Concentrations and Transportation of Metal and Organochlorine Pollutants in Vegetables and Risk Assessment of Human Exposure in Rural, Urban and Industrial Environments (Bouches-du-rhône, France)

Author(s):  
Annabelle Austruy ◽  
Marine Roulier ◽  
Bernard Angeletti ◽  
Julien Dron ◽  
Charles-Enzo Dauphin ◽  
...  

Abstract The bioaccumulation of metals (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Sb, V, Zn, Al, Fe) and organochlorine compounds (PCDD-Fs, and PCBs) was assessed in soils and vegetables of 3 sites of contrasted anthropogenic influence (rural and industrial-urban areas). Cultivated soils in industrial areas exhibited diffuse pollution in organochlorine pollutants (PCBs and PCDD-Fs). The pollutant levels encountered in vegetables were always lower than the regulatory or recommended values by EU. However, the contents measured in vegetables cultivated near industrialised areas were significantly higher than those observed in rural areas, this was notably the case for Co, Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb, V, NDL- and DL-PCB, PCDD and PCDF. The leaf pathway appeared as the main absorption pathway for many contaminants. The results suggested that population exposure to pollutants was mainly caused by the vegetable ingestion. In the vegetables and soils, the toxicity was mainly caused by the V, Co, Cd and Pb contents to which can be added As and PCDD-Fs for soils. Therefore, the proximity of vegetable crops to highly anthropised areas has led to long-term exposure of vegetables and soils to air pollutants, leading to an accumulation in the food-chain and thus a risk for human health.

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 9563-9578 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. C.-K. Chou ◽  
C. T. Lee ◽  
M. T. Cheng ◽  
C. S. Yuan ◽  
S. J. Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract. To investigate the physico-chemical properties of aerosols in Taiwan, an observation network was initiated in 2003. In this work, the measurements of the mass concentration and carbonaceous composition of PM10 and PM2.5 are presented. Analysis on the data collected in the first 5-years, from 2003 to 2007, showed that there was a very strong contrast in the aerosol concentration and composition between the rural and the urban/suburban stations. The five-year means of EC at the respective stations ranged from 0.9±0.04 to 4.2±0.1 μgC m−3. In rural areas, EC accounted for 2–3% of PM10 and 3–5% of PM2.5 mass loadings, comparing to 4–6% of PM10 and 4–8% of PM2.5 in the urban areas. It was found that the spatial distribution of EC was consistent with CO and NOx across the network stations, suggesting that the levels of EC over Taiwan were dominated by local sources. The measured OC was split into POC and SOC counterparts following the EC tracer method. Five-year means of POC ranged from 1.8±0.1 to 9.7±0.2 μgC m−3 among the stations. It was estimated that the POM contributed 5–17% of PM10 and 7–18% of PM2.5 in Taiwan. On the other hand, the five-year means of SOC ranged from 1.5±0.1 to 3.8±.3 μgC m−3. The mass fractions of SOM were estimated to be 9–19% in PM10 and 14–22% in PM2.5. The results showed that the SOC did not exhibit significant urban-rural contrast as did the POC and EC. A significant cross-station correlation between SOC and total oxidant was observed, which means the spatial distribution of SOC in Taiwan was dominated by the oxidant mixing ratio. Besides, correlation was also found between SOC and particulate nitrate, implying that the precursors of SOA were mainly from local anthropogenic sources. In addition to the spatial distribution, the carbonaceous aerosols also exhibited distinct seasonality. In northern Taiwan, the concentrations of all the three carbonaceous components (EC, POC, and SOC) reached their respective minima in the fall season. POC and EC increased drastically in winter and peaked in spring, whereas the SOC was characterized by a bimodal pattern with the maximal concentration in winter and a second mode in summertime. In southern Taiwan, minimal levels of POC and EC occurred consistently in summer and the maxima were observed in winter, whereas the SOC peaked in summer and declined in wintertime. The discrepancies in the seasonality of carbonaceous aerosols between northern and southern Taiwan were most likely caused by the seasonal meteorological settings that dominated the dispersion of air pollutants. Moreover, it was inferred that the Asian pollution outbreaks could have shifted the seasonal maxima of air pollutants from winter to spring in the northern Taiwan, and that the increases in biogenic SOA precursors and the enhancement in SOA yield were responsible for the elevated SOC concentrations in summer.


