an environmental risk management system including risk source identification and assessment, environmental safety planning, early risk warning, emergency management, assessment of environmental effects, and environmental remediation of pollution accidents. By using this model, the environmental risks in Tianjin Binhai New Area, the largest chemical industry park in China, were assessed and the environmental risk zoning map was drawn, which suggested the existence of many unacceptable environmental risks in this area. Thus, relevant suggestions have been proposed from the perspective of the adjustment of risk source layout, intensified management of environmental risk control and so on. PMID:23603866

Integrated Environmental Risk Assessment and Whole-Process Management System in Chemical Industry Parks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lei Huang

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Chemical industry parks in China are considered high-risk areas because they present numerous risks that can damage the environment, such as pollution incidents. In order to identify the environmental risks and the principal risk factors in these areas, we have developed a simple physical model of a regional environmental risk field (ERF using existing dispersal patterns and migration models. The regional ERF zoning was also conducted and a reference value for diagnostic methods was developed to determine risk-acceptable, risk-warning, and risk-mitigation zones, which can provide a risk source layout for chemical industry parks. In accordance with the environmental risk control requirements, this study focused on the three stages of control and management of environmental risk and established an environmental risk management system including risk source identification and assessment, environmental safety planning, early risk warning, emergency management, assessment of environmental effects, and environmental remediation of pollution accidents. By using this model, the environmental risks in Tianjin Binhai New Area, the largest chemical industry park in China, were assessed and the environmental risk zoning map was drawn, which suggested the existence of many unacceptable environmental risks in this area. Thus, relevant suggestions have been proposed from the perspective of the adjustment of risk source layout, intensified management of environmental risk control and so on.

A computerized program to educate adults about environmental health risks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adams, M.; Dewey, J.; Schur, P.

1993-01-01

A computerized program called Environmental Risk Appraisal (ERA) has been developed to educate adults about environmental health risks and to motivate positive behavior change. A questionnaire addresses issues such as radon, environmental tobacco smoke, pesticides, lead, air and water pollution, and work-site risks. Responses are computer processed in seconds to produce an individualized computer printout containing a score, educational messages, and phone numbers to call for more information. A variety of audiences including environmental groups, worksites, women's organizations and health professionals were represented in this study of 269 participants. Many respondents indicated they were exposed to important environmental hazards and nearly 40 percent reported they had, or might have had, an environmental related illness at some time. Preliminary evaluation indicates the program is effective as an educational tool in raising awareness of environmental health risks

How strategic environmental assessment can inform lenders about potential environmental risks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Banhalmi-Zakar, Zsuzsa; Larsen, Sanne Vammen

2015-01-01

at a time when it can be used as an input to bank lending decisions, which can assist banks in making lending decisions with better environmental outcomes. For these reasons, we argue that in some circumstances, and particularly for project finance transactions, SEA may be a more useful environmental......In this paper, we explore the potential for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) to be a useful tool for banks to manage environmental risks and inform lending decisions. SEA is an environmental assessment tool that was developed to assist strategic-level decision-makers, such as policy...

Acceptable Risk Analysis for Abrupt Environmental Pollution Accidents in Zhangjiakou City, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Xi; Zhang, Zhijiao; Dong, Lei; Liu, Jing; Borthwick, Alistair G L; Liu, Renzhi

2017-04-20

Abrupt environmental pollution accidents cause considerable damage worldwide to the ecological environment, human health, and property. The concept of acceptable risk aims to answer whether or not a given environmental pollution risk exceeds a societally determined criterion. This paper presents a case study on acceptable environmental pollution risk conducted through a questionnaire survey carried out between August and October 2014 in five representative districts and two counties of Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, China. Here, environmental risk primarily arises from accidental water pollution, accidental air pollution, and tailings dam failure. Based on 870 valid questionnaires, demographic and regional differences in public attitudes towards abrupt environmental pollution risks were analyzed, and risk acceptance impact factors determined. The results showed females, people between 21-40 years of age, people with higher levels of education, public servants, and people with higher income had lower risk tolerance. People with lower perceived risk, low-level risk knowledge, high-level familiarity and satisfaction with environmental management, and without experience of environmental accidents had higher risk tolerance. Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that public satisfaction with environmental management was the most significant factor in risk acceptance, followed by perceived risk of abrupt air pollution, occupation, perceived risk of tailings dam failure, and sex. These findings should be helpful to local decision-makers concerned with environmental risk management (e.g., selecting target groups for effective risk communication) in the context of abrupt environmental accidents.

Risk Analysis for Environmental Health Triage

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bogen, K T

2005-01-01

The Homeland Security Act mandates development of a national, risk-based system to support planning for, response to and recovery from emergency situations involving large-scale toxic exposures. To prepare for and manage consequences effectively, planners and responders need not only to identify zones of potentially elevated individual risk, but also to predict expected casualties. Emergency response support systems now define ''consequences'' by mapping areas in which toxic chemical concentrations do or may exceed Acute Exposure Guideline Levels (AEGLs) or similar guidelines. However, because AEGLs do not estimate expected risks, current unqualified claims that such maps support consequence management are misleading. Intentionally protective, AEGLs incorporate various safety/uncertainty factors depending on scope and quality of chemical-specific toxicity data. Some of these factors are irrelevant, and others need to be modified, whenever resource constraints or exposure-scenario complexities require responders to make critical trade-off (triage) decisions in order to minimize expected casualties. AEGL-exceedance zones cannot consistently be aggregated, compared, or used to calculate expected casualties, and so may seriously misguide emergency response triage decisions. Methods and tools well established and readily available to support environmental health protection are not yet developed for chemically related environmental health triage. Effective triage decisions involving chemical risks require a new assessment approach that focuses on best estimates of likely casualties, rather than on upper plausible bounds of individual risk. If risk-based consequence management is to become a reality, federal agencies tasked with supporting emergency response must actively coordinate to foster new methods that can support effective environmental health triage

Anticipated and experienced emotions in environmental risk perception

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gisela Bohm

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Affective forecasting with respect to two environmental risks (ozone depletion, air pollution was investigated by studying tourists who travelled to either Australia or Bangkok and were thus confronted with one of these risks. We measured anticipated outcome and anticipated emotions before the journey, actually experienced outcome and actually experienced emotions during the journey, and anticipated outcome and emotions concerning a future encounter with the same risk after the journey. Results indicate that tourists underestimate (air pollution or correctly predict (ozone depletion both the seriousness of the outcome and their emotional reactions. The relationship between actual outcome and actual emotions is stronger than that between anticipated outcome and anticipated emotions. Furthermore, tourists learn from their travel experience and adjust their anticipations concerning future encounters with the environmental risk. Findings suggest that the domain of environmental risks differs from personal outcomes with respect to the process of affective forecasting.

A Cross-Cultural Study on Environmental Risk Perception and Educational Strategies: Implications for Environmental Education in China

Science.gov (United States)

Duan, Hongxia; Fortner, Rosanne

2010-01-01

This cross-cultural study examined college students' environmental risk perception and their preference in terms of risk communication and educational strategies in China and the United States. The results indicated that the Chinese respondents were more concerned about environmental risk, and they perceived the environmental issues to be more…

Insights on radiological risks of US Department of Energy radioactive waste management alternatives in the Environmental Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mueller, C.

1994-01-01

A Facility Accident Analysis (1) was performed in support of the US Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management (EM) Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). It used an integrated risk-based approach (2) to allow risk comparisons of EM PEIS strategies for consolidating the storage and treatment of wastes at different DOE sites throughout the country. This approach was developed in accordance with the latest National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) compliance guidance from DOE (3), which calls for consideration of a spectrum of accident scenarios that could occur in implementing the various actions evaluated in the EM PEIS. This paper discusses our insights with respect to the likely importance of the relative treatment technologies, waste management facilities and operations, and waste consolidation strategies considered in the EM PEIS

Environmental risk management for pharmaceutical compounds

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Voulvoulis, N [Imperial College London (United Kingdom)

2004-09-15

Pharmaceuticals are a highly variable group of organic compounds with the potential to cause harm to aquatic ecosystems and human health. Thousands of tones of pharmacologically active substances are used annually but surprisingly little is known about their ultimate fate in the environment. The data collected to date, rarely provide information on the processes that determine their environmental fate and although they receive considerable pharmacological and clinical testing during development, knowledge of their ecotoxicity is poor. One major concern is that antibiotics found in sewage effluent may cause increased resistance amongst natural bacterial populations. The debate over risks associated with chemicals in the environment represents more than just another disagreement in the scientific community. It has opened the door to a new way of thinking about the onset of uninherited diseases, the nature of scientific investigation, and the role of scientific knowledge in the policymaking process. For example, research evidence on endocrine disruption collected over the last few years has changed dramatically the way we think about chemical risks. In part, this change has also been attributed to the precautionary principle, as a new approach to environmental policy forged in Europe. The term ''precautionary approach'' declares an obligation to control the dangerous substances even before a definitive causal link had been established between the chemicals and health or environmental effects, and represents a radical departure from traditional approaches to risk assessment and particularly risk management, which includes an integration of the assessment, communication and mitigation of risks.

Screening Analysis for the Environmental Risk Evaluation System Fiscal Year 2011 Report Environmental Effects of Offshore Wind Energy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Copping, Andrea E.; Hanna, Luke A.

2011-11-01

Potential environmental effects of offshore wind (OSW) energy development are not well understood, and yet regulatory agencies are required to make decisions in spite of substantial uncertainty about environmental impacts and their long-term consequences. An understanding of risks associated with interactions between OSW installations and avian and aquatic receptors, including animals, habitats, and ecosystems, can help define key uncertainties and focus regulatory actions and scientific studies on interactions of most concern. During FY 2011, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) scientists adapted and applied the Environmental Risk Evaluation System (ERES), first developed to examine the effects of marine and hydrokinetic energy devices on aquatic environments, to offshore wind development. PNNL scientists conducted a risk screening analysis on two initial OSW cases: a wind project in Lake Erie and a wind project off the Atlantic coast of the United States near Atlantic City, New Jersey. The screening analysis revealed that top-tier stressors in the two OSW cases were the dynamic effects of the device (e.g., strike), accidents/disasters, and effects of the static physical presence of the device, such as alterations in bottom habitats. Receptor interactions with these stressors at the highest tiers of risk were dominated by threatened and endangered animals. Risk to the physical environment from changes in flow regime also ranked high. Peer review of this process and results will be conducted during FY 2012. The ERES screening analysis provides an assessment of the vulnerability of environmental receptors to stressors associated with OSW installations; a probability analysis is needed to determine specific risk levels to receptors. As more data become available that document effects of offshore wind farms on specific receptors in U.S. coastal and Great Lakes waters, probability analyses will be performed.

A risk index for multicriterial selection of a logging system with low environmental impact

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Horodnic, Sergiu Andrei, E-mail: horodnic@usv.ro

2015-02-15

Setting up the working stages in forest operations is conditioned by environmental protection and forest health requirements. This paper exposes a method for improving the decision-making process by choosing the most environmentally effective logging systems according to terrain configuration and stand characteristics. Such a methodology for selecting machines or logging systems accounting for environment, safety as well as economics, becomes mandatory in the context of sustainable management of forest with multiple functions. Based on analytic hierarchy process analysis the following classification of the environmental performance for four considered alternatives was obtained: skyline system (42.43%), forwarder system (20.22%), skidder system (19.92%) and horse logging system (17.43%). Further, an environmental risk matrix for the most important 28 risk factors specific to any work equipment used in forest operations was produced. In the end, a multicriterial analysis generated a risk index RI ranging between 1.0 and 3.5, which could help choosing the optimal combination of logging system and logging equipment with low environmental impact. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed approach, a simple application in specific conditions of a harvesting site is presented. - Highlights: • We propose a decision-making algorithm to select eco-friendly logging systems. • Analytic hierarchy process was applied for ranking 4 types of logging systems. • An environmental risk matrix with 28 risk factors in forest operations was made up.

A risk index for multicriterial selection of a logging system with low environmental impact

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Horodnic, Sergiu Andrei

2015-01-01

Setting up the working stages in forest operations is conditioned by environmental protection and forest health requirements. This paper exposes a method for improving the decision-making process by choosing the most environmentally effective logging systems according to terrain configuration and stand characteristics. Such a methodology for selecting machines or logging systems accounting for environment, safety as well as economics, becomes mandatory in the context of sustainable management of forest with multiple functions. Based on analytic hierarchy process analysis the following classification of the environmental performance for four considered alternatives was obtained: skyline system (42.43%), forwarder system (20.22%), skidder system (19.92%) and horse logging system (17.43%). Further, an environmental risk matrix for the most important 28 risk factors specific to any work equipment used in forest operations was produced. In the end, a multicriterial analysis generated a risk index RI ranging between 1.0 and 3.5, which could help choosing the optimal combination of logging system and logging equipment with low environmental impact. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed approach, a simple application in specific conditions of a harvesting site is presented. - Highlights: • We propose a decision-making algorithm to select eco-friendly logging systems. • Analytic hierarchy process was applied for ranking 4 types of logging systems. • An environmental risk matrix with 28 risk factors in forest operations was made up

Environmental performance report - 1995

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-01-01

This first environmental performance report by Hydro-Quebec reviewed achievements in the field of environmental management to the end of 1995, based on guidelines set forth in 1994. Chapter One introduced Hydro-Quebec's main orientation in the field of environment and sustainable development. Chapter Two discussed the advantages of hydropower and the principal environmental issues associated with it. Questions pertaining to power system operation were discussed in Chapter Three, while Chapter Four was devoted to a discussion of achievements associated with sustainable development. Social commitments and environmental research were the topics discussed in Chapters Five and Six. tabs., figs

Prevalence and evaluation of environmental risk factors associated with cleft lip and palate in a central Indian population.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalaskar, Ritesh; Kalaskar, Ashita; Naqvi, Fatama Sana; Tawani, Gopal S; Walke, Damayanti R

2013-01-01

Cleft lip and palate, the most common developmental deformity seen worldwide, may be either genetic or environmental in origin. Recent research clearly shows the inter-relationship between environmental risk factors and development of oral clefts. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of cleft lip and palate in the Nagpur region of India and to evaluate environmental risk factors associated with the occurrence of this orofacial abnormality. The parents of infants born with or without cleft lip and palate were subjected to questionnaires that elicited sociodemographic profiles and histories of maternal dietary, medical, and environmental risk factors as well family histories of cleft. A multifactorial comparison of environmental risk factors associated with this deformity was performed. The prevalence of cleft lip and palate and cleft palate was found to be 0.66% and 0.27%, respectively, in the Nagpur region. The results demonstrated a positive association between cleft lip and palate and the environmental risk factors of nutritional deficiency, anemia, and self-administered medications. Several environmental risk factors appear to play an important role in the development of cleft lip and palate in a Central Indian population of low socioeconomic status.

[Status Quo, Uncertainties and Trends Analysis of Environmental Risk Assessment for PFASs].

Science.gov (United States)

Hao, Xue-wen; Li, Li; Wang, Jie; Cao, Yan; Liu, Jian-guo

2015-08-01

This study systematically combed the definition and change of terms, category and application of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in international academic, focusing on the environmental risk and exposure assessment of PFASs, to comprehensively analyze the current status, uncertainties and trends of PFASs' environmental risk assessment. Overall, the risk assessment of PFASs is facing a complicated situation involving complex substance pedigrees, various types, complex derivative relations, confidential business information and risk uncertainties. Although the environmental risk of long-chain PFASs has been widely recognized, the short-chain PFASs and short-chain fluorotelomers as their alternatives still have many research gaps and uncertainties in environmental hazards, environmental fate and exposure risk. The scope of risk control of PFASs in the international community is still worth discussing. Due to trade secrets and market competition, the chemical structure and risk information of PFASs' alternatives are generally lack of openness and transparency. The environmental risk of most fluorinated and non-fluorinated alternatives is not clear. In total, the international research on PFASs risk assessment gradually transfer from long-chain perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) represented by perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) to short-chain PFAAs, and then extends to other PFASs. The main problems to be solved urgently and researched continuously are: the environmental hazardous assessment indexes, such as bioaccumulation and environmental migration, optimization method, the environmental release and multimedia environmental fate of short-chain PFASs; the environmental fate of neutral PFASs and the transformation and contribution as precursors of short-chain PFASs; the risk identification and assessment of fluorinated and non-fluorinated alternatives of PFASs.

Technology Evaluation for Environmental Risk Mitigation Compendium

Science.gov (United States)

Meinhold, A.; Greene, B.; Dussich, J.; Sorkin, A.; Olsen, W.

2017-01-01

The Technology Evaluation for Environmental Risk Mitigation (TEERM) Principal Center and its predecessor organization the Acquisition Pollution Prevention Program (AP2) supported the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in identifying technology solutions to risks and costs to NASA programs driven by environmental regulations and requirements. TEERM researched the commercial and government marketplace to locate viable and available technologies that met NASAs needs. TEERM focused on addressing environmentally-driven risks of direct concern to NASA programs and facilities, including hazardous materials in NASA operations and materials that became obsolescent because of environmental regulations. TEERM projects aimed to reduce cost; ensure the health and safety of people, assets, and the environment; promote efficiency; and minimize duplication. Major TEERM and AP2 projects focused on waste minimization and hazardous waste treatment, recycling, corrosion prevention and control, solvent and ozone depleting substances substitution, and aqueous based cleaners. In 2017, NASA made the decision to terminate the TEERM Principal Center. This Compendium Report documents TEERM and AP2 project successes. The Compendium Report traces the evolution of TEERM based on evolving risks and requirements for NASA and its relationship to the Space Shuttle Program, the United States Department of Defense, the European Space Agency, and other public and private stakeholders. This Compendium Report also documents project details from Project Summaries and Joint Test Plans and describes project stakeholders and collaborative effort results.

Parental and embryonic experiences with predation risk affect prey offspring behaviour and performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Donelan, Sarah C; Trussell, Geoffrey C

2018-03-14

Because phenotypic plasticity can operate both within and between generations, phenotypic outcomes are often shaped by a complex history of environmental signals. For example, parental and embryonic experiences with predation risk can both independently and interactively influence prey offspring traits early in their life. Parental and embryonic risk experiences can also independently shape offspring phenotypes throughout an offspring's ontogeny, but the persistence of their interactive effects throughout offspring ontogeny is unknown. We examined the effects of parental and embryonic experiences with predation risk on the response of 1-year-old prey (the carnivorous snail, Nucella lapillus ) offspring to current predation risk. We found that parental and embryonic risk experiences had largely independent effects on offspring performance and that these effects were context dependent. Parental experience with risk had strong impacts on multiple offspring traits in the presence of current risk that generally improved offspring performance under risk, but embryonic risk experience had relatively weaker effects and only operated in the absence of current risk to reduce offspring growth. These results illustrate that past environmental experiences can dynamically shape organism phenotypes across ontogeny and that attention to these effects is key to a better understanding of predator/prey dynamics in natural systems. © 2018 The Author(s).

Environmental risk management for pharmaceutical compounds

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Voulvoulis, N. [Imperial College London (United Kingdom)

2004-09-15

Pharmaceuticals are a highly variable group of organic compounds with the potential to cause harm to aquatic ecosystems and human health. Thousands of tones of pharmacologically active substances are used annually but surprisingly little is known about their ultimate fate in the environment. The data collected to date, rarely provide information on the processes that determine their environmental fate and although they receive considerable pharmacological and clinical testing during development, knowledge of their ecotoxicity is poor. One major concern is that antibiotics found in sewage effluent may cause increased resistance amongst natural bacterial populations. The debate over risks associated with chemicals in the environment represents more than just another disagreement in the scientific community. It has opened the door to a new way of thinking about the onset of uninherited diseases, the nature of scientific investigation, and the role of scientific knowledge in the policymaking process. For example, research evidence on endocrine disruption collected over the last few years has changed dramatically the way we think about chemical risks. In part, this change has also been attributed to the precautionary principle, as a new approach to environmental policy forged in Europe. The term ''precautionary approach'' declares an obligation to control the dangerous substances even before a definitive causal link had been established between the chemicals and health or environmental effects, and represents a radical departure from traditional approaches to risk assessment and particularly risk management, which includes an integration of the assessment, communication and mitigation of risks.

An assessment methodology of environmental risks associated with radioactive waste management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goldberg, S.M.; Logan, S.E.; Berbano, M.C.

1977-01-01

One major environmental concern associated with the projected increase in nuclear power generation is the treatment and storage or disposal of radioactive wastes. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with the University of New Mexico, has been developing a detailed assessment methodology of short- and long-term quantitative risks to the environment resulting from release of radionuclides during all phases of radioactive waste management operations. The paper describes a comprehensive model developed during 1976 for the public health and environmental impacts from the disposal of high-level and transuranic waste in geological formations. Parametric studies have been performed with this model for various geological disposal media and for waste in different forms. EPA has planned to utilize these parametric risk calculations to translate probabilities and consequences of risk occurrences into a cost-effectiveness perspective for decision-making purposes. This comprehensive model consisted of a release or fault-tree model, an environmental model and an economic model. Fault trees have been constructed to provide the relationships between various geophysical, meteorological and man-caused events which are potential mechanisms for release of radioactive material to the environment from waste repositories. The environmental model includes transport to and accumulations at various receptors in the biosphere, including a determination of pathways from environmental input concentrations to radiation dose to man. Finally, the economic results are used to compare and assess the various disposal concepts as a basis for formulating policy decisions. Implementation of this assessment methodology is possible for a whole range of radioactive and non-radioactive hazardous materials which require perpetual care. Further, the output will be used by EPA in the short term to develop general environmental standards applicable to any radioactive waste management

An assessment methodology of environmental risks associated with radioactive waste management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goldberg, S.M.; Logan, S.E.; Brebano, M.C.

1977-01-01

One of the major environmental concerns associated with the projected increase in nuclear power generation is the treatment and storage or disposal of radioactive wastes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in collaboration with the University of New Mexico has been developing a detailed assessment methodology of both the short-term as well as long-term quantitative risks on the environment resulting from the release of radionuclides during all phases of radioactive waste management operations. This past year a comprehensive model has been developed for the public health and environmental impacts from the disposal of high-level and transuranic waste in geological formations. Parametric studies have been performed with this model for various geological disposal media and for waste in different forms. EPA has planned to utilize these parametric risk calculations to translate probabilities and consequences of risk occurrences into a cost-effectiveness perspective for decision-making purposes. This comprehensive model has consisted of a release or fault tree model, an environmental model, and an economic model. Fault trees have been constructed to provide the relationships between various geophysical, meteorological, and man-caused events which are potential mechanisms for release of radioactive material to the environment from waste repositories. The environmental model includes the transport to and accumulations at various receptors in the biosphere, including a determination of pathways from environmental input concentrations to radiation dose to man. Finally, the economic results are used to compare and assess the various disposal concepts as a basis for formulating policy decisions. Implementation of this assessment methodology is possible for a whole range of both radioactive as well as non-radioactive hazardous materials which require perpetual care. Further, the output will be used by EPA in the short-term to develop general environmental standards

Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI)

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) centers on two broad environmental protection objectives: (1) reducing environmental stresses on human health,...

Environmental risk of oil spills in Northern Areas[Pollution abatement in Norway

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hoell, Espen

2006-07-01

The presentation discusses consequences and risks for the environment of oil spills and other pollution factors in the northern areas particularly in the north of Norway and the Barents Sea. Various environmental risk analysis are also discussed. The main conclusions are: Environmental risk for Obelix: The environmental risk is very low. The environmental risk for Obelix is less than 21% of Hydro's acceptance criteria for minor damage. The environmental risk is acceptable. DNV: The contingency planned for Obelix (barrier 1 and 2) will reduce the environmental risk further by approx. 60%, date: 2006-01-13. Question: Hydro Oil and Energy. Does the oil industry reach other conclusions than the national research institutes does for the Management Plan of the Barents Sea. The underlying studies (of the management plan) mainly consider the consequences of worst case events. Full rate (3000 m3/d), long duration (60 days). Blowout occurring at the worst time and place. They assume that consequences experienced by shipwreck accidents in the coastal zone are relevant also for offshore discharges. They do not consider: The probability for the worst case blowout to occur. The probability for the worst case consequences to be realized. The probability for less serious impact. The probable impact distribution. Overall conclusion: Environmental Risk of oil and gas activities in Lofoten and the Barents Sea Based on: 1) 40 years of experience in the Norwegian sector. 2) World leading risk reduction technology. 3) Systematic and thorough methods for analysis of environmental risk. 4) Several environmental risk analyses for Barents Sea and Lofoten drilling operations, indicating acceptable risk levels. 5) Recent ERA for Goliath drilling indicating similar low risk levels. 6) Well functioning contingency systems. We conclude that the environmental risk of oil and gas activities in the northern areas is low and acceptable to the Norwegian society. The environmental risk due to oil

III: Use of biomarkers as Risk Indicators in Environmental Risk Assessment of oil based discharges offshore.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanni, Steinar; Lyng, Emily; Pampanin, Daniela M

2017-06-01

Offshore oil and gas activities are required not to cause adverse environmental effects, and risk based management has been established to meet environmental standards. In some risk assessment schemes, Risk Indicators (RIs) are parameters to monitor the development of risk affecting factors. RIs have not yet been established in the Environmental Risk Assessment procedures for management of oil based discharges offshore. This paper evaluates the usefulness of biomarkers as RIs, based on their properties, existing laboratory biomarker data and assessment methods. Data shows several correlations between oil concentrations and biomarker responses, and assessment principles exist that qualify biomarkers for integration into risk procedures. Different ways that these existing biomarkers and methods can be applied as RIs in a probabilistic risk assessment system when linked with whole organism responses are discussed. This can be a useful approach to integrate biomarkers into probabilistic risk assessment related to oil based discharges, representing a potential supplement to information that biomarkers already provide about environmental impact and risk related to these kind of discharges. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental performance reviews. Slovenia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-01-01

The ECE Committee on Environmental Policy for the Environmental Performance Review of Slovenia prepared a report on the environmental performance of Slovenia before, during and after the review mission in Ljubljana in November 1996. The Slovene partners in discussion with the review team did not spare time or effort in responding to the queries and requests made. The review mission could therefore benefit from optimal cooperation with Slovene institutions. The report by the review team, including draft recommendations for the solution of existing problems in national environmental policy and management, was submitted for evaluation by the ECE Committee on Environmental Policy at its fourth annual session in Geneva, on 26 May 1997. A high-level delegation from Slovenia attended this session. It was headed by the Minister of the Environment and also included the State Secretaries for Agriculture, Forest and Food, Economic Affairs, Environment, Physical Planning, Transport and Communications, and other delegates. The evaluation by the Committee was based on the in-depth preparation by two reviewing countries, the Netherlands and Poland. At the end of its evaluation, the Committee agreed on a final set of recommendations, replacing the draft recommendations of the review team for inclusion in this publication

A rapid method for assessing the environmental performance of commercial farms in the Pampas of Argentina.

Science.gov (United States)

Viglizzo, E F; Frank, F; Bernardos, J; Buschiazzo, D E; Cabo, S

2006-06-01

The generation of reliable updated information is critical to support the harmonization of socio-economic and environmental issues in a context of sustainable development. The agro-environmental assessment and management of agricultural systems often relies on indicators that are necessary to make sound decisions. This work aims to provide an approach to (a) assess the environmental performance of commercial farms in the Pampas of Argentina, and (b) propose a methodological framework to calculate environmental indicators that can rapidly be applied to practical farming. 120 commercial farms scattered across the Pampas were analyzed in this study during 2002 and 2003. Eleven basic indicators were identified and calculation methods described. Such indicators were fossil energy (FE) use, FE use efficiency, nitrogen (N) balance, phosphorus (P) balance, N contamination risk, P contamination risk, pesticide contamination risk, soil erosion risk, habitat intervention, changes in soil carbon stock, and balance of greenhouse gases. A model named Agro-Eco-Index was developed on a Microsoft-Excel support to incorporate on-farm collected data and facilitate the calculation of indicators by users. Different procedures were applied to validate the model and present the results to the users. Regression models (based on linear and non-linear models) were used to validate the comparative performance of the study farms across the Pampas. An environmental dashboard was provided to represent in a graphical way the behavior of farms. The method provides a tool to discriminate environmentally friendly farms from those that do not pay enough attention to environmental issues. Our procedure might be useful for implementing an ecological certification system to reward a good environmental behavior in society (e.g., through tax benefits) and generate a commercial advantage (e.g., through the allocation of green labels) for committed farmers.

Environmental Management Performance Report 11/1999

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

EDER, D.M.

2000-02-01

The purpose of the Environmental Management Performance Report (EMPR) is to provide the Department of Energy Richland Operations Office's (DOE-RL's) report of Hanford's Environmental Management performance by: US Department of Energy, Richland Operation

Proposed framework for the Western Area Power Administration Environmental Risk Management Program

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Glantz, C.S.; DiMassa, F.V.; Pelto, P.J.; Brothers, A.J. [Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States); Roybal, A.L. [Western Area Power Administration, Golden, CO (United States)

1994-12-01

The Western Area Power Administration (Western) views environmental protection and compliance as a top priority as it manages the construction, operation, and maintenance of its vast network of transmission lines, substations, and other facilities. A recent Department of Energy audit of Western`s environmental management activities recommends that Western adopt a formal environmental risk program. To accomplish this goal, Western, in conjunction with Pacific Northwest Laboratory, is in the process of developing a centrally coordinated environmental risk program. This report presents the results of this design effort, and indicates the direction in which Western`s environmental risk program is heading. Western`s environmental risk program will consist of three main components: risk communication, risk assessment, and risk management/decision making. Risk communication is defined as an exchange of information on the potential for threats to human health, public safety, or the environment. This information exchange provides a mechanism for public involvement, and also for the participation in the risk assessment and management process by diverse groups or offices within Western. The objective of risk assessment is to evaluate and rank the relative magnitude of risks associated with specific environmental issues that are facing Western. The evaluation and ranking is based on the best available scientific information and judgment and serves as input to the risk management process. Risk management takes risk information and combines it with relevant non-risk factors (e.g., legal mandates, public opinion, costs) to generate risk management options. A risk management tool, such as decision analysis, can be used to help make risk management choices.

