KEY POINTS Pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides) are widely used by farmers around the Menoua River (Cameroon); however, excessive use of pesticides cannot be accepted or encouraged because of their potential to harm human health and reduce biodiversity within the environment. There was a discordance between the farmers' perception of environmental and health risks of the pesticides and their attitudes toward self-protection as well as environmental protection. A small proportion of farmers recognized that the river and fish can be contaminated by pesticides, but many do not share this idea, and others have no idea about contamination of the river and fish by pesticides. The main advisers to the farmers are sellers. These farmers do not adhere strictly to the prescribed dose of pesticides; they usually use river water to mix the pesticides for spraying their crops and neglect protective measures when spraying.
For those of us who work as integrated environmental assessment and management practitioners, "wicked" problems are our stock-in-trade. Wicked problems are large-scale, long-term policy dilemmas in which multiple and compounding risks and uncertainties combine with sharply divergent public values to generate contentious political stalemates. Wicked problems have no clear solutions. In the field of environmental management, decision makers often turn to scientists and engineers to assist them to navigate through complex environmental, health, and societal challenges pervaded by systemic uncertainty, ambiguity, and ethical implications. Two stories of wicked environmental problems illustrate the challenge and set the stage for exploring how the field of environmental science must grow if professionals are to navigate wicked environmental problems effectively. First, consider contaminated river sites in the United States, where stakeholders, regulators, and potentially responsible parties wrestle with the question of whether society should dredge rivers to reduce the excess risk of contracting cancer over the course of a lifetime for persons who regularly rely on fish as food. The effort is aimed at reducing risks to a level somewhere between 1 in 10 000 and 1 in 1 000 000. Current estimates identify a 1 in 3 risk of an individual from the general population contracting cancer; the public health risks of river dredging are arguably much, much lower. And although it is understood that dredging is costly and temporarily increases the potential for exposure to pollutants in sediments, natural sedimentation processes also reduce pollutant exposure, but over a much longer time frame and at zero cost. Regardless, river dredging is not an insignificant issue. Contaminated sediment removal projects in the United States cost on the order of hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. One could argue that dredging projects are worthwhile investments even if the associated public health benefits were negligible. For example, dredging projects create jobs and urban infrastructure while instilling an ethos of environmental stewardship. But what could we do instead that would better improve urban infrastructure, public health, ecological service gains, environmental quality, and an environmental stewardship? Second, consider a diverse group of stakeholders representing a cross section of a community working with experts to understand the costs and benefits of fixing a city's aging combined sewer overflow (CSO) control network. The stakeholder group examines 2 solutions. The cost difference between the 2 investments is roughly $0.5 billion over 30 years. After conferring with a multidisciplinary team of experts from government, academia, and the private sectors, the stakeholder group finds both solutions satisfy environmental quality objectives, and they are willing to endorse the less expensive CSO control option if funds are dedicated to habitat restoration in the same system where the CSO controls are installed. Because funding is typically the paramount concern of government, and because remediation rather than rehabilitation often guides decision making, the funding for habitat restoration is rejected and the stakeholders endorse the more expensive CSO control option, which is adopted. Is the community better or worse off in the long term by a failure to consider restoration as a supplement to the engineering solution? For nearly 40 years, the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) has embraced the challenge of bringing environmental scientists, engineers, and regulatory specialists together in a political world. It is the hallmark challenge of the Society. Merriam-Webster defines a society as a voluntary association of individuals working toward common ends. SETAC aims toward achieving sustainable environmental quality and preserving the integrity of natural and built ecosystems. Strong environmental science and engineering are essential skills, but not enough to solve "wicked" problems in a political process. Today, scientists and engineers must be adept at influencing the political process. As the current political landscape becomes more and more polarized, a different idea about the common goals that unite our sciences has come into focus. Professionalism itself is a shared common goal for which scientists and engineers need to continually strive. Three areas for improvement are urgently needed. First, scientists and engineers must strengthen their code of ethics. The SETAC code of ethics is admirable, but it does not fully address the ethics of working as environmental professionals in the political arena. It is time for scientists and engineers to directly address the challenges of bringing science to bear on societal problems argued by diverse and divisive political groups. A clear and confident voice grounded in facts and observations is needed to ensure that environmental science and engineering solutions are heard, free of political distortion, and to support contributions to