2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (69_suppl) ◽  
pp. 35-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel J. Clark ◽  
Mark A. Collinson ◽  
Kathleen Kahn ◽  
Kyle Drullinger ◽  
Stephen M. Tollman

Aim: To examine the hypothesis that circular labour migrants who become seriously ill while living away from home return to their rural homes to convalesce and possibly to die. Methods: Drawing on longitudinal data collected by the Agincourt health and demographic surveillance system in rural northeastern South Africa between 1995 and 2004, discrete time event history analysis is used to estimate the likelihood of dying for residents, short-term returning migrants, and long-term returning migrants controlling for sex, age, and historical period. Results: The annual odds of dying for short-term returning migrants are generally 1.1 to 1.9 times (depending on period, sex, and age) higher than those of residents and long-term returning migrants, and these differences are generally highly statistically significant. Further supporting the hypothesis is the fact that the proportion of HIV/TB deaths among short-term returning migrants increases dramatically as time progresses, and short-term returning migrants account for an increasing proportion of all HIV/TB deaths. Conclusions: This evidence strongly suggests that increasing numbers of circular labour migrants of prime working age are becoming ill in the urban areas where they work and coming home to be cared for and eventually to die in the rural areas where their families live. This shifts the burden of caring for them in their terminal illness to their families and the rural healthcare system with significant consequences for the distribution and allocation of health care resources.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayed Mohammad Nazim Uddin ◽  
Jean Lapegue ◽  
Jutta Gutberlet ◽  
Jan Franklin Adamowski ◽  
Caetano C. Dorea ◽  
...  

The use of closed-loop sanitation systems (CLSS), or reuse-oriented sanitation systems, has increased in recent years, and such systems have been successfully implemented in many parts of the world. However, no research has explored Traditional CLSS (T-CLSS) for a long-term humanitarian situation. This study explores the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of T-CLSS in peri-urban and rural contexts in three different provinces in Afghanistan (the first study of its kind in Afghanistan). Participatory research tools, such as transect walks, focus group discussions, smart community gatherings and interactive workshops, were applied to assess the SWOT associated with T-CLSS. The results indicate that T-CLSS has been practiced historically in both peri-urban and rural areas using local and traditional knowledge, skills and technologies. The socio-cultural acceptance of the system in both rural and peri-urban areas is an important strength of this established system. However, due to chronic development challenges in the study regions, T-CLSS may possibly lead to exposure to microbial contaminants. It is recommended that the feasibility of an improved CLSS be assessed and implemented in light of the issues that are inherent in the use of T-CLSS in Afghanistan.


Author(s):  
Herbert Weinblatt ◽  
Erik Minge ◽  
Scott Petersen

Vehicle classification data are an important component of traffic-monitoring programs. Although most vehicle classification conducted in the United States is axle based, some applications could be supplemented or replaced by length-based data. The typically higher deployment cost and reliability issues associated with collecting axle-based data as compared with length-based data present a challenge. This paper reports on analyses of alternative length-based vehicle classification schemes and appropriate length bin boundaries. The primary analyses use data from a set of 13 Long-Term Pavement Performance weigh-in-motion sites, all in rural areas; additional analyses are conducted with data from 11 Michigan Department of Transportation weigh-in-motion sites located in rural and small urban areas and one site located in an urbanized area. For most states, the recommended length-based vehicle classification scheme is a four-bin scheme (motorcycles, short, medium, and long) with an optional very long bin recommended for use by states in which significant numbers of longer combination vehicles operate.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-46
Author(s):  
Anisur Rosyad ◽  
Triana Yuni Astuti ◽  
Etik Wukir Tini