Guidance on the environmental risk assessment of plant pests

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baker, R.; Candresse, T.; Dormannsne Simon, E.

2011-01-01

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) requested the Panel on Plant Health to develop a methodology for assessing the environmental risks posed by harmful organisms that may enter, establish and spread in the European Union. To do so, the Panel first reviewed the methods for assessing...... the environmental risks of plant pests that have previously been used in pest risk assessment. The limitations identified by the review led the Panel to define the new methodology for environmental risk assessment which is described in this guidance document. The guidance is primarily addressed to the EFSA PLH...... (biodiversity) and the functional (ecosystem services) aspects of the environment, this new approach includes methods for assessing both aspects for the first time in a pest risk assessment scheme. A list of questions has been developed for the assessor to evaluate the consequences for structural biodiversity...

Climate change and coastal environmental risk perceptions in Florida.

Science.gov (United States)

Carlton, Stuart J; Jacobson, Susan K

2013-11-30

Understanding public perceptions of climate change risks is a prerequisite for effective climate communication and adaptation. Many studies of climate risk perceptions have either analyzed a general operationalization of climate change risk or employed a case-study approach of specific adaptive processes. This study takes a different approach, examining attitudes toward 17 specific, climate-related coastal risks and cognitive, affective, and risk-specific predictors of risk perception. A survey of 558 undergraduates revealed that risks to the physical environment were a greater concern than economic or biological risks. Perceptions of greater physical environment risks were significantly associated with having more pro-environmental attitudes, being female, and being more Democratic-leaning. Perceptions of greater economic risks were significantly associated with having more negative environmental attitudes, being female, and being more Republican-leaning. Perceptions of greater biological risks were significantly associated with more positive environmental attitudes. The findings suggest that focusing on physical environment risks maybe more salient to this audience than communications about general climate change adaptation. The results demonstrate that climate change beliefs and risk perceptions are multifactorial and complex and are shaped by individuals' attitudes and basic beliefs. Climate risk communications need to apply this knowledge to better target cognitive and affective processes of specific audiences, rather than providing simple characterizations of risks. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Risk analysis of environmental hazards at the High Flux Beam Reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boccio, J.L.; Ho, V.S.; Johnson, D.H.

1994-01-01

In the late 1980s, a Level 1 internal event probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) was performed for the High-Flux Beam Reactor (HFBR), a US Department of Energy research reactor located at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Prior to the completion of that study, a level 1 PRA for external events was initiated, including environmental hazards such as fire, internal flooding, etc. Although this paper provides a brief summary of the risks from environmental hazards, emphasis will be placed on the methodology employed in utilizing industrial event databases for event frequency determination for the HFBR complex. Since the equipment in the HFBR is different from that of, say, a commercial nuclear power plant, the current approach is to categorize the industrial events according to the hazard initiators instead of categorizing by initiator location. But first a general overview of the analysis

Innovation and environmental risk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roberts, L.; Weale, A.

1991-01-01

This book assembles the opinions of a number of authors to examine the issue of environmental impact and risk associated with innovation. Public, industrial and government responses to new technological developments are considered with respect to pesticides, genetic engineering, food technology and radiation protection. On the one hand innovation promises and delivers great benefits to society, but on the other hand it is increasingly perceived as a threat to the health and safety of its citizens and to the environment. This dilemma lead to a conference to discuss the benefits and risks of innovation. Papers given at the conference have been included in this book after discussion and revision. (UK)

Bisphenol A and other environmental risk factors for prostate cancer in Hong Kong.

Science.gov (United States)

Tse, Lap Ah; Lee, Priscilla Ming Yi; Ho, Wing Ming; Lam, Augustine Tsan; Lee, Man Kei; Ng, Simon Siu Man; He, Yonghua; Leung, Ka-Sing; Hartle, Jennifer C; Hu, Howard; Kan, Haidong; Wang, Feng; Ng, Chi Fai

2017-10-01

Environmental exposures are contributing factors to prostate cancer etiology, but these remain unclear. We aimed to document the associations between environmental risk factors and prostate cancer in Chinese, with special reference to bisphenol A (BPA). We recruited 431 newly diagnosed prostate cancer cases and 402 age-matched controls from Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong. We obtained each participant's clinical data and epidemiological information on chronic BPA exposure and other environmental risk factors (e.g., dietary habits, occupation and shift work) using a standard questionnaire. A new assessment tool of environmental BPA exposure was developed and replicated. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to examine odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for the association of prostate cancer with a novel cumulative BPA exposure index (CBPAI) and other environmental risk factors. Weekly consumption of deep fried food (OR=1.85, 95% CI: 1.15-2.95) and pickled vegetable (OR=1.87, 95% CI: 1.07-3.28) was significantly associated with excessive prostate cancer risk. Prostate cancer was positively associated with nightshift work (OR=1.76, 95% CI: 1.07-2.89) and it was negatively associated with green tea drinking (OR=0.56, 95% CI: 0.34-0.91). There was a positive exposure-response relationship between CBPAI and prostate cancer, with the greatest and significant risk in the high versus reference category (OR=1.57, 95% CI: 1.01-2.44). Frequent consumption of deep fried food and pickled vegetable, non-habitual green tea drinking and nightshift work are the contributing risk factors to prostate cancer in Hong Kong Chinese. More importantly, this study provides the first epidemiological evidence on carcinogenicity of BPA on the human prostate. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Raised by Depressed Parents: Is it an Environmental Risk?

Science.gov (United States)

Natsuaki, Misaki N.; Shaw, Daniel S.; Neiderhiser, Jenae M.; Ganiban, M. Jody; Gordon, T. Harold; Reiss, David; Leve, Leslie D.

2014-01-01

The mechanisms explaining how parental depression compromises healthy child development are complex and multifaceted, with genetic and environmental pathways intertwined. Reexamination of whether and how maternal and paternal depression serve as environmental risk factors is important because such an investigation can be helpful to identify modifiable mechanisms that are accessible to interventions. We review studies that have employed designs that isolate the effects of the environment from genetic influences, including adoption studies and children of twins studies. Findings indicate that maternal depression is an environmental risk factor for the emotional, behavioral, and neurobiological development of children. Although more studies are needed, preliminary findings suggest that paternal depression appears to be a weaker environmental risk as compared to maternal depression, at least during infancy and toddlerhood. Implications for theory and future research are discussed. PMID:24817170

Development of environmental risk assessment framework using index method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ali, M.W.; Wu, Y.

2000-01-01

This paper presents a newly developed framework for assessing the risk from events which are considered to be major accidents to the environment according to the classifications by the United Kingdom Department of Environment (DoE). The application of an environmental risk assessment framework using the newly developed index method is demonstrated by means of a case study. The framework makes use of Environmental Hazard Index (EHI) method by the United Kingdom AEA Technology for releases to river, but improves it by taking account to toxic dose rather than concentration; taking account of long-term effects including persistence and bio accumulation, not just short term effects; extending the method to all aspects of environment, not just rivers; and allowing account to be taken of design changes to mitigate the risk. The development of the framework has also led to a revision of the tolerability criteria to be used with the framework proposed earlier by weakness and recommend further work to improve this newly proposed environmental risk assessment framework. From the study, it is recommended that the environmental risk assessment framework be applied to a wide range of other case studies in order to further improve it. The framework should be modified to maintain consistency when the DoE revises its definitions of major accidents to the environment. Ease-of-use of the framework (and any other environmental framework) would be aided by the compilation of databases for environmental toxicity, river data and available consequence models. Further work could also be done to suggest methods of mitigating the risk and including them as numerical factors within method. (author)

A Cross-Cultural Study on Environmental Risk Perception and Educational Strategies: Implications for Environmental Education in China

OpenAIRE

Duan, Hongxia; Fortner, Rosanne

2010-01-01

This cross-cultural study examined college students’ environmental risk perception and their preference in terms of risk communication and educational strategies in China and the U.S. The results indicated that the Chinese respondents were more concerned about environmental risk, and they perceived the environmental issues to be more harmful to health, to the environment, and to social economic development of the nation than did the American respondents. Both groups desired transpar...

Application of quality risk management to set viable environmental monitoring frequencies in biotechnology processing and support areas.

Science.gov (United States)

Sandle, Tim

2012-01-01

Environmental monitoring programs are essential for pharmaceutical facilities in order to assess the level of environmental control. For biotechnology facilities there is little advice as to the frequency at which viable environmental monitoring should be conducted. This paper outlines an approach, based on the principles of quality risk management, for the development of a framework from which monitoring frequencies can be determined. This involved the identification of common hazards and the evaluation those hazards in terms of the severity of contamination and the probability of contamination occurring. These elements of risk were evaluated for different cleanrooms and the relative risks ranked. Once the risk scores were calculated, the methods for detecting risks within the cleanrooms were assessed. Risk filtering was then used to group different cleanrooms based on their relative risks and detection methods against predetermined monitoring frequencies. Through use of case study examples, the paper presents the model and describes how appropriate frequencies for the environmental monitoring of cleanrooms can be set. Cleanrooms in which biotechnology pharmaceutical processing takes place are subject to environmental monitoring. The frequency at which such monitoring should be performed can be difficult to determine. This paper uses quality risk assessment methods to construct a framework for determining monitoring frequencies and illustrates the suitability of the framework through a case study.

Extended Producer Responsibility and corporate performance: Effects of environmental regulation and environmental strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Benhong; Tu, Yu; Elahi, Ehsan; Wei, Guo

2018-07-15

While contemporary manufacturing technologies stimulate the industrial revolution and promote the rapidly changing global economy, it has caused enormous environmental negative externalities and managing the industrial waste remains a primary challenge, especially for fast developing countries such as China. Though existing studies explored the influence of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislations on environmental externalities, only fewer researches aimed at policy issues. Particularly, the relationship among environmental regulations, environmental strategies and corporate performance in the EPR system has not been deeply investigated. To fill this gap, this research will focus to assess the economic aspect and environmental performance associated with the environmental regulations and strategies. For this purpose, 208 cross-sectional questionnaires were administered with three major high-pollution industries, electrical and electronic, automobile and lead-acid storage battery industries. To accomplish this study objective, we employ a two-step approach: firstly, validity tests for environmental regulation and environmental strategy along with the corporate performance are performed by the factor analysis method, and secondly, the structural equation model is utilized to test the study hypotheses. Results reveal that command and control (CAC) and market-based incentive (MBI) environmental regulations are significantly impacting on the reactive environmental strategy (RES); however, the proactive environmental strategy (PES) only has a significant relationship with MBI regulation. On the other hand, RES only has a significant relationship with the enterprises economics performance, while PES has a statistically significant relationship with both economic and environmental performance of enterprises. Therefore, the central government and its local offices are strongly urged to coordinate the industries by making, implementing and monitoring necessary and

Risk management frameworks for human health and environmental risks.

Science.gov (United States)

Jardine, Cindy; Hrudey, Steve; Shortreed, John; Craig, Lorraine; Krewski, Daniel; Furgal, Chris; McColl, Stephen

2003-01-01

A comprehensive analytical review of the risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication approaches currently being undertaken by key national, provincial/state, territorial, and international agencies was conducted. The information acquired for review was used to identify the differences, commonalities, strengths, and weaknesses among the various approaches, and to identify elements that should be included in an effective, current, and comprehensive approach applicable to environmental, human health and occupational health risks. More than 80 agencies, organizations, and advisory councils, encompassing more than 100 risk documents, were examined during the period from February 2000 until November 2002. An overview was made of the most important general frameworks for risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication for human health and ecological risk, and for occupational health risk. In addition, frameworks for specific applications were reviewed and summarized, including those for (1)contaminated sites; (2) northern contaminants; (3) priority substances; (4) standards development; (5) food safety; (6) medical devices; (7) prescription drug use; (8) emergency response; (9) transportation; (10) risk communication. Twelve frameworks were selected for more extensive review on the basis of representation of the areas of human health, ecological, and occupational health risk; relevance to Canadian risk management needs; representation of comprehensive and well-defined approaches; generalizability with their risk areas; representation of "state of the art" in Canada, the United States, and/or internationally; and extent of usage of potential usage within Canada. These 12 frameworks were: 1. Framework for Environmental Health Risk Management (US Presidential/Congressional Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management, 1997). 2. Health Risk Determination: The Challenge of Health Protection (Health and Welfare Canada, 1990). 3. Health Canada Decision

Just who is at risk? The ethics of environmental regulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Simon, Ted

2011-08-01

The willingness to view risk as part of daily life has vanished. A risk-averse mindset among environmental regulators engenders confusion between the ethics of intention and the ethics of consequence, leading to the elevation of the precautionary principle with unintended and often unfortunate outcomes. Environmental risk assessment is conservative, but the actual level of conservatism cannot be determined. High-end exposure assumptions and current toxicity criteria from the USEPA, based on linear extrapolation for carcinogens and default uncertainty factors for systemic toxicants, obscure the degree of conservatism in risk assessments. Ideally, one could choose a percentile of the target population to include within environmental standards, but this choice is complicated by the food, pharmaceutical and advertising industries, whose activities, inadvertent or not, often promote maladaptive and unhealthy lifestyle choices. There has lately been much discussion about background exposures and disease processes and their potential to increase the risk from environmental chemicals. Should these background exposures or disease processes, especially those associated with maladaptive individual choices, be included as part of a regulatory risk evaluation? A significant ethical question is whether environmental regulation should protect those pursuing a self-destructive lifestyle that may add to or synergize with otherwise innocuous environmental exposures. Choosing a target percentile of protection would provide an increased level of transparency and the flexibility to choose a higher or lower percentile if such a choice is warranted. Transparency and flexibility will lead to more responsive environmental regulation that balances protection of public health and the stewardship of societal resources.

Environmental Management Performance Report April 2000

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

EDER, D.M.

2000-04-01

The purpose of the Environmental Management Performance Report (EMPR) is to provide the Department of Energy Richland Operations Office's (DOE-RL's) report of Hanford's Environmental Management (EM) performance by: Project Hanford Management Contract (PHMC) through Fluor Hanford, Inc. (FHI) and its subcontractors; Environmental Restoration Contract through Bechtel Hanford, Inc. (BHI), and its subcontractors; Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL) for EM and EM Science and Technology (S and T) Mission; and Office of Safety Regulation of the TWRS Privatization Contractor. This report is a monthly publication that summarizes EM Site performance under RL Operations Office. It is organized by the four sections listed above, with each section containing an Executive Summary and Area Performance Summaries.

International Environmental Agreements with Endogenous or Exogenous Risk

OpenAIRE

Fuhai Hong; Larry Karp

2014-01-01

We examine the effect of endogenous and exogenous risk on the equilibrium (expected) membership of an International Environmental Agreement when countries are risk averse. Endogenous risk arises when countries use mixed rather than pure strategies at the participation game, and exogenous risk arises from the inherent uncertainty about the costs and benefits of increased abate- ment. Under endogenous risk, an increase in risk aversion increases expected participation. Under exogenous risk and ...

Autism – environmental risk

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Henryka Langauer-Lewowicka 1

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The incidence of infantile autism due to developmental brain disorders has been permanently increasing in many parts of the world. Autism is characterized by impairments of communication and reciprocal social interaction and by restricted repetitive behaviours or interests. The causes of these disorders are not yet known. Experimental studies and clinical observation suggest that genetic and environmental factors could converge to result in neurotoxic mechanisms. These may lead to the development of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD. Several recent studies have indicated that perinatal exposure to environmental toxins may be the risk factor for ASD, among them: polybrominated diphenyl, esters, phthalates, bisphenol A, tetrabrombisphenol A, solvents, pesticides, and heavy metals. They can easily pass the placental and blood brain barriers and affect brain development.

An introductory guide to uncertainty analysis in environmental and health risk assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoffman, F.O.; Hammonds, J.S.

1992-10-01

To compensate for the potential for overly conservative estimates of risk using standard US Environmental Protection Agency methods, an uncertainty analysis should be performed as an integral part of each risk assessment. Uncertainty analyses allow one to obtain quantitative results in the form of confidence intervals that will aid in decision making and will provide guidance for the acquisition of additional data. To perform an uncertainty analysis, one must frequently rely on subjective judgment in the absence of data to estimate the range and a probability distribution describing the extent of uncertainty about a true but unknown value for each parameter of interest. This information is formulated from professional judgment based on an extensive review of literature, analysis of the data, and interviews with experts. Various analytical and numerical techniques are available to allow statistical propagation of the uncertainty in the model parameters to a statement of uncertainty in the risk to a potentially exposed individual. Although analytical methods may be straightforward for relatively simple models, they rapidly become complicated for more involved risk assessments. Because of the tedious efforts required to mathematically derive analytical approaches to propagate uncertainty in complicated risk assessments, numerical methods such as Monte Carlo simulation should be employed. The primary objective of this report is to provide an introductory guide for performing uncertainty analysis in risk assessments being performed for Superfund sites

Assessment of Environmental Attitudes and Risk Perceptions among University Students in Mersin, Turkey.

Science.gov (United States)

Yapici, Gulcin; Ögenler, Oya; Kurt, Ahmet Öner; Koçaş, Fazıl; Şaşmaz, Tayyar

2017-01-01

Environmental destruction is one of the most important problems in this century. The aim of the study was to determine the environmental attitudes and perceived risks associated with environmental factors of the students. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 7 faculties of Mersin University. The research data were collected using a questionnaire. The questionnaire included sociodemographic characteristics, the "Environmental Attitudes Scale," and the "Environmental Risk Perception Scale." 774 students who filled out questionnaires were evaluated. The sample included 55.8% females. Environmental Attitudes Scale mean scores of students were identified as 81.1 ± 11.3. The highest perceived risk was release of radioactive materials associated with nuclear power generation. The environmental attitudes and risk perception scores were higher in Health Sciences than in the other faculties. Females were more positive towards the environment and had higher risk perceptions than the men. There is a negative correlation between age and resource depletion risk and global environmental risk score. Students had a positive attitude to the environment and had moderate-level risk perception about the environment. Environmental awareness of students, especially those studying in the Social Sciences, should be increased. The environmental education curriculum should be revised throughout all the courses.

[Environmental risk factors for schizophrenia: a review].

Science.gov (United States)

Vilain, J; Galliot, A-M; Durand-Roger, J; Leboyer, M; Llorca, P-M; Schürhoff, F; Szöke, A

2013-02-01

Evidence of variations in schizophrenia incidence rates has been found in genetically homogenous populations, depending on changes within time or space of certain environmental characteristics. The consideration of the impact of environmental risk factors in etiopathogenic studies has put the environment in the forefront of research regarding psychotic illnesses. Various environmental factors such as urbanicity, migration, cannabis, childhood traumas, infectious agents, obstetrical complications and psychosocial factors have been associated with the risk of developing schizophrenia. These risk factors can be biological, physical, psychological as well as social and may operate at different times in an individual's life (fetal period, childhood, adolescence and early adulthood). Whilst some of these factors act on an individual level, others act on a populational level, modulating the individual risk. These factors can have a direct action on the development of schizophrenia, or on the other hand act as markers for directly implicated factors that have not yet been identified. This article summarizes the current knowledge on this subject. An extensive literature search was conducted via the search engine Pubmed. Eight risk factors were selected and developed in the following paper: urbanicity (or living in an urban area), cannabis, migration (and ethnic density), obstetrical complications, seasonality of birth, infectious agents (and inflammatory responses), socio-demographic factors and childhood traumas. For each of these factors, we provide information on the importance of the risk, the vulnerability period, hypotheses made on the possible mechanisms behind the factors and the level of proof the current research offers (good, medium, or insufficient) according to the amount, type, quality and concordance of the studies at hand. Some factors, such as cannabis, are "unique" in their influence on the development of schizophrenia since it labels only one risk factor

Conceptual Model of Offshore Wind Environmental Risk Evaluation System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anderson, Richard M.; Copping, Andrea E.; Van Cleve, Frances B.; Unwin, Stephen D.; Hamilton, Erin L.

2010-06-01

In this report we describe the development of the Environmental Risk Evaluation System (ERES), a risk-informed analytical process for estimating the environmental risks associated with the construction and operation of offshore wind energy generation projects. The development of ERES for offshore wind is closely allied to a concurrent process undertaken to examine environmental effects of marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) energy generation, although specific risk-relevant attributes will differ between the MHK and offshore wind domains. During FY10, a conceptual design of ERES for offshore wind will be developed. The offshore wind ERES mockup described in this report will provide a preview of the functionality of a fully developed risk evaluation system that will use risk assessment techniques to determine priority stressors on aquatic organisms and environments from specific technology aspects, identify key uncertainties underlying high-risk issues, compile a wide-range of data types in an innovative and flexible data organizing scheme, and inform planning and decision processes with a transparent and technically robust decision-support tool. A fully functional version of ERES for offshore wind will be developed in a subsequent phase of the project.

2014 Environmental Performance Index (EPI)

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The 2014 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks 178 countries on 20 performance indicators in the following 9 policy categories: health impacts, air quality,...

2016 Environmental Performance Index (EPI)

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The 2016 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks 180 countries on 20 performance indicators in the following 9 policy categories: health impacts, air quality,...

Firm performance and the role of environmental management.

Science.gov (United States)

Lundgren, Tommy; Zhou, Wenchao

2017-12-01

This paper analyzes the interactions between three dimensions of firm performance - productivity, energy efficiency, and environmental performance - and especially sheds light on the role of environmental management. In this context, environmental management is investments to reduce environmental impact, which may also affect firm competitiveness, in terms of change in productivity, and spur more (or less) efficient use of energy. We apply data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique to calculate the Malmquist firm performance indexes, and a panel vector auto-regression (VAR) methodology is utilized to investigate the dynamic and causal relationship between the three dimensions of firm performance and environmental investment. Main results show that energy efficiency and environmental performance are integrated, and energy efficiency and productivity positively reinforce each other, signifying the cost saving property of more efficient use of energy. Hence, increasing energy efficiency, as advocated in many of today's energy policies, could capture multiple benefits. The results also show that improved environmental performance and environmental investments constrain next period productivity, a result that would be in contrast with the Porter hypothesis and strategic corporate social responsibility; both concepts conveying the notion that pro-environmental management can boost productivity and competitiveness. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental Management Performance Report November 2000

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

EDER, D.M.

2000-11-01

The purpose of the Environmental Management Performance Report (EMPR) is to provide the Department of Energy Richland Operations Office's (DOE-RL's) report of Hanford's Environmental Management (EM) performance by: Project Hanford Management Contract (PHMC) through Fluor Hanford, Inc. (FH) and its subcontractors; Environmental Restoration Contract through Bechtel Hanford, Inc. (BHI), and its subcontractors; Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL) for Science and Technology support to the EM Mission; and Office of Safety Regulation of the TWRS Privatization Contractor. This report is a monthly publication that summarizes EM Site performance under RL Operations Office. It is organized by the four sections listed above, with each section containing an Executive Summary and Area Performance Summaries. A glossary of terms is provided at the end of this report for reference purposes.

Environmental risk communication as an educational process

Science.gov (United States)

Schottenfeld, Faith

The purpose of this study was to explore the dynamics of the environmental risk communication process. The goal was to look at the totality of the process by examining the different components: entry to communication (what brings people into the process), maintenance of communication (behaviors of participants, pathways to successful risk communication, barriers to successful risk communication, characteristics of the dialogue) and outcomes of risk communication (what has been learned, what moves the process to social action, what else can come of the process). Interviews and critical incidents were used to explore the experiences of risk communicators in four different practice settings: academia, industry/trade groups, community-based organizations and government. Twenty-four people completed critical incident stories and sixteen participated in in-depth interviews. Data were coded and analyzed for themes. Findings illustrated that successful risk communication results from a deliberative, or purposeful process. This process includes a systematic approach to identifying and inviting people to participate, while considering specific motivating factors that affect participation. Risk communication is maintained by creating and nurturing structured forums for dialogue by acknowledging the varying perspectives of the people who participate and the contextual settings of environmental risks. The result of effective dialogue may range from increased knowledge, to transformative learning to social action and policy change. The researcher recommended that a multi-disciplinary team including risk communicators, adult educators and scientists can work most effectively to plan, implement and evaluate a risk communication process.

Advancing environmental risk assessment for transgenic biofeedstock crops

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wolt Jeffrey D

2009-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Transgenic modification of plants is a key enabling technology for developing sustainable biofeedstocks for biofuels production. Regulatory decisions and the wider acceptance and development of transgenic biofeedstock crops are considered from the context of science-based risk assessment. The risk assessment paradigm for transgenic biofeedstock crops is fundamentally no different from that of current generation transgenic crops, except that the focus of the assessment must consider the unique attributes of a given biofeedstock crop and its environmental release. For currently envisioned biofeedstock crops, particular emphasis in risk assessment will be given to characterization of altered metabolic profiles and their implications relative to non-target environmental effects and food safety; weediness and invasiveness when plants are modified for abiotic stress tolerance or are domesticated; and aggregate risk when plants are platforms for multi-product production. Robust risk assessments for transgenic biofeedstock crops are case-specific, initiated through problem formulation, and use tiered approaches for risk characterization.

Population impact of familial and environmental risk factors for schizophrenia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Holger J; Nielsen, Philip R; Pedersen, Carsten B

2014-01-01

Although several studies have examined the relative contributions of familial and environmental risk factors for schizophrenia, few have additionally examined the predictive power on the individual level and simultaneously examined the population impact associated with a wide range of familial...... 4.50-5.31). The study showed that risk factors with highest predictive power on the individual level have a relatively low population impact. The challenge in future studies with direct genetic data is to examine gene-environmental interactions that can move research beyond current approaches...... and environmental risk factors. The authors present rate ratios (IRR), population-attributable risks (PAR) and sex-specific cumulative incidences of the following risk factors: parental history of mental illness, urban place of birth, advanced paternal age, parental loss and immigration status. We established...

Environmental health risk assessment: Energy systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krewski, D.; Somers, E.; Winthrop, S.O.

1984-01-01

Most industrialized nations have come to rely on a variety of systems for energy production, both of a conventional and non-conventional nature. In the paper, the spectrum of energy systems currently in use in Canada is outlined along with their potential health risks. Several examples of environmental health studies involving both outdoor and indoor air pollution related to energy production in Canada are reported. The limitations of current technologies for assessing health risks are discussed and possible approaches to managing energy related health risks are indicated. (author)

Environmental benefits and risks of zero-valent iron nanoparticles (nZVI): risk mitigation or trade-off?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grieger, Khara Deanne; Fjordbøge, Annika Sidelmann; Hartmann, Nanna Isabella Bloch

2009-01-01

nanoparticles, in part due to extensive and fundamental uncertainties. These data may provide a starting point to more thoroughly investigate the potential risks of nZVI and ultimately help scientists, engineers, and decision makers make better informed decisions regarding the use of nZVI for environmental...... dimensions. While the use and further development of nZVI is understandably heralded as an environmentally-beneficial technology, the potentials risks of introducing these nanoparticles into the environment also needs to be considered. To date most research has focused on the potential benefits of n...... of substantial concentrations. In this study, we provide a brief synopsis of the expected environmental benefits and potential risks of nZVI, particularly focusing on its environmental fate and behavior and potential role as contaminant carrier. These are some areas of primary concern for risk assessors...

Confluence and Contours: Reflexive Management of Environmental Risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Soane, Emma; Schubert, Iljana; Pollard, Simon; Rocks, Sophie; Black, Edgar

2016-06-01

Government institutions have responsibilities to distribute risk management funds meaningfully and to be accountable for their choices. We took a macro-level sociological approach to understanding the role of government in managing environmental risks, and insights from micro-level psychology to examine individual-level risk-related perceptions and beliefs. Survey data from 2,068 U.K. citizens showed that lay people's funding preferences were associated positively with beliefs about responsibility and trust, yet associations with perception varied depending on risk type. Moreover, there were risk-specific differences in the funding preferences of the lay sample and 29 policymakers. A laboratory-based study of 109 participants examined funding allocation in more detail through iterative presentation of expert information. Quantitative and qualitative data revealed a meso-level framework comprising three types of decisionmakers who varied in their willingness to change funding allocation preferences following expert information: adaptors, responders, and resistors. This research highlights the relevance of integrated theoretical approaches to understanding the policy process, and the benefits of reflexive dialogue to managing environmental risks. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

Extinction risk under coloured environmental noise

OpenAIRE

Heino, M; Ripa, Jörgen; Kaitala, V

2000-01-01

Positively autocorrelated red environmental noise is characterized by a strong dependence of expected sample variance on sample length. This dependence has to be taken into account when assessing extinction risk under red and white uncorrelated environmental noise. To facilitate a comparison between red and white noise, their expected variances can be scaled to be equal, but only at a chosen time scale. We show with a simple one-dimensional population dynamics model that the different but equ...

Environmental risk analysis for nanomaterials: Review and evaluation of frameworks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grieger, Khara Deanne; Linkov, Igor; Hansen, Steffen Foss

2012-01-01

to occupational settings with minor environmental considerations, and most have not been thoroughly tested on a wide range of NM. Care should also be taken when selecting the most appropriate risk analysis strategy for a given risk context. Given this, we recommend a multi-faceted approach to assess...... the environmental risks of NM as well as increased applications and testing of the proposed frameworks for different NM....

Response planning and environmental risk analysis, state of Alaska

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gundlach, E.R.; Marben, G.M.

1993-01-01

Under the sponsorship of the Alaska Dept. of Environmental Conservation (ADEC), a multitasked study was undertaken to determine the relative risk of noncrude oil transport (including marine and freshwater), the status of spill response capability in the state, and the need and most appropriate locations for siting spill response deposits. The project used multidisciplinary transport and environmental data analyzed in a geographic information system (GIS) to enable various scenarios and data changes to be easily visualized. The evaluation concerned (a) designation of significant environmental risk areas, (b) environmentally sensitive areas and fish and wildlife likely to be affected, (c) the level of response capability appropriate for protecting the environment, (d) the adequacy of current capabilities for noncrude vessels, (e) the feasibility of establishing one or more response cooperatives for use by multiple carriers, and (f) other steps that could be taken to reduce the risk of a spill and facilitate control and cleanup

Environmental noise pollution and risk of preeclampsia.

