Environmental Pollution Events Research Articles

Research on public perception changes of the sudden environmental pollution event based on MicroBlog

Research on public perception changes of the sudden environmental pollution event based on MicroBlog

Household evacuation behavior during a Natech accident

Natural disasters can trigger chemical accidents resulting in fire, explosion or releases of hazardous material. Such conjoint accidents are known as Natechs (Natural-Technological accidents). Natural triggers such as earthquake; hurricane; flood; and the tsunami of Great East Japan in 2011 were documented in previous studies. In their works, they reported the severe consequences of the Natechs and investigated the specific features of scenarios. Moreover, Natechs threaten the lives and property of residents living close to the Natech hazards. For example, due to the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) leak during the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, 1995, 72,000 inhabits were recommended to evacuate. During the Kocaeli Earthquake, 1999, two Natech events in a refinery and a acrylic fiber production plant forced local authorities to evacuate the residents in a range of 5km of and 6km, respectively. Krausmann, et al 8) reported that during the Wenchuan earthquake, 2008, 6000 residents near an ammonia factory needed to evacuate due to the releases of ammonia and sulphuric acid, etc. Even evidence has already shown that the Natechs may require evacuating large number of residents in a large scale, the study with detailed analysis of evacuees’ behavior during a Natech is still limited. Natech events may harm population either directly or indirectly. Salzano et alindciated that the direct effects may include fire, spread of toxic clouds or toxic fumes, environmental pollution and other events difficult to control after the strike of a natural disaster. Indirect damage may be caused by the overloading of emergeny system, the loss of critical supply lines that may hider and delay the rescue and recover operations. Futhermore, during a Natech accident, people may need to evacuate more than once due to the simultaneous natural events and technological accident. To protect residents under such complex and uncertain situation, a detailed analysis of their evacuation behavior is required. With such information, emergency managers can develop efficient emergency plans to protect people under the risk of Natech accidents. In this study, we analyzed household evacuation behavior in terms of departure time, transportation use and the option of shelters. Data were collected from the randomly selected households within 2.5 km of the Natech accident occurred at a refinery in Sendai industrial park during the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (GEJET).

Dynamic assessment of environmental damage based on the optimal clustering criterion – Taking oil spill damage to marine ecological environment as an example

Aimng at the evaluation of environmental damages, we proposed a dynamic evaluation approach based on the optimal cluster criterion. Firstly, a method for sample data standardization was introduced. After determining the measurement of damage grade, we applied the system cluster analysis approach to classify the grades of corresponding environmental pollution events. Then, the optimal cluster level was evaluated based on the optimal clustering criterion. By using the marine environmental damages caused by 17 marine oil spill events as a sample, we tested the dynamic evaluation method proposed in this article with its practicability. Further, by comparing it with some traditional damage evaluation methods, we found that their evaluation results were consistent. All these have shown that the dynamic evaluation approach proposed in this paper can meet the requirement of environmental damage evaluation. Finally, directions of future researches were pointed out.

Learning from an Environmental Pollution Event and Policy Change: Focused on the Saemangeum Reclamation Project in Korea

This study, using the Event-Related Policy Change Model, analyzes the Saemangeum reclamation project in Korea, which has been the cause of significant social debate for around 10 years. In the policy process of the Saemangeum reclamation project, the severe water pollution event at Lake Shihwa acted as a focusing event which would attract civil societys interest in the environmentally adverse effects of the project. The perception of tidal flats was changed in society, and a system of protecting and managing tidal flats rather than reclaiming them was made through the discussion process. The finding of this study is that it is to a different extent for the policy-making participants to react to a focusing event, and to learn from a preceding event. In the Saemangeum reclamation policy, environmental groups reacted to the focusing event more sensitively than other policy participants, and were motivated to engage in active discussion. As a result, they could have a decisive effect on governmental policy and civil society.

