Environmental Policy Decisions Research Articles

Environmental Pediatrics

CME Educational Objectives 1. Review the effect of environmental exposures with the potential to cause harm on the health of children. 2. Discuss the role pediatricians play in addressing environmental exposures in clinical practice. 3. Determine how physicians can act individually and through professional and advocacy groups to improve childhood health outcomes by influencing environmental policy decisions. Pediatricians now treat many childhood health problems that are caused or exacerbated by environmental factors. In fact, nearly all pediatricians report a past experience with a patient who was affected by an unhealthy exposure. 1 The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that more than 3 million children worldwide die each year due to environment-related causes. 2 The rapid physiological development during the pre- and postnatal period leaves children highly susceptible to the effects of deleterious environmental exposures. Exposures during critical windows of development likely have a cascading effect that can influence health and well-being throughout a child’s lifetime. Environmental influences also contribute to the health disparities among communities of color in our country.

Book Review: Deliberative Environmental Politics: Democracy and Ecological Rationality by Walter F. Baber and Robert V. Bartlett

Walter F. Baber and Robert V. Bartlett begin their book Deliberative Environmental Politics: Democracy and Ecological Rationality with a review of the scathing indictments that have been made by environmentalists against a view of democracy typically described as “interest-group liberalism.” Charged with using language that is “stunted and shallow” (p. 1) and being “virtually obsolete” for the environmental movement (p. 2), how can democracy be rehabilitated from its less than stellar performance in handling the world’s most pressing problems? In other words, is green democracy theoretically possible? For Baber and Bartlett, the answer is yes. Trained in the fields of Public Policy Studies and Political Science, respectively, Baber and Bartlett attempt to bridge the gap between theory and practice that has plagued environmental politics for so long. For these authors, democracy must take a deliberative turn if it is to avoid being relegated to the trash bin of useless ideas. In chapters one and two, Baber and Bartlett follow others in their respective fields who believe a deliberative approach is “the only way to overcome the failings of interest-group liberalism,” contending deliberative democracy has the potential to produce better environmental policy decisions (p. 6). Although Baber and Bartlett acknowledge that “deliberative democracy” is difficult to define, they argue it is a school of political thought that presumes the essence of democracy is “deliberation rather than voting, interest aggregation, or rights” (p. 6). For deliberation to work, participants must also be politically equal and engage one another in the “weighing, acceptance, or rejection of reasons” (p. 6). Of course, the authors also attempt to argue that Horkheimer and Adorno’s observations about instrumental reason in The Dialectic of Enlightenment can be addressed by deliberative democracy scholars. In chapter three, realizing different conceptions of deliberative democracy have drastically divergent assumptions, Baber and Bartlett wisely take three models of deliberative democracy as their “points of departure.” In chapters four, five and six, Baber and Bartlett explore the ideas of deliberative democracy as it has been articulated by John Rawls, Jurgen Habermas, and thinkers such as Amy Gutmann, Dennis Thompson, and James Bohman. Rawls represents the “public reason” approach to deliberative democracy, Habermas the “ideal discourse” perspective, and Gutmann, Thompson, and Bohman the “full liberalism” version. It is in these chapters that the authors are at their best. Baber and Bartlett tackle complicated material and make it accessible to readers