Science.gov (United States)

Auger, Nathalie; Duplaix, Mathilde; Bilodeau-Bertrand, Marianne; Lo, Ernest; Smargiassi, Audrey

2018-08-01

Environmental noise exposure is associated with a greater risk of hypertension, but the link with preeclampsia, a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, is unclear. We sought to determine the relationship between environmental noise pollution and risk of preeclampsia during pregnancy. We analyzed a population-based cohort comprising 269,263 deliveries on the island of Montreal, Canada between 2000 and 2013. We obtained total environmental noise pollution measurements (LA eq24 , L den , L night ) from land use regression models, and assigned noise levels to each woman based on the residential postal code. We computed odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association of noise with preeclampsia in mixed logistic regression models with participants as a random effect, and adjusted for air pollution, neighbourhood walkability, maternal age, parity, multiple pregnancy, comorbidity, socioeconomic deprivation, and year of delivery. We assessed whether noise exposure was more strongly associated with severe or early onset preeclampsia than mild or late onset preeclampsia. Prevalence of preeclampsia was higher for women exposed to elevated environmental noise pollution levels (LA eq24h  ≥ 65 dB(A) = 37.9 per 1000 vs. <50 dB(A) = 27.9 per 1000). Compared with 50 dB(A), an LA eq24h of 65.0 dB(A) was not significantly associated the risk of preeclampsia (OR 1.09, 95% CI 0.99-1.20). Associations were however present with severe (OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.09-1.54) and early onset (OR 1.71, 95% CI 1.20-2.43) preeclampsia, with results consistent across all noise indicators. The associations were much weaker or absent for mild and late preeclampsia. Environmental noise pollution may be a novel risk factor for pregnancy-related hypertension, particularly more severe variants of preeclampsia. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental cancer risks

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, Peter M.

In a long-awaited report (‘Assessment of Technologies for Determining Cancer Risks From the Environment’), the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) has evaluated the role of environmental factors in cancer diseases. Environment is interpreted broadly as encompassing anything that interacts with humans, including the natural environment, food, radiation, the workplace, etc. Geologic factors range from geographic location to radiation and specific minerals. The report, however, is based on an inadequate data base in most instances, and its major recommendations are related to the establishment of a national cancer registry to record cancer statistics, as is done for many other diseases. Presently, hard statistics are lacking in the establishment of some association between the cause-effect relationship of most environmental factors and most carcinogens. Of particular interest, but unfortunately based on unreliable data, are the effects of mineral substances such as ‘asbestos.’ USGS mineralogist Malcolm Ross will review asbestos and its effects on human health in the forthcoming Mineralogical Society of America's Short Course on the Amphiboles (Reviews in Mineralogy, 9, in press, 1981).

Social Determinants of Health in Environmental Justice Communities: Examining Cumulative Risk in Terms of Environmental Exposures and Social Determinants of Health

OpenAIRE

Prochaska, John D.; Nolen, Alexandra B.; Kelley, Hilton; Sexton, Ken; Linder, Stephen H.; Sullivan, John

2014-01-01

Residents of environmental justice (EJ) communities may bear a disproportionate burden of environmental health risk, and often face additional burdens from social determinants of health. Accounting for cumulative risk should include measures of risk from both environmental sources and social determinants. This study sought to better understand cumulative health risk from both social and environmental sources in a disadvantaged community in Texas. Key outcomes were determining what data are cu...

Environmental determinants of cardiovascular diseases risk factors: a qualitative directed content analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Sabzmakan, Leila; Mohammadi, Eesa; Morowatisharifabad, Mohammad Ali; Afaghi, Ahmad; Naseri, Mohammad Hassan; Mirzaei, Masoud

2014-05-01

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the number one cause of death in the world. In most analyses of health problems, environment plays a significant and modifiable role in causing the problem either directly or indirectly through behavior. This study aims to understand the patients and healthcare providers' experiences about the environmental determinants of CVD risk factors based on the Precede Model. This qualitative study conducted over six months in 2012 at Diabetes Units of Health Centers associated with Alborz University of Medical Sciences and Health Services which is located in Karaj, Iran. The data were collected based on individual semi-structured interviews with 50 patients and 12 healthcare providers. Data analysis was performed simultaneous with data collection using the content analysis directed method. Lack of behaviors like stress control, healthy eating and physical activity were the roots of the risk factors for CVD. The environmental factor is one of the barriers for conducting these behaviors. The environmental barriers included of structural environment including "availability and accessibility of health resources", "new skills", and "law and policies" which are located in enabling category and social environment including "social support", "motivation to comply" and "consequences of behavior" which are located in reinforcing category. The most barriers to performing health behaviors were often structural. The environmental factors were barriers for doing healthy behaviors. These factors need to be considered to design health promotion interventions. Policymakers should not only focus on patients' education but also should provide specific facilities to enhance economic, social and cultural status.

Engaging with Comparative Risk Appraisals: Public Views on Policy Priorities for Environmental Risk Governance.

Science.gov (United States)

Rocks, Sophie A; Schubert, Iljana; Soane, Emma; Black, Edgar; Muckle, Rachel; Petts, Judith; Prpich, George; Pollard, Simon J

2017-09-01

Communicating the rationale for allocating resources to manage policy priorities and their risks is challenging. Here, we demonstrate that environmental risks have diverse attributes and locales in their effects that may drive disproportionate responses among citizens. When 2,065 survey participants deployed summary information and their own understanding to assess 12 policy-level environmental risks singularly, their assessment differed from a prior expert assessment. However, participants provided rankings similar to those of experts when these same 12 risks were considered as a group, allowing comparison between the different risks. Following this, when individuals were shown the prior expert assessment of this portfolio, they expressed a moderate level of confidence with the combined expert analysis. These are important findings for the comprehension of policy risks that may be subject to augmentation by climate change, their representation alongside other threats within national risk assessments, and interpretations of agency for public risk management by citizens and others. © 2017 The Authors Risk Analysis published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Risk Analysis.

Rat infestation associated with environmental deficiencies in an urban slum community with high risk of leptospirosis transmission.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Norlan de Jesus; Sousa, Erica; Reis, Mitermayer G; Ko, Albert I; Costa, Federico

2017-03-09

We analyzed environmental factors that provide food, water and harborage to rodents and the risk of household rodent infestation in a slum community with a high risk of leptospirosis transmission. Detailed environmental surveys were performed in 221 households. Multivariate regression models evaluated the association between rodent infestation and socioeconomic status and environmental attributes obtained from Geographical Information System surveys. The general household infestation rate was 45.9%. Rattus norvegicus signs were the most prevalent, present in 74% of the infested households. The risk for rodent infestation was associated with environmental factors supporting harborage for rats, such as dilapidated fences/walls (OR: 8.95; 95%CI: 2.42-33.12) and households built on an earthen slope (OR: 4.68; 95%CI: 2.23-9.81). An increase of 1 meter from the nearest sewer was associated with a 3% (95%CI: 1%-5%) decrease in the risk of rodent infestation. A lack of sanitation where poor people live provides factors for rat infestation and could the target of educational interventions.

Corporate sustainability: environmental, social, economic and corporate performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alena Kocmanová

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The article deals with corporate sustainability and environmental and social issues of the integration of corporate performance measurement that may lead to sustainable economic success. Sustainability is a strategy of the process of sustainable development. Sustainability of businesses and sustainable performance can be defined as an integration of environmental, social and economic performance. First and foremost, businesses will want to know what indicators can be used to measure environmental, social and economic performance. What is the mutual relationship between environmental, social and economic performance? How can firms arrive at a comprehensive assessment of their performance in relation to sustainability? The aim of this paper is to analyze corporate environmental, social and economic performance and to analyze their mutual relationships. The final part of the article is an assessment of the contemporary situation and draft Key Performance Indicators (KPI for assessment of corporate sustainability that will be the subject of further research in a selected NACE-CZ sector and in accordance with Corporate Sustainability Reporting. KPI provide businesses with a means of measuring progress toward achieving objectives.

Evaluation Of The Risk Of Financing Projects Of Environmental Protection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriela Cornelia PICIU

2012-03-01

Full Text Available The research project approaches multidimensionally the financing of environmental protection from the perspective of directing, correlating and consolidating the financial flows circumscribed to the regeneration of an economy affected by environmental deterioration due to the very activities defining the economic mechanisms and circuits. The purpose of the project is to identify, by scientific, methodological and empirical analysis of the concepts, principles and arguments imposed by the economic theory, the risks of financing the projects of environmental projects and to evaluate their effects because their neglecting, individual approach or erroneous dimensioning might have unfavourable and unforeseen consequences in terms of the efficiency of the environmental strategies and policies. The objective of the study is the reveal the interdependency and interaction between the flows and circuits financing the environmental projects, showing the necessity for punctual, distributive, correlative and multiplicative financing of the environmental protection. This must be done from an expanded and prospective spatial and temporal vision by a compositional approach of the risk for environmental investments within the complex network of the social, economic and financial risks generated by the global system of the human praxis focused on the binomial of the human-environment interdependence.

Capital Structure, Environmental Dynamism, Innovation Strategy, and Strategic Risk Management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Juul Andersen, Torben

2005-01-01

Previous research found that capital structure affects performance when it is adapted to the level of environmental dynamism and pursuit of an innovation strategy. The current study reproduces some of these relationships in a more recent dataset but also identifies significant nuances across...... industrial environments. Analyses of a large cross sectional sample and various industry sub-samples suggest that other factors have influenced capital structure effects in recent years including flexibilities in multinational organization and effective strategic risk management capabilities....

Identifying populations at risk from environmental contamination from point sources

OpenAIRE

Williams, F; Ogston, S

2002-01-01

Objectives: To compare methods for defining the population at risk from a point source of air pollution. A major challenge for environmental epidemiology lies in correctly identifying populations at risk from exposure to environmental pollutants. The complexity of today's environment makes it essential that the methods chosen are accurate and sensitive.

Environmental risk perception from visual cues: the psychophysics of tornado risk perception

Science.gov (United States)

Dewitt, Barry; Fischhoff, Baruch; Davis, Alexander; Broomell, Stephen B.

2015-12-01

Lay judgments of environmental risks are central to both immediate decisions (e.g., taking shelter from a storm) and long-term ones (e.g., building in locations subject to storm surges). Using methods from quantitative psychology, we provide a general approach to studying lay perceptions of environmental risks. As a first application of these methods, we investigate a setting where lay decisions have not taken full advantage of advances in natural science understanding: tornado forecasts in the US and Canada. Because official forecasts are imperfect, members of the public must often evaluate the risks on their own, by checking environmental cues (such as cloud formations) before deciding whether to take protective action. We study lay perceptions of cloud formations, demonstrating an approach that could be applied to other environmental judgments. We use signal detection theory to analyse how well people can distinguish tornadic from non-tornadic clouds, and multidimensional scaling to determine how people make these judgments. We find that participants (N = 400 recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk) have heuristics that generally serve them well, helping participants to separate tornadic from non-tornadic clouds, but which also lead them to misjudge the tornado risk of certain cloud types. The signal detection task revealed confusion regarding shelf clouds, mammatus clouds, and clouds with upper- and mid-level tornadic features, which the multidimensional scaling task suggested was the result of participants focusing on the darkness of the weather scene and the ease of discerning its features. We recommend procedures for training (e.g., for storm spotters) and communications (e.g., tornado warnings) that will reduce systematic misclassifications of tornadicity arising from observers’ reliance on otherwise useful heuristics.

Sea-dumped chemical weapons: environmental risk, occupational hazard.

Science.gov (United States)

Greenberg, M I; Sexton, K J; Vearrier, D

2016-01-01

Chemical weapons dumped into the ocean for disposal in the twentieth century pose a continuing environmental and human health risk. In this review we discuss locations, quantity, and types of sea-dumped chemical weapons, related environmental concerns, and human encounters with sea-dumped chemical weapons. We utilized the Ovid (http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com) and PubMed (http://www.pubmed.org) search engines to perform MEDLINE searches for the terms 'sea-dumped chemical weapons', 'chemical warfare agents', and 'chemical munitions'. The searches returned 5863 articles. Irrelevant and non-English articles were excluded. A review of the references for these articles yielded additional relevant sources, with a total of 64 peer-reviewed articles cited in this paper. History and geography of chemical weapons dumping at sea: Hundreds of thousands of tons of chemical munitions were disposed off at sea following World War II. European, Russian, Japanese, and United States coasts are the areas most affected worldwide. Several areas in the Baltic and North Seas suffered concentrated large levels of dumping, and these appear to be the world's most studied chemical warfare agent marine dumping areas. Chemical warfare agents: Sulfur mustard, Lewisite, and the nerve agents appear to be the chemical warfare agents most frequently disposed off at sea. Multiple other type of agents including organoarsenicals, blood agents, choking agents, and lacrimators were dumped at sea, although in lesser volumes. Environmental concerns: Numerous geohydrologic variables contribute to the rate of release of chemical agents from their original casings, leading to difficult and inexact modeling of risk of release into seawater. Sulfur mustard and the organoarsenicals are the most environmentally persistent dumped chemical agents. Sulfur mustard in particular has a propensity to form a solid or semi-solid lump with a polymer coating of breakdown products, and can persist in this state on the ocean floor

Time compression diseconomies in environmental management: the effect of assimilation on environmental performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Lannelongue, Gustavo; Gonzalez-Benito, Javier; Gonzalez-Benito, Oscar; Gonzalez-Zapatero, Carmen

2015-01-01

This research addresses the relationship between an organisation's assimilation of its environmental management system (EMS), the experience it gains through it, and its environmental performance. Assimilation here refers to the degree to which the requirements of the management standard are integrated within a plant's daily operations. Basing ourselves on the heterogeneity of organisations, we argue that assimilation and experience will inform environmental performance. Furthermore, we posit that the relationship between assimilation and environmental performance depends on experience. The attempt to obtain greater assimilation in a shorter time leads an organisation to record a poorer environmental outcome, which we shall refer to as time compression diseconomies in environmental management. We provide empirical evidence based on 154 plants pertaining to firms in Spain subject to the European Union's CO2 Emissions Trading System. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The oretical foundations for management of environmental risks of pharmaceutical enterprises

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Рита Василівна Сагайдак-Нікітюк

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Aim. Significant negative influence of processing waste caused by pharmaceutical enterprises' activity upon the environment and population, and the high requirements for the methods of utilization demands the enterprises to develop an algorithm of ecological risks management.Methods. During the study, the expert method, the content-analysis and generalization method have been applied.Results. An influence of pharmaceutical enterprises' activity on the environment and population of the region the enterprise is located in has been studied. Dynamic of the population morbidity has analyzed associated with a low quality of the human environment. The need has been approved to pay appropriate attention to the treatment of hazardous substances and to minimize environmental risks associated with the pharmaceutical enterprises' activities. It has been proposed to define an environmental risk as a danger of resources loss, income reduction or increase of expenses of subjects of pharmaceutical activity due to its ecologically destructive impact. The classification of environmental risks of pharmaceutical enterprises has been produced. The model of environmental risks' management of pharmaceutical enterprise has been proposed. Directions of the environmental risks' minimizing have been investigated.Conclusions. The need has proved to manage ecological activity of pharmaceutical enterprises that will let to minimize negative influence on the environment

A dynamic multimedia fuzzy-stochastic integrated environmental risk assessment approach for contaminated sites management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu, Yan; Wen, Jing-ya; Li, Xiao-li; Wang, Da-zhou; Li, Yu, E-mail: liyuxx8@hotmail.com

2013-10-15

Highlights: • Using interval mathematics to describe spatial and temporal variability and parameter uncertainty. • Using fuzzy theory to quantify variability of environmental guideline values. • Using probabilistic approach to integrate interval concentrations and fuzzy environmental guideline. • Establishment of dynamic multimedia environmental integrated risk assessment framework. -- Abstract: A dynamic multimedia fuzzy-stochastic integrated environmental risk assessment approach was developed for contaminated sites management. The contaminant concentrations were simulated by a validated interval dynamic multimedia fugacity model, and different guideline values for the same contaminant were represented as a fuzzy environmental guideline. Then, the probability of violating environmental guideline (Pv) can be determined by comparison between the modeled concentrations and the fuzzy environmental guideline, and the constructed relationship between the Pvs and environmental risk levels was used to assess the environmental risk level. The developed approach was applied to assess the integrated environmental risk at a case study site in China, simulated from 1985 to 2020. Four scenarios were analyzed, including “residential land” and “industrial land” environmental guidelines under “strict” and “loose” strictness. It was found that PAH concentrations will increase steadily over time, with soil found to be the dominant sink. Source emission in soil was the leading input and atmospheric sedimentation was the dominant transfer process. The integrated environmental risks primarily resulted from petroleum spills and coke ovens, while the soil environmental risks came from coal combustion. The developed approach offers an effective tool for quantifying variability and uncertainty in the dynamic multimedia integrated environmental risk assessment and the contaminated site management.

A dynamic multimedia fuzzy-stochastic integrated environmental risk assessment approach for contaminated sites management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu, Yan; Wen, Jing-ya; Li, Xiao-li; Wang, Da-zhou; Li, Yu

2013-01-01

Highlights: • Using interval mathematics to describe spatial and temporal variability and parameter uncertainty. • Using fuzzy theory to quantify variability of environmental guideline values. • Using probabilistic approach to integrate interval concentrations and fuzzy environmental guideline. • Establishment of dynamic multimedia environmental integrated risk assessment framework. -- Abstract: A dynamic multimedia fuzzy-stochastic integrated environmental risk assessment approach was developed for contaminated sites management. The contaminant concentrations were simulated by a validated interval dynamic multimedia fugacity model, and different guideline values for the same contaminant were represented as a fuzzy environmental guideline. Then, the probability of violating environmental guideline (Pv) can be determined by comparison between the modeled concentrations and the fuzzy environmental guideline, and the constructed relationship between the Pvs and environmental risk levels was used to assess the environmental risk level. The developed approach was applied to assess the integrated environmental risk at a case study site in China, simulated from 1985 to 2020. Four scenarios were analyzed, including “residential land” and “industrial land” environmental guidelines under “strict” and “loose” strictness. It was found that PAH concentrations will increase steadily over time, with soil found to be the dominant sink. Source emission in soil was the leading input and atmospheric sedimentation was the dominant transfer process. The integrated environmental risks primarily resulted from petroleum spills and coke ovens, while the soil environmental risks came from coal combustion. The developed approach offers an effective tool for quantifying variability and uncertainty in the dynamic multimedia integrated environmental risk assessment and the contaminated site management

Nanomaterials environmental risks and recycling: Actual issues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Živković Dragana

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Nanotechnologies are being spoken of as the driving force behind a new industrial revolution. Nanoscience has matured significantly during the last decade as it has transitioned from bench top science to applied technology. Presently, nanomaterials are used in a wide variety of commercial products such as electronic components, sports equipment, sun creams and biomedical applications. The size of nanoparticles allows them to interact strongly with biological structures, so they present potential human and environmental health risk. Nanometer size presents also a problem for separation, recovery, and reuse of the particulate matter. Therefore, industrial-scale manufacturing and use of nanomaterials could have strong impact on human health and the environment or the problematic of nanomaterials recycling. The catch-all term ''nanotechnology' is not sufficiently precise for risk governance and risk management purposes. The estimation of possible risks depends on a consideration of the life cycle of the material being produced, which involves understanding the processes and materials used in manufacture, the likely interactions between the product and individuals or the environment during its manufacture and useful life, and the methods used in its eventual disposal. From a risk-control point of view it will be necessary to systematically identify those critical issues, which should be looked at in more detail. Brief review of actual trends in nanomaterials environmental risks and recycling is given in this paper.

Product-related Environmental Performance Indicators: a systematic literature review

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Issa, Isabela I.; Pigosso, Daniela Cristina Antelmi; McAloone, Tim C.

2013-01-01

Ecodesign is a proactive environmental management approach employed in the product development process (PDP) which aims to minimize the environmental impacts caused during products’ life-cycle, improving its environmental performance. The establishment of measurable environmental performance...

Environmental policy performance revisited

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Daugbjerg, Carsten; Sønderskov, Kim Mannemar

2012-01-01

. On the basis of the typology, a hypothesis on their ability to expand green markets is generated and tested in a comparative analysis of the performance of organic food policies in Denmark, Sweden, the UK and the US, focusing on their impact on organic consumption. Our analysis demonstrates that cross......Studies of environmental policy performance tend to concentrate on the impact of particular policy institutions or of single policy instruments. However, environmental policies most often consist of a package of policy instruments. Further, these studies pay no or very little attention to policy...... instruments directed at the demand side of the market. Therefore this article develops a policy typology for government intervention aimed at creating green markets. The typology distinguishes between four types of policy based on the balance between the supply-side and demand-side policy instruments...

Do social and environmental screens influence ethical portfolio performance? Evidence from Europe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eduardo Ortas

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This work aims to test whether social and environmental screening processes could determine the financial performance of ethical or Socially Responsible Investment (SRI strategies in the European context. We compare the risk-adjusted returns and systematic risk levels obtained by the two mainstream SRI equity indexes in Europe with those achieved by their official benchmarks. We find that, although these SRI indexes do not underperform their benchmarks in terms of risk-adjusted returns, they experience higher levels of risk. Additionally, the results show that higher screening intensity results in higher risk for the SRI indexes. Furthermore, the underperformance in terms of risk associated with the SRI indexes is worse in periods when there is a market downturn. This may indicate that SRI indexes are more sensitive to changes in the market cycle, because SRI indexes include companies that are more affected by market fluctuations.

Risk-based indicators of Canadians' exposures to environmental carcinogens.

Science.gov (United States)

Setton, Eleanor; Hystad, Perry; Poplawski, Karla; Cheasley, Roslyn; Cervantes-Larios, Alejandro; Keller, C Peter; Demers, Paul A

2013-02-12

Tools for estimating population exposures to environmental carcinogens are required to support evidence-based policies to reduce chronic exposures and associated cancers. Our objective was to develop indicators of population exposure to selected environmental carcinogens that can be easily updated over time, and allow comparisons and prioritization between different carcinogens and exposure pathways. We employed a risk assessment-based approach to produce screening-level estimates of lifetime excess cancer risk for selected substances listed as known carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Estimates of lifetime average daily intake were calculated using population characteristics combined with concentrations (circa 2006) in outdoor air, indoor air, dust, drinking water, and food and beverages from existing monitoring databases or comprehensive literature reviews. Intake estimates were then multiplied by cancer potency factors from Health Canada, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to estimate lifetime excess cancer risks associated with each substance and exposure pathway. Lifetime excess cancer risks in excess of 1 per million people are identified as potential priorities for further attention. Based on data representing average conditions circa 2006, a total of 18 carcinogen-exposure pathways had potential lifetime excess cancer risks greater than 1 per million, based on varying data quality. Carcinogens with moderate to high data quality and lifetime excess cancer risk greater than 1 per million included benzene, 1,3-butadiene and radon in outdoor air; benzene and radon in indoor air; and arsenic and hexavalent chromium in drinking water. Important data gaps were identified for asbestos, hexavalent chromium and diesel exhaust in outdoor and indoor air, while little data were available to assess risk for substances in dust, food and beverages. The ability to

Environmental Audit: 'A tool used to evaluate and improve the institutional environmental performance'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goulart, Helga

2009-01-01

The Environmental Audits emerged in the late 70 's in order to verify compliance with industrial activities with environmental standards. The same was done internally by the organizations to avoid late fines and penalties imposed by enforcement authorities. At present, environmental audits are used not only to identify environmental problems that must be corrected, but which now forms part of a procedure for identifying opportunities for continual improvement of the activities of a particular organization. Environmental audits undertaken by Management in the CNEA Environmental Activities meet this proactive role detailed above, whose main objective is also to verify compliance with environmental regulatory framework applicable to each site, to identify environmental improvements that must be applied activities to achieve better performance from them. This paper aims to present the results in the recognition phase of the CNEA 's environmental situation through conducting preliminary environmental analysis and comparison with results at the current stage of implementation of the Institutional Environmental Management System through environmental audits, showing the procedures, issues and standards considered and the evolution of each site's environmental performance in implementing the proposed corrections. The central idea of Management Environmental Activities is to show the different sectors and areas of the institution that the environmental audit, applied in the context of environmental management is an essential tool that enables to encourage staff in environmental issues, making that they are directly participating in management activities and is the most concrete to demonstrate both internally and externally achievements in a certain period of time and activities to achieve the policy of continuous improvement in environmental performance of the CNEA. (author)

Environmental Performance and Financing Decisions Impact on Sustainable Financial Development of Chinese Environmental Protection Enterprises

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kai Quan Zhang

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Environmental protection firms need to improve their ability to access financing while maintaining good economic performance under mounting environmental pressures. After the integration of trade-off and stakeholder theories, we have constructed a number of mathematical models to investigate the relationship among financing decisions, environmental performance (EP, and economic performance. Unbalanced panel data from environmental protection companies listed on Chinese stock exchanges from 2007 to 2016 were collected and analyzed. Our results have confirmed that debt financing has a significant impact on short- and long-term economic performance. Firms prefer long-term debt over short-term debt to improve their financial sustainability. Internal financing is positively related to performance because the cost of financing is lower. Environmental performance can cause extra financial burden in the short run, but will improve stakeholder relations and profitability in the long run. Our study suggests that environmental performance affects the relationship between financing decisions and economic performance. When EP initiatives are high, debt financing has a greater negative influence on short-term performance, and the effect on long-term performance is mitigated. High EP also reduces the impact of internal financing on performance.

Method for environmental risk analysis (MIRA) revision 2007; Metode for miljoerettet risikoanalyse (MIRA) revisjon 2007

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2007-04-15

OLF's instruction manual for carrying out environmental risk analyses provides a united approach and a common framework for environmental risk assessments. This is based on the best information available. The manual implies standardizations of a series of parameters, input data and partial analyses that are included in the environmental risk analysis. Environmental risk analyses carried out according to the MIRA method will thus be comparable between fields and between companies. In this revision an update of the text in accordance with today's practice for environmental risk analyses and prevailing regulations is emphasized. Moreover, method adjustments for especially protected beach habitats have been introduced, as well as a general method for estimating environmental risk concerning fish. Emphasis has also been put on improving environmental risk analysis' possibilities to contribute to a better management of environmental risk in the companies (ml)

Contribution o the assessment of the environmental risk associated with uranium releases in the Ritord drainage basin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beaugelin-Seiller, K.; Garnier-Laplace, J.; Gilbin, R.; Della-Vedova, C.

2008-01-01

This document reports the application to aquatic environments and more particularly to the case of a drainage basin of methods of assessment of the environmental risk presented in another report. The objective is to determine the environmental risk related to releases of uranium from ancient mining sites. The method is applied to available data to diagnose a possible chemical and/or radiological risk due to these releases. Should the occasion occurs, probabilistic approaches are used to refine the assessment of the possible risk identified by the screening. After a presentation of the context, the different screening steps are reported: methodology (exposure analysis, effect analysis, and risk characterization), deterministic characterization of the chronic radiological risk, deterministic characterization of the chronic chemical risk. The next part reports the probabilistic assessment of the chemical or radiological risk. In conclusion, the authors indicate actions to be performed to better analyse exposures, and desirable actions to better analyse effects

Environmental management and firm performance: a case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Claver, Enrique; López, María D; Molina, José F; Tarí, Juan J

2007-09-01

This study has as its aim to help to clarify the relationship between environmental management and economic performance by integrating it into a wider framework that includes the relationship between environmental strategy and firm performance, the latter being understood as the combination of environmental performance, competitive advantage and economic performance. A case study of the COATO farming cooperative showed us that its environmental management, focused on prevention logic, has had a positive net effect on its environmental performance. Besides, the order in which these practices were adopted favoured the development of new organisational capabilities that have contributed to the appearance of advantages derived from the greater accumulated experience of employees in creating new projects that are designed to reduce residues and pollution. COATO has also obtained a competitive advantage in differentiation thanks to an improved brand image and to its increased credibility in business relationships. Finally, a positive correlation exists between the pioneering proactive strategy adopted by this cooperative and the improvement of its firm performance with respect to the other firms in its sector.

Environmental performance reviews. Republic of Moldova

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

This environmental performance review document for Moldova presents assessments of existing environmental policies; management of air, water and land pollutions originating from various sources including energy production and utilization. It also contains policy recommendations foe implementation by Moldovan Government

Systematic assessment of environmental risk factors for bipolar disorder: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Science.gov (United States)

Bortolato, Beatrice; Köhler, Cristiano A; Evangelou, Evangelos; León-Caballero, Jordi; Solmi, Marco; Stubbs, Brendon; Belbasis, Lazaros; Pacchiarotti, Isabella; Kessing, Lars V; Berk, Michael; Vieta, Eduard; Carvalho, André F

2017-03-01

The pathophysiology of bipolar disorder is likely to involve both genetic and environmental risk factors. In our study, we aimed to perform a systematic search of environmental risk factors for BD. In addition, we assessed possible hints of bias in this literature, and identified risk factors supported by high epidemiological credibility. We searched the Pubmed/MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsycInfo databases up to 7 October 2016 to identify systematic reviews and meta-analyses of observational studies that assessed associations between putative environmental risk factors and BD. For each meta-analysis, we estimated its summary effect size by means of both random- and fixed-effects models, 95% confidence intervals (CIs), the 95% prediction interval, and heterogeneity. Evidence of small-study effects and excess of significance bias was also assessed. Sixteen publications met the inclusion criteria (seven meta-analyses and nine qualitative systematic reviews). Fifty-one unique environmental risk factors for BD were evaluated. Six meta-analyses investigated associations with a risk factor for BD. Only irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) emerged as a risk factor for BD supported by convincing evidence (k=6; odds ratio [OR]=2.48; 95% CI=2.35-2.61; P<.001), and childhood adversity was supported by highly suggestive evidence. Asthma and obesity were risk factors for BD supported by suggestive evidence, and seropositivity to Toxoplasma gondii and a history of head injury were supported by weak evidence. Notwithstanding that several environmental risk factors for BD were identified, few meta-analyses of observational studies were available. Therefore, further well-designed and adequately powered studies are necessary to map the environmental risk factors for BD. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Assessment of Health, Safety and Environmental Risks of Zahedan City Gasoline Stations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Y. Far

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to assess the risk and determine the health, safety and environmental status of fuel stations in Zahedan. In this study, failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA method was used for risk assessment in accordance with the HSE guidelines, national and international standards and laws. In this cross-sectional study, 2 governmental stations and 6 active private stations were evaluated after the necessary coordination with the relevant units. As a result of risk assessment, 27 health risks, 55 safety risks and 22 environmental risks were identified. From among all the identified risks, 67 risks had a Risk Priority Number (RPN of less than 91, 31 risks had an RPN ranging between 91 and 201, and 6 risks had an RPN of over 201. The findings of the study indicated that compliance with the HSE requirements was 51.85%, in the area of health, 47.57% in the area of safety and 27.45% in the environmental area. Overall compliance with the HSE requirements was 42.54%. In order to distribute fuel considering health, reducing risk and increasing compliance with the requirements for safety improvement, health and environmental conditions of fuel supplies are essential.

Applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process to Oil Sands Environmental Compliance Risk Management

Science.gov (United States)

Roux, Izak Johannes, III

Oil companies in Alberta, Canada, invested $32 billion on new oil sands projects in 2013. Despite the size of this investment, there is a demonstrable deficiency in the uniformity and understanding of environmental legislation requirements that manifest into increased project compliance risks. This descriptive study developed 2 prioritized lists of environmental regulatory compliance risks and mitigation strategies and used multi-criteria decision theory for its theoretical framework. Information from compiled lists of environmental compliance risks and mitigation strategies was used to generate a specialized pairwise survey, which was piloted by 5 subject matter experts (SMEs). The survey was validated by a sample of 16 SMEs, after which the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to rank a total of 33 compliance risks and 12 mitigation strategy criteria. A key finding was that the AHP is a suitable tool for ranking of compliance risks and mitigation strategies. Several working hypotheses were also tested regarding how SMEs prioritized 1 compliance risk or mitigation strategy compared to another. The AHP showed that regulatory compliance, company reputation, environmental compliance, and economics ranked the highest and that a multi criteria mitigation strategy for environmental compliance ranked the highest. The study results will inform Alberta oil sands industry leaders about the ranking and utility of specific compliance risks and mitigations strategies, enabling them to focus on actions that will generate legislative and public trust. Oil sands leaders implementing a risk management program using the risks and mitigation strategies identified in this study will contribute to environmental conservation, economic growth, and positive social change.

The effect of bright lines in environmental risk communication

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilson, K.N.; Desvousges, W.H.; Smith, K.V.; Payne, J.

1993-01-01

Bright lines in environmental risk communication refer to the specific levels at which an environmental risk becomes a serious health threat and action should be taken to mitigate its effects. This study examined the effect of ''bright lines'' in risk communication by emphasizing the radon exposure threshold level of 4 picocuries per liter. Specifically, the authors developed a computer-assisted interview containing bright-line versions of risk information. The bright-line version contained a range of possible radon levels, the corresponding number of estimated lung cancer cases, the relative health risk from radon compared to other health risks, and the EPA guidelines for mitigating levels above 4 picocuries in the home. The non-bright line version was identical to the bright-line version, except it did not include the EPA's mitigation recommendations. Effect measures included respondents' change in perceived risk after reading their materials, intended testing behavior, and advice to their neighbor for a specified radon level either above or below the 4 picocury threshold level. This paper discusses broader policy implications for designing effective risk communication programs

The neurobiology of social environmental risk for schizophrenia: an evolving research field.

Science.gov (United States)

Akdeniz, Ceren; Tost, Heike; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas

2014-04-01

Schizophrenia is a severe and complex brain disorder that usually manifests in early adulthood and disturbs a wide range of human functions. More than 100 years after its initial description, the pathophysiology of the disorder is still incompletely understood. Many epidemiological studies strongly suggest a complex interaction between genetic and environmental risk factors for the development of the disorder. While there is considerable evidence for a social environmental component of this risk, the links between adverse social factors and altered brain function have just come into focus. In the present review, we first summarize epidemiological evidence for the significance of social environmental risk factors, outline the role of altered social stress processing in mental illness, and review the latest experimental evidence for the neural correlates of social environmental risk for schizophrenia. The studies we have discussed in this review provide a selection of the current work in the field. We suggest that many of the social environmental risk factors may impact on perceived social stress and engage neural circuits in the brain whose functional and structural architecture undergoes detrimental change in response to prolonged exposure. We conclude that multidisciplinary approaches involving various fields and thoroughly constructed longitudinal designs are necessary to capture complex structure of social environmental risks.

Performance Measurement und Environmental Performance Measurement

OpenAIRE

Sturm, Anke

2000-01-01

Die Zielsetzung der vorliegenden Dissertationsschrift besteht in der Entwicklung einer systematisierten Vorgehensweise, eines Controllingmodells, zur unternehmensinternen Umweltleistungsmessung. Das entwickelte Environmental Performance Measurement (EPM)-Modell umfaßt die fünf Stufen Festlegung der Ziele der Umweltleistungsmessung (1. Stufe), Erfassung der Umwelteinflüsse nach der ökologischen Erfolgsspaltung (2. Stufe), Bewertung der Umwelteinflüsse auf der Grundlage des qualitätszielbezogen...

Focus on CSIR research in water resources: CSIR’S environmental human health risk assessment

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Genthe, Bettina

2007-08-01

Full Text Available Environmental health risk assessment deals with risks associated with manmade and natural environmental hazards. Environmental health risk assessment provides a means of estimating the probability of adverse health effects associated with hazards...

Implications of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Man-Made Hazards, Vulnerability Factors, and Risk to Environmental Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Eddy, Christopher; Sase, Eriko

2015-01-01

The objective of this article was to examine the environmental health implications of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster from an all-hazards perspective. The authors performed a literature review that included Japanese and international nuclear guidance and policy, scientific papers, and reports on the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island disasters while also considering all-hazards preparedness rubrics in the U.S. The examination of the literature resulted in the following: a) the authors' "All-Hazards Planning Reference Model" that distinguishes three planning categories-Disaster Trigger Event, Man-Made Hazards, and Vulnerability Factors; b) the generalization of their model to other countries; and c) advocacy for environmental health end fate to be considered in planning phases to minimize risk to environmental health. This article discusses inconsistencies in disaster planning and nomenclature existing in the studied materials and international guidance and proposes new opportunity for developing predisaster risk assessment, risk communication, and prevention capacity building.

ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE AS A REFLECTION OF MARKET DEMANDS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wahyu Yun Santoso

2008-02-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on the concept of corporate social responsibilities (CSR, particularly its implementation on environmental issues. The main question aimed to be answered is on how can environmental performance be adequately signaled to the market? It assumes by performing proper environmental performance, companies could benefit from financial incentive for future improvement and reputation benefit for the companies’ image, which eventually influence the bargaining position of companies in the market.

The Spatial Distributions and Variations of Water Environmental Risk in Yinma River Basin, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Di, Hui; Liu, Xingpeng; Zhang, Jiquan; Tong, Zhijun; Ji, Meichen

2018-03-15

Water environmental risk is the probability of the occurrence of events caused by human activities or the interaction of human activities and natural processes that will damage a water environment. This study proposed a water environmental risk index (WERI) model to assess the water environmental risk in the Yinma River Basin based on hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and regional management ability indicators in a water environment. The data for each indicator were gathered from 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 to assess the spatial and temporal variations in water environmental risk using particle swarm optimization and the analytic hierarchy process (PSO-AHP) method. The results showed that the water environmental risk in the Yinma River Basin decreased from 2000 to 2015. The risk level of the water environment was high in Changchun, while the risk levels in Yitong and Yongji were low. The research methods provide information to support future decision making by the risk managers in the Yinma River Basin, which is in a high-risk water environment. Moreover, water environment managers could reduce the risks by adjusting the indicators that affect water environmental risks.

Economic–Environmental Sustainability in Building Projects: Introducing Risk and Uncertainty in LCCE and LCCA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Fregonara

2018-06-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to propose a methodology for supporting decision-making in the design stages of new buildings or in the retrofitting of existing heritages. The focus is on the evaluation of economic–environmental sustainability, considering the presence of risk and uncertainty. An application of risk analysis in conjunction with Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA is proposed for selecting the preferable solution between technological options, which represents a recent and poorly explored context of analysis. It is assumed that there is a presence of uncertainty in cost estimating, in terms of the Life-Cycle Cost Estimates (LCCEs and uncertainty in the technical performance of the life-cycle cost analysis. According to the probability analysis, which was solved through stochastic simulation and the Monte Carlo Method (MCM, risk and uncertainty are modeled as stochastic variables or as “stochastic relevant cost drivers”. Coherently, the economic–financial and energy–environmental sustainability is analyzed through the calculation of a conjoint “economic–environmental indicator”, in terms of the stochastic global cost. A case study of the multifunctional building glass façade project in Northern Italy is proposed. The application demonstrates that introducing flexibility into the input data and the duration of the service lives of components and the economic and environmental behavior of alternative scenarios can lead to opposite results compared to a deterministic analysis. The results give full evidence of the environmental variables’ capacity to significantly perturb the model output.

Behavioral patterns of environmental performance evaluation programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Wanxin; Mauerhofer, Volker

2016-11-01

During the past decades numerous environmental performance evaluation programs have been developed and implemented on different geographic scales. This paper develops a taxonomy of environmental management behavioral patterns in order to provide a practical comparison tool for environmental performance evaluation programs. Ten such programs purposively selected are mapped against the identified four behavioral patterns in the form of diagnosis, negotiation, learning, and socialization and learning. Overall, we found that schemes which serve to diagnose environmental abnormalities are mainly externally imposed and have been developed as a result of technical debates concerning data sources, methodology and ranking criteria. Learning oriented scheme is featured by processes through which free exchange of ideas, mutual and adaptive learning can occur. Scheme developed by higher authority for influencing behaviors of lower levels of government has been adopted by the evaluated to signal their excellent environmental performance. The socializing and learning classified evaluation schemes have incorporated dialogue, participation, and capacity building in program design. In conclusion we consider the 'fitness for purpose' of the various schemes, the merits of our analytical model and the future possibilities of fostering capacity building in the realm of wicked environmental challenges. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Competitive bidding for OCS leases and environmental risk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Englin, J.E.; Klan, M.S.

1990-01-01

In the last few years, the role of environment has become increasingly contentious in the process of competitive bidding for exploration and development rights of offshore petroleum leases in the outer continental shelf (OCS). Although an extensive literature exists on OCS leasing per se, relatively little work focuses on the role of environmental factors. This paper examines the effect on environmental risk on the number of firms (or joint ventures) entering bids for a given tract, which relates to the effective competition for the tracts. The next section outlines a theoretical model of bidding behavior under environmental risk. The third section presents the data used to estimate the model. The fourth section gives empirical results of an analysis of Sale No. 42, conducted in 1979 for Georges Bank in the North Atlantic. The last section provides concluding remarks

Sitewide risk perspectives for the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Olinger, S.J.

1998-05-01

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has recently finalized a closure plan (originally called the Ten Year Plan) for closure and environmental cleanup of previous nuclear weapons facilities. The DOE Rocky Flats Field Office has established priorities for risk reduction work to Support closure activities, as well as addressing those hazards associated with storage and management of radioactive materials and hazardous chemicals. To provide information for future National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other regulatory assessments of specific risk reduction projects identified in the Closure Plan, a risk assessment of normal operations and potential accidents was recently prepared to provide an updated baseline of the cumulative impacts to the worker, public and environment due to the Site's operations, activities, and environmental conditions in light of the Site's change in mission, and of future closure projects. This paper summarizes the risk assessment approach, results, and conclusions

Risk perceptions, general environmental beliefs, and willingness to address climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

O'Connor, R.E.; Bord, R.J.; Fisher, A.

1999-01-01

The research reported here examines the relationship between risk perceptions and willingness to address climate change. The data are a national sample of 1,225 mail surveys that include measures of risk perceptions and knowledge tied to climate change, support for voluntary and government actions to address the problem, general environmental beliefs, and demographic variables. Risk perceptions matter in predicting behavior intentions. Risk perceptions are not a surrogate for general environmental beliefs, but have their own power to account for behavioral intentions. There are four secondary conclusions. First, behavioral intentions regarding climate change are complex and intriguing. People are neither nonbelievers who will take no initiatives themselves and oppose all government efforts, nor are they believers who promise both to make personal efforts and to vote for every government proposal that promises to address climate change. Second, there are separate demographic sources for voluntary actions compared with voting intentions. Third, recognizing the causes of global warming is a powerful predictor of behavioral intentions independent from believing that climate change will happen and have bad consequences. Finally, the success of the risk perception variables to account for behavioral intentions should encourage greater attention to risk perceptions as independent variables. Risk perceptions and knowledge, however, share the stage with general environmental beliefs and demographic characteristics. Although related, risk perceptions, knowledge, and general environmental beliefs are somewhat independent predictors of behavioral intentions

Environmental risk factors for REM sleep behavior disorder

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Postuma, R B; Montplaisir, J Y; Pelletier, A

2012-01-01

Idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder is a parasomnia characterized by dream enactment and is commonly a prediagnostic sign of parkinsonism and dementia. Since risk factors have not been defined, we initiated a multicenter case-control study to assess environmental and lifestyle risk factors...... for REM sleep behavior disorder....

Social Determinants of Health in Environmental Justice Communities: Examining Cumulative Risk in Terms of Environmental Exposures and Social Determinants of Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Prochaska, John D; Nolen, Alexandra B; Kelley, Hilton; Sexton, Ken; Linder, Stephen H; Sullivan, John

2014-01-01

Residents of environmental justice (EJ) communities may bear a disproportionate burden of environmental health risk, and often face additional burdens from social determinants of health. Accounting for cumulative risk should include measures of risk from both environmental sources and social determinants. This study sought to better understand cumulative health risk from both social and environmental sources in a disadvantaged community in Texas. Key outcomes were determining what data are currently available for this assessment, clarifying data needs, identifying data gaps, and considering how those gaps could be filled. Analyses suggested that the traditionally defined EJ community in Port Arthur may have a lower environmental risk from air toxics than the rest of the City of Port Arthur (although the entire city has a higher risk than the average for the state), but may have a larger burden from social determinants of health. However, the results should be interpreted in light of the availability of data, the definitions of community boundaries, and the areal unit utilized. Continued focus on environmental justice communities and the cumulative risks faced by their residents is critical to protecting these residents and, ultimately, moving towards a more equitable distribution and acceptable level of risk throughout society.

Environmental Management Performance Report for December 1999

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

EDER, D.M.

2000-02-16

The purpose of the Environmental Management Performance Report (EMPR) is to provide the Department of Energy Richland Operations Office's (DOE-RL's) report of Hanford's Environmental Management (EM) performance by: U. S. Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office, Project Hanford Management Contract (PHMC) through Fluor Hanford, Inc. (FHI) and its subcontractors, Environmental Restoration Contract through Bechtel Hanford, Inc. (BHI), and its subcontractors, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL) for EM and EM Science and Technology (S&T) Mission. This report is a monthly publication that summarizes EM Site performance under RL Operations Office. It is organized by the four sections listed above, with each section containing an Executive Summary and Area Performance Summaries. A listing of what is contained in the sections can be found in the Table of Contents.

A comparative study of the perceptions of nuclear and environmental risk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boemer, Veronica Araujo

2011-01-01

With the necessity for new forms of energy production to contain the environmental crisis and the global warming, new technologies have been studied and the nuclear energy has been placed as one of the ways out for clean energy production. The study of the risk is directly related to the study of its perception, that determines the human being's actions, therefore it influences in new technologies applications, since the awareness of something as dangerous is determined by socio-historical factors. The purpose of this study was compare the perceptions of nuclear and environmental risks, considering a group of university students, with the application of research in the period from March 31 to May 31, 2010, containing: images of historical facts to be nominated; structuring of a risk scale for certain activities, and a questionnaire about risks and benefits related to the subject research. The analysis of results evidenced a reduction in the perception of nuclear risk over the perception of environmental risk in this population. (author)

Gene-Environment Interplay in Internalizing Disorders: Consistent Findings across Six Environmental Risk Factors

Science.gov (United States)

Hicks, Brian M.; DiRago, Ana C.; Iacono, William G.; McGue, Matt

2009-01-01

Background Newer behavior genetic methods can better elucidate gene-environment (G-E) interplay in the development of internalizing (INT) disorders (i.e., major depression and anxiety disorders). However, no study to date has conducted a comprehensive analysis examining multiple environmental risks with the purpose of delineating how general G-E mechanisms influence the development of INT disorders. Methods The sample consisted of 1315 male and female twin pairs participating in the age 17 assessment of the Minnesota Twin Family Study. Quantitative G-E interplay models were used to examine how genetic and environmental risk for INT disorders changes as a function of environmental context. Multiple measures and informants were employed to construct composite measures of INT disorders and 6 environmental risk factors including: stressful life events, mother-child and father-child relationship problems, antisocial and prosocial peer affiliation, and academic achievement and engagement. Results Significant moderation effects were detected between each environmental risk factor and INT such that in the context of greater environmental adversity, nonshared environmental factors became more important in the etiology of INT symptoms. Conclusion Our results are consistent with the interpretation that environmental stressors have a causative effect on the emergence of INT disorders. The consistency of our results suggests a general mechanism of environmental influence on INT disorders regardless of the specific form of environmental risk. PMID:19594836

Risk analysis and priority setting for environmental policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Travis, C.C.

1991-01-01

There is a growing realization that the demand for funding to correct our nation's environmental problems will soon outstrip available resources. In the hazardous waste area alone, the estimated cost of remediating Superfund sites ranges from $32 billion to $80 billion. Numerous other areas of competing for these same financial resources. These include ozone depletion, global warming, the protection of endangered species and wetlands, toxic air pollution, carcinogenic pesticides, and urban smog. In response to this imbalance in the supply and demand for national funds, several political constituencies are calling for the use of risk assessment as a tool in the prioritization of research and budget needs. Comparative risk analysis offers a logical framework in which to organize information about complex environmental problems. Risk analysis allows policy analysts to make resource allocation decisions on the basis of scientific judgement rather than political expediency

Risk policies and risk perceptions: a comparative study of environmental health risk policy and perception in six European countries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bröer, C.; Moerman, G.; Spruijt, P.; van Poll, R.

2014-01-01

This paper explores the influence that health risk policies have on the citizens’ perceptions of those health risks. Previously, detailed mixed methods research revealed that noise annoyance policies shaped noise perception. This idea is now applied to nine different environmental health risks in

The Relation between Sustainable Innovation Strategy and Financial Performance Mediated By Environmental Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hariyati Hariyati

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This study aims to examine the relationship of sustainable innovation strategy and financial performance through the mediation environmental performance. The hypothesis in this study is sustainable innovation strategy affect the financial performance which is mediated by environmental performance. This study is quantitative research in the explanatory level. The population of this study is all the manufacturer companies in East Java. The data is collected through questionnaire. The unit of analysis is a business unit. The respondent of this study is the manager of a business unit manufacturing company in East Java. The results showed that the environmental performance mediates partially the relation between sustainable innovation strategy and financial performance.

Inherent health and environmental risk assessment of nanostructured metal oxide production processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Torabifard, Mina; Arjmandi, Reza; Rashidi, Alimorad; Nouri, Jafar; Mohammadfam, Iraj

2018-01-10

The health and environmental effects of chemical processes can be assessed during the initial stage of their production. In this paper, the Chemical Screening Tool for Exposure and Environmental Release (ChemSTEER) software was used to compare the health and environmental risks of spray pyrolysis and wet chemical techniques for the fabrication of nanostructured metal oxide on a semi-industrial scale with a capacity of 300 kg/day in Iran. The pollution sources identified in each production process were pairwise compared in Expert Choice software using indicators including respiratory damage, skin damage, and environmental damages including air, water, and soil pollution. The synthesis of nanostructured zinc oxide using the wet chemical technique (with 0.523 wt%) leads to lower health and environmental risks compared to when spray pyrolysis is used (with 0.477 wt%). The health and environmental risk assessment of nanomaterial production processes can help select safer processes, modify the operation conditions, and select or modify raw materials that can help eliminate the risks.

Use of environmental health-risk analysis for managing toxic substances

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McKone, T.E.

1985-03-01

This paper presents a set of simple models used to assess health risks based on toxicity, environmental mobility and persistence. These models use a representative landscape in order to describe the steady-state distribution of arsenic, tritiated water, and TCDD as a result of continuous additions to soil. This information is used to assess potential exposures. Application of the screening model to three chemically different carcinogens reveals that the environmental health risk does not scale with direct measures of toxicity. As estimated here, the environmental health risk of TCDD relative to tritiated water and arsenic is roughly an order of magnitude less than its cancer potency relative to these compounds. The difference is attributable in large part to the immobility of TCDD relative to tritium and the lower persistence of TCDD compared to arsenic. The purpose is to present a simple procedure for using the relative behavior of toxic species under prototype conditions as a basis for risk management. 21 refs., 4 tabs

Performance Objective for Tank Farm Closure Risk Assessments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

MANN, F.M.; KNEPP, A.J.; BADDEN, J.

2003-01-01

quotations are taken from other documents (e.g., regulations) the quotation will not be changed from the more standard terminology. According to the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (HFACCO 1989), a number of risk assessments will be required to analyze the environmental and human health impacts from retrieval and closure activities. This document is based on the Performance Objectives for the 2005 Immobilized Low-Activity Waste Performance Assessment (ILAW PA) (Mann 2002). The performance objectives in this document will be used in future risk assessments for tank waste retrieval or tank closure activities. These risk assessments are described in the Contents of Risk Assessments to Support the Retrieval and Closure of Tanks for the Washington State Department of Ecology (Mann et al. 2003) and summarized in Table 1.1. Requirements for ecological assessments are not yet presented in this document. As the requirements for such assessments are defined, this document will be revised to include the appropriate performance objectives

Defining the role of risk assessment in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) remedial investigation process at the DOE-OR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miller, P.D.; McGinn, C.W.; Purucker, S.T.; White, R.K.

1994-08-01

The risk assessment strategy that will be implemented on the Oak Ridge Reservation has been standardized to ensure consistency and technical defensibility in all risk assessment activities and is presented within this document. The strategy emphasizes using existing environmental data in screening risk analyses to aid in identifying chemicals of potential concern, operable units that could pursue a no further investigation determination, and operable units that may warrant early response actions. The screening risk analyses include a comparison of measured chemical concentrations to preliminary remediation goals, performing a most likely exposure and integration point assessment, and performing a screening ecological risk assessment. This document focuses heavily on the screening risk analyses and relies on existing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency risk assessment guidance to provide specific details on conducting baseline risk assessments. However, the document does contain a section on the baseline risk assessment process that details the exposure pathways to be evaluated on the Oak Ridge Reservation. This document will be used in conjunction with existing Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. Environmental Restoration risk assessment standards, policies, procedures, and technical memoranda. The material contained herein will be periodically updated as the strategy is tried and tested and as the risk assessment methodology is revised. The primary purpose for this document is to present the proposed strategy to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region IV and receive concurrence or additional comments on the material presented herein

Environmental investment and firm performance: A network approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bostian, Moriah; Färe, Rolf; Grosskopf, Shawna; Lundgren, Tommy

2016-01-01

This study examines the role of investment in environmental production practices for both environmental performance and energy efficiency over time. We employ a network DEA approach that links successive production technologies through intertemporal investment decisions with a period by period estimation. This allows us to estimate energy efficiency and environmental performance separately, as well as productivity change and its associated decompositions into efficiency change and technology change. Incorporating a network model also allows us to account for both short-term environmental management practices and long-term environmental investments in each of our productivity measures. We apply this framework to a panel of detailed plant-level production data for Swedish manufacturing firms covering the years 2002–2008. - Highlights: • We use a network DEA model to account for intertemporal environmental investment decisionsin measures of firm productivity. • We apply our network technology model to a panel of firms in Sweden's pulp and paperindustry for the years 2002 - 2008. • We model environmental investments and expenditures separately from other productionoriented inputs. • We find evidence of positive relationships between energy efficiency, environmental performance, and firm productivity.

Perceptions of environmental health risks among residents in the "Toxic Doughnut": opportunities for risk screening and community mobilization.

Science.gov (United States)

White, Brandi M; Hall, Eric S

2015-12-10

Surrounded by landfills, and toxic and hazardous facilities, Altgeld Gardens is located in a "toxic doughnut". With high rates of environmentally-related conditions, residents have called for a community-based environmental health assessment to improve overall health in their community. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes and beliefs of environmental health risks of Altgeld's residents which would assist community organizing efforts and provide the groundwork for a community-based environmental health assessment. A questionnaire was designed and administered to 42 Altgeld residents who also participated in focus groups to assess their perceptions of environmental health risks. All participants were Altgeld residents for at least two years and were fairly representative of the broader community. Physical and social hazards were primarily identified as posing risks to participants' family and the broader community. Physical hazards included the dumping of hazardous waste and landfills; social hazards were crime and drugs. These findings have been useful in community organizing efforts and in program planning for local community-based organizations and public health agencies. The results have also been used to prioritize health and environmental risk issues impacting the community.

Some recent research findings on the social dynamics of environmental risk perception

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Horlick-Jones, T.; Marchi, B. de; Del Zotto, M.; Pellizzoni, L.; Ungaro, D.; Prades Lopez, A.; Diaz Hidalgo, M.; Pidgeon, N.; Sime, J.

1998-01-01

Full text of publication follows: key themes: social dynamics of public risk perception; trust, tolerability, and risk management; discourses of environmental risk; implications for risk communication and environmental valuation; application of mixed qualitative/quantitative methods in risk perception research. This paper presents some of the key findings of a two-year comparative European study (the PRISP Project) on public perception of risks associated with industrial sites in the UK, Italy and Spain. The project utilised a mixed-method approach (comprising community ethnography, semi-structured interviews, questionnaire survey and focus groups), within a Grounded Theory framework, to examine the social dynamics of risk comprehension, tolerability and politics in settings adjacent to a range of industrial facilities. These often complex industrial zones present a portfolio of 'acute' and 'chronic' risks including hazards associated with sites regulated by the European Union COMAH Directive. Our findings have important implications for the regulation of both major accident hazard and pollution risks, risk communication programmes, industrial risk management practices and for the methodological basis of health and safety and environmental valuation techniques. (authors)

Environmental health risk assessment and management for global climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Carter, P.

2014-12-01

This environmental health risk assessment and management approach for atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is based almost entirely on IPCC AR5 (2014) content, but the IPCC does not make recommendations. Large climate model uncertainties may be large environmental health risks. In accordance with environmental health risk management, we use the standard (IPCC-endorsed) formula of risk as the product of magnitude times probability, with an extremely high standard of precaution. Atmospheric GHG pollution, causing global warming, climate change and ocean acidification, is increasing as fast as ever. Time is of the essence to inform and make recommendations to governments and the public. While the 2ºC target is the only formally agreed-upon policy limit, for the most vulnerable nations, a 1.5ºC limit is being considered by the UNFCCC Secretariat. The Climate Action Network International (2014), representing civil society, recommends that the 1.5ºC limit be kept open and that emissions decline from 2015. James Hansen et al (2013) have argued that 1ºC is the danger limit. Taking into account committed global warming, its millennial duration, multiple large sources of amplifying climate feedbacks and multiple adverse impacts of global warming and climate change on crops, and population health impacts, all the IPCC AR5 scenarios carry extreme environmental health risks to large human populations and to the future of humanity as a whole. Our risk consideration finds that 2ºC carries high risks of many catastrophic impacts, that 1.5ºC carries high risks of many disastrous impacts, and that 1ºC is the danger limit. IPCC AR4 (2007) showed that emissions must be reversed by 2015 for a 2ºC warming limit. For the IPCC AR5 only the best-case scenario RCP2.6, is projected to stay under 2ºC by 2100 but the upper range is just above 2ºC. It calls for emissions to decline by 2020. We recommend that for catastrophic environmental health risk aversion, emissions decline

Combining exposure and effect modeling into an integrated probabilistic environmental risk assessment for nanoparticles

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jacobs, Rianne; Meesters, Johannes A.J.; Braak, ter Cajo J.F.; Meent, van de Dik; Voet, van der Hilko

2016-01-01

There is a growing need for good environmental risk assessment of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs). Environmental risk assessment of ENPs has been hampered by lack of data and knowledge about ENPs, their environmental fate, and their toxicity. This leads to uncertainty in the risk assessment. To

Combining exposure and effect modeling into an integrated probabilistic environmental risk assessment for nanoparticles

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jacobs, R.; Meesters, J.A.J.; Ter Braak, C.J.; Meent, D. van de; van der Voet, H.

2016-01-01

There is a growing need for good environmental risk assessment of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs). Environmental risk assessment of ENPs has been hampered by lack of data and knowledge about ENPs, their environmental fate, and their toxicity. This leads to uncertainty in the risk assessment. To deal

Psychosocial and environmental risk factors associated with mental disorders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Restrepo, Paula Andrea

2010-06-01

Full Text Available In Colombia, there are few studies on the association of psychosocial and environmental factors with the most prevalent mental disorders; such studies are important due to the context of violence, social insecurity, and job and economic instability in the country. The objective of this study was to identify the psychosocial and environmental risk factors for mental disorders, in users of psychological services in Colombia. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and a Questionnaire to evaluate the Axis-IV of the DSM-IV-TR were applied to 490 participants. The analysis comprised descriptive statistics and risk factors. As risk factors for depression, there were identified housing problems, access to health care services, problems related to the primary group, economics, problems of the social environment, and labor. For generalized anxiety, there were identified economic and education issues. For panic disorders, the risk factors were related to social environment, and for social phobia, the risk factors were problems in education, work and social environment

Application of probabilistic risk assessment in nuclear and environmental licensing processes of nuclear reactors in Brazil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mata, Jonatas F.C. da; Vasconcelos, Vanderley de; Mesquita, Amir Z.