building a more peaceful, prosperous world. Second, scientists and engineers must embrace public communication as a fundamental professional skill. It is not enough to communicate effectively with professional peers. Scientists and engineers need to become experts at communicating with people from all walks of life, education, and ages. Scientists and engineers need to be fluent in the language of other disciplines, including the social sciences, risk communication, and political economics. Scientists and engineers must be able to articulate complex ideas and fully comprehend the complex ideas articulated by others. It implies not just a level of competency, but also a level of cultural respect. And third, scientists and engineers must establish and enforce professional standards. Scientists and engineers could greatly benefit from a certification program like those evident in other professions, such as medicine and law. The reason for this is not so much to establish minimum professional standards as it is to instill professional responsibility and credibility. Professional standards enhance standing in society and provide a foundation for qualifying and preserving professionalism in the science and engineering disciplines. Ethics that extend beyond the rules of engagement in our own professional society, universal cultural respect through fluency, and standing and respect earned by demonstrating credentials through a certification program. These are 3 elements of professionalism that scientists and engineers working to integrate environmental science with environmental management need to more fully embrace. The time is now, and the organization to make progress is SETAC. John Toll IEAM Senior Editor Partner at Windward Environmental LLC President of the SETAC North America Board of Directors
Using the ERICA Integrated ApproachThe ERICA Integrated Approach advises the user on how to formulate the problem (involving stakeholders if appropriate), perform an impact assessment and evaluate data.It outlines the issues and options available to the user (and requiring decisions) before, during, and after an assessment.The ERICA Integrated Approach is supported by the ERICA Tool, which is a software programme that guides the user through the assessment process, keeps records and performs the necessary calculations to estimate dose rates to selected biota.A detailed help is provided to assist the user in making appropriate choices and inputs, as well as interpret the outputs.The Tool interacts with a number of databases and other functions that help the assessor to estimate environmental media activity concentrations, activity concentrations in biota, and dose rates to biota.The databases consider the majority of the radionuclides included in Publication 38 of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).The ERICA Tool also interfaces with the FREDERICA radiation effects database, which is a compilation of the scientific literature on radiation effect experiments and field studies, organised around different wildlife groups and, for most data, broadly categorised according to four effect umbrella endpoints: morbidity, mortality, reproduction, and mutation.The databases of the ERICA Tool are built up around a number of reference organisms.Each reference organism has its own specified geometry and is representative of either terrestrial, freshwater or marine ecosystems.The approach is compatible with that used by ICRP; some of the geometries proposed for the ICRP 'reference animals and plants' are used as defaults in the ERICA Tool.The assessment element of the ERICA Integrated Approach is organised in three separate tiers, where satisfying certain criteria in Tiers 1 and 2 allows the user to exit the assessment process while being confident that the effects on biota are low or negligible, and that the situation requires no further action.Where the effects are not shown to be negligible, the assessment should continue to Tiers 2 and 3. Situations of concern should be assessed further in Tier 3, by making full use of all relevant information available through the Integrated Approach or elsewhere.www.erica-project.orgERICA D-ERICA: An INTEGRATED APPROACH to the assessment and management of environmental risks from ionising radiation 7/82 Dissemination level: PU Date of issue of this report: 01/02/07 chronic exposure data in the FREDERICA database and is supported by other methods for determining predicted no effect values.However, the user can change the default screening dose rate within the ERICA Tool, For Tier 1, the predefined screening dose rate is back-calculated to yield Environmental Media Concentration Limits (EMCLs) for all reference organism/radionuclide combinations.The Tool compares the input media concentrations with the most restrictive EMCL for each radionuclide and determines a risk quotient (RQ).If the RQ is less than one, then the tool suggests that the user should exit the assessment process.If the RQ is greater than one, the user is advised to continue with the assessment. Tier 2 assessmentTier 2 allows the user to be more interactive, to change the default parameters and to select specific reference organisms.The evaluation is performed directly against the screening dose rate, with the dose rate and RQs generated for each reference organism selected for assessment.A 'traffic light' system is used to indicate whether the situation can be considered:(i) of negligible concern (with a high degree of confidence);(ii) of potential concern, where more qualified judgements may need to be made and/or a refined assessment at Tier 2 or an in-depth assessment in Tier 3 performed;(iii) of concern, where the user is recommended to continue the assessment either at Tier 2 if refined input data can be obtained or at Tier 3.Decisions to exit an assessment given outcomes (ii) and (iii) should be justified, for example by using information from FREDERICA provided in the Tool as 'look-up effects tables' for different wildlife groups.