The knowledge, attitude and behavior about public health emergencies and the response capacity of primary care medical staffs of Guangdong Province, China

BackgroundPrimary care medical staffs’ knowledge, attitude and behavior about health emergency and the response capacity are directly related to the control and prevention of public health emergencies. Therefore, it is of great significance for improving primary care to gain in-depth knowledge about knowledge, attitude and behavior and the response capacity of primary care medical staffs. The main objective of this study is to explore knowledge, attitude and behavior, and the response capacity of primary care medical staffs of Guangdong Province, China.MethodsStratified clustered sample method was used in the anonymous questionnaire investigation about knowledge, attitude and behavior, and the response capacity of 3410 primary care medical staffs in 15 cities of Guangdong Province, China from July, 2010 to October 2010. The emergency response capacity was evaluated by 33 questions. The highest score of the response capacity was 100 points (full score), score of 70 was a standard.Results62.4% primary care medical staffs believed that public health emergencies would happen. Influenza (3.86 ± 0.88), food poisoning (3.35 ± 0.75), and environmental pollution events (3.23 ± 0.80) (the total score was 5) were considered most likely to occur. Among the 7 public health emergency skills, the highest self-assessment score is “public health emergency prevention skills” (2.90 ± 0.68), the lowest is “public health emergency risk management (the total score was 5)” (1.81 ± 0.40). Attitude evaluation showed 66.1% of the medical staffs believed that the community awareness of risk management were ordinary. Evaluation of response capacity of health emergency showed that the score of primary care medical staffs was 67.23 ± 10.61, and the response capacity of senior physicians, public health physicians and physicians with relatively long-term practice were significantly better (P <0.05). Multiple linear stepwise regression analysis showed gender, title, position, type of work, work experience and whether to participate relative training were the main factors affecting the health emergency response capacity.ConclusionsThe knowledge, attitude and behavior about public health emergencies and the response capacity of primary care medical staffs of Guangdong Province (China) were poor. Health administrative departments should strengthen the training of health emergency knowledge and skills of the primary care medical staffs to enhance their health emergency response capabilities.

A captured episode of γ-hexachlorocyclohexane air pollution in the Toronto area after the Canadian lindane ban

A Canadian ban on lindane for agricultural use came into effect on December 31, 2004. In the years leading up to this ban, air concentrations of γ–HCH, the active ingredient of lindane, decreased gradually over the Great Lakes region. Typical mean concentrations were about 5 and 10 pg m-3 for Lakes Huron and Ontario, respectively, during the summer of 2005. However, during the period June 27–28, 2005, a γ–HCH air pollution episode was captured in Toronto by three independent sampling programs [Episodic Pesticide Transport (EPT) Study, Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network (IADN) and Canadian Atmospheric Network for Currently Used Pesticides (CANCUP)], with concentrations of 586 and 3 070 pg m-3 measured in north and downtown Toronto, respectively – an increase of about two orders of magnitude above typical levels. This episode was not observed at any of the regional IADN sites on the same day, suggesting a localized emission in the city from an unknown and episodic source. This study demonstrates the value in continued monitoring of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) beyond their phase–out period and highlights the importance of combining information from different projects to discover environmental pollution events.

New evidence for the importance of Mn oxides contributed to nitrobenzene adsorption onto the surficial sediments in Songhua River, China

Nitrobenzene at a relatively high concentration was reported to cause an environmental pollution event in Songhua River, China in 2005. The adsorption characteristics of nitrobenzene on the surficial sediments (natural surface coatings) were investigated via a selective extraction – adsorption – statistical analysis method. The experimental results show that the changes in the adsorption potential are not always consistent with the variation of particle structure, suggesting that the effect of removal of some components by extraction or separation procedures on the adsorption potential is much greater than that of variation of particle structure. An additional model analysis indicates that not only organic materials but also Fe oxides, Mn oxides and clay minerals contribute much to the adsorption of nitrobenzene. But the adsorption capacity of Mn oxides on a unit mass basis is the highest, and the lowest for clay minerals except for silicate minerals, implying that the role of organic materials and clay minerals in the solid particles contributed to binding of nitrobenzene is less than that of Fe and Mn oxides, especially the later. The new evidence for the higher adsorption potential of nitrobenzene on the surficial sediments (natural surface coatings) and the more importance of Mn oxides contributed to nitrobenzene adsorption is showed in the present study supposing that the adsorption capacity of solid particles can be divided into several fractions.