2015-01-01

The nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi, occurred in Japan in 2011, brought reflections, worldwide, on the management of nuclear and environmental licensing processes of existing nuclear reactors. One of the key lessons learned in this matter, is that the studies of Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Severe Accidents are becoming essential, even in the early stage of a nuclear development project. In Brazil, Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission, CNEN, conducts the nuclear licensing. The organism responsible for the environmental licensing is Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, IBAMA. In the scope of the licensing processes of these two institutions, the safety analysis is essentially deterministic, complemented by probabilistic studies. The Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) is the study performed to evaluate the behavior of the nuclear reactor in a sequence of events that may lead to the melting of its core. It includes both probability and consequence estimation of these events, which are called Severe Accidents, allowing to obtain the risk assessment of the plant. Thus, the possible shortcomings in the design of systems are identified, providing basis for safety assessment and improving safety. During the environmental licensing, a Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA), including probabilistic evaluations, is required in order to support the development of the Risk Analysis Study, the Risk Management Program and the Emergency Plan. This article aims to provide an overview of probabilistic risk assessment methodologies and their applications in nuclear and environmental licensing processes of nuclear reactors in Brazil. (author)

Application of probabilistic risk assessment in nuclear and environmental licensing processes of nuclear reactors in Brazil

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mata, Jonatas F.C. da; Vasconcelos, Vanderley de; Mesquita, Amir Z., E-mail: jonatasfmata@yahoo.com.br, E-mail: vasconv@cdtn.br, E-mail: amir@cdtn.br [Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear (CDTN/CNEN-MG), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil)

2015-07-01

The nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi, occurred in Japan in 2011, brought reflections, worldwide, on the management of nuclear and environmental licensing processes of existing nuclear reactors. One of the key lessons learned in this matter, is that the studies of Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Severe Accidents are becoming essential, even in the early stage of a nuclear development project. In Brazil, Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission, CNEN, conducts the nuclear licensing. The organism responsible for the environmental licensing is Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, IBAMA. In the scope of the licensing processes of these two institutions, the safety analysis is essentially deterministic, complemented by probabilistic studies. The Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) is the study performed to evaluate the behavior of the nuclear reactor in a sequence of events that may lead to the melting of its core. It includes both probability and consequence estimation of these events, which are called Severe Accidents, allowing to obtain the risk assessment of the plant. Thus, the possible shortcomings in the design of systems are identified, providing basis for safety assessment and improving safety. During the environmental licensing, a Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA), including probabilistic evaluations, is required in order to support the development of the Risk Analysis Study, the Risk Management Program and the Emergency Plan. This article aims to provide an overview of probabilistic risk assessment methodologies and their applications in nuclear and environmental licensing processes of nuclear reactors in Brazil. (author)

[Editorial] Environmental and occupational risk factors associated with different pathological conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Signorelli, Salvatore Santo; Ferrante, Margherita

2017-05-01

A wide body of evidence indicates that environmental and occupational risk factors are associated with the development of pathological disorders. The pathogenic role of many environmental pollutants or occupational contaminants is already known and has been extensively investigated. However, the molecular mechanisms of action and the pathogenic effects of many substances remain unknown. Therefore, there is a need to better investigate the role of new environmental and occupational risk factors that may cause the development of several diseases.

EIF onshore discharges : a quantitative environmental risk assessment tool for onshore facilities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hagemann, R.; Smit, M.G.D.; Frost, T.K. [Statoil ASA, Stavenger (Norway); Firth, S.K. [Firth Consultants, Bristol (United Kingdom); Stone, K. [WorleyParsons, Victoria, BC (Canada)

2009-07-01

The proper management of environmental risk is a key requirement of StatoilHydro's governing documents and is a key consideration in all phases of StatoilHydro's activities. In order to help manage risks in an effective and sustainable manner, StatoilHydro has led the development of the environmental impact factor (EIF) risk assessment tool. The EIF is utilized by all operators on the Norwegian Continental Shelf for reporting continuous improvements in produced water management to the authorities. The EIF concept has also been applied to evaluate environmental risk from air emissions, offshore oil spills and drilling discharges, discharges from onshore facilities to sea and discharges and spills from onshore installations. In order to identify the remaining hypothetical risk from a new facility, optimized with respect to environmental protection, this paper presented a case study, where the tool was applied to an oil sands steam assisted gravity drainage facility in Alberta. The paper discussed the EIF model and results of the case study. It was concluded that as a result of the use of generic principles for environmental risk assessment, combined with databases with parameter information for common soil and aquifer types, the EIF tool could be applied to any site ranging from wetlands to deserts. 5 refs., 2 tabs., 3 figs.

EVALUATING KEY ENVIRONMENTAL RISK FACTORS FOR POLLUTION AT INTERNATIONAL PORTS IN TAIWAN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuan-Hao Chang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The main purpose of this paper is to use the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP approach to evaluate the key environmental risk factors for pollution at international ports in Taiwan. Relying on the literature and experts’ opinions, a hierarchical structure with three risk aspects and thirteen risk factors is first constructed, and a FAHP model then proposed. Based on data from the AHP experts’ questionnaires, we use the FAHP approach to determine key environmental risk factors. Finally, the results show that: (1 Air pollution is the most important aspect of environmental pollution at international ports in Taiwan. (2 In order of relative importance, the top five key environmental risk factors for pollution at international ports in Taiwan are the oil leaks from ships, volatile organic compounds (VOCs, exhaust emissions from ships at berth, harmful coatings on ships' hulls, and ships' failure to use low-pollution fuel. Furthermore, some discussions are provided for port authority in Taiwan.

Nuclear and environmental risk perceptions: results from a study with university students

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boemer, Veronica Araujo; Aquino, Afonso Rodrigues de

2010-01-01

The deployment of advanced technologies depends on public acceptance. Studies on risk perception can assist decision makers in their choices and working methodology, as well as science communicators. In this work, the field study was conducted with a university population with the objective of compare the perceptions of nuclear risk and environmental. Concluding that the perception of environmental risk has excelled in public opinion, overcoming the perceived nuclear risk. (author)

Identifying and Reconciling Risk Across Sectors: The implications of differing views of risk in climate policy, environmental conservation, and the finance sector

Science.gov (United States)

Johns, T.; Henderson, I.; Thoumi, G.

2014-12-01

The presence and valuation of risk are commonalities that link the diverse fields of climate change science and policy, environmental conservation, and the financial/investment sector. However, the definition and perception of risks vary widely across these critically linked fields. The "Stranded Asset" concept developed by organizations like the Carbon Tracker Initiative begins to elucidate the links between climate change risk and financial risk. Stranded assets are those that may lose some or all value from climate disruption, changes in demand-side dynamics and/or a more stringent regulatory environment. In order to shift financial flows toward climate change mitigation, emissions-heavy activities that present finance and investment opportunities must also be assessed for their GHG-asset risk attributes in terms of their contribution and vulnerability to climate disruption, as well as other environmental externalities. Until the concept of GHG-asset risk in investment is reconciled with the risks of climate change and environmental conservation, it will not be possible to shift business and financial practices, and unlock private sector resources to address the climate change and conservation challenge. UNEP-FI is researching the application of the concept of Value-atRisk (VaR) to explore links between the financial sector and deforestation/REDD+. The research will test the hypothesis that climate risk is a financial risk, and propose tools to identify and quantify risks associated with unsustainable land-use investments. The tools developed in this research will help investors, managers and governments assess their exposures to the material REDD-related risks in their portfolios. This will inform the development of 'zero net deforestation' investment indices to allow investors to lower the 'deforestation' exposure of 'benchmark' financial indices used by many of the largest money managers. A VaR analysis will be performed, combining the notion of externality

Application of Bayesian networks in a hierarchical structure for environmental risk assessment: a case study of the Gabric Dam, Iran.

Science.gov (United States)

Malekmohammadi, Bahram; Tayebzadeh Moghadam, Negar

2018-04-13

Environmental risk assessment (ERA) is a commonly used, effective tool applied to reduce adverse effects of environmental risk factors. In this study, ERA was investigated using the Bayesian network (BN) model based on a hierarchical structure of variables in an influence diagram (ID). ID facilitated ranking of the different alternatives under uncertainty that were then used to evaluate comparisons of the different risk factors. BN was used to present a new model for ERA applicable to complicated development projects such as dam construction. The methodology was applied to the Gabric Dam, in southern Iran. The main environmental risk factors in the region, presented by the Gabric Dam, were identified based on the Delphi technique and specific features of the study area. These included the following: flood, water pollution, earthquake, changes in land use, erosion and sedimentation, effects on the population, and ecosensitivity. These risk factors were then categorized based on results from the output decision node of the BN, including expected utility values for risk factors in the decision node. ERA was performed for the Gabric Dam using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method to compare results of BN modeling with those of conventional methods. Results determined that a BN-based hierarchical structure to ERA present acceptable and reasonable risk assessment prioritization in proposing suitable solutions to reduce environmental risks and can be used as a powerful decision support system for evaluating environmental risks.

Environmental performance management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwant, J.W.H.; Grant, R.O.H.

1991-01-01

This paper describes the environmental programme developed by Shell U.K. Exploration and Production (EXPRO) aiming at a continuous improvement of its environmental performance. The company operates a total of 33 platforms in the North Sea and has 3 land based gas treatment plants. This paper, therefore, relates mainly to the offshore environment. The programme is driven by adopting a goal setting policy. The plan was initiated mid 1990 when an inventory was made of all gaseous emissions, liquid effluents and solid waste discharges of EXPRO's operations during 1989. This baseline was used to identify the largest waste steams and to set priorities for the subsequent improvement programme. Areas for improvement are: atmospheric emissions from venting, flaring and the use of Freons and Halons, the use of Oil Based Mud (OBM), produced water and the disposal of industrial waste. The programme has gained momentum and targets have been set

Meteorological risks are drivers of environmental innovation in agro-ecosystem management

Science.gov (United States)

Gobin, Anne; Van de Vyver, Hans; Vanwindekens, Frédéric; Planchon, Viviane; Verspecht, Ann; Frutos de Cachorro, Julia; Buysse, Jeroen

2016-04-01

Extreme weather events such as droughts, heat waves and rain storms are projected to increase both in frequency and magnitude with climate change. The research hypothesis of the MERINOVA project is that meteorological risks act as drivers of environmental innovation in agro-ecosystem management which is being tested using a chain of risk approach. The project comprises of five major parts that reflect the chain of risks: the hazard, its impact on different agro-ecosystems, vulnerability, risk management and risk communication. Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) theory was used to model annual maxima of meteorological variables based on a location-, scale- and shape-parameter that determine the center of the distribution, the deviation of the location-parameter and the upper tail decay, respectively. Spatial interpolation of GEV-derived return levels has yielded maps of temperature extremes, precipitation deficits and wet periods. The degree of temporal overlap between extreme weather conditions and sensitive periods in the agro-ecosystem was determined using a bio-physically based modelling framework that couples phenological models, a soil water balance, crop growth and environmental models. 20-year return values for frost, heat stress, drought, waterlogging and field access during different crop stages were related to arable yields. The spatial extent of vulnerability is developed on different layers of spatial information that include inter alia meteorology, soil-landscapes, crop cover and management. The level of vulnerability and resilience of an agro-ecosystem is also determined by risk management. The types of agricultural risk and their relative importance differ across sectors and farm types as elucidated by questionnaires and focus groups. Risk types are distinguished according to production, market, institutional, financial and liability risks. A portfolio of potential strategies was identified at farm, market and policy level. In conclusion, MERINOVA

Environmental performance reviews: Spain

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2004-10-01

The second OECD Review of Spain's environmental performance reviews Spain's progress in the context of OECD environmental strategy for the first decade of the 21st century in relation to its own policy objectives. It praises a number of achievements such as in commitments to climate change policies and developments of cogeneration and renewable energy sources. Although emissions of sulphur dioxide from the energy sector have fallen since 1990 they are still high when measured per capita and per unit of GDP. The OECD recommends further control of emissions of SOx, NOx, VOCs and NH{sub 3}. Subsidies such as compulsory purchase of domestic coal by electricity producers are set to increase. The report recommends the phasing out of environmental subsidies (which has begun) and making use of economic instruments to encourage efficient resource management and reduction of pollutants. Greenhouse gas emissions increased by 38% between 1990 and 2002 and the outlook for the next few years is pessimistic. 39 figs., 31 tabs.

Mapping Malaria Transmission Risk in Northern Morocco Using Entomological and Environmental Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Adlaoui

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Malaria resurgence risk in Morocco depends, among other factors, on environmental changes as well as the introduction of parasite carriers. The aim of this paper is to analyze the receptivity of the Loukkos area, large wetlands in Northern Morocco, to quantify and to map malaria transmission risk in this region using biological and environmental data. This risk was assessed on entomological risk basis and was mapped using environmental markers derived from satellite imagery. Maps showing spatial and temporal variations of entomological risk for Plasmodium vivax and P. falciparum were produced. Results showed this risk to be highly seasonal and much higher in rice fields than in swamps. This risk is lower for Afrotropical P. falciparum strains because of the low infectivity of Anopheles labranchiae, principal malaria vector in Morocco. However, it is very high for P. vivax mainly during summer corresponding to the rice cultivation period. Although the entomological risk is high in Loukkos region, malaria resurgence risk remains very low, because of the low vulnerability of the area.

The role of qualitative risk assessment in environmental management: A Kazakhstani case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kajenthira, Arani; Holmes, John; McDonnell, Rachael

2012-01-01

Successful environmental management is partly contingent on the effective recognition and communication of environmental health risks to the public. Yet risk perceptions are known to differ between experts and laypeople; laypeople often exhibit higher perceptions of risk in comparison to experts, particularly when these risks are associated with radiation, nuclear power, or nuclear waste. This paper consequently explores stakeholder risk perceptions associated with a mercury-contaminated chloralkali production facility in Kazakhstan. Using field observations and in-depth interviews conducted in the vicinity of the Pavlodar Chemical Plant, this work assesses the relevance of the substantial on-site mercury contamination to the health and livelihoods of the local population with the goal of informing remediation activity through a combination of quantitative and qualitative risk assessments. The findings of this research study cannot be broadly generalized to all the primary stakeholders of the site due to the small sample size; however, the indifference of the local population towards both the possibility of mercury-related health risks and the need for mitigation activity could pose a substantial barrier to successful site remediation and also suggests that a qualitative understanding of stakeholder risk perceptions could play an important role in striving towards sustainable, long-term environmental risk management. - Highlights: ► A mercury spill in Kazakhstan created environmental and health risks. ► We evaluated the role of risk communication/perception in environmental management. ► Long-term risk mitigation was impeded by lack of engagement of site stakeholders. ► Prioritizing engagement of the local population is critical for remediation success.

Environmental chemical mutagens and genetic risks: Lessons from radiation genetics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sankaranarayanan, K.

1996-01-01

The last three decades have witnessed substantial progress in the development and use of a variety of in vitro and in vivo assay systems for the testing of environmental chemicals which may pose a mutagenic hazard to humans. This is also true of basic studies in chemical mutagenesis on mechanisms, DNA repair, molecular dosimetry, structure-activity relationships, etc. However, the field of quantitative evaluation of genetic risks of environmental chemicals to humans is still in it infancy. This commentary addresses the question of how our experience in estimating genetic risks of exposure to ionizing radiation can be helpful in similar endeavors with environmental chemical mutagens. 24 refs., 3 tabs

The Role of Alternative Testing Strategies in Environmental Risk Assessment of Engineered Nanomaterials

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjorth, Rune; Holden, Patricia; Hansen, Steffen Foss

2017-01-01

) workshop in Washington, D.C. and serves as the point of depature for this paper. Here we present the main outcomes by describing and defining the use of ATS for ENMs as well as discussing its future role in environmental risk science. We conclude that diversity in testing should be encouraged to avoid...... chemicals are challenged. Nonetheless, standardized whole organism animal testing is still considered the gold standard for environmental risk assessment. Advancing risk analysis of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) through ATS was discussed in September 2014 at an international Society for Risk Analysis (SRA...... be utilized to skip uncertain environmental extrapolations and give rise to more accurate risk analysis....

Environmental risk mapping of pollutants: state of the art and communication aspects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lahr, J.; Kooistra, L.

2010-01-01

Risk maps help risk analysts and scientists to explore the spatial nature of the effects of environmental stressors such as pollutants. The development of Geographic Information Systems over the past few decades has greatly improved spatial representation and analysis of environmental information

Environmental Comparative Risk Assessment: A Case Study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ali, M.M.

2007-01-01

Health and environmental impacts associated with energy production and industrial activities as well as food production and agricultural activities have had great concern in the last decades. Early activities emerged in late 80s of the last century through an Inter- Agency project (lAEA, UNDY, WHO, ... ) on the comparative risk assessment from energy systems and industrial complexes. A work-shop on Risk Assessment and Management in large industrial areas was held in Alexandria Egypt on 20-33 Det 1993, sponsored by IAEA. Several conferences, experts work groups and workshops were held there of Recent trends in determining risks are: 1. Use of probabilistic risk assessment approach to identify hazardous activities and accident scenario. 2. development of data base on failure probabilities and appropriate physical models. 3. Development of related directives and regulations and criteria Comparative risk assessment case study as a tool for comparing risk is emphasized Criteria of exposure to human and ecological risks are addressed

Performing the lockout/tagout risk assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Wallace, W Jon

2007-03-01

Lockout/tagout provides the greatest level routine, repetitive, and integral to the production process, a risk assessment should be performed. If the task performed poses an unacceptable risk, acceptable risk reduction methods should be implemented to reduce the risk to acceptable levels.

Open Economy, Institutional Quality, and Environmental Performance: A Macroeconomic Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amaryllis Mavragani

2016-06-01

Full Text Available As the subject of how economic development affects the quality of the natural environment has gained great momentum, this paper focuses on examining the extent to which the openness of a market economy and the quality of the institution affect environmental performance. The majority of the current studies focus on the Environmental Kuznets Curve and the level of economic growth. This paper addresses this question by relating environmental (“Environmental Performance Index” to macroeconomic (Gross Domestic Product per capita, “Open Markets Index” and governance indicators (“Worldwide Governance Indicators”. The sample consists of 75 countries, including all G20 and EU members, comprising “more than 90% of global trade and investment”. Findings show that the Environmental Performance Index is positively correlated to each of the (institutional indicators, so as to confirm that the selected indices are consistent with previous studies, suggesting that environmental performance increases in line with economic development and that good governance increases a country’s levels of environmental protection. By applying factor analysis, an empirical model of the Environmental Performance Index is estimated, suggesting that there is a significant positive correlation between a country’s economic growth, the openness of an economy, high levels of effective governance, and its environmental performance.

Environmental performance evaluation of Beijing's energy use planning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Lei; Xu Linyu; Song Huimin

2011-01-01

In line with rapid economic development, urban energy consumption is increasing rapidly, resulting in environmental problems. After considering several methods to evaluate the environmental performance of energy use, including: energy ecological footprint, input-output analysis, emergy-exergy analysis, and multi-criteria decision-making, an environmental performance evaluation model is proposed, which combines the analytical hierarchy process, fuzzy extent analysis, and membership degree analysis. In the model, 18 sub-indicators of environmental performance from energy use planning are classified into four categories: structure of energy use and industry, technology and efficiency of energy use, environmental impacts caused by energy use, and the socio-economic benefits of energy use. Membership degree analysis is applied to each indicator. Three energy use scenarios which are, respectively, environment-friendly, technology-led, and economic policy-led are evaluated. The results show that the technology-led energy use planning is best. The sustainable energy use policies are proposed from three aspects, including optimizing the energy use and industrial structure, encouraging development of energy-saving and air pollution control technologies, and enhancing legislation on energy use management. The policies are helpful to optimize the trade-offs between economic growth and environmental protection in Beijing. - Highlights: → Our paper establishes a system of indicators according to the structure of urban energy use planning. → We have created a comprehensive environmental performance evaluation model in the research. → The model and results can serve as an important basis for decision-making to guide local government.

Progress of environmental management and risk assessment of industrial chemicals in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Hong; Yan Zhenguang; Li Hong; Yang Niyun; Leung, Kenneth M.Y.; Wang Yizhe; Yu Ruozhen; Zhang Lai; Wang Wanhua; Jiao Congying

2012-01-01

With China’s rapid economic growth, chemical-related environmental issues have become increasingly prominent, and the environmental management of chemicals has garnered increased attention from the government. This review focuses on the current situation and the application of risk assessment in China’s environmental management of industrial chemicals. The related challenges and research needs of the country are also discussed. The Chinese government promulgated regulations for the import and export of toxic chemicals in 1994. Regulations for new chemical substances came into force in 2003, and were revised in 2010 based on the concept of risk management. In order to support the implementation of new regulations, Guidance for Risk Assessment of Chemicals is under development in an attempt to provide the concepts and techniques of risk assessment. With increasing concern and financial support from Chinese government, China is embarking on the fast track of research and development in environmental management of industrial chemicals. - This paper reviews the current situation of industrial chemical management in China, and discusses the application of risk assessment and further research needs in this field.

Environmental Health Risk Assesement in Flood-prone Area in Tamangapa Sub-District Makassar

Science.gov (United States)

Haris, Ibrahim Abdul; Basir, Basir

2018-05-01

Environmental health in Indonesia is still caution to concern, poor sanitation in Indonesia is characterized by the high incidence of infectious diseases in society. The society in flood-prone area has a high-risk exposure on the disease based on the environment because they live in disaster-prone area. This research aimed to describe the condition of sanitary facilities and risky behavior on public health in flood-prone areas in Manggala district particularly in Tamangapa sub-district of Makassar. This reserach uses an observation method with a descriptive approach. The data is processed by using SPSS and Arc View GIS applications. Environmental risk category is determined by the approach of Environmental Health Risk Assessment (EHRA). The results showed that the flood-prone area in RT 04 RW 06 was included in very high-risk category at 229 with an index value of environmental health risks 212-229. Meanwhile, RT 04 RW 05 was in the category of low risk in the amount of 155 with an index of 155-173. Environmental health hazards identified in Tamangapa flood-prone areas sub-district includes domestic sources of clean water, domestic wastewater, and household garbage.

Parkinson disease and Alzheimer disease: environmental risk factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Campdelacreu, J

2014-01-01

The purpose of this review is to update and summarise available evidence on environmental risk factors that have been associated with risk of Parkinson disease (PD) or Alzheimer disease (AD) and discuss their potential mechanisms. Evidence consistently suggests that a higher risk of PD is associated with pesticides and that a higher risk of AD is associated with pesticides, hypertension and high cholesterol levels in middle age, hyperhomocysteinaemia, smoking, traumatic brain injury and depression. There is weak evidence suggesting that higher risk of PD is associated with high milk consumption in men, high iron intake, chronic anaemia and traumatic brain injury. Weak evidence also suggests that a higher risk of AD is associated with high aluminium intake through drinking water, excessive exposure to electromagnetic fields from electrical grids, DM and hyperinsulinaemia, obesity in middle age, excessive alcohol consumption and chronic anaemia. Evidence consistently suggests that a lower risk of PD is associated with hyperuricaemia, tobacco and coffee use, while a lower risk of AD is associated with moderate alcohol consumption, physical exercise, perimenopausal hormone replacement therapy and good cognitive reserve. Weak evidence suggests that lower risk of PD is associated with increased vitamin E intake, alcohol, tea, NSAIDs, and vigorous physical exercise, and that lower risk of AD is associated with the Mediterranean diet, coffee and habitual NSAID consumption. Several environmental factors contribute significantly to risk of PD and AD. Some may already be active in the early stages of life, and some may interact with other genetic factors. Population-based strategies to modify such factors could potentially result in fewer cases of PD or AD. Copyright © 2012 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Environmental risk assessment as the basis for mine closure at Iscor Mining

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Swart, S.J.; Pulles, W.; Boer, R.H.; Kirkaldy, J.; Pettit, C. [Iscor Mining, Pretoria (South Africa). Environmental Management Services

1998-01-01

This paper discusses the principles and application of risk assessment and management as the basis for environmental management within the mining industry. Unlike in other industries, mines are required to obtain closure certificates in terms of section 12 for the South African Minerals Act, which should ultimately release them from further environmental responsibilities. The focus shifts from conventional minimum legal compliance management to management of real environmental risks. The risk assessment approach has been applied to the planning of mine closure at Iscor`s Durban Navigation Collieries (Durnacol) in Kwa-Zulu Natal and certain key risk issues such as the long-term risk of water pollution from coal discard dumps have already progressed to fully quantitative risk assessment. This paper discussed the process which has been followed to date, with particular emphasis on the most recent phase, namely quantitative risk assessment and management of pollution from coal discard dumps. it is believed that the approach that is being pioneered at Durnacoal and which overcomes some of the more obvious deficineices of both the Environmental Risk Assessment Management (EMPR) and the traditional process will ultimately serve as the mode for all responsible mines in South Africa. It is also believed that this approach will enable the authorities to issue closure certificates with the confidence that there will be no unforeseen surprises in the years after closure. 9 figs., 1 tab.

Environmental values and risk: A review of Sierra Club policies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Craig, P.P.

1999-01-01

Sierra Club values are driven by an overriding environmental ethic. Sierra Club environmental values may be characterized by the concept of 'usufruct' a term favored by United States Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. Usufruct conveys the idea that the environment is ours to use, but not to destroy. Each generation has the obligation to pass on to future generations a world at least as environmentally rich as the one it inherited. It is appropriate to accept risk today in order to preserve the environment for generations yet to come. As viewed through the lens of its formal policies, the Sierra Club is an organization that embraces technology, but insists that technology be evaluated comprehensively, taking full account of both environmental and social externalities. The Club is 'risk averse' with respect to early introduction of technologies seen as likely to have significant negative environmental or social impact. The Club places heavy emphasis on process, which must involve the public meaningfully

Environmental values and risk: A review of Sierra Club policies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Craig, P.P. [Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States). Graduate Group in Ecology

1999-12-01

Sierra Club values are driven by an overriding environmental ethic. Sierra Club environmental values may be characterized by the concept of 'usufruct' a term favored by United States Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. Usufruct conveys the idea that the environment is ours to use, but not to destroy. Each generation has the obligation to pass on to future generations a world at least as environmentally rich as the one it inherited. It is appropriate to accept risk today in order to preserve the environment for generations yet to come. As viewed through the lens of its formal policies, the Sierra Club is an organization that embraces technology, but insists that technology be evaluated comprehensively, taking full account of both environmental and social externalities. The Club is 'risk averse' with respect to early introduction of technologies seen as likely to have significant negative environmental or social impact. The Club places heavy emphasis on process, which must involve the public meaningfully.

Environmental risk assessors as honest brokers or stealth advocates.

Science.gov (United States)

Calow, Peter

2014-11-01

Risk assessment ought to provide a solid, evidence base to risk management in the development of environmental policy and decisions, where the risk assessors act without advocacy as honest brokers of science advice. But there are concerns that the values of the risk assessors might undermine the objectivity of the process. For similar reasons, there is suspicion that more interaction between risk assessors and risk managers might contaminate the science. On the contrary, here the argument is that making risk assessment more management- and value-relevant, through more effective dialogue, provides a better foundation for objective science advice.

76 FR 44891 - Monsanto Co.; Availability of Petition, Plant Pest Risk Assessment, and Environmental Assessment...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-27

...] Monsanto Co.; Availability of Petition, Plant Pest Risk Assessment, and Environmental Assessment for... Monsanto petition, our plant pest risk assessment, and our draft environmental assessment for the proposed...-2817 before coming. The petition, draft environmental assessment, and plant pest risk assessment are...

Environmental and social risk evaluation of overseas investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Ruilian; Andam, Francis; Shi, Guoqing

2017-06-01

Along with the further implementation of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative and the promotion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the construction of the CPEC will likely face challenges owing to differences between China and Pakistan in politics, economics, culture, religion, language, customs, environmental management systems, environmental protection laws, social management systems, and social management regulations. To address potential environmental and social risks associated with Chinese enterprises as they invest in the CPEC region, this paper examines previous studies addressing topics such as the environmental and social safeguards of international institutions and Pakistan's domestic environmental and social management requirements. We then systematically identify the environmental and social risk factors involved in CPEC construction, which cover risks regarding water, air, soil, noise, biodiversity, politics, economics, culture, technology, and individuals. By establishing and calculating these risks and using a multi-fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model, we found that noise and individual risks belong to a medium risk category, while others belong to a higher risk category. In view of these risks, the Chinese government must create a friendly and peaceful environment for Chinese enterprises to invest in the CPEC region, and Chinese enterprises must adopt a development strategy of strength and capacity building and establish enterprises capable of addressing environmental and social issues during the investment process. All stakeholders must understand that if no determined and diligent steps are taken, CPEC construction might be doomed for failure from the start.

Combining exposure and effect modeling into an integrated probabilistic environmental risk assessment for nanoparticles.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobs, Rianne; Meesters, Johannes A J; Ter Braak, Cajo J F; van de Meent, Dik; van der Voet, Hilko

2016-12-01

There is a growing need for good environmental risk assessment of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs). Environmental risk assessment of ENPs has been hampered by lack of data and knowledge about ENPs, their environmental fate, and their toxicity. This leads to uncertainty in the risk assessment. To deal with uncertainty in the risk assessment effectively, probabilistic methods are advantageous. In the present study, the authors developed a method to model both the variability and the uncertainty in environmental risk assessment of ENPs. This method is based on the concentration ratio and the ratio of the exposure concentration to the critical effect concentration, both considered to be random. In this method, variability and uncertainty are modeled separately so as to allow the user to see which part of the total variation in the concentration ratio is attributable to uncertainty and which part is attributable to variability. The authors illustrate the use of the method with a simplified aquatic risk assessment of nano-titanium dioxide. The authors' method allows a more transparent risk assessment and can also direct further environmental and toxicological research to the areas in which it is most needed. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:2958-2967. © 2016 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC. © 2016 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.