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.
Large quantities of sediment must be dredged regularly to enable marine transport and trade. The sediments are often polluted, with e.g. metals, which limits the management options. The aim of this study has been to assess costs and environmental impacts (impact on climate, marine organisms, etc.) of different management options for polluted dredged sediment, by combining life-cycle assessment (LCA) of the climate impact, scoring of other environmental aspects and a cost evaluation. This approach has been used to study both traditional and new management alternatives for a real port case. The studied options include landfilling, deep-sea disposal, construction of a port area using a stabilization and solidification (S/S) method, and a combination of the aforementioned methods with the innovative option of metal recovery through sediment electrolysis. The LCA showed that deep-sea disposal had the lowest climate impact. The assessment of the other environmental impacts showed that the result varied depending on the pollution level and the time perspective used (short or long-term). Using sediment for construction had the highest climate impact, although other environmental impacts were comparably low. Electrolysis was found to be suitable for highly polluted sediments, as it left the sediment cleaner and enabled recovery of precious metals, however the costs were high. The results highlight the complexity of comparing different environmental impacts and the benefits of using integrated assessments to provide clarity, and to evaluate both the synergetic and counteracting effects associated with the investigated scenarios and may aid early-stage decision making.
Environmental contaminants such as heavy metals, pesticides, and industrial pollutants exert profound effects on the biology, behavior, and ecology of disease vectors, especially Aedes aegypti and Anopheles gambiae. These effects complicate control strategies and enhance the risk of insecticide resistance, thereby influencing the transmission dynamics of vector-borne diseases. This systematic review synthesizes evidence on how pollutants alter vector development, survival, reproduction, and host-seeking behaviors, often in synergy with insecticide exposure. Notably, sublethal contaminant levels induce enzymatic and genetic resistance mechanisms, including overexpression of cytochrome P450s and knockdown resistance (kdr) mutations. Current ecotoxicological risk assessment models fail to adequately account for multi-stressor environments or the unique characteristics of vector habitats. Integrated vector management is presented as a holistic approach that combines biological control, chemical reduction, community engagement, and environmental safety measures. However, its effectiveness depends on strong governance, consistent monitoring, and interdisciplinary collaboration. This review emphasizes the need for refined, context-specific risk assessments and adaptive vector control strategies that account for the complex ecological interactions between pollutants and disease vectors.
This paper develops a decision support system for evaluation of wetland ecosystem management strategy and examines its, so far partial, application in a case study of an important complex coastal wetland known as the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, in the east of England, UK. Most managed ecosystems are complex and often poorly understood hierarchically organized systems. Capturing the range of relevant impacts on natural and human systems under different management options will be a formidable challenge. Biodiversity has a hierarchical structure which ranges from the ecosystem and landscape level, through the community level and down to the population and genetic level. There is a need to develop methodologies for the practicable detection of ecosystem change, as well as the evaluation of different ecological functions. What is also required is a set of indicators (environmental, social and economic) which facilitate the detection of change in ecosystems suffering stress and shock and highlight possible drivers of the change process. A hierarchical classification of ecological indicators of sustainability would need to take into account existing interactions between different organization levels, from species to ecosystems. Effects of environmental stress are expressed in different ways at different levels of biological organization and effects at one level can be expected to impact other levels, often in unpredictable ways. The management strategy, evaluation methodologies and indicators adopted should also assess on sustainability grounds whether any given management option is supporting, or reducing, the diversity of functions which are providing stakeholders with the welfare benefits they require.