Using measurements for evaluation of black carbon modeling

Abstract. The ever increasing use of air quality and climate model assessments to underpin economic, public health, and environmental policy decisions makes effective model evaluation critical. This paper discusses the properties of black carbon and light attenuation and absorption observations that are the key to a reliable evaluation of black carbon model and compares parametric and nonparametric statistical tools for the quantification of the agreement between models and observations. Black carbon concentrations are simulated with TM5/M7 global model from July 2002 to June 2003 at four remote sites (Alert, Jungfraujoch, Mace Head, and Trinidad Head) and two regional background sites (Bondville and Ispra). Equivalent black carbon (EBC) concentrations are calculated using light attenuation measurements from January 2000 to December 2005. Seasonal trends in the measurements are determined by fitting sinusoidal functions and the representativeness of the period simulated by the model is verified based on the scatter of the experimental values relative to the fit curves. When the resolution of the model grid is larger than 1° × 1°, it is recommended to verify that the measurement site is representative of the grid cell. For this purpose, equivalent black carbon measurements at Alert, Bondville and Trinidad Head are compared to light absorption and elemental carbon measurements performed at different sites inside the same model grid cells. Comparison of these equivalent black carbon and elemental carbon measurements indicates that uncertainties in black carbon optical properties can compromise the comparison between model and observations. During model evaluation it is important to examine the extent to which a model is able to simulate the variability in the observations over different integration periods as this will help to identify the most appropriate timescales. The agreement between model and observation is accurately described by the overlap of probability distribution (PD) curves. Simple monthly median comparisons, the Student's t-test, and the Mann-Whitney test are discussed as alternative statistical tools to evaluate the model performance. The agreement measured by the Student's t-test, when applied to the logarithm of EBC concentrations, overestimates the higher PD agreements and underestimates the lower PD agreements; the Mann-Whitney test can be employed to evaluate model performance on a relative scale when the shape of model and experimental distributions are similar.

A Meta-analysis of Association Between Short-term Ambient Ozone Exposure and Respiratory Hospital Admissions

PP-29-054 Background/Aims: Tropospheric ozone is an air pollutant common in urban areas, associated with many adverse human health impacts, including increased risk of respiratory symptoms. Many studies have found significant positive associations between ozone and risk of respiratory hospitalizations; however, other studies found contradictory results. We conducted a meta-analysis of ozone and respiratory hospital admissions, which combines results from multiple studies accounting for their statistical uncertainty. Methods: A systematic review of the literature based on our protocol identified 136 estimates from 96 time-series and case-crossover studies. We stratified main estimates extracted from previous literature according disease categories (eg, total respiratory disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), hospitalization types (eg, emergency hospital admission, emergency room visit), and age groups (eg, all-ages, children). We investigated how the concentration-response relationship was affected the ozone metric used (eg, 1-hour maximum), age of study population, season, and region of study. Results were compared with those from multicity studies. In addition, we examined publication bias and calculated a summary effect adjusted for publication bias. Results: Results indicate significant associations between ozone exposure and hospital admissions for various disease categories. The estimates were elevated by publication bias, but some associations remain statistically significant after adjustment of this bias. For instance, results indicate that risk of emergency hospital admissions for total respiratory disease increased 4.47% (95% interval 2.48%, 6.50%) per 10 ppb increment of 24 hours average ozone among the elderly. After adjusting for publication bias, the estimate becomes 2.97% (1.05%, 4.94%). Results reveal that different ratios to convert among ozone metrics did not greatly change results. The relationship between ozone and hospital admissions was affected by different study characteristics (eg, lag selection, age group). Conclusion: This meta-analysis can provide a better understanding of ozone exposure's influence on human health and guide future studies. Findings can also provide quantitative evidence for environmental policy decision making.

The Emergence of Associational Life in México’s Wild West: Pioneering Civic Participation, Sea Turtle Conservation, and Environmental Awareness in Baja California Sur

This research explores the contributions of the sea turtle conservation movement in Baja California Sur (B.C.S.), Mexico, to the growth of associational life in the state. Mexico has historically been known as a country with a traditionally weak associational life. Yet, the activities of sea turtle NGOs and community groups presented a unique case study to better understand the social, political, and strategic factors that have contributed to voluntary civic engagement and the environmental successes of the movement. Through 799 interviews and surveys with public stakeholders, this research utilized Sabet’s (Democratization 2:410–432, 2008) focus on political opportunity, efforts to reform informal rules, and supportive social networks, as an explanatory framework to help describe the emergence of associational life. We found that the sea turtle conservation movement in B.C.S. has become accessible to a diversity of interests and individuals. We found unexpected results in the extent of federal environmental agency complaisance in regard to the involvement of NGOs in conservation programs and environmental policy decisions that have traditionally been the sole domain of the Government of Mexico.