The improvement of environmental performances by applying ISO 14001 standard: A case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Živković Snežana

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the analysis of the advantages of applying ISO 14001 system in an environmental protection management system. The environmental protection management system which is not licensed, i.e., compatible with the principles and standard pre-conditions considerably increases the plausibility for ecological risk. There are some issues that remain to be solved in the areas which are not expressed by financial values only but also have a non-financial character with the aim of expanding markets, company image improvement and improvement of the environmental performance indicators. By improving a company’s environmental management system efficiency we expect to achieve the minimization and elimination of damaging influences on the environment which are the consequence of company’s activities. A case study in the Oil Refinery Belgrade (RNB analyses the implementation of the standard ISO 14001:2004 into its environment protection management system, particularly emphasizing the company’s own way of evaluating the environment aspects with the aim of establishing results of ecological performances indicators improvement. The average values of the first ecological indicator of the plant, the total amount of the waste waters in m3 per a ton of product, clearly show the downturn trend, which is confirmed by the proportional reduction of the second ecological plant indicator, that is by the flocculants consumption (Al2(SO43, Na2CO3 in kg per m3 of the waste water of the Oil Refinery of Belgrade for the given period 2008-2010. Case study RNB confirms the improvement of environmental performances using the ISO 14001 standard.

A Study of the Environmental Risk Perceptions and Environmental Awareness Levels of High School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Anilan, Burcu

2014-01-01

This descriptive research was conducted to determine the levels of environmental risk perceptions and environmental awareness of high school students in Eskisehir. High school students in the towns Tepebasi and Odunpazari in the 2010-2011 school years constitute the universe of the research. The sample of the research is composed of 413 high…

The role of qualitative risk assessment in environmental management: A Kazakhstani case study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kajenthira, Arani, E-mail: arani.kajenthira@gmail.com [Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School (United States); Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford (United Kingdom); Holmes, John, E-mail: johnho@earth.ox.ac.uk [Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford (United Kingdom); McDonnell, Rachael, E-mail: rachael.mcdonnell@ouce.ox.ac.uk [School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford (United Kingdom)

2012-03-15

Successful environmental management is partly contingent on the effective recognition and communication of environmental health risks to the public. Yet risk perceptions are known to differ between experts and laypeople; laypeople often exhibit higher perceptions of risk in comparison to experts, particularly when these risks are associated with radiation, nuclear power, or nuclear waste. This paper consequently explores stakeholder risk perceptions associated with a mercury-contaminated chloralkali production facility in Kazakhstan. Using field observations and in-depth interviews conducted in the vicinity of the Pavlodar Chemical Plant, this work assesses the relevance of the substantial on-site mercury contamination to the health and livelihoods of the local population with the goal of informing remediation activity through a combination of quantitative and qualitative risk assessments. The findings of this research study cannot be broadly generalized to all the primary stakeholders of the site due to the small sample size; however, the indifference of the local population towards both the possibility of mercury-related health risks and the need for mitigation activity could pose a substantial barrier to successful site remediation and also suggests that a qualitative understanding of stakeholder risk perceptions could play an important role in striving towards sustainable, long-term environmental risk management. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer A mercury spill in Kazakhstan created environmental and health risks. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We evaluated the role of risk communication/perception in environmental management. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Long-term risk mitigation was impeded by lack of engagement of site stakeholders. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Prioritizing engagement of the local population is critical for remediation success.

Whole-cell bioreporters and risk assessment of environmental pollution: A proof-of-concept study using lead

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Xiaokai; Qin, Boqiang; Deng, Jianming; Wells, Mona

2017-01-01

As the world burden of environmental contamination increases, it is of the utmost importance to develop streamlined approaches to environmental risk assessment in order to prioritize mitigation measures. Whole-cell biosensors or bioreporters and speciation modeling have both become of increasing interest to determine the bioavailability of pollutants, as bioavailability is increasingly in use as an indicator of risk. Herein, we examine whether bioreporter results are able to reflect expectations based on chemical reactivity and speciation modeling, with the hope to extend the research into a wider framework of risk assessment. We study a specific test case concerning the bioavailability of lead (Pb) in aqueous environments containing Pb-complexing ligands. Ligands studied include ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA), meso-2,3 dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), leucine, methionine, cysteine, glutathione, and humic acid (HA), and we also performed experiments using natural water samples from Lake Tai (Taihu), the third largest lake in China. We find that EDTA, DMSA, cysteine, glutathione, and HA amendment significantly reduced Pb bioavailability with increasing ligand concentration according to a log-sigmoid trend. Increasing dissolved organic carbon in Taihu water also had the same effect, whereas leucine and methionine had no notable effect on bioavailability at the concentrations tested. We find that bioreporter results are in accord with the reduction of aqueous Pb 2+ that we expect from the relative complexation affinities of the different ligands tested. For EDTA and HA, for which reasonably accurate ionization and complexation constants are known, speciation modeling is in agreement with bioreporter response to within the level of uncertainty recognised as reasonable by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for speciation-based risk assessment applications. These findings represent a first step toward using bioreporter technology to streamline

Progress of environmental management and risk assessment of industrial chemicals in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Hong; Yan, Zhen-Guang; Li, Hong; Yang, Ni-Yun; Leung, Kenneth M Y; Wang, Yi-Zhe; Yu, Ruo-Zhen; Zhang, Lai; Wang, Wan-Hua; Jiao, Cong-Ying; Liu, Zheng-Tao

2012-06-01

With China's rapid economic growth, chemical-related environmental issues have become increasingly prominent, and the environmental management of chemicals has garnered increased attention from the government. This review focuses on the current situation and the application of risk assessment in China's environmental management of industrial chemicals. The related challenges and research needs of the country are also discussed. The Chinese government promulgated regulations for the import and export of toxic chemicals in 1994. Regulations for new chemical substances came into force in 2003, and were revised in 2010 based on the concept of risk management. In order to support the implementation of new regulations, Guidance for Risk Assessment of Chemicals is under development in an attempt to provide the concepts and techniques of risk assessment. With increasing concern and financial support from Chinese government, China is embarking on the fast track of research and development in environmental management of industrial chemicals. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The application of DEA model in enterprise environmental performance auditing

Science.gov (United States)

Li, F.; Zhu, L. Y.; Zhang, J. D.; Liu, C. Y.; Qu, Z. G.; Xiao, M. S.

2017-01-01

As a part of society, enterprises have an inescapable responsibility for environmental protection and governance. This article discusses the feasibility and necessity of enterprises environmental performance auditing and uses DEA model calculate the environmental performance of Haier for example. The most of reference data are selected and sorted from Haier’s environmental reportspublished in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2015, and some of the data from some published articles and fieldwork. All the calculation results are calculated by DEAP software andhave a high credibility. The analysis results of this article can give corporate managements an idea about using environmental performance auditing to adjust their corporate environmental investments capital quota and change their company’s environmental strategies.

Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) for Environmental Development and Transfer of Antibiotic Resistance

Science.gov (United States)

Amézquita, Alejandro; Backhaus, Thomas; Borriello, Peter; Brandt, Kristian K.; Collignon, Peter; Coors, Anja; Finley, Rita; Gaze, William H.; Heberer, Thomas; Lawrence, John R.; Larsson, D.G. Joakim; McEwen, Scott A.; Ryan, James J.; Schönfeld, Jens; Silley, Peter; Snape, Jason R.; Van den Eede, Christel; Topp, Edward

2013-01-01

Background: Only recently has the environment been clearly implicated in the risk of antibiotic resistance to clinical outcome, but to date there have been few documented approaches to formally assess these risks. Objective: We examined possible approaches and sought to identify research needs to enable human health risk assessments (HHRA) that focus on the role of the environment in the failure of antibiotic treatment caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Methods: The authors participated in a workshop held 4–8 March 2012 in Québec, Canada, to define the scope and objectives of an environmental assessment of antibiotic-resistance risks to human health. We focused on key elements of environmental-resistance-development “hot spots,” exposure assessment (unrelated to food), and dose response to characterize risks that may improve antibiotic-resistance management options. Discussion: Various novel aspects to traditional risk assessments were identified to enable an assessment of environmental antibiotic resistance. These include a) accounting for an added selective pressure on the environmental resistome that, over time, allows for development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB); b) identifying and describing rates of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in the relevant environmental “hot spot” compartments; and c) modifying traditional dose–response approaches to address doses of ARB for various health outcomes and pathways. Conclusions: We propose that environmental aspects of antibiotic-resistance development be included in the processes of any HHRA addressing ARB. Because of limited available data, a multicriteria decision analysis approach would be a useful way to undertake an HHRA of environmental antibiotic resistance that informs risk managers. Citation: Ashbolt NJ, Amézquita A, Backhaus T, Borriello P, Brandt KK, Collignon P, Coors A, Finley R, Gaze WH, Heberer T, Lawrence JR, Larsson DG, McEwen SA, Ryan JJ, Schönfeld J, Silley P, Snape JR

Probabilistic environmental risk characterization of pharmaceuticals in sewage treatment plant discharges.

Science.gov (United States)

Christensen, Anne Munch; Markussen, Bo; Baun, Anders; Halling-Sørensen, Bent

2009-10-01

The occurrence of pharmaceuticals in different water bodies and the findings of effects on aquatic organisms in ecotoxicity tests have raised concerns about environmental risks of pharmaceuticals in receiving waters. Due to the fact that the amount of ecotoxicological studies has increased significantly during the last decade, probabilistic approaches for risk characterization of these compounds may be feasible. This approach was evaluated by applying it to 22 human-used pharmaceuticals covering both pharmaceuticals with a high volume and high ecotoxicity, using ecotoxicological effect data from laboratory studies and comparing these to monitoring data on the effluents from sewage treatment plants in Europe and pharmaceutical sales quantities. We found that for 19 of the 22 selected pharmaceuticals the existing data were sufficient for probabilistic risk characterizations. The subsequently modeled ratios between monitored concentrations and low-effect concentrations were mostly above a factor of 100. Compared to the current paradigm for EU environmental risk assessment where a safety factor of 10 or 100 might have been used it seems that for the modeled compounds there's a low environmental risk. However, similarly calculated ratios for five pharmaceuticals (propranolol, ibuprofen, furosemide, ofloxacin, and ciprofloxacin) were below 100, while ibuprofen and ciprofloxacin are considered to be of high concern due to lack of ecotoxicity studies. This paper shows that by applying probabilistic approaches, existing data can be used to execute a comprehensive study on probability of impacts, thereby contributing to a more comprehensive environmental risk assessment of pharmaceuticals.

STORMTOOLS: Coastal Environmental Risk Index (CERI

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Malcolm L. Spaulding

2016-08-01

Full Text Available One of the challenges facing coastal zone managers and municipal planners is the development of an objective, quantitative assessment of the risk to structures, infrastructure, and public safety that coastal communities face from storm surge in the presence of changing climatic conditions, particularly sea level rise and coastal erosion. Here we use state of the art modeling tool (ADCIRC and STWAVE to predict storm surge and wave, combined with shoreline change maps (erosion, and damage functions to construct a Coastal Environmental Risk Index (CERI. Access to the state emergency data base (E-911 provides information on structure characteristics and the ability to perform analyses for individual structures. CERI has been designed as an on line Geographic Information System (GIS based tool, and hence is fully compatible with current flooding maps, including those from FEMA. The basic framework and associated GIS methods can be readily applied to any coastal area. The approach can be used by local and state planners to objectively evaluate different policy options for effectiveness and cost/benefit. In this study, CERI is applied to RI two communities; Charlestown representing a typical coastal barrier system directly exposed to ocean waves and high erosion rates, with predominantly low density single family residences and Warwick located within Narragansett Bay, with more limited wave exposure, lower erosion rates, and higher residential housing density. Results of these applications are highlighted herein.

Prioritization Risk Integration Simulation Model (PRISM) For Environmental Remediation and Waste Management - 12097

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pentz, David L.; Stoll, Ralph H.; Greeves, John T. [Predicus LLC, Issaquah, WA 98027 (United States); Miller, R. Ian [GoldSim Technology Group, LLC, Issaquah, WA 98027 (United States); Nutt, W. Mark [Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States)

2012-07-01

The PRISM (Prioritization Risk Integration Simulation Model), a computer model was developed to support the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) in its mission to clean up the environmental legacy from the Nation's nuclear weapons materials production complex. PRISM provides a comprehensive, fully integrated planning tool that can tie together DOE-EM's projects. It is designed to help DOE managers develop sound, risk-informed business practices and defend program decisions. It provides a better ability to understand and manage programmatic risks. The underlying concept for PRISM is that DOE-EM 'owns' a portfolio of environmental legacy obligations (ELOs), and that its mission is to transform the ELOs from their current conditions to acceptable conditions, in the most effective way possible. There are many types of ELOs - - contaminated soils and groundwater plumes, disused facilities awaiting D and D, and various types of wastes waiting for processing or disposal. For a given suite of planned activities, PRISM simulates the outcomes as they play out over time, allowing for all key identified uncertainties and risk factors. Each contaminated building, land area and waste stream is tracked from cradle to grave, and all of the linkages affecting different waste streams are captured. The progression of the activities is fully dynamic, reflecting DOE-EM's prioritization approaches, precedence requirements, available funding, and the consequences of risks and uncertainties. The top level of PRISM is the end-user interface that allows rapid evaluation of alternative scenarios and viewing the results in a variety of useful ways. PRISM is a fully probabilistic model, allowing the user to specify uncertainties in input data (such as the magnitude of an existing groundwater plume, or the total cost to complete a planned activity) as well as specific risk events that might occur. PRISM is based on the GoldSim software

Human health risk assessment (HHRA) for environmental development and transfer of antibiotic resistance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ashbolt, Nicholas J.; Amézquita, Alejandro; Backhaus, Thomas

2013-01-01

to enable human health risk assessments (HHRA) that focus on the role of the environment in the failure of antibiotic treatment caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Methods: The authors participated in a workshop held 4-8 March 2012 in Québec, Canada, to define the scope and objectives...... of an environmental assessment of antibiotic-resistance risks to human health. We focused on key elements of environmental-resistance-development "hot spots," exposure assessment (unrelated to food), and dose response to characterize risks that may improve antibiotic-resistance management options. Discussion: Various...... novel aspects to traditional risk assessments were identified to enable an assessment of environmental antibiotic resistance. These include a) accounting for an added selective pressure on the environmental resistome that, over time, allows for development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB); b...

Effectively managing nuclear risk through human performance improvement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coe, R.P.

2004-01-01

considering the temper of the times. For nuclear organizations to stay viable performance improvement processes will have to be part of their culture in order to better manage risk and to achieve and maintain ongoing success. Greater plant performance will be directly related to greater human performance. To be successful, the nuclear industry, like any other organization, must clearly understand its purpose, structure itself to achieve that purpose, structure appropriate internal relationships, establish a realistic incentive/reward system, establish efficient work processes and assure knowledgeable and supportive leadership. Using the principles of Human Performance Technology can provide a structure for helping the industry in general as nuclear facilities individually take steps to accomplish these goals. Taking strategic steps to develop these elements will result in higher levels of production efficiency, better risk management, higher customer service/satisfaction and an ability to successfully meet ever changing environmental and business demands. Human Performance Technology is proven effective methodology to help in the successful development of these strategic steps. This session will offer a discussion of the basics of HPT, as well as some specific examples of how it can be applied to nuclear facilities to effectively manage risk and drive enhanced performance. (author)

Integrated Environmental Risk Assessment and Whole-Process Management System in Chemical Industry Parks

OpenAIRE

Shao, Chaofeng; Yang, Juan; Tian, Xiaogang; Ju, Meiting; Huang, Lei

2013-01-01

Chemical industry parks in China are considered high-risk areas because they present numerous risks that can damage the environment, such as pollution incidents. In order to identify the environmental risks and the principal risk factors in these areas, we have developed a simple physical model of a regional environmental risk field (ERF) using existing dispersal patterns and migration models. The regional ERF zoning was also conducted and a reference value for diagnostic methods was develope...

A score for measuring health risk perception in environmental surveys.

Science.gov (United States)

Marcon, Alessandro; Nguyen, Giang; Rava, Marta; Braggion, Marco; Grassi, Mario; Zanolin, Maria Elisabetta

2015-09-15

In environmental surveys, risk perception may be a source of bias when information on health outcomes is reported using questionnaires. Using the data from a survey carried out in the largest chipboard industrial district in Italy (Viadana, Mantova), we devised a score of health risk perception and described its determinants in an adult population. In 2006, 3697 parents of children were administered a questionnaire that included ratings on 7 environmental issues. Items dimensionality was studied by factor analysis. After testing equidistance across response options by homogeneity analysis, a risk perception score was devised by summing up item ratings. Factor analysis identified one latent factor, which we interpreted as health risk perception, that explained 65.4% of the variance of five items retained after scaling. The scale (range 0-10, mean ± SD 9.3 ± 1.9) had a good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.87). Most subjects (80.6%) expressed maximum risk perception (score = 10). Italian mothers showed significantly higher risk perception than foreign fathers. Risk perception was higher for parents of young children, and for older parents with a higher education, than for their counterparts. Actual distance to major roads was not associated with the score, while self-reported intense traffic and frequent air refreshing at home predicted higher risk perception. When investigating health effects of environmental hazards using questionnaires, care should be taken to reduce the possibility of awareness bias at the stage of study planning and data analysis. Including appropriate items in study questionnaires can be useful to derive a measure of health risk perception, which can help to identify confounding of association estimates by risk perception. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Communicating risks from the environmental management program of the United States Department of Energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bollinger, M.E.; Stenner, R.; Picel, K.; McGinn, W.

2000-01-01

With the inception of the Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management (EM) program, the need for better communication of the Department's environmental risks was highlighted. A number of database systems were used to describe the EM program's risk with limited success. Then in December 1997, the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management charged the DOE operations and field offices and the Center for Risk Excellence (CRE) to work together to create 'Risk Profiles' or 'Risk Stories.' The purpose of the Profiles is to increase effective communication of risks at a national level for DOE sites by creating a common sense approach to describing risks. This paper describes the progress to date and looks at the plans for future activities. Abbreviations. BGRR: Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor; CERCLA: Comprehensive Response, Compensation and Liability Act; CRE: Center for Risk Excellence; DOE: U.S. Department of Energy; EM: environmental management; ORNL: Oak Ridge National Laboratory; PBSs: Project Baseline Summaries; PtC: Paths to Closure; RDSs: Risk Data Sheets; RH: relative hazard; SRS CAB: Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board; VOCs: volatile organic compounds

Risk-based performance indicators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azarm, M.A.; Boccio, J.L.; Vesely, W.E.; Lofgren, E.

1987-01-01

The purpose of risk-based indicators is to monitor plant safety. Safety is measured by monitoring the potential for core melt (core-melt frequency) and the public risk. Targets for these measures can be set consistent with NRC safety goals. In this process, the performance of safety systems, support systems, major components, and initiating events can be monitored using measures such as unavailability, failure or occurrence frequency. The changes in performance measures and their trends are determined from the time behavior of monitored measures by differentiation between stochastical and actual variations. Therefore, degradation, as well as improvement in the plant safety performance, can be determined. The development of risk-based performance indicators will also provide the means to trace a change in the safety measures to specific problem areas which are amenable to root cause analysis and inspection audits. In addition, systematic methods will be developed to identify specific improvement policies using the plant information system for the identified problem areas. The final product of the performance indicator project will be a methodology, and an integrated and validated set of software packages which, if properly interfaced with the logic model software of a plant, can monitor the plant performance as plant information is provided as input

Paradise Islands? Island States and Environmental Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sverker C. Jagers

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Island states have been shown to outperform continental states on a number of large-scale coordination-related outcomes, such as levels of democracy and institutional quality. The argument developed and tested in this article contends that the same kind of logic may apply to islands’ environmental performance, too. However, the empirical analysis shows mixed results. Among the 105 environmental outcomes that we analyzed, being an island only has a positive impact on 20 of them. For example, island states tend to outcompete continental states with respect to several indicators related to water quality but not in aspects related to biodiversity, protected areas, or environmental regulations. In addition, the causal factors previously suggested to make islands outperform continental states in terms of coordination have weak explanatory power in predicting islands’ environmental performance. We conclude the paper by discussing how these interesting findings can be further explored.

We are at risk, and so what? Place attachment, environmental risk perceptions and preventive coping behaviours

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

De Dominicis, Stefano; Fornara, Ferdinando; Ganucci Cancellieri, Uberta

2015-01-01

Place attachment regulates people-environment transactions across various relevant environmental-psychological processes. However, there is no consensus about its role in the relationship between environmental risk perception and coping behaviours. Since place attachment is strongly related to pl...

Identifying environmental risk factors and mapping the risk of human West Nile virus in South Dakota.

Science.gov (United States)

Hess, A.; Davis, J. K.; Wimberly, M. C.

2017-12-01

Human West Nile virus (WNV) first arrived in the USA in 1999 and has since then spread across the country. Today, the highest incidence rates are found in the state of South Dakota. The disease occurrence depends on the complex interaction between the mosquito vector, the bird host and the dead-end human host. Understanding the spatial domain of this interaction and being able to identify disease transmission hotspots is crucial for effective disease prevention and mosquito control. In this study we use geospatial environmental information to understand what drives the spatial distribution of cases of human West Nile virus in South Dakota and to map relative infection risk across the state. To map the risk of human West Nile virus in South Dakota, we used geocoded human case data from the years 2004-2016. Satellite data from the Landsat ETM+ and MODIS for the years 2003 to 2016 were used to characterize environmental patterns. From these datasets we calculated indices, such as the normalized differenced vegetation index (NDVI) and the normalized differenced water index (NDWI). In addition, datasets such as the National Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS), National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD), National Wetland inventory (NWI), National Elevation Dataset (NED) and Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO) were utilized. Environmental variables were summarized for a buffer zone around the case and control points. We used a boosted regression tree model to identify the most important variables describing the risk of WNV infection. We generated a risk map by applying this model across the entire state. We found that the highest relative risk is present in the James River valley in northeastern South Dakota. Factors that were identified as influencing the transmission risk include inter-annual variability of vegetation cover, water availability and temperature. Land covers such as grasslands, low developed areas and wetlands were also found to be good predictors for human

Evaluating sustainability of household consumption - using DEA to assess environmental performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wier, Mette; Christoffersen, Line Block; Jensen, Trine S.

2005-01-01

We assess environmental performance across product types and across household types in order to evaluate environmental pressure from human activities. To so do, we combine family budget statistics, input-output tables, energy and material flow matrices, various types of emissions and environmental...... effects indices for various effect types (e.g. a global warming potential index, an ozone depletion potential index, etc). Subsequently, using DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis), we use these weighted environmental effects indices to form one environ-mental performance score for each family type and product...... type. We find that the environmental performance of each family type changes considerably across environmental effect types. The analysis of the overall environmental performance scores shows that families living in urban flats, especially the young and elderly families, have the most environmentally...

Fish bioaccumulation and biomarkers in environmental risk assessment : a review

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Oost, Ron; Beyer, Jonny; Vermeulen, Nico P E

In this review, a wide array of bioaccumulation markers and biomarkers, used to demonstrate exposure to and effects of environmental contaminants, has been discussed in relation to their feasibility in environmental risk assessment (ERA). Fish bioaccumulation markers may be applied in order to

A study on the relationship of environmental regulations and economic performances

Science.gov (United States)

Nisha, Jia; Chen, Shen

2017-11-01

This paper analyzes the mechanism transmission of environmental regulation affecting on economic performance from a new perspective. It shows that environmental regulations affect country’s economic performance through direct transmission and indirect transmission. Direct transmission means that environmental regulations affect economic performance from influencing corporation’s cost and revenue, and indirect transmission is that environmental regulations affect economic performance through leading to the increased effort of corporations in improving the quality of environment and building the image of fulfilling environmental responsibility.

Environmental risk index: A tool to assess the safety of dams for leachate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Colomer Mendoza, Francisco J.; Gallardo Izquierdo, Antonio

2009-01-01

Dams for leachate store very toxic substances that contain a large amount of organic material and, probably, heavy metals; they therefore constitute an important threat to the environment. Existing models of environmental risk assessment for landfills do not take into consideration the specific risk that leachate dams may represent for the environment. In this paper a methodology to improve the environmental safety is presented according to the parameters used in their construction and management. In order to do that, the following characteristics of the dam must be known: (1) geotechnical stability, (2) erosion of downstream slope, (3) type of sealing of the dam, (4) overtopping probability, (5) volume of leachate stored inside the dam and (6) pollution load of leachate. Once these parameters have been calculated, they are transformed by means of rating curves into homogeneous units, so as to make it possible to operate between them. From the study and analysis of these parameters an environmental risk index for a dam for leachate can be calculated. If the environmental risk index exceeds an established value then it involves a dam for leachate with high environmental risk, therefore preventive measures in its design, construction and management would be necessary

Using cost/risk uncertainty spheres to make better environmental restoration decisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shangraw, R.F.; Cheney, C.S.; Shangraw, W.R.

1994-01-01

The process of balancing cost expenditures and risk reductions during environmental restoration (ER) activities (and as part of other environmental programs such as waste management and facility transition) is the critical policy decision facing DOE site decisionmakers and associated stakeholders (including regulators). The ground rules for this process are specified formally in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), as amended, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended, the subsequent regulations (e.g., National Contingency Plan) and policies that EPA and State agencies have issued to implement these programs, and (increasingly) interagency agreements and orders. Clearly, as Federal resources to meet environmental commitments become more constrained, cost and risk management tradeoffs will become even more needed and their results pronounced

Environmental risk assessment and management of engineered nanomaterials - The role of ecotoxicity testing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjorth, Rune

replaced with a focus on in silico and in vitro studies with an even greater need for and reliance on extrapolation. However, in this thesis it is argued that within ecotoxicity, whole organism models remain at the foundation of environmental risk assessment, and as such, they are likely to remain in use...... will be available, it is important that tools encompassing uncertainty are utilized to facilitate decision-support. As the risk constituted by ENMs cannot be quantified, the use, need and ability of risk management options to encompass the potential risk are similarly challenged. This should invoke a precautionary...... to these is the continued examination of the applicability of ecotoxicity testing to encompass the testing of particles, as the tests originally are developed for dissolved chemicals. Furthermore, the ability of such testing to inform environmental risk assessment and environmental risk management, including...

Protection goals in environmental risk assessment: a practical approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Garcia-Alonso, Monica; Raybould, Alan

2014-12-01

Policy protection goals are set up in most countries to minimise harm to the environment, humans and animals caused by human activities. Decisions on whether to approve new agricultural products, like pesticides or genetically modified (GM) crops, take into account these policy protection goals. To support decision-making, applications for approval of commercial uses of GM crops usually comprise an environmental risk assessment (ERA). These risk assessments are analytical tools, based on science, that follow a conceptual model that includes a problem formulation step where policy protection goals are considered. However, in most countries, risk assessors face major problems in that policy protection goals set in the legislation are stated in very broad terms and are too ambiguous to be directly applicable in ERAs. This means that risk assessors often have to interpret policy protection goals without clear guidance on what effects would be considered harmful. In this paper we propose a practical approach that may help risk assessors to translate policy protection goals into unambiguous (i.e., operational) protection goals and to establish relevant assessment endpoints and risk hypotheses that can be used in ERAs. Examples are provided to show how this approach can be applied to two areas of environmental concern relevant to the ERAs of GM crops.

Transcriptomic resources for environmental risk assessment: a case study in the Venice lagoon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Milan, M.; Pauletto, M.; Boffo, L.; Carrer, C.; Sorrentino, F.; Ferrari, G.; Pavan, L.; Patarnello, T.; Bargelloni, L.

2015-01-01

The development of new resources to evaluate the environmental status is becoming increasingly important representing a key challenge for ocean and coastal management. Recently, the employment of transcriptomics in aquatic toxicology has led to increasing initiatives proposing to integrate eco-toxicogenomics in the evaluation of marine ecosystem health. However, several technical issues need to be addressed before introducing genomics as a reliable tool in regulatory ecotoxicology. The Venice lagoon constitutes an excellent case, in which the assessment of environmental risks derived from the nearby industrial activities represents a crucial task. In this context, the potential role of genomics to assist environmental monitoring was investigated through the definition of reliable gene expression markers associated to chemical contamination in Manila clams, and their subsequent employment for the classification of Venice lagoon areas. Overall, the present study addresses key issues to evaluate the future outlooks of genomics in the environmental monitoring and risk assessment. - Highlights: • Growing need to develop new resources for the evaluation of the environmental status. • Identification of gene expression markers associated to chemical contamination. • Employment of genomics to evaluate the environmental status of Venice lagoon areas. • Hurdles and future outlooks of genomic tools in environmental risk assessment. - Genomics in risk assessment of Venice lagoon

Environmental Variables and Pupils' Academic Performance in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This causal-comparative study was carried out to investigate the influence of environmental variables on pupils' academic performance in primary science in Cross River State, Nigeria. Three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Two instruments were used to collect data for the study namely: environmental ...

Leading product-related environmental performance indicators: a selection guide and database

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Issa, Isabela I.; Pigosso, Daniela Cristina Antelmi; McAloone, Tim C.

2015-01-01

Ecodesign is a proactive environmental management and improvement approach employed in the product development process, which aims to minimize the environmental impacts caused during a product's life cycle and thus improve its environmental performance. The establishment of measurable environmental...... in the selection and application of environmental performance indicators - a more structured approach is still lacking. This paper presents the efforts made to identify and systematize existing leading product-related environmental performance indicators, based on a systematic literature review, and to develop...

The Importance of Environmental Resposibility in Firm Financial Performance

OpenAIRE

Dãnilã Alexandra; Horga Maria-Gabriela

2014-01-01

Ensuring environmental protection is one of the three pillars of sustainable development. Identifying the factors that lead to enterprise financial performance must take into consideration environmental factors. Research in the field showed an increasing importance of such factors in obtaining financial results. Present paper aims to demonstrate the link between environmental responsibility and firm financial performance, using statistical tools. Research was conducted in Romanian tourism sec...

Waste management programmatic environmental impact statement methodology for estimating human health risks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bergenback, B.; Blaylock, B.P.; Legg, J.L.