This article presents an approach that couples coastal ecosystem modeling with integrated environmental assessment methodologies to support coastal management. The focus is to support the development of an ecosystem approach to aquaculture management including interactions with watershed substance loading. A Chinese bay, with intense aquaculture and multiple catchment uses, and where significant modeling efforts were undertaken is used as a case study. The ecosystem model developed for this bay is used to run scenarios that test the local management strategy for nutrient reduction. The corresponding ecological and economic impacts of the managers’ scenarios are analyzed by means of the Differential Drivers-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (ΔDPSIR) analysis. Emphasis is given to the analysis of the eutrophication process in the bay including present eutrophic condition and the expected changes due to the simulated scenarios. For this purpose, the Assessment of Estuarine Trophic Status (ASSETS) screening model is a valuable tool to interpret and classify the data and model outputs regarding eutrophication condition and to evaluate the manageable level of the nutrient loading entering in the bay.
Through the potential possibilities of improving environmental criteria into the economic prospect, it is desirable to introduce the concept of green into business practices and associated perspectives. This article reviews the existing research on inventory problems in integrated or coordinated supply chains (SC) with consideration of environmental and carbon management. The study utilised the method of selection, practical criteria, screening, and synthesis, where a total of 35 articles were selected. An analysis of the papers has revealed that SC coordination problems that are often considered include order quantity, production quantity, delivery frequency and delivery quantity in minimising costs and carbon emissions (CO2). It was discovered that 38% of the studies considered the model’s problem of production or transportation with a majority of studies, 71% considered carbon management in SC models. It is anticipated that this review will be useful for researchers who are interested in inventory modelling in the economic and environmental context by highlighting gaps for future studies and useful insights into the existing literature.
This study focused on the significance of underground mining in Pakistan, resulting in the employment of operational staff to undertake the primary tasks of this sector, such as explosions, rock excavation, mineral research, mining-supporting walls, and mine compactivity. Occupational accidents and illnesses arise due to the activities mentioned above because the working circumstances are not optimal. The decision-matrix risk-assessment (DMRA) approach, in which incidents are evaluated according to their severity and probability, was also utilized to improve working conditions, including public health and environment protection. To assess the risks and to select which actions should continue in the same manner, we highlighted hazards that need control measures and, as the last option, those that must be stopped. By taking into account the results of the study, corrective actions were proposed that can help avoid the occurrence of the presented accidents through applying occupational safety and health regulations issued by the Department of Minerals and Mines, which is a governmental entity responsible for both the issuing and the compliance to those regulations. The current study also outlined the requirements that must be reported under mining-related laws.
Journal Article Economic and Environmental Assessment of an Integrated Pest Management Program for Community-owned Landscape Plants Get access Deborah C. Smith, Deborah C. Smith 1 Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 1Current address: Prince William County Cooperative Extension Service, 8805 Sudley Rd., Suite 200, Manassas, VA 22110-4796. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Michael J. Raupp Michael J. Raupp Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 79, Issue 1, 1 February 1986, Pages 162–165, https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/79.1.162 Published: 01 February 1986 Article history Received: 16 July 1985 Accepted: 30 September 1985 Published: 01 February 1986
Most of the municipal solid waste (MSW) in developing countries ends up in landfills. For example, more than 95% of the MSW generated in Latin America is disposed of in some type of landfill. Factors such as high organic compositions, low recycling rates and poor control over the disposal sites greatly increase the environmental impacts associated with MSW management in this region, resulting in increased emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and runoff of leachates. Therefore, local governments in Latin America are making efforts to transition to more “circular” management models for MSW. This is the case in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area (GMA), the third most populous city in Mexico, where the implementation of the following two mechanical biological treatment (MBT) alternatives are being considered: 1) a high-capacity mechanical sorting facility with no biological treatment and 2) a medium-capacity mechanical sorting facility coupled with a composting process. Thus, the aim of the present study was to assess the environmental performance of the current MSW management system (baseline) as compared to the two potential MBT alternatives through life cycle assessment (LCA) and sensitivity analyses. Furthermore, by using a SWOT analysis, this study aimed to provide insights into the main economical, sociocultural, legal, political and technological/infrastructure challenges that need to be overcome in the GMA, as well as other cities in developing countries, in order to transition to circular MSW management models. An assessment of global warming potential (measured in Gg CO 2 -eq/year) indicated that the current MSW management system (baseline) results in the emission of 111.21 Gg CO 2 -eq/year, while the two potential alternative scenarios displayed a net emissions reduction of 24 and 34%, respectively, due to material recycling and the substitution of petroleum coke with refuse-derived fuel (RDF) in cement kilns. When evaluating abiotic resource depletion (measured in Gg Sb-eq/year), the potential alternative scenarios both outperformed the baseline with savings increases between 3,380 and 3,501%. This result is largely attributed to the decrease in fossil fuel consumption (due to the substitution of petroleum coke with RDF), which provides a potential reduction of 5.62 Gg Sb-eq/year. The sensitivity analysis revealed that several key parameters, such as the fraction of food and plastic wastes in the MSW, can alter the scenario rankings. Recycling of the recovered materials and treatment of the organic fraction were found to be key strategies for a reduction in direct environmental impacts. Additionally, better management of waste picker activities, standardization of landfill operations and enhancement of material separation and selective collection must be addressed prior to the introduction of new treatment technologies. The results of the study herein can assist in the formation of policies to improve the feasibility of MBT implementation and drive the first steps towards a circular economy model in the GMA, as well as other cities within Latin American and Caribbean regions with similar characteristics.