Epidemiologische Erforschung und ökonomische Bewertung gesundheitlicher Umweltrisiken

In environmental health research, methods for quantitative analysis of human population studies data are gaining importance. In recent years, it has been realized that they can also provide an important link to the economic view on environmental health effects. In this review, fundamental concepts and methods from environmental epidemiology and health economics are presented and it is shown how they can be linked in order to support environmental policy decisions. In addition, the characteristics of environmental epidemiology and the role of epidemiologic studies in risk assessment are discussed. From the economic point of view, cost-of-illness studies and cost effectiveness studies are the main approaches, and we have placed special focus on methods of monetary valuation of health effects that are generally proposed in the environmental context. Two conceptually differing strategies to combine epidemiologic and economic evidence are presented: the environmental attributable fraction model as a top-down approach and the impact pathway approach which follows a bottom-up analysis strategy. Finally, two examples are used to illustrate the application of these concepts and methods: health risks caused by fine particle air pollution and their costs, and the cost-effectiveness of radon exposure reduction policies.

First approaches to the monetary impact of environmental health disturbances in Germany

This article aims to describe essential conditions and starting-points for the monetary evaluation of environmentally attributable diseases. Furthermore, a cost calculation within a scenario analysis is conducted for Germany. To calculate the costs of environmental health effects we chose a disease-specific perspective. The national statistics of the Federal Statistical Office and the World Health Report burden of disease estimates were used to identify the most important disease categories for Germany. Based on an extensive literature research in computerized databases and the publications of national and international institutions, available costs of illness studies for Germany as well as environmental attributable fractions (EAFs) were identified. Based on these data environmental health costs were calculated with a top-down approach. Direct and indirect environmental costs of illness add up to 15-62 billion euro(2006) per year depending on the specific scenario. From our results a tentative scheme is deduced of how the monetary environmental burden of specific diseases is composed and how it can be assigned to major environmental exposures and economic sectors which can be used in setting intervention priorities and evaluating intervention efficiency. Within this article, we were able to calculate environmental health costs for Germany based on available, easy to access data and deduce implications for environmental policy decision-making. However, there are restrictions in data quality, as the aetiology of some diseases with respect to environmental impacts is not very well documented and data has not been collected particularly for Germany.

Climate Change Decisions: International Influences on Argentina's Foreign Policy Decision Making

This paper aims to contribute to both environmental and Latin American foreign policy decision making literatures, both of which are comparatively underrepresented areas of study. Specifically, it analyzes the factors affecting former Argentine President Carlos Saul Menem when he chose to join the Kyoto Protocol in 1998 and, thus, the international climate change regime. President Menem made a bold announcement that his country would voluntarily reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, a pledge well beyond what was required of the developing nation (as prescribed by the Protocol). This paper suggests that international factors, specifically Menem’s desire to align his nation with the United States, critically influenced the president’s decision, thereby advancing the argument that in this instance international (and individual), and not domestic factors, determined the president’s behavior. The paper concludes with a discussion of the boarder implications of the importance of international variables in the decision making processes of Latin American leaders and environmental foreign policy.

Lead, Cadmium and Mercury Flow Analysis – Decision Support for Austrian Environmental Policy

This paper discusses the support for environmental policy decisions that can be provided by substance flow analysis (SFA). Flows and stocks of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd) and mercury (Hg) are investigated through the Austrian economy and environment. Two advantages of SFA are emphasized: first, because SFA is based on the law of conservation of mass, input and output flows of processes have to be balanced. This balancing principle allows identifying data gaps and contradicting information supplied by different sources, and helps to calculate missing data. Second and most important for environmental policy making, SFA gives the whole picture and full transparency. It is instrumental in showing the combined effect of different environmental policy measures such as integrated product policy, consumer protection, emission control, and waste management on the economy of a country and its environment. SFA also helps to identify hot spots for which additional measures are required to reduce environmental pressure or to make use of secondary anthropogenic stocks. SFA results must be carefully interpreted in order to distinguish between beneficial and harmful flows and stocks, e. g. when materials are recycled that contain large amounts of hazardous heavy metals. For a comprehensive base to design future environmental policy, quantitative SFA needs to be amended by qualitative information, and by additional assessment tools.