Currently, it has developed rapidly in the form of housing in Banyumas Regency. The location of these housing settlements is well-known, mostly near urban areas and some in rural areas. Purwosari Indah Housing is one of the residential housing located in Banyumas Regency, located in Purwosari Village, Baturraden District. Yard and residential roads have not been used optimally for productive activities. Therefore, urban agriculture (Urban Farming) can be applied in housing to increase the added value of land and the income of the community around housing. The purpose of this activity is to increase the knowledge and skills of PKK RT 4 RW 5 Purwosari Housing and increase the income of the community and help improve the sustainability of the housing environment. The target audience for this activity is the PKK RT 4 RW 5 Housing Purwosari, Baturraden, Banyumas. Technology transfer activities include training, hands-on practice, and making demonstration plots at partner locations. Activities carried out in the form of counseling, direct practice demonstration plots of leaf vegetable cultivation (caisim, kale, pakcoy, mustard greens, leeks, and celery) verticulture using polybags arranged in stages on racks built from bamboo and gutters that are stratified from bamboo racks. , as well as vegetable plants planted in polybags placed in polybags which are neatly arranged on the side of the road, in the yard, or at home. Partners have been able to grow leafy vegetables well, so they can harvest vegetables for their own consumption or give to neighbors. Vegetable harvest is still limited, so it is only consumed by themselves and not sold.   Keywords: Urban farming, vegetable crops, verticulture.   ABSTRAK Saat ini telah berkembang dengan pesat hunian berbentuk perumahan di Kabupaten Banyumas. Lokasi hunian perumahan tersebut tersebar sebagian besar dekat daerah perkotaan dan sebagian lagi berada di perdesaan. Perumahan Purwosari Indah merupakan salah satu hunian perumahan yang berada di Kabupaten Banyumas, berlokasi di Desa Purwosari Kecamatan Baturraden. Lahan pekarangan rumah dan pinggir jalan perumahan belum dimanfaatkan secara optimal untuk kegiatan produktif. Oleh karena itu pertanian perkotaan (Urban Farming) perlu diterapkan di perumahan untuk meningkatkan nilai tambah lahan dan pendapatan masyarakat disekitar perumahan. Tujuan kegiatan ini untuk meningkatkan pengetahuan dan ketrampilan ibu PKK RT 4 RW 5 Perumahan Purwosari dan menambah pendapatan masyarakatnya serta ikut meningkatkan kelestarian lingkungan perumahan. Khalayak sasaran kegiatan ini adalah ibu PKK RT 4 RW 5 Perumahan Purwosari, Baturraden, Banyumas. Kegiatan alih teknologi berupa pelatihan, praktek langsung, dan pembuatan demplot di lokasi mitra. Kegiatan yang dilakukan berupa penyuluhan, praktek langsung demplot budidaya tanaman sayuran daun (caisim, kangkung, pakcoy, sawi, bawang daun, dan seledri) secara vertikultur dengan menggunakan polibag yang ditata secara bertingkat pada rak yang terbuat dari bambu serta talang yang diletakkan bertingkat dari rak bambu, serta tanaman sayuran yang ditanam di polibag yang diletakkan dalam polibag yang ditata rapi di pinggir jalan, di pekarangan maupun di dak rumah. Mitra telah mampu menanam tanaman sayuran daun dengan baik, sehingga mereka dapat melakukan panen sayuran untuk di konsumsi sendiri maupun diberikan ke tetangga. Panen sayuran masih terbatas sehingga hanya dikonsumsi sendiri dan belum dijual.   Kata kunci: Urban farming, tanaman sayuran, vertikultur.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-72
Author(s):  
Ryota Nakamura ◽  
◽  
Takumi Kondo ◽  

This study analyzed the effects of access to safe drinking water on the nutritional status of children under the age of 59 months in urban and rural areas in Indonesia using the Indonesian Family Life Survey 5. Both piped water and packaged water were considered safe to drink. The descriptive statistics show that children in rural areas typically had insufficient access to safe drinking water and children who consumed safe drinking water had higher short- and long-term nutrition levels. To mitigate selection bias due to the non-random distribution of access to safe drinking water, a matching estimation was used to quantitatively determine the effects of access to safe drinking water on child nutrition. The provision of safe drinking water improved the short- and long-term nutritional status of children in rural areas but had no significant effect to that of children in urban areas. A simulation of this effect on child nutrition shows that in rural areas, improved access to safe drinking water decreases the stunting ratio by 13 percentage points and the wasting ratio by 6.1 percentage points. Additionally, both household income levels and community drinking water prices are important determinants of access to safe drinking water. Therefore, access to safe drinking water is necessary to improve the nutritional status of children in rural Indonesia, and community characteristics contribute to access.


Author(s):  
Annette L. Hanson

Gangs are a fact of life in jails and prisons. The extent and impact of gang activity on a facility will depend upon the size and geographic location of the facility. Smaller jails and prisons, or facilities in rural areas, are more likely to be involved with local or regional groups, also known as street gangs, while large facilities in urban areas will be affected more by nationally known or connected gangs. One survey of Florida prisoners found that inmates who were suspected or confirmed gang members were 35% more likely to commit violent acts than non-members. In a study of 2,158 male inmates in the Arizona Department of Corrections, gang-affiliated inmates were more than twice as likely as nonaffiliated inmates to commit an assault during the first three years of confinement Since institutional management often involves restriction of privileges, placement on long-term segregation, or transfer to a control unit prison, advocacy groups and individual inmates have filed suit against these policies based on First and Eighth Amendment, religious freedom, and anti-discrimination claims. Gang validation procedures themselves have been challenged as arbitrary and inaccurate, leading to inappropriate segregation or restrictions on prisoners who have exhibited no institutional violence. Psychiatrists need to be aware of the dynamics of gang leadership, membership or involvement when working with any gang member, as that will affect their ability and interest in collaborative treatment. These issues and best practices for intervention will be presented in this chapter.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liangwen Zhang ◽  
Sijia Fu ◽  
Ya Fang