Sustainable waste management is a key component needed to achieve multiple of the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations for the year 2030. Such waste management can reduce the degradation of superficial water sources and can contribute to the sustainable and efficient use of resources. Due to their usually high nutrient and organic loads, agro-industrial wastes pose a threat to soil and water resources and are a major contributor to greenhouse gas generation. In this study, a novel approach was proposed to assess the environmental sustainability of vinasse management practices, integrating an extensive physicochemical characterization of tequila vinasses, a GIS-based weighted overlay analysis and a scenario analysis. Mathematical models were applied for the determination of discharged pollutants (nitrogen, phosphorus, BOD 5 ), as well as greenhouse gas emissions. This methodology was applied to an environmental sustainability assessment of the management practices of tequila vinasses, which are one of the main waste streams generated by the agro-industry in the Mexican state of Jalisco and are one of the main contributors to organic and nutrient loads affecting the water quality of Jalisco’s superficial water sources. Through this integrated approach, critical regions for the management of tequila vinasses were determined and an extensive physicochemical characterization of tequila vinasses was performed and applied to assess the environmental sustainability of four management scenarios for tequila vinasses. These results can be used by decision-makers for the implementation of public policy and infrastructure for the improvement of local and regional waste management systems. Additionally, these data may be used to increase the environmental sustainability of the tequila industry. The proposed methodology has the potential to be applied to different waste-intensive regions as well as different organic waste streams for the assessment of the environmental sustainability of specific management practices considering the local and regional context.
Summary 1. Natural biogeochemical processes and diverse communities of aquatic biota regulate freshwater quantity and quality in ways that are not sufficiently acknowledged nor appreciated by the water resources management community. The establishment and enforcement of environmental flow requirements offer promising means to improve and care for these critical environmental services. This Special Issue provides new insights and novel techniques to determine, protect and restore ecologically and socially sustainable flow regimes, and thereby help achieve the water‐related goals of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. 2. Whilst alteration of flow, sediment, organic matter and thermal regimes interact to reduce biological diversity and the ecological integrity of freshwater ecosystems – and thereby degrade the properties and ecological services most valued by humans –‘environmental flows’ left in rivers, or restored to developed rivers, will sustain many ecological and societal values. The success of river protection and rehabilitation/restoration depends upon understanding and accurately modelling relationships between hydrological patterns, fluvial disturbance and ecological responses in rivers and floodplains. 3. This Special Issue presents new analytical and modelling approaches to support the development of hydro‐ecological models and environmental flow standards at multiple spatial scales – applicable to all rivers in any economic and societal setting. Examples include the new framework Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration (ELOHA) founded on hydrological classification and gradient analysis; ecological trait analysis; Bayesian hierarchical modelling; Bayesian Decision Networks; and Integrated Basin Flow Assessment (IBFA). 4. Advances in the allocation of flood flows along the River Murray in Australia, an Ecosystems Function Model (HEC‐EFM) for the Bill Williams River restoration programme in Arizona (U.S.A), the European Water Framework Directive, and improved management of hydroelectric dams demonstrate the potential for significant ecological recovery following partial restoration of natural river flow regimes. 5. Based on contributions to this Special Issue, the action agenda of the 2007 Brisbane Declaration on environmental flows and the wider literature, we propose an invigorated global research programme to construct and calibrate hydro‐ecological models and to quantify the ecological goods and services provided by rivers in contrasting hydro‐climatic settings across the globe. A major challenge will be to find acceptable ways to manage rivers for multiple uses. Climate change intensifies the urgency. Environmental flows help to preserve the innate resilience of aquatic ecosystems, and thereby offer the promise of improved sustainability and wellbeing for people as well as for ecosystems.