Concentration level and geographical distribution of nitrobenzene in Chinese surface waters

Nitrobenzene was reported to occur at relatively high concentrations in some Chinese surface water and to cause an environmental pollution event in 2005. To map the distribution of nitrobenzene in the Chinese surface water throughout China, surface water samples were collected from over 600 sites in the 7 major watersheds and three drainage areas. The samples were analyzed for concentration of nitrobenzene. Overall, nitrobenzene was more frequently detected at higher concentrations in the rivers of North China, including Songhua River, Liaohe River, Haihe River, Yellow River, Huaihe River, and Northwest drainage area rivers, compared with those in the rivers of South China, including Yangtze River, Pearl River, Southeast drainage area rivers and Southwest drainage rivers. The detection rate of nitrobenzene was 83.2% for all the samples, with a mean value of 18.1 ng/L and a range of < 0.3-8450.0 ng/L. The highest mean concentration of nitrobenzene was observed in the Yellow River, followed by Huaihe River. The results of this investigation indicated that nitrobenzene should be of particular concern in China and its ecological and health risk should be assessed.

High-precision analysis on annual variations of heavy metals, lead isotopes and rare earth elements in mangrove tree rings by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Annual variations from 1982 to 1999 of a wide range of trace elements and reconnaissance Pb isotopes (207Pb/206Pb and 208Pb/206Pb) were analyzed by solution ICP-MS on digested ash from mangrove Rhizophora apiculata, obtained from Leizhou Peninsula, along northern coast of South China Sea. The concentrations of the majority of elements show a weak declining trend with growth from 1982 to 1999, punctuated by several high concentration spikes. The declining trends are positively correlated with ring width and negatively correlated with inferred water-use efficiency, suggesting a physiological control over metal-uptake in this species. The episodic metal concentration-peaks cannot be interpreted with lateral movement or growth activities and appear to be related to environmental pollution events. Pb isotope ratios for most samples plot along the ‘Chinese Pb line’ and clearly document the importance of gasoline Pb as a source of contaminant. Shale-normalised REE+Y patterns are relatively flat and consistent across the growth period, with all patterns showing a positive Ce anomaly and elevated Y/Ho ratio. The positive Ce anomaly is observed regardless of the choice of normaliser, in contrast to previously reported REE patterns for terrestrial and marine plants. This pilot study of trace element, REE+Y and Pb isotope distribution in mangrove tree rings indicates the potential use of mangroves as monitors of historical environmental change.

The Information Content of High-Frequency Environmental Monitoring Data Signals Pollution Events in the Coastal Ocean

There are an increasing number of coastal ocean observing systems that deploy new technology for environmental sensing and stream these data in near-real-time to end-users (e.g., scientists and coastal managers) via the worldwide web. The temporal resolution, spatial coverage, and accessibility of these data open up new opportunities for better understanding and managing the coastal ocean, but they also present enormous challenges relative to data processing and data interpretation, particularly in cases where these data are to inform rapid management decision making. Here we demonstrate that changes in surf zone water quality at a popular beach in southern California are signaled by changes in the Fisher Information and Shannon Entropy of high frequency (1/4 min(-1)) measurements of salinity and temperature in the surf zone. These results support the hypothesis that the information content of environmental signals, such as salinity and temperature, can be used to identify changes in the water quality of the coastal ocean. More generally, the approach described here-of using information theory indices calculated from monitoring data as real-time indicators of environmental change-is quite general, and may therefore be applicable to other situations where rapid management decisions are based on high-frequency measurements of environmental parameters.

Risk Management of Accidental Water Pollution: An Illustrative Application

A general risk assessment and management approach is proposed for analyzing and controlling (accidental) environmental pollution events. This concept is illustrated by a simplified case study, describing hypothetic point-source toxic pollution of the river Danube and its effect on the downstream bank-filtered well system. The numerical example indicates the viability of the suggested approach, highlighting also the necessary information base of environmental risk studies.