Allocating Ecological Space

Liberals have long been committed to two axiomatic claims about freedom: that the exercise of control within one’s private space epitomizes individual liberty, and that each person must be free to define and pursue the good life for themselves. Together, these claims form a conception of freedom as autonomy (from the Greek Auto-Nomos, giving law to oneself), conceptualized as a personal space in which each can act according to one’s own view of the good, free from external constraint. Liberal theories of justice have embraced such claims about autonomy, defining justice in terms that recognize sovereignty within one’s personal space and protect individuality. John Rawls’s primary goods, 1 Ronald Dworkin’s resources, 2 and Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach 3 all focus on instrumental goods within a metric of egalitarian justice, allowing individuals full control over their personal spaces of autonomy while maintaining the bases for interpersonal comparison that distributive justice requires. This spatial conception of liberty has dominated liberal thought at least since J. S. Mill’s observation that “the only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to attain it.” 4 Here, Mill not only defines individual liberty in terms of autonomy, but he also specifies its limits: each of us should be free to pursue our own ideas about the good within our own space, bounded only by the space of others, where our acts infringe upon their autonomy. 5 If this autonomous space is to play the role that Mill and other liberals have long assumed, it must be sufficiently large to allow for a wide range of actions and choices, allowing each to express their individuality without encountering the limits that Mill mentions and the constraints on action that they entail. If almost everything that I do impedes others from pursuing the good in their way—harming them directly, limiting their opportunities, or otherwise infringing upon their space—then my personal space becomes vanishingly small, and my liberty but a trivial abstraction. This spatial conception of freedom is challenged by analyses emerging from the ecological crisis, which offer competing accounts of personal space with quite different implications for the exercise of individual autonomy. 6 Given ecological limits, aggregate ecological space 7 (i.e., life-supporting natural resource-based goods and services, conceived in spatial terms) is finite and threatened by current patterns of over-appropriation, yielding imperatives to fairly allocate that space among various claimants, present and future. Uninhibited autonomy, as construed above, is not sustainable, justifying significant limits on both personal space and

How Deliberation Affects Stated Willingness to Pay for Mitigation of Carbon Dioxide Emissions: An Experiment

Respondents reported willingness to pay (WTP) for mitigating carbon dioxide emissions after structured group discussion or without this deliberation. Deliberation did not affect mean or median WTP, but it increased the number of issues respondents considered, with some issues becoming more frequently considered and others less. Survey-only respondents considered issues relevant for responding to a request for a charitable contribution; group-mode participants considered issues relevant for a public policy assessment. Findings suggest that ordinary citizens can offer valid input to environmental policy decisions, but that framing effects in ordinary WTP surveys may prevent them from providing such input.

Framing Contests in Environmental Decision-making: A Case Study of the Tar Creek (Oklahoma) Superfund Site

Problem statement: Stakeholder involvement processes have become an important component of environmental decision-making. This study investigated the role that stakeholders operating outside of official stakeholder processes may play in influencing the policy environment. An improved understanding of the public and political influences on environmental policy decisions contributes to the development of more effective an d legitimate policies. Approach: We utilized frame analysis to reveal the emergence and communication of competing narratives (problem and solution frames) among citizen groups at the Tar Cr eek Superfund Site and how these frames influenced the political dialogue surrounding remed iation decisions at the site. The data used in the analysis was drawn from extensive fieldwork in the Tar Creek communities, document analysis and in- depth interviews with 53 individual stakeholders. Results: Three competing frames were articulated and advanced by three groups of Tar Creek residents . We demonstrate that each of the three groups altered the policy debate and influenced the action s of politicians, which in turn impacted remediatio n policy decisions. Evidence suggests that all three groups were able to significantly affect policy decisions, although the magnitude of their influenc e differed. Conclusion/Recommendations: The results showed that public framing may play a criti cal role in influencing environmental policy decisions. Understanding how stakeholder framing can impact the overall context of environmental decisions will allow policymakers to better respond to stakeholder concerns in a way that benefits the policy making process as well as policy outcomes.