1995-05-01

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has produced large quantities of radioactive and hazardous waste during years of nuclear weapons production. As a result, a large number of sites across the DOE Complex have become chemically and/or radiologically contaminated. In 1990, the Secretary of Energy charged the DOE Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste management (EM) with the task of preparing a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). The PEIS should identify and assess the potential environmental impacts of implementing several integrated Environmental Restoration (ER) and Waste Management (WM) alternatives. The determination and integration of appropriate remediation activities and sound waste management practices is vital for ensuring the diminution of adverse human health impacts during site cleanup and waste management programs. This report documents the PEIS risk assessment methodology used to evaluate human health risks posed by WM activities. The methodology presents a programmatic cradle to grave risk assessment for EM program activities. A unit dose approach is used to estimate risks posed by WM activities and is the subject of this document

An evaluation of a risk-based environmental regulation in Brazil: Limitations to risk management of hazardous installations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naime, Andre

2017-01-01

The environmental regulation of hazardous projects with risk-based decision-making processes can lead to a deficient management of human exposure to technological hazards. Such an approach for regulation is criticized for simplifying the complexity of decisions involving the economic, social, and environmental aspects of the installation and operation of hazardous facilities in urban areas. Results of a Brazilian case study indicate that oil and gas transmission pipelines may represent a threat to diverse communities if the relationship between such linear projects and human populations is overlooked by regulatory bodies. Results also corroborate known challenges to the implementation of EIA processes and outline limitations to an effective environmental and risk management. Two preliminary topics are discussed to strengthen similar regulatory practices. Firstly, an effective integration between social impact assessment and risk assessment in EIA processes to have a more comprehensive understanding of the social fabric. Secondly, the advancement of traditional management practices for hazardous installations to pursue a strong transition from assessment and evaluation to management and control and to promote an effective interaction between land-use planning and environmental regulation.

An evaluation of a risk-based environmental regulation in Brazil: Limitations to risk management of hazardous installations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Naime, Andre, E-mail: andre.naime.ibama@gmail.com

2017-03-15

The environmental regulation of hazardous projects with risk-based decision-making processes can lead to a deficient management of human exposure to technological hazards. Such an approach for regulation is criticized for simplifying the complexity of decisions involving the economic, social, and environmental aspects of the installation and operation of hazardous facilities in urban areas. Results of a Brazilian case study indicate that oil and gas transmission pipelines may represent a threat to diverse communities if the relationship between such linear projects and human populations is overlooked by regulatory bodies. Results also corroborate known challenges to the implementation of EIA processes and outline limitations to an effective environmental and risk management. Two preliminary topics are discussed to strengthen similar regulatory practices. Firstly, an effective integration between social impact assessment and risk assessment in EIA processes to have a more comprehensive understanding of the social fabric. Secondly, the advancement of traditional management practices for hazardous installations to pursue a strong transition from assessment and evaluation to management and control and to promote an effective interaction between land-use planning and environmental regulation.

Environmental-performance research priorities: Wood products. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-01-15

This report describes a research plan to establish environmental, energy, and economic performance measures for renewable building materials, and to identify management and technology alternatives to improve environmental performance in a cost-effective manner. The research plan is designed to: (1) collect environmental and economic data on all life-cycle stages of the materials, (2) ensure that the data follows consistent definitions and collection procedures, and (3) develop analytical procedures for life-cycle analysis to address environmental performance questions. The research will be subdivided into a number of individual project modules. The five processing stages of wood used to organize the research plan are: (1) resource management and harvesting; (2) processing; (3) design and construction of structures; (4) use, maintenance, and disposal; and (5) waste recycling. Individual research module descriptions are provided in the report, as well as assessment techniques, research standards and protocol, and research management. 13 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs.

Environmental restoration risk-based prioritization work package planning and risk ranking methodology. Revision 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dail, J.L.; Nanstad, L.D.; White, R.K.

1995-06-01

This document presents the risk-based prioritization methodology developed to evaluate and rank Environmental Restoration (ER) work packages at the five US Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Field Office (DOE-ORO) sites [i.e., Oak Ridge K-25 Site (K-25), Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS), Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PGDP), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant (Y-12)], the ER Off-site Program, and Central ER. This prioritization methodology was developed to support the increased rigor and formality of work planning in the overall conduct of operations within the DOE-ORO ER Program. Prioritization is conducted as an integral component of the fiscal ER funding cycle to establish program budget priorities. The purpose of the ER risk-based prioritization methodology is to provide ER management with the tools and processes needed to evaluate, compare, prioritize, and justify fiscal budget decisions for a diverse set of remedial action, decontamination and decommissioning, and waste management activities. The methodology provides the ER Program with a framework for (1) organizing information about identified DOE-ORO environmental problems, (2) generating qualitative assessments of the long- and short-term risks posed by DOE-ORO environmental problems, and (3) evaluating the benefits associated with candidate work packages designed to reduce those risks. Prioritization is conducted to rank ER work packages on the basis of the overall value (e.g., risk reduction, stakeholder confidence) each package provides to the ER Program. Application of the methodology yields individual work package ''scores'' and rankings that are used to develop fiscal budget requests. This document presents the technical basis for the decision support tools and process

The impact of environmental conditions on human performance: A handbood of environmental exposures. Volume 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Echeverria, D.; Barnes, V.; Bittner, A.

1994-09-01

A comprehensive review of the technical literature was conducted regarding the impact of environmental conditions on hyman performance applicable to nuclear power plant workers. The environmental conditions considered were vibration, noise, heat, cold, and light. Research staff identified potential human performance deficits (e.g., decreased dexterity, impaired vision, hearing loss, memory deficiency) along a continuum of increasing occupational exposure, ranging from exposures that result in no deficit to exposures that resulted in significant performance problems. Specific deficits were included in the report if there was sound scientific evidence that environmental exposure resulted in those performance deficits. The levels associated with each deficit were then compared to the protection afforded by existing occupational exposure standards. Volume 1 is a handbook for use by NRC inspectors to help them determine the impact of specific environmental conditions on licensee personnel performance. it discusses the units used to measure each condition, discusses the effects of the condition on task performance, presents an example of the assessment of each condition in a nuclear power plant, and discusses potential methods for reducing the effects of

Probabilistic integrated risk assessment of human exposure risk to environmental bisphenol A pollution sources.

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Keng-Yen; Cheng, Yi-Hsien; Chio, Chia-Pin; Liao, Chung-Min

2016-10-01

Environmental bisphenol A (BPA) exposure has been linked to a variety of adverse health effects such as developmental and reproductive issues. However, establishing a clear association between BPA and the likelihood of human health is complex yet fundamentally uncertain. The purpose of this study was to assess the potential exposure risks from environmental BPA among Chinese population based on five human health outcomes, namely immune response, uterotrophic assay, cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, and behavior change. We addressed these health concerns by using a stochastic integrated risk assessment approach. The BPA dose-dependent likelihood of effects was reconstructed by a series of Hill models based on animal models or epidemiological data. We developed a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model that allows estimation of urinary BPA concentration from external exposures. Here we showed that the daily average exposure concentrations of BPA and urinary BPA estimates were consistent with the published data. We found that BPA exposures were less likely to pose significant risks for infants (0-1 year) and adults (male and female >20 years) with human long-term BPA susceptibility in relation to multiple exposure pathways, and for informing the public of the negligible magnitude of environmental BPA pollution impacts on human health.

Integrated approach of environmental impact and risk assessment of Rosia Montana Mining Area, Romania.

Science.gov (United States)

Stefănescu, Lucrina; Robu, Brînduşa Mihaela; Ozunu, Alexandru

2013-11-01

The environmental impact assessment of mining sites represents nowadays a large interest topic in Romania. Historical pollution in the Rosia Montana mining area of Romania caused extensive damage to environmental media. This paper has two goals: to investigate the environmental pollution induced by mining activities in the Rosia Montana area and to quantify the environmental impacts and associated risks by means of an integrated approach. Thus, a new method was developed and applied for quantifying the impact of mining activities, taking account of the quality of environmental media in the mining area, and used as case study in the present paper. The associated risks are a function of the environmental impacts and the probability of their occurrence. The results show that the environmental impacts and quantified risks, based on quality indicators to characterize the environmental quality, are of a higher order, and thus measures for pollution remediation and control need to be considered in the investigated area. The conclusion drawn is that an integrated approach for the assessment of environmental impact and associated risks is a valuable and more objective method, and is an important tool that can be applied in the decision-making process for national authorities in the prioritization of emergency action.

Evaluating Determinants of Environmental Risk Perception for Risk Management in Contaminated Sites

Science.gov (United States)

Janmaimool, Piyapong; Watanabe, Tsunemi

2014-01-01

Understanding the differences in the risk judgments of residents of industrial communities potentially provides insights into how to develop appropriate risk communication strategies. This study aimed to explore citizens’ fundamental understanding of risk-related judgments and to identify the factors contributing to perceived risks. An exploratory model was created to investigate the public’s risk judgments. In this model, the relationship between laypeople’s perceived risks and the factors related to the physical nature of risks (such as perceived probability of environmental contamination, probability of receiving impacts, and severity of catastrophic consequences) were examined by means of multiple regression analysis. Psychological factors, such as the ability to control the risks, concerns, experiences, and perceived benefits of industrial development were also included in the analysis. The Maptaphut industrial area in Rayong Province, Thailand was selected as a case study. A survey of 181 residents of communities experiencing different levels of hazardous gas contamination revealed rational risk judgments by inhabitants of high-risk and moderate-risk communities, based on their perceived probability of contamination, probability of receiving impacts, and perceived catastrophic consequences. However, risks assessed by people in low-risk communities could not be rationally explained and were influenced by their collective experiences. PMID:24937530

The Functional Resonance Analysis Method for a systemic risk based environmental auditing in a sinter plant: A semi-quantitative approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Patriarca, Riccardo; Di Gravio, Giulio; Costantino, Francesco; Tronci, Massimo

2017-01-01

Environmental auditing is a main issue for any production plant and assessing environmental performance is crucial to identify risks factors. The complexity of current plants arises from interactions among technological, human and organizational system components, which are often transient and not easily detectable. The auditing thus requires a systemic perspective, rather than focusing on individual behaviors, as emerged in recent research in the safety domain for socio-technical systems. We explore the significance of modeling the interactions of system components in everyday work, by the application of a recent systemic method, i.e. the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM), in order to define dynamically the system structure. We present also an innovative evolution of traditional FRAM following a semi-quantitative approach based on Monte Carlo simulation. This paper represents the first contribution related to the application of FRAM in the environmental context, moreover considering a consistent evolution based on Monte Carlo simulation. The case study of an environmental risk auditing in a sinter plant validates the research, showing the benefits in terms of identifying potential critical activities, related mitigating actions and comprehensive environmental monitoring indicators. - Highlights: • We discuss the relevance of a systemic risk based environmental audit. • We present FRAM to represent functional interactions of the system. • We develop a semi-quantitative FRAM framework to assess environmental risks. • We apply the semi-quantitative FRAM framework to build a model for a sinter plant.

The Functional Resonance Analysis Method for a systemic risk based environmental auditing in a sinter plant: A semi-quantitative approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Patriarca, Riccardo, E-mail: riccardo.patriarca@uniroma1.it; Di Gravio, Giulio; Costantino, Francesco; Tronci, Massimo

2017-03-15

Environmental auditing is a main issue for any production plant and assessing environmental performance is crucial to identify risks factors. The complexity of current plants arises from interactions among technological, human and organizational system components, which are often transient and not easily detectable. The auditing thus requires a systemic perspective, rather than focusing on individual behaviors, as emerged in recent research in the safety domain for socio-technical systems. We explore the significance of modeling the interactions of system components in everyday work, by the application of a recent systemic method, i.e. the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM), in order to define dynamically the system structure. We present also an innovative evolution of traditional FRAM following a semi-quantitative approach based on Monte Carlo simulation. This paper represents the first contribution related to the application of FRAM in the environmental context, moreover considering a consistent evolution based on Monte Carlo simulation. The case study of an environmental risk auditing in a sinter plant validates the research, showing the benefits in terms of identifying potential critical activities, related mitigating actions and comprehensive environmental monitoring indicators. - Highlights: • We discuss the relevance of a systemic risk based environmental audit. • We present FRAM to represent functional interactions of the system. • We develop a semi-quantitative FRAM framework to assess environmental risks. • We apply the semi-quantitative FRAM framework to build a model for a sinter plant.

Enantioselectivity in environmental risk assessment of modern chiral pesticides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ye Jing; Zhao Meirong; Liu Jing; Liu Weiping

2010-01-01

Chiral pesticides comprise a new and important class of environmental pollutants nowadays. With the development of industry, more and more chiral pesticides will be introduced into the market. But their enantioselective ecotoxicology is not clear. Currently used synthetic pyrethroids, organophosphates, acylanilides, phenoxypropanoic acids and imidazolinones often behave enantioselectively in agriculture use and they always pose unpredictable enantioselective ecological risks on non-target organisms or human. It is necessary to explore the enantioselective toxicology and ecological fate of these chiral pesticides in environmental risk assessment. The enantioselective toxicology and the fate of these currently widely used pesticides have been discussed in this review article. - Chiral pesticides could pose unpredictable enantioselective toxicity on non-target organisms.

Dispatching strategies for coordinating environmental awareness and risk perception in wind power integrated system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jin, Jingliang; Zhou, Dequn; Zhou, Peng; Qian, Shuqu; Zhang, Mingming

2016-01-01

Wind power plays a significant role in economic and environmental operation of electric power system. Meanwhile, the variability and uncertainty characteristics of wind power generation bring technical and economical challenges for power system operation. In order to harmonize the relationship between environmental protection and risk management in power dispatching, this paper presents a stochastic dynamic economic emission dispatch model combining risk perception with environmental awareness of decision-makers by following the principle of chance-constrained programming. In this power dispatching model, the description of wind power uncertainty is derived from the probability statistic character of wind speed. Constraints-handling techniques as a heuristic strategy are embedded into non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II. In addition, more information is digested from the Pareto optimum solution set by cluster analysis and fuzzy set theory. The simulation results eventually demonstrate that the increase of the share of wind power output will bring higher risk, though it is beneficial for economic cost and environmental protection. Since different risk perception and environmental awareness can possibly lead to diverse non-dominated solutions, decision-makers may choose an appropriate dispatching strategy according to their specific risk perception and environmental awareness. - Highlights: • A dispatch model combining environmental awareness and risk perception is proposed. • The uncertain characteristic of available wind power is determined. • Constraints-handling techniques are embedded into genetic algorithm. • An appropriate decision-making method is designed. • Dispatching strategies can be coordinated by the proposed model and method.

[Advances on the research of the environmental risk factors of children autism].

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, D N; Jin, Y T

2017-12-06

Autism spectrum disorder is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder, characterized by social interaction and communication impairments, accompanied by repetitive behaviors. Little is known about the causes and contributing factors for autism. It is difficult to prevent and cure, and has become a globe public health problem. With the development in the prevalence of autism, the idea how the environmental factors cause the autism, gains all attentions. Summarizing latest epidemiological studies and experimental evidence, this review is focused on the effect of environmental factors, including air pollutant, heavy metal and pesticides, and discussed the relation between environmental risk factors and autism. The results showed that risks of autism in children may increase following in prenatal exposure to air pollutants, heavy metal and pesticides. It is needed to do the research on the mechanism of environmental risk factor and autism for more prevention, treatment and control suggestions.

Investigating the Link between Environmental Performance and Corporate Performance in the UK

OpenAIRE

Boonchan, Poomkaew

2010-01-01

This study is part of the ongoing ‘ERIPS’ project at the University of Nottingham which focus on examining the impact of environmental performance on environmental performance of firms in the UK manufacturing sector. Both primary data which has been obtained by using a questionnaire survey (firm level data) and secondary data obtained from FAME database have been used in this study. Further, structural equation modeling and regression analyses (i.e., mediated and moderated regression analysis...

Are EMS environmentally effective? The link between environmental management systems and environmental performance in European companies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hertin, J.; Berkhout, F.G.H.; Wagner, M.; Tyteca, D.

2008-01-01

Based on the analysis of a large dataset on the environmental performance of European companies in five industrial sectors, this paper examines the question of whether the presence of an environmental management system (EMS) has a positive impact on the eco-efficiency of companies. It begins with a

A comparison of radiological risk assessment methods for environmental restoration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dunning, D.E. Jr.; Peterson, J.M.

1993-01-01

Evaluation of risks to human health from exposure to ionizing radiation at radioactively contaminated sites is an integral part of the decision-making process for determining the need for remediation and selecting remedial actions that may be required. At sites regulated under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), a target risk range of 10 -4 to 10 -6 incremental cancer incidence over a lifetime is specified by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as generally acceptable, based on the reasonable maximum exposure to any individual under current and future land use scenarios. Two primary methods currently being used in conducting radiological risk assessments at CERCLA sites are compared in this analysis. Under the first method, the radiation dose equivalent (i.e., Sv or rem) to the receptors of interest over the appropriate period of exposure is estimated and multiplied by a risk factor (cancer risk/Sv). Alternatively, incremental cancer risk can be estimated by combining the EPA's cancer slope factors (previously termed potency factors) for radionuclides with estimates of radionuclide intake by ingestion and inhalation, as well as radionuclide concentrations in soil that contribute to external dose. The comparison of the two methods has demonstrated that resulting estimates of lifetime incremental cancer risk under these different methods may differ significantly, even when all other exposure assumptions are held constant, with the magnitude of the discrepancy depending upon the dominant radionuclides and exposure pathways for the site. The basis for these discrepancies, the advantages and disadvantages of each method, and the significance of the discrepant results for environmental restoration decisions are presented

Performance and risk assessment of subsurface barriers for single-shell tank waste retrieval

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bazinet, G.D.; Cruse, J.M.; Hampsten, K.L. [Westinghouse Hanford Co., Richland, WA (United States); Treat, R.L.

1995-02-01

Subsurface barriers are among various alternatives under evaluation to mitigate the threat of leakage from the Hanford Site`s 149 single-shell high-level radioactive waste tanks. The Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) division of Westinghouse Hanford Company is conducting this evaluation of subsurface barriers and other alternatives, focusing on risk and cost as performance measures. A number of alternative retrieval/closure approaches were evaluated in terms of risks (carcinogenic and toxicological) to a postulated maximally exposed individual. In addition, worker and accident risks were evaluated and factors developed for each alternative on a relative basis. The work performed to date indicates the use of subsurface barriers may potentially reduce public risk by limiting contamination of groundwater below the Hanford Site; however, the cost in terms of actual funding and in elevated worker risk is significant. The analyses also assume certain performance levels for technologies that have not been demonstrated in field conditions similar to Hanford Site tank farms. The evaluations summarized herein are being used to support a decision by representatives of the US Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology), and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding potential further development of subsurface barrier technology.

Performance and risk assessment of subsurface barriers for single-shell tank waste retrieval

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bazinet, G.D.; Cruse, J.M.; Hampsten, K.L.; Treat, R.L.

1995-02-01

Subsurface barriers are among various alternatives under evaluation to mitigate the threat of leakage from the Hanford Site's 149 single-shell high-level radioactive waste tanks. The Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) division of Westinghouse Hanford Company is conducting this evaluation of subsurface barriers and other alternatives, focusing on risk and cost as performance measures. A number of alternative retrieval/closure approaches were evaluated in terms of risks (carcinogenic and toxicological) to a postulated maximally exposed individual. In addition, worker and accident risks were evaluated and factors developed for each alternative on a relative basis. The work performed to date indicates the use of subsurface barriers may potentially reduce public risk by limiting contamination of groundwater below the Hanford Site; however, the cost in terms of actual funding and in elevated worker risk is significant. The analyses also assume certain performance levels for technologies that have not been demonstrated in field conditions similar to Hanford Site tank farms. The evaluations summarized herein are being used to support a decision by representatives of the US Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office, the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology), and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding potential further development of subsurface barrier technology

Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure, Environmental Performance, and Tax Aggressiveness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dahlia Sari

2016-08-01

Full Text Available This study aims to examine the influence of the corporate taxpayers’ level of CSR disclosure and environmental performance on the level of tax aggressiveness. This study took a sample of non-financial companies listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange during 2009-2012. This study shows that the corporate taxpayers’ level of CSR disclosure has significant negative effect towards the tax aggressiveness. It means the higher the level of the CSR disclosure, the lower the company’s tax aggressiveness. This study also proves that good environmental performance will strengthen the negative effect of CSR disclosure on tax aggressiveness. The assessment of environmental performance is conducted by the Ministry of Environment as independent party. It means that the higher the score of company’s environmental performance, the higher the commitment to pay taxes. This study supports the view that more socially responsible corporations are likely to be less tax aggressive.

Hydrocomplexity: Addressing water security and emergent environmental risks

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Praveen

2015-07-01

Water security and emergent environmental risks are among the most significant societal concerns. They are highly interlinked to other global risks such as those related to climate, human health, food, human migration, biodiversity loss, urban sustainability, etc. Emergent risks result from the confluence of unanticipated interactions from evolving interdependencies between complex systems, such as those embedded in the water cycle. They are associated with the novelty of dynamical possibilities that have significant potential consequences to human and ecological systems, and not with probabilities based on historical precedence. To ensure water security we need to be able to anticipate the likelihood of risk possibilities as they present the prospect of the most impact through cascade of vulnerabilities. They arise due to a confluence of nonstationary drivers that include growing population, climate change, demographic shifts, urban growth, and economic expansion, among others, which create novel interdependencies leading to a potential of cascading network effects. Hydrocomplexity aims to address water security and emergent risks through the development of science, methods, and practices with the potential to foster a "Blue Revolution" akin to the Green revolution for food security. It blends both hard infrastructure based solution with soft knowledge driven solutions to increase the range of planning and design, management, mitigation and adaptation strategies. It provides a conceptual and synthetic framework to enable us to integrate discovery science and engineering, observational and information science, computational and communication systems, and social and institutional approaches to address consequential water and environmental challenges.

Assessment of reduction in perception of nuclear risk related to perception of environmental risk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boemer, Veronica Araujo; Aquino, Afonso Rodrigues de

2009-01-01

This work presents a bibliographic research accomplished to evaluate the matter of reduction in risk perception, on people in general, that nuclear energy can show, for generation of electric power, face to perception of risk associated to environmental questions, as the global warming, from greenhouse effect, addressing the matter to the relevance of public acceptance for the development of new technologies. (author)

Scorched earth: will environmental risks in China overwhelm its opportunities?

Science.gov (United States)

Economy, Elizabeth; Lieberthal, Kenneth

2007-06-01

Of all the risks of doing business in China, the greatest is the threat posed by environmental degradation. And yet it's barely discussed in corporate boardrooms. This is a serious mistake. Multinationals may be more concerned with intellectual property rights violations, corruption, and potential political instability, but the Chinese government, NGOs, and the Chinese press have been focused squarely on the country's energy shortages, soil erosion, lack of water, and pollution problems, which are so severe they might constrain GDP growth. What's more, the Chinese expect the international community to take the lead in environmental protection. If that doesn't happen, multinationals face clear risks to their operations, their workers' health, and their reputations. In factoring environmental issues into their China strategies, foreign firms need to be both defensive, taking steps to reduce harm, and proactive, investing in environmental protection efforts. Coca-Cola, for example, installed state-of-the-art bottling plants in China that operate with no net loss of water resources. Mattel increased the safety of its Barbie-manufacturing process to protect workers' health. With its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, GE is shrinking its environmental footprint in China; more proactively, GE is working closely with the Chinese government and scientists to develop clean coal, water purification, and water reuse technologies. In considering the value of such efforts, companies can not only factor in reduced risk but also increased opportunity, as they use innovations designed for the Chinese market in the rest of the world. The bottom line: How well multinationals address environmental issues in China will affect their fortunes in one of the most important economies in the world.

Teaching Coastal Hazard, Risk, and Environmental Justice

Science.gov (United States)

Orr, C. H.; Manduca, C. A.; Blockstein, D.; Davis, F.; McDaris, J. R.

2015-12-01

Geoscience literacy and expertise play a role in all societal issues that involve the Earth. Issues that range from environmental degradation and natural hazards to creating sustainable economic systems or livable cities. Human health and resilience also involves the Earth. Environmental hazard issues have dimensions and consequences that have connections to environmental justice and disproportionate impacts on people based on their ethnicity, gender, cultural and socioeconomic conditions. Often these dimensions are hidden or unexplored in common approaches to teaching about hazards. However, they can provide importance context and meaning to students who would not otherwise see themselves in STEM disciplines. Teaching geoscience in a framework of societal issues may be an important mechanism for building science and sustainability capacity in future graduates. In May 2015, the NSF STEP center InTeGrate held a workshop in New Orleans, LA on teaching about Coastal Hazards, Risk and Environmental Justice. This was an opportunity to bring together people who use these topics as a powerful topic for transdisciplinary learning that connects science to local communities. This workshop was tailored for faculty members from minority-serving institutions and other colleges and universities that serve populations that are under-represented in the geosciences and related fields. The workshop outcome was a set of strategies for accomplishing this work, including participants' experience teaching with local cases, making connections to communities, and building partnerships with employers to understand workforce needs related to interdisciplinary thinking, sustainability science and risk. The participants articulated both the great need and opportunity for educators to help learners to explore these dimensions with their students as well as the challenge of learning to teach across disciplines and using controversial topics.

Biodegradation performance of environmentally-friendly insulating oil

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jun; He, Yan; Cai, Shengwei; Chen, Cheng; Wen, Gang; Wang, Feipeng; Fan, Fan; Wan, Chunxiang; Wu, Liya; Liu, Ruitong

2018-02-01

In this paper, biodegradation performance of rapeseed insulating oil (RDB) and FR3 insulating oil (FR3) was studied by means of ready biodegradation method which was performed with Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 301B. For comparison, the biodegradation behaviour of 25# mineral insulating oil was also characterized with the same method. The testing results shown that the biodegradation degree of rapeseed insulating oil, FR3 insulating oil and 25# mineral insulating oil was 95.8%, 98.9% and 38.4% respectively. Following the “new chemical risk assessment guidelines” (HJ/T 154 - 2004), which illustrates the methods used to identify and assess the process safety hazards inherent. The guidelines can draw that the two vegetable insulating oils, i.e. rapeseed insulating oil and FR3 insulating oil are easily biodegradable. Therefore, the both can be classified as environmentally-friendly insulating oil. As expected, 25# mineral insulating oil is hardly biodegradable. The main reason is that 25# mineral insulating oil consists of isoalkanes, cyclanes and a few arenes, which has few unsaturated bonds. Biodegradation of rapeseed insulating oil and FR3 insulating oil also remain some difference. Biodegradation mechanism of vegetable insulating oil was revealed from the perspective of hydrolysis kinetics.

Environmental Performance in Countries Worldwide: Determinant Factors and Multivariate Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Isabel Gallego-Alvarez

2014-11-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to analyze the environmental performance of countries and the variables that can influence it. At the same time, we performed a multivariate analysis using the HJ-biplot, an exploratory method that looks for hidden patterns in the data, obtained from the usual singular value decomposition (SVD of the data matrix, to contextualize the countries grouped by geographical areas and the variables relating to environmental indicators included in the environmental performance index. The sample used comprises 149 countries of different geographic areas. The findings obtained from the empirical analysis emphasize that socioeconomic factors, such as economic wealth and education, as well as institutional factors represented by the style of public administration, in particular control of corruption, are determinant factors of environmental performance in the countries analyzed. In contrast, no effect on environmental performance was found for factors relating to the internal characteristics of a country or political factors.

The effect of mandatory agro-environmental policy on farm environmental performance

OpenAIRE

Jaraite, Jurate; Kažukauskas, Andrius

2011-01-01

The EU farmers are subject to mandatory cross compliance measures requiring them to meet environmental conditions to be eligible for public support. These obligations reinforce incentives for the farmers to change their behaviour towards the environment. We apply quasi-experimental methods to measure the causal relationship between cross-compliance and farm environmental performance. We find that cross compliance reduced farm fertiliser and pesticide expenditure. This result also holds for fa...

Australia's pesticide environmental risk assessment failure: the case of diuron and sugarcane.

Science.gov (United States)

Holmes, Glen

2014-11-15

In November 2012, the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) concluded a 12 year review of the PSII herbicide diuron. One of the primary concerns raised during the review was the potential impact on aquatic ecosystems, particularly in the catchments draining to the Great Barrier Reef. The environmental risk assessment process used by the APVMA utilised a runoff risk model developed and validated under European farming conditions. However, the farming conditions in the sugarcane regions of the Great Barrier Reef catchments have environmental parameters beyond the currently validated bounds of the model. The use of the model to assess environmental risk in these regions is therefore highly inappropriate, demonstrating the pitfalls of a one size fits all approach. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental risk factors for chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Nitsche, Claudia; Simon, Peter; Weiss, F Ulrich; Fluhr, Gabriele; Weber, Eckhard; Gärtner, Simone; Behn, Claas O; Kraft, Matthias; Ringel, Jörg; Aghdassi, Ali; Mayerle, Julia; Lerch, Markus M

2011-01-01

Chronic pancreatitis has long been thought to be mainly associated with immoderate alcohol consumption. The observation that only ∼10% of heavy drinkers develop chronic pancreatitis not only suggests that other environmental factors, such as tobacco smoke, are potent additional risk factors, but also that the genetic component of pancreatitis is more common than previously presumed. Either disease-causing or protective traits have been indentified for mutations in different trypsinogen genes, the gene for the trypsin inhibitor SPINK1, chymotrypsinogen C, and the cystic fibrosis transmembane conductance regulator (CFTR). Other factors that have been proposed to contribute to pancreatitis are obesity, diets high in animal protein and fat, as well as antioxidant deficiencies. For the development of pancreatic cancer, preexisting chronic pancreatitis, more prominently hereditary pancreatitis, is a risk factor. The data on environmental risk factors for pancreatic cancer are, with the notable exception of tobacco smoke, either sparse, unconfirmed or controversial. Obesity appears to increase the risk of pancreatic cancer in the West but not in Japan. Diets high in processed or red meat, diets low in fruits and vegetables, phytochemicals such as lycopene and flavonols, have been proposed and refuted as risk or protective factors in different trials. The best established and single most important risk factor for cancer as well as pancreatitis and the one to clearly avoid is tobacco smoke. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.