There are a large number of disabled elderly people in China, which results in huge care and financial burdens to their families and society. However, China has not yet launched a unified long-term care insurance (LTCI) system. This study aims to predict the contribution rate of LTCI in China from 2020 to 2050 based on the long-term care (LTC) cost of the disabled elderly, aged 65 and over, in order to provide strong evidence for the establishment of a unified and sustainable national LTCI system in China. The simulations are based on data from the population census data, the Chinese statistical yearbook, and the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) database. Based on the International Labor Organization (ILO) financing model from the perspective of fund balance, an overall simulation model and a Monte Carlo simulation are used to estimate the contribution rate of LTCI for disabled elderly from 2020 to 2050 in China. The total financial demands will increase sharply from 538.0 billion yuan in 2020 to 8530.8 billion yuan in 2050. Of that total, 80.2% will be required in urban areas. In addition, the per capita financial demands of care in urban and rural areas in 2050 will be approximately six times and 11 times higher than in 2020, respectively. The predicted results show that the overall contribution rate of LTCI in China will increase sharply from 1.46% in 2020 to 5.14% in 2050, an increase of about 3.5 times. By comparison, the contribution rate in 2020 will be close to 1.33% in Japan in 2015 and 1.40% in Germany in 2010. According to the 1:1 payment proportion between employer and employee, each side bears 0.68% of the insurance premium. From 2020 to 2050, the financial demands of long-term care for disabled elderly in China will increase, especially in urban areas, and the burden of per capita financial demands in rural areas will increase significantly. The overall contribution rate of LTCI will increase linearly and the payment burden of policyholders will increase year by year. This study provides evidence of the need for the establishment of a sustainable financing mechanism for multiple financial supplies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeongeun Hwang ◽  
Jinhee Kwon ◽  
Hahn Yi ◽  
Hyun-Jin Bae ◽  
Miso Jang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The association between long-term exposure to air pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), and particulate matter 10 μm or less in diameter (PM10), and mortality by ischemic heart disease (IHD), cerebrovascular disease (CVD), pneumonia (PN), and chronic lower respiratory disease (CLRD) is unclear. We investigated whether living in an administrative district with heavy air pollution is associated with an increased risk of mortality by the diseases through an ecological study using South Korean administrative data over 19 years. Methods A total of 249 Si-Gun-Gus, unit of administrative districts in South Korea were studied. In each district, the daily concentrations of CO, SO2, NO2, O3, and PM10 were averaged over 19 years (2001–2018). Age-adjusted mortality rates by IHD, CVD, PN and CLRD for each district were averaged for the same study period. Multivariate beta-regression analysis was performed to estimate the associations between air pollutant concentrations and mortality rates, after adjusting for confounding factors including altitude, population density, higher education rate, smoking rate, obesity rate, and gross regional domestic product per capita. Associations were also estimated for two subgrouping schema: Capital and non-Capital areas (77:172 districts) and urban and rural areas (168:81 districts). Results For IHD, higher SO2 concentrations were significantly associated with a higher mortality rate, whereas other air pollutants had null associations. For CVD, SO2 and PM10 concentrations were significantly associated with a higher mortality rate. For PN, O3 concentrations had significant positive associations with a higher mortality rate, while SO2, NO2, and PM10 concentrations had significant negative associations. For CLRD, O3 concentrations were associated with an increased mortality rate, while CO, NO2, and PM10 concentrations had negative associations. In the subgroup analysis, positive associations between SO2 concentrations and IHD mortality were consistently observed in all subgroups, while other pollutant-disease pairs showed null, or mixed associations. Conclusion Long-term exposure to high SO2 concentration was significantly and consistently associated with a high mortality rate nationwide and in Capital and non-Capital areas, and in urban and rural areas. Associations between other air pollutants and disease-related mortalities need to be investigated in further studies.


Oryx ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel M. Hema ◽  
Valy Ouattara ◽  
Gnoumou Parfait ◽  
Massimiliano Di Vittorio ◽  
Djidama Sirima ◽  
...  

AbstractTo explore the patterns of bushmeat trade in the Sahel we carried out a multidisciplinary study, focusing on Burkina Faso. We conducted baseline interview surveys to examine the variation in people's perceptions of bushmeat in relation to their place of residence (urban vs rural), sex and age. We also analysed the long-term (1985–2010) population dynamics of two ungulate species, the oribi Ourebia ourebi and the common duiker Sylvicapra grimmia, known to be among the main targets of the bushmeat trade locally. For the antelopes we chose as our study area a protected area (Nazinga Game Ranch) where poaching activities occur and are likely to represent a threat to the local wildlife. The results of the interviews underlined significant differences in bushmeat consumption between rural and urban areas. In particular, the probability of finding people who did not consume bushmeat increased in the urban area, where bushmeat is less available than in the rural areas. Sex and age did not have any effect on people's perceptions of bushmeat. In Burkina Faso bushmeat is still widely consumed, and this could be because the bushmeat trade is poorly controlled, with a lack of enforcement of the legislation. Long-term field surveys revealed that the oribi and the common duiker have declined significantly in Nazinga Game Ranch, suggesting that the bushmeat trade in Burkina Faso may have negative consequences in terms of the conservation outlook for these species.


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