Induced effects and technological innovation with strategic environmental policy

This paper investigates an environmental policy designed to reduce the emission of pollutants under uncertainty, where the agents’ problem is formulated as an optimal stopping problem. We first analyze the single-agent’s case according to Pindyck [Pindyck, R.S., 2002. Optimal timing problems in environmental economics. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 26, 1677–1697]. We then extend the model to the case in which there are two competing agents. Therefore, we consider the external economic effects that are peculiar to an agent’s environmental policy decision. Finally, we consider the effect of technological innovation. The results of the analysis suggest that if there are two competing agents, they implement environmental policy simultaneously. Furthermore, the threshold for implementing environmental policy is higher when there are two agents, and how long these two agents take to implement environmental policy depends on the magnitude of the external economic effect. Furthermore, when we consider the effect of technological innovation, we show that the incentive to be the leader occurs if an additional condition is satisfied.

Native Species, Human Communities and Cultural Relationships

Species are ordinarily conceived of as being native or non-native to either a geographical location or an ecological community. I submit that species may also be native or non-native to human communities. I argue, by way of an analogy with varieties of domesticated and cultivated species, that this sense of nativity is grounded by the cultural relationships human communities have with species. A further analogy is drawn with the motivations of varietal nativists – who seek to protect native varieties of domesticated and cultivated species for the sake of their cultural value – to argue for the consideration of the cultural value of native species in environmental policy decisions regarding invasive non-native species.

Instrument Choice in Environmental Policy

AbstractThe choice of pollution control instrument is a crucial environmental policy decision. We examine the extent to which various environmental policy instruments meet major evaluation criteria...

Discrete second order adjoints in atmospheric chemical transport modeling

Atmospheric chemical transport models (CTMs) are essential tools for the study of air pollution, for environmental policy decisions, for the interpretation of observational data, and for producing air quality forecasts. Many air quality studies require sensitivity analyses, i.e., the computation of derivatives of the model output with respect to model parameters. The derivatives of a cost functional (defined on the model output) with respect to a large number of model parameters can be calculated efficiently through adjoint sensitivity analysis. While the traditional (first order) adjoint models give the gradient of the cost functional with respect to parameters, second order adjoint models give second derivative information in the form of products between the Hessian of the cost functional and a vector (representing a perturbation in sensitivity analysis, a search direction in optimization, an eigenvector, etc.). In this paper we discuss the mathematical foundations of the discrete second order adjoint sensitivity method and present a complete set of computational tools for performing second order sensitivity studies in three-dimensional atmospheric CTMs. The tools include discrete second order adjoints of Runge–Kutta and of Rosenbrock time stepping methods for stiff equations together with efficient implementation strategies. Numerical examples illustrate the use of these computational tools in important applications like sensitivity analysis, optimization, uncertainty quantification and the calculation of directions of maximal error growth in three-dimensional atmospheric CTMs.

A theoretical framework for investigating the determinants of corporate environmental policy

Factors influencing corporate environmental policy decision–making often result in the formulation and implementation of significantly different environmental policies in firms of similar size in the same industry. A complex network of interrelationships between internal and external stakeholders together with macro level institutional influences and micro level intra–firm dynamics is ultimately what influences corporate environmental management within individual firms. A theoretical framework combining stakeholder theory with new institutionalism can be used to illustrate the interactions which ultimately determine environmental policy formulation and adoption by individual corporations.

Monitoring of Exposure to and Potential Effects of Contaminants in the Environment