A simple method to identify areas of environmental risk due to manure application.

Science.gov (United States)

Flores, Héctor; Arumí, José Luis; Rivera, Diego; Lagos, L Octavio

2012-06-01

The management of swine manure is becoming an important environmental issue in Chile. One option for the final disposal of manure is to use it as a biofertilizer, but this practice could impact the surrounding environment. To assess the potential environmental impacts of the use of swine manure as a biofertilizer, we propose a method to identify zones of environmental risk through indices. The method considers two processes: nutrient runoff and solute leaching, and uses available information about soils, crops and management practices (irrigation, fertilization, and rotation). We applied the method to qualitatively assess the environmental risk associated with the use of swine manure as a biofertilizer in an 8,000-pig farm located in Central Chile. Results showed that the farm has a moderate environmental risk, but some specific locations have high environmental risks, especially those associated with impacts on areas surrounding water resources. This information could assist the definition of better farm-level management practices, as well as the preservation of riparian vegetation acting as buffer strips. The main advantage of our approach is that it combines qualitative and quantitative information, including particular situations or field features based on expert knowledge. The method is flexible, simple, and can be easily extended or adapted to other processes.

Environmental non-occupational risk factors associated with bladder cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrís, J; Berbel, O; Alonso-López, J; Garcia, J; Ortega, J A

2013-10-01

Bladder carcinoma (BC), due its high morbidity and relapsing course, generates significant economic and health care costs. Accordingly, review the environmental nonoccupational risk factors (RF), more or less evidence-based, in the etiology and pathogenesis of BC, because the involvement of urologists is essential for prevention. Review of the peer-reviewed literature (1987-2012) on nonoccupational environmental RF associated with BC retrieved from Medline, Embase and Science Citation Index. The search profiles have been "Risk factors/Epidemiology/Tobacco-smoking/Diet-nutrition-water-liquids/Radiation/Infectious/Farmacological drugs" and "Bladder cancer". Smoking was associated with 50% of BC in both sexes. Smokers have a 2-5 times higher risk than nonsmokers, directly proportional to the amount and duration of addiction. Drinking water contaminated with arsenic and chromium chlorination byproducts increases the risk of BC. High consumption of red meat and saturated fat may increase the risk, while high intake of fruits and vegetables decreases it. Patients treated with cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide and ionizing radiation have an increased risk of BC. Frequent and prolonged use of hair dyes and Schistosoma haematobium infestation increases the risk of BC. The reduction or the cessation of smoking decrease BC. The contaminant-free water consumption with the increase of vegetal foods favour BC prevention. Cancer survivors treated with cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide and radiation therapy should be monitored for early diagnosis of BC. Copyright © 2013 AEU. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Racial Differences in Perceptions of Air Pollution Health Risk: Does Environmental Exposure Matter?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jayajit Chakraborty

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This article extends environmental risk perception research by exploring how potential health risk from exposure to industrial and vehicular air pollutants, as well as other contextual and socio-demographic factors, influence racial/ethnic differences in air pollution health risk perception. Our study site is the Greater Houston metropolitan area, Texas, USA—a racially/ethnically diverse area facing high levels of exposure to pollutants from both industrial and transportation sources. We integrate primary household-level survey data with estimates of excess cancer risk from ambient exposure to industrial and on-road mobile source emissions of air toxics obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Statistical analysis is based on multivariate generalized estimation equation models which account for geographic clustering of surveyed households. Our results reveal significantly higher risk perceptions for non-Hispanic Black residents and those exposed to greater cancer risk from industrial pollutants, and also indicate that gender influences the relationship between race/ethnicity and air pollution risk perception. These findings highlight the need to incorporate measures of environmental health risk exposure in future analysis of social disparities in risk perception.

Environmental performance evaluation of waste management system of Uranium Concentrated Unit in Caetite city, Bahia State - Brazil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Araujo, Valeska P.; Fernandes, Horst M.; Gomiero, Luis Alberto

2005-01-01

The mining/milling activities have the potential to cause risks to the human health and to the environment. In uranium mining, besides inherent damages due to any mining activities there are radiological risks, that may be incurred even in short as in long terms. The large volumes of low activity mining/milling residues produced, are the great challenge in the waste management. Nowadays, the whole Brazilian uranium production come from Uranium Concentrated Unit (URA), a facility operated by Brazilian Nuclear Industry and located at a semi-arid region, in the Caetite city, Bahia state. This Unit is composed by a open pit mine and a milling facility. The present work assess the URA waste management system, the procedures adopted, focused on its environmental performance. It was observed that the waste management system is efficient in the control of the environmental impacts, however improvement chances are detected and a better performance may be reached. Concerning the liquids wastes, it was observed that the storage systems were not projected adequately. The storage capacity was not enough to support a intense rainfall period causing a overflow to the environment. In URA activities there is no radiological risk to the public, but its necessary to improve long term actions, constraints for the post-closure phase, e.g., appropriate institutional controls, restrictions on land use. Finally, it is advisable to introduce a Environmental Management System (EMS) for the whole facility. (author)

Local versus Global Environmental Performance of Dairying and Their Link to Economic Performance: A Case Study of Swiss Mountain Farms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nina Repar

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Complying with the carrying capacity of local and global ecosystems is a prerequisite to ensure environmental sustainability. Based on the example of Swiss mountain dairy farms, the goal of our research was firstly to investigate the relationship between farm global and local environmental performance. Secondly, we aimed to analyse the relationship between farm environmental and economic performance. The analysis relied on a sample of 56 Swiss alpine dairy farms. For each farm, the cradle-to-farm-gate life cycle assessment was calculated, and the quantified environmental impacts were decomposed into their on- and off-farm parts. We measured global environmental performance as the digestible energy produced by the farm per unit of global environmental impact generated from cradle-to-farm-gate. We assessed local environmental performance by dividing farm-usable agricultural area by on-farm environmental impact generation. Farm economic performance was measured by work income per family work unit, return on equity and output/input ratio. Spearman’s correlation analysis revealed no significant relationship, trade-offs or synergies between global and local environmental performance indicators. Interestingly, trade-offs were observed far more frequently than synergies. Furthermore, we found synergies between global environmental and economic performance and mostly no significant relationship between local environmental and economic performance. The observed trade-offs between global and local environmental performance mean that, for several environmental issues, any improvement in global environmental performance will result in deterioration of local environmental performance and vice versa. This finding calls for systematic consideration of both dimensions when carrying out farm environmental performance assessments.

Effectively Managing Nuclear Risk Through Human Performance Improvement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coe, Richard; Lake, Patricia

2003-01-01

The U.S. commercial nuclear industry has just completed an outstanding decade of plant performance. Safety levels and electric production are at unprecedented high levels and continue to exceed even high industry goals. Nuclear energy continues to keep the highest priority on performance improvement programs and highly trained and qualified people that maintain its record setting safety and reliability of operations. While the industry has maintained a high level of performance, the advent of deregulation and the consolidation of nuclear power plant ownership, as well as the current climate for concern about both rising energy costs and the availability of power, have raised the standard for nuclear energy's level of competitiveness in today's market place. The resulting challenge is how to more effectively manage risk and to improve performance even further in a generally high-performing industry. One of the most effective ways to develop this culture is to apply the principles of Hum an Performance Technology, or HPT. HPT is a relatively new field. Its principles are derived from the research and practice of behavioral and cognitive psychologists, instructional technologists, training designers, organizational developers, and various human resource specialists. Using the principles of HPT can help the nuclear industry successfully meet ever-changing environmental and business demands

An Environmental Risk Assessment for Human-Use Trimethoprim in European Surface Waters

Science.gov (United States)

Straub, Jürg Oliver

2013-01-01

An environmental risk assessment (ERA) for the aquatic compartment in Europe from human use was developed for the old antibiotic Trimethoprim (TMP), comparing exposure and effects. The exposure assessment is based on European risk assessment default values on one hand and is refined with documented human use figures in Western Europe from IMS Health and measured removal in wastewater treatment on the other. The resulting predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) are compared with measured environmental concentrations (MECs) from Europe, based on a large dataset incorporating more than 1800 single MECs. On the effects side, available chronic ecotoxicity data from the literature were complemented by additional, new chronic results for fish and other organisms. Based on these data, chronic-based deterministic predicted no effect concentrations (PNECs) were derived as well as two different probabilistic PNEC ranges. The ERA compares surface water PECs and MECs with aquatic PNECs for TMP. Based on all the risk characterization ratios (PEC÷PNEC as well as MEC÷PNEC) and risk graphs, there is no significant risk to surface waters. PMID:27029296

An Environmental Risk Assessment for Human-Use Trimethoprim in European Surface Waters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jürg Oliver Straub

2013-03-01

Full Text Available An environmental risk assessment (ERA for the aquatic compartment in Europe from human use was developed for the old antibiotic Trimethoprim (TMP, comparing exposure and effects. The exposure assessment is based on European risk assessment default values on one hand and is refined with documented human use figures in Western Europe from IMS Health and measured removal in wastewater treatment on the other. The resulting predicted environmental concentrations (PECs are compared with measured environmental concentrations (MECs from Europe, based on a large dataset incorporating more than 1800 single MECs. On the effects side, available chronic ecotoxicity data from the literature were complemented by additional, new chronic results for fish and other organisms. Based on these data, chronic-based deterministic predicted no effect concentrations (PNECs were derived as well as two different probabilistic PNEC ranges. The ERA compares surface water PECs and MECs with aquatic PNECs for TMP. Based on all the risk characterization ratios (PEC÷PNEC as well as MEC÷PNEC and risk graphs, there is no significant risk to surface waters.

Whole-cell bioreporters and risk assessment of environmental pollution: A proof-of-concept study using lead.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xiaokai; Qin, Boqiang; Deng, Jianming; Wells, Mona

2017-10-01

As the world burden of environmental contamination increases, it is of the utmost importance to develop streamlined approaches to environmental risk assessment in order to prioritize mitigation measures. Whole-cell biosensors or bioreporters and speciation modeling have both become of increasing interest to determine the bioavailability of pollutants, as bioavailability is increasingly in use as an indicator of risk. Herein, we examine whether bioreporter results are able to reflect expectations based on chemical reactivity and speciation modeling, with the hope to extend the research into a wider framework of risk assessment. We study a specific test case concerning the bioavailability of lead (Pb) in aqueous environments containing Pb-complexing ligands. Ligands studied include ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA), meso-2,3 dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), leucine, methionine, cysteine, glutathione, and humic acid (HA), and we also performed experiments using natural water samples from Lake Tai (Taihu), the third largest lake in China. We find that EDTA, DMSA, cysteine, glutathione, and HA amendment significantly reduced Pb bioavailability with increasing ligand concentration according to a log-sigmoid trend. Increasing dissolved organic carbon in Taihu water also had the same effect, whereas leucine and methionine had no notable effect on bioavailability at the concentrations tested. We find that bioreporter results are in accord with the reduction of aqueous Pb 2+ that we expect from the relative complexation affinities of the different ligands tested. For EDTA and HA, for which reasonably accurate ionization and complexation constants are known, speciation modeling is in agreement with bioreporter response to within the level of uncertainty recognised as reasonable by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for speciation-based risk assessment applications. These findings represent a first step toward using bioreporter technology to streamline

Alternative Testing Methods for Predicting Health Risk from Environmental Exposures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annamaria Colacci

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Alternative methods to animal testing are considered as promising tools to support the prediction of toxicological risks from environmental exposure. Among the alternative testing methods, the cell transformation assay (CTA appears to be one of the most appropriate approaches to predict the carcinogenic properties of single chemicals, complex mixtures and environmental pollutants. The BALB/c 3T3 CTA shows a good degree of concordance with the in vivo rodent carcinogenesis tests. Whole-genome transcriptomic profiling is performed to identify genes that are transcriptionally regulated by different kinds of exposures. Its use in cell models representative of target organs may help in understanding the mode of action and predicting the risk for human health. Aiming at associating the environmental exposure to health-adverse outcomes, we used an integrated approach including the 3T3 CTA and transcriptomics on target cells, in order to evaluate the effects of airborne particulate matter (PM on toxicological complex endpoints. Organic extracts obtained from PM2.5 and PM1 samples were evaluated in the 3T3 CTA in order to identify effects possibly associated with different aerodynamic diameters or airborne chemical components. The effects of the PM2.5 extracts on human health were assessed by using whole-genome 44 K oligo-microarray slides. Statistical analysis by GeneSpring GX identified genes whose expression was modulated in response to the cell treatment. Then, modulated genes were associated with pathways, biological processes and diseases through an extensive biological analysis. Data derived from in vitro methods and omics techniques could be valuable for monitoring the exposure to toxicants, understanding the modes of action via exposure-associated gene expression patterns and to highlight the role of genes in key events related to adversity.

Environmental risk assessment of triclosan and ibuprofen in marine sediments using individual and sub-individual endpoints.

Science.gov (United States)

Pusceddu, F H; Choueri, R B; Pereira, C D S; Cortez, F S; Santos, D R A; Moreno, B B; Santos, A R; Rogero, J R; Cesar, A

2018-01-01

The guidelines for the Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP) recommend the use of standard ecotoxicity assays and the assessment of endpoints at the individual level to evaluate potential effects of PPCP on biota. However, effects at the sub-individual level can also affect the ecological fitness of marine organisms chronically exposed to PPCP. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the environmental risk of two PPCP in marine sediments: triclosan (TCS) and ibuprofen (IBU), using sub-individual and developmental endpoints. The environmental levels of TCS and IBU were quantified in marine sediments from the vicinities of the Santos submarine sewage outfall (Santos Bay, São Paulo, Brazil) at 15.14 and 49.0 ng g -1 , respectively. A battery (n = 3) of chronic bioassays (embryo-larval development) with a sea urchin (Lytechinus variegatus) and a bivalve (Perna perna) were performed using two exposure conditions: sediment-water interface and elutriates. Moreover, physiological stress through the Neutral Red Retention Time Assay (NRRT) was assessed in the estuarine bivalve Mytella charruana exposed to TCS and IBU spiked sediments. These compounds affected the development of L. variegatus and P. perna (75 ng g -1 for TCS and 15 ng g -1 for IBU), and caused a significant decrease in M. charruana lysosomal membrane stability at environmentally relevant concentrations (0.08 ng g -1 for TCS and 0.15 ng g -1 for IBU). Chemical and ecotoxicological data were integrated and the risk quotient estimated for TCS and IBU were higher than 1.0, indicating a high environmental risk of these compounds in sediments. These are the first data of sediment risk assessment of pharmaceuticals and personal care products of Latin America. In addition, the results suggest that the ERA based only on individual-level and standard toxicity tests may overlook other biological effects that can affect the health of marine organisms

Male reproductive organs are at risk from environmental hazards

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonde, Jens Peter

2010-01-01

Male reproductive disorders that are of interest from an environmental point of view include sexual dysfunction, infertility, cryptorchidism, hypospadias and testicular cancer. Several reports suggest declining sperm counts and increase of these reproductive disorders in some areas during some time...... are the best documented risk factors for impaired male reproductive function and include physical exposures (radiant heat, ionizing radiation, high frequency electromagnetic radiation), chemical exposures (some solvents as carbon disulfide and ethylene glycol ethers, some pesticides as dibromochloropropane...... reproductive toxicants. New data show that environmental low-level exposure to biopersistent pollutants in the diet may pose a risk to people in all parts of the world. For other toxicants the evidence is only suggestive and further evaluation is needed before conclusions can be drawn. Whether compounds...

Stochastic fuzzy environmental risk characterization of uncertainty and variability in risk assessments: A case study of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soil at a petroleum-contaminated site in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu, Yan; Wang, Zesen; Wen, Jingya; Li, Yu

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Deal with environmental quality guidelines absence in risk characterization. • Quantitative represention of uncertainty from environmental quality guidelines. • Quantitative represention of variability from contaminant exposure concentrations. • Establishment of stochastic-fuzzy environmental risk characterization approach framework. - Abstract: Better decisions are made using risk assessment models when uncertainty and variability are explicitly acknowledged. Uncertainty caused by a lack of uniform and scientifically supported environmental quality guidelines and variability in the degree of exposure of environmental systems to contaminants are here incorporated in a stochastic fuzzy environmental risk characterization (SFERC) approach. The approach is based on quotient probability distribution and environmental risk level fuzzy membership function methods. The SFERC framework was used to characterize the environmental risks posed by 16 priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil at a typical petroleum-contaminated site in China. This relied on integrating data from the literature and field and laboratory experiments. The environmental risk levels posed by the PAHs under four risk scenarios were determined using the SFERC approach, using “residential land” and “industrial land” environmental quality guidelines under “loose” and “strict” strictness parameters. The results showed that environmental risks posed by PAHs in soil are primarily caused by oil exploitation, traffic emissions, and coal combustion. The SFERC approach is an effective tool for characterizing uncertainty and variability in environmental risk assessments and for managing contaminated sites.

Stochastic fuzzy environmental risk characterization of uncertainty and variability in risk assessments: A case study of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soil at a petroleum-contaminated site in China

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu, Yan [MOE Key Laboratory of Regional Energy Systems Optimization, Resources and Environmental Research Academy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206 (China); State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environment Sciences, Beijing 100012 (China); Wang, Zesen [MOE Key Laboratory of Regional Energy Systems Optimization, Resources and Environmental Research Academy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206 (China); Wen, Jingya [MOE Key Laboratory of Regional Energy Systems Optimization, Resources and Environmental Research Academy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206 (China); Institute of Hydropower and Environment Research, Beijing 100012 (China); Li, Yu, E-mail: liyuxx8@hotmail.com [MOE Key Laboratory of Regional Energy Systems Optimization, Resources and Environmental Research Academy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206 (China)

2016-10-05

Highlights: • Deal with environmental quality guidelines absence in risk characterization. • Quantitative represention of uncertainty from environmental quality guidelines. • Quantitative represention of variability from contaminant exposure concentrations. • Establishment of stochastic-fuzzy environmental risk characterization approach framework. - Abstract: Better decisions are made using risk assessment models when uncertainty and variability are explicitly acknowledged. Uncertainty caused by a lack of uniform and scientifically supported environmental quality guidelines and variability in the degree of exposure of environmental systems to contaminants are here incorporated in a stochastic fuzzy environmental risk characterization (SFERC) approach. The approach is based on quotient probability distribution and environmental risk level fuzzy membership function methods. The SFERC framework was used to characterize the environmental risks posed by 16 priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil at a typical petroleum-contaminated site in China. This relied on integrating data from the literature and field and laboratory experiments. The environmental risk levels posed by the PAHs under four risk scenarios were determined using the SFERC approach, using “residential land” and “industrial land” environmental quality guidelines under “loose” and “strict” strictness parameters. The results showed that environmental risks posed by PAHs in soil are primarily caused by oil exploitation, traffic emissions, and coal combustion. The SFERC approach is an effective tool for characterizing uncertainty and variability in environmental risk assessments and for managing contaminated sites.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST) and its potential use for environmental justice efforts.

Science.gov (United States)

Zartarian, Valerie G; Schultz, Bradley D; Barzyk, Timothy M; Smuts, Marybeth; Hammond, Davyda M; Medina-Vera, Myriam; Geller, Andrew M

2011-12-01

Our primary objective was to provide higher quality, more accessible science to address challenges of characterizing local-scale exposures and risks for enhanced community-based assessments and environmental decision-making. After identifying community needs, priority environmental issues, and current tools, we designed and populated the Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST) in collaboration with stakeholders, following a set of defined principles, and considered it in the context of environmental justice. C-FERST is a geographic information system and resource access Web tool under development for supporting multimedia community assessments. Community-level exposure and risk research is being conducted to address specific local issues through case studies. C-FERST can be applied to support environmental justice efforts. It incorporates research to develop community-level data and modeled estimates for priority environmental issues, and other relevant information identified by communities. Initial case studies are under way to refine and test the tool to expand its applicability and transferability. Opportunities exist for scientists to address the many research needs in characterizing local cumulative exposures and risks and for community partners to apply and refine C-FERST.

Improving the environmental performance of biofuels with industrial symbiosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martin, Michael; Eklund, Mats

2011-01-01

In the production of biofuels for transport many critics have argued about the poor energy efficiency and environmental performance of the production industries. Optimism is thus set on the production of second generation biofuels, while first generation biofuels continue to dominate worldwide. Therefore it is interesting to consider how the environmental performance of first generation biofuel industries can be improved. The field of industrial symbiosis offers many possibilities for potential improvements in the biofuel industry and theories from this research field are used in this paper to highlight how environmental performance improvements can be accomplished. This comes in the form of by-product synergies and utility synergies which can improve material and energy handling. Furthermore, the processes and products can gain increased environmental performance improvements by the adaption of a renewable energy system which will act as a utility provider for many industries in a symbiotic network. By-products may thereafter be upcycled through biogas production processes to generate both energy and a bio-fertilizer. A case study of an actual biofuel industrial symbiosis is also reviewed to provide support for these theories. -- Highlights: → By-product and utility synergies may improve the production processes of biofuel industries for reduced energy consumption and improved environmental performance. → Upcycling tenants can make use of wastes to upgrade waste to a valuable product and/or energy source. → Energy systems for biofuel production have a large influence on the performance of biofuel industries.

Implementing Environmental Practices for Accomplishing Sustainable Green Supply Chain Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Minkyun Kim

2017-07-01

Full Text Available With the emergence of environmental protection as a global issue, implementing environmental practices for sustaining green supply chain management (GSCM has received a lot of attention. This study investigates the impact of integration with suppliers and supply disruption risk on environmental practices. It also examines the role of supplier integration and supply disruption risk on performance. Finally, it investigates the relationship between environmental practices and performance in order to sustain green supply chains. Based on 272 survey responses from supply and purchase managers, our research results support the positive impact of integration with suppliers and the negative impact of supply disruption risk on the adoption of environmental practices. Furthermore, they provide empirical evidence that environmental practices and integration with suppliers are positively associated with performance, while supply disruption risk is negatively associated with performance. This study identifies antecedents and establishes a research framework of GSCM. More importantly, it provides meaningful insights to managers regarding the implementation of environmental practices related to other supply chain practices for sustaining green supply chains.

Critical analysis of frameworks and approaches to assess the environmental risks of nanomaterials

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grieger, Khara Deanne; Linkov, Igor; Hansen, Steffen Foss

and approaches which have been developed or proposed by large organizations or regulatory bodies for NM. These frameworks and approaches were evaluated and assessed based on a select number of criteria which have been previously proposed as important parameters for inclusion in successful risk assessment......7.1.7 Critical analysis of frameworks and approaches to assess the environmental risks of nanomaterials Khara D. Grieger1, Igor Linkov2, Steffen Foss Hansen1, Anders Baun1 1Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark 2Environmental Laboratory, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Brookline, USA...... Email: kdg@env.dtu.dk Scientists, organizations, governments, and policy-makers are currently involved in reviewing, adapting, and formulating risk assessment frameworks and strategies to understand and assess the potential environmental risks of engineered nanomaterials (NM). It is becoming...

A critical evaluation of risk-return characteristics of environmentally focused stock’s companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stanislav Škapa

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of the paper is to critically evaluate and determine risk-return profile environmentally focused stock’s companies which are covered by STOXX Global ESG Environmental Leaders Index and whether this index should be taken in as an independent asset class of investments portfolio for its risk-return improvement. This paper gives an empirical view on the ex-post asset classes characteristics focused mainly on risk side of investment.

The inventory of sources, environmental releases and risk assessment for perfluorooctane sulfonate in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Lai; Liu Jianguo; Hu Jianxin; Liu Chao; Guo Weiguang; Wang Qiang; Wang Hong

2012-01-01

With about 100 t/y of the production volume, perfluorootane sulfonates (PFOS) are mainly used for metal plating, aqueous fire-fighting foams (AFFFs) and sulfluramidin China, and the use amount is about 30–40 t/y, 25–35 t/y and 4–8 t/y respectively. Based on the inventory of PFOS production and uses with geographic distribution educed from statistics, environmental risk assessment of PFOS was taken by using EUSES model, as well as its environmental releases were estimated both in local and regional levels in China. While the environmental release from manufacture is significant in Central China region, metal plating was identified as the major PFOS release source in regional level. The East China region shows the most strong emission strength of PFOS. Though the predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) were not exceed current relevant predicted no effect concentrations (PNECs) of the risk characterization for PFOS, higher PECs was estimated around major PFOS release sources showing undesirable environmental risk at local level. - Highlights: ► Inventory of production and uses of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in China with geographical distribution. ► Characteristics of PFOS release sources and distribution consistent with social-economic situation in China. ► Effective model predicted results of PFOS environmental risk assessment in local and regional scales compared with relevant environmental monitoring data. - Inventory of PFOS production and use of with sectoral and regional distribution of China, environmental releases and risk status were indicated both in the local and regional level of the country.

Environmental risk assessment of registered insecticides in Iran using Environmental Impact Quotient (EIQ index

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Moinoddini

2016-05-01

Full Text Available In the last decades, pesticides have been used extensively, in order to control pests and plant diseases, but negative impacts of pesticides caused several environmental problems and put human health in danger. In order to decrease environmental hazards of pesticide, risk of pesticide application should be measured briefly and precisely. In this study environmental impacts of registered insecticides in Iran which applied in 2001-2002, 2003-2004, 2004-2005, are considered using environmental impact quotient (EIQ index. Results showed that among considered insecticides, Imidacloprid, Fipronil and Tiodicarb, potentially (EIQ were the most hazardous insecticides, respectively. Taking rate of application and active ingredient of insecticide in to account, environmental impact (practical toxicity per cultivated hectare (EIQ Field of each provinces were investigated. In this regard, among different province of Iran, Kerman, Mazandaran and Golestan were in danger more than the others, respectively. Besides, considering the amount of agricultural production in provinces, environmental impact per ton of production were calculated for each provinces which three northern provinces of Mazandaran, Golestan and Guilan, respectively endure the most environmental impact per ton of production. Eventually based on environmental impact quotient, results demonstrated that majority of environmental impacts of insecticide in Iran were due to inadequate knowledge and also overuse of a few number of insecticides. Therefore, by improving knowledge about environmental impact of pesticides and also developing environmental friendly and ecological based methods, negative environmental impacts of insecticides will be reduced significantly.

Benchmark dynamics in the environmental performance of ports.

Science.gov (United States)

Puig, Martí; Michail, Antonis; Wooldridge, Chris; Darbra, Rosa Mari

2017-08-15

This paper analyses the 2016 environmental benchmark performance of the port sector, based on a wide representation of EcoPorts members. This is the fifth time that this study has been conducted as an initiative of the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO). The data and results are derived from the Self-Diagnosis Method (SDM), a concise checklist against which port managers can self-assess the environmental management of their port in relation to the performance of the EcoPorts membership. The SDM tool was developed in the framework of the ECOPORTS project (2002-2005) and it is managed by ESPO. A total number of 91 ports from 20 different European Maritime States contributed to this evaluation. The main results are that air quality remains as the top environmental priority of the respondent ports, followed by energy consumption and noise. In terms of environmental management, the study confirms that key components are commonly implemented in the majority of European ports. 94% of contributing ports have a designated environmental manager, 92% own an environmental policy and 82% implement an environmental monitoring program. Waste is identified as the most monitored issue in ports (80%), followed by energy consumption (73%) and water quality (70%). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Probabilistic modeling of the flows and environmental risks of nano-silica

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Yan; Kalinina, Anna; Sun, Tianyin; Nowack, Bernd

2016-01-01

Nano-silica, the engineered nanomaterial with one of the largest production volumes, has a wide range of applications in consumer products and industry. This study aimed to quantify the exposure of nano-silica to the environment and to assess its risk to surface waters. Concentrations were calculated for four environmental (air, soil, surface water, sediments) and two technical compartments (wastewater, solid waste) for the EU and Switzerland using probabilistic material flow modeling. The corresponding median concentration in surface water is predicted to be 0.12 μg/l in the EU (0.053–3.3 μg/l, 15/85% quantiles). The concentrations in sediments in the complete sedimentation scenario were found to be the largest among all environmental compartments, with a median annual increase of 0.43 mg/kg·y in the EU (0.19–12 mg/kg·y, 15/85% quantiles). Moreover, probabilistic species sensitivity distributions (PSSD) were computed and the risk of nano-silica in surface waters was quantified by comparing the predicted environmental concentration (PEC) with the predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC) distribution, which was derived from the cumulative PSSD. This assessment suggests that nano-silica currently poses no risk to aquatic organisms in surface waters. Further investigations are needed to assess the risk of nano-silica in other environmental compartments, which is currently not possible due to a lack of ecotoxicological data. - Highlights: • We quantify the exposure of nano-silica to technical systems and the environment. • The median concentration in surface waters is predicted to be 0.12 μg/L in the EU. • Probabilistic species sensitivity distributions were computed for surface waters. • The risk assessment suggests that nano-silica poses no risk to aquatic organisms.

Method for environmental risk analysis of marine terminals, process industry terminals, pipelines and shipping lanes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nissen-Lie, Torild R.; Aspholm, Ole O. [DNV Energy, Oslo (Norway)

2008-07-01

The paper describes a quantitative method for analyzing the environmental risk of marine terminals, process industry terminals, pipelines and shipping lanes. The method has been used both in Norway and elsewhere in the world; calculating the risk for environmental resources as fish, seabirds and waterfowls, marine mammals, otters, sea turtles and salt marches and other shoreline/sub tidal habitats. The environmental risk is the product of the probability of acute releases and the environmental consequences. Consequences for vulnerable species and habitats are calculated based on oil drift modelling results and a consequence matrix consisting of 5-7 consequence parameter and five consequence levels of increasing seriousness. An average consequence level is calculated on basis of defined weighting factors to provide an overall consequence value for each spill scenario for each species/habitat. An environmental risk analysis highlights the hazards that have to be managed in order to run an environmentally sustainable operation and can also provide input to establish cost-effective oil spill response measures. (author)

Effects of ownership and financial performance on corporate environmental performance

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Earnhart, D.; Lízal, Lubomír