In our lifetimes, much of what was once considered science fiction: space ships, monitoring the environment from space, satellite phones and biomedical advances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease at the molecular level have now become realities. These advances in technology have changed our perceptions and how we interact with the world around us. Also during this time, the world population has doubled several times, our use of natural resources has increased exponentially and we continue to release natural and synthetic compounds to the global environment at an ever-increasing rate. These actions have altered the face of the planet in a multitude of ways. In the ultimate irony, technology has proven to be a double-edged sword that can both threaten to destroy us while also possibly providing the means of our salvation, our means of achieving sustainable development. How can we harness the rapidly developing technological means at our disposal to predict and manage environmental changes? There are exciting changes in technology that may provide the ability to monitor the environment, providing the information we need to allow us to make wise environmental policy decisions. However, even with these advances in technology, the basic dilemma still facing environmental scientists is complexity of ecosystems where known and unknown natural and anthropogenic factors may adversely influence natural processes, resulting in degradation of living resources, environmental services, and human health. Conversely, failure to effectively monitor will lead to our failure to detect threats to human health and reductions in biodiversity, resulting in higher costs associated with after-the-fact remediation and restoration, with the ultimate risk of irreversible damage to environmental resources. Within this context, it is important that as environmental scientists, we provide the necessary information to the general public and regulatory stakeholders that is readily interpretable and is related to valued resources and functions of ecosystems, allowing these stakeholder groups to make informed and effective resource-management decisions in real-time. Efforts are still needed to develop programs to detect, monitor and assess impacts in bio-diverse ecosystems by measuring the right things, in the right places, at the right frequency over sufficient time periods in a cost-effective manner. To increase the efficiency and effectiveness of monitoring programs focusing on “known” chemicals and the potential effects and risks they may pose to biota, including humans, we propose that risk-based monitoring programs be developed incorporating chemical and biological techniques that are rapid, readily implemented, and provide

German Environmental Survey for Children (GerES IV) – First results

German Environmental Surveys (GerESs) are large scale population studies which have been carried out on adults in 1985/86, 1990/92 and 1998 and on children aged 6–14 years in 1990/92. GerES IV is the first survey focussing exclusively on children [Becker, K., Schulz, C., Babisch, W., Dürkop, J., Roskamp, E., Seiwert, M., Szewzyk, R., Ullrich, D., Seifert, B., 2005. German Environmental Survey for Children (GerES IV) 2003–2006. Pullut. Atmos. 188, 475–479]. GerES IV included a representative sample of 1790 children aged 3–14 of the participants of the National Health Interview and Examination Survey on Children and Adolescents. The primary goal of GerES IV is not only to analyse and document the extent, distribution and determinants of German children's exposure to environmental pollutants but to discover links between environmental exposure and health. Results will help develop preventive measures and advance further research. They might provide the basis for environmental and public health policy decisions. Precondition to achieve this task is a description of the data on exposures and the data on health outcomes. This work is currently performed at the Federal Environment Agency. First results show a remarkable decrease of the blood lead level of German children aged 6–14 years from 32.3 μg/l in 1990/92 (GerES II) to 16.3 μg/l in GerES IV which is the lowest mean lead concentration determined in German studies so far. None of the children had a value exceeding 100 μg/l. In GerES IV, the following health-related issues will be primarily examined: the relationship between sensitisation against mould spores and the occurrence of mould in households, irritation of eyes and respiratory system caused by formaldehyde, other aldehydes, or total volatile organic compounds (TVOC); the impact of non-occupational noise on hearing loss, stress and sleep disturbances, and the connection between contact allergies, nickel and scents. 9.5% of the children showed a sensitisation to at least one of the moulds examined ( Penicillium ( notatum) chrysogenum, Aspergillus versicolor, Wallemia sebi, Eurotium spp., Alternaria alternata). The most frequent sensitisation was against Penicillium chrysogenum. GerES IV might broaden the knowledge in terms of environmental causes of health outcomes. Children of smoking mothers showed higher mean cotinine concentrations than children living with a smoking father, regardless whether they smoked daily or occasionally. Results from the GerES IV pilot study showed a relation between environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure and an increased susceptibility to infections and inflammations of the middle ear.

Public Participation as Participatory Communication in Environmental Policy Decision-Making: From Concepts to Structured Conversations

This essay attempts to distinguish between traditional notions of public participation and participatory communication, particularly as currently practiced in non-US settings. In addition, specific tools for facilitating participatory communication are identified and discussed. The essay is based on the author's extensive experience as a conflict mediator and public participation consultant and scholar. For the past 15 years, the author has served as a consultant on matters of environmental conflict resolution, public participation, and community-based collaboration for federal and state agencies and NGOs, including the USDA Forest Service, the USDI Bureau of Land Management, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, and the Nature Conservancy.