Environmental and ecological risk assessments are defined as the process for evaluating the likelihood that the environment may be impacted as a result of exposure to stressors. Although this definition implies the calculation of probabilities, risk assessments traditionally rely on nonprobabilistic methods such as calculation of a risk quotient. Bayesian network (BN) models are a tool for probabilistic and causal modeling, increasingly used in many fields of environmental science. Bayesian networks are defined as directed acyclic graphs where the causal relationships and the associated uncertainty are quantified in conditional probability tables. Bayesian networks inherently incorporate uncertainty and can integrate a variety of information types, including expert elicitation. During the last 2 decades, there has been a steady increase in reports on BN applications in environmental risk assessment and management. At recent annual meetings of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) North America and SETAC Europe, a number of applications of BN models were presented along with new theoretical developments. Likewise, recent meetings of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) have dedicated sessions to Bayesian modeling in relation to water quality. This special series contains 10 articles based on presentations in these sessions, reflecting a range of BN applications to systems, ranging from cells and populations to watersheds and national scale. The articles report on recent progress in many topics, including climate and management scenarios, ecological and socioeconomic endpoints, machine learning, diagnostic inference, and model evaluation. They demonstrate that BNs can be adapted to established conceptual frameworks used to support environmental risk assessments, such as adverse outcome pathways and the relative risk model. The contributions from EGU demonstrate recent advancements in areas such as spatial (geographic information system [GIS]-based) and temporal (dynamic) BN modeling. In conclusion, this special series supports the prediction that increased use of Bayesian network models will improve environmental risk assessments. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:53-61. © 2020 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).
How to make use of coastal and marine resources in a sustainable manner is an increasing concern among coastal stakeholders all over the world. Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) is a well-known concept nowadays, but its implementation is often hampered. This is also the case in Indonesia. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is regarded as an important instrument to improve ICZM. How effective are EIAs in coastal regions in Indonesia? And what is their potency to improve ICZM? To answer these questions this thesis analyses the present EIA guidelines in Indonesia and their practice in an economie strategie region: the Banten Bay coastal zone (West Java). The focus in the analysis is on the use of environmental information and stakeholder participation. The coastal EIA processes analysed showed limitations as in most of the stages the marine biological component was hardly considered. The coastal Environmental Impact Statements reviewed showed weaknesses, particularly in the fields of impact analyses, impact management and monitoring. Stakeholder participation was also not sufficient. Recommendations are given how environmental information and stakeholder participation in the coastal EIA process can be improved. They are particularly relevant for district govemments who have a much larger role in ElA's and ICZM after the recent decentralisation of Indonesian policies. Moreover, recommendations are proposed to the State Ministries of Environment, of Communications and of Marine and Fishery. The research methodology and lessons learnt will also be relevant for coastal research and management beyond Indonesia.
As a global concern, medical waste (MW) links public health, environmental pollution, and resource sustainability. This study aims to assess the two issues related to medical waste in Bahrain: the increasing generation rate of MW and its management. The integrated Environmental Assessment (IEA) methodology was adopted, including the DPSIR (Drivers, Pressures, State, Impact, Responses) framework, analysis of existing policies, and the outlook. Consequently, data were collected from official health statistics in Bahrain, and related policies for the last two decades (2001 to 2021) were also collected, in addition to interviews with Bahrain medical waste (BMW) treatment company. The results show a vast increase in medical waste during COVID-19. Moreover, most of the existing policies address the impact of the BMW issues, but the policies are lacking in tackling the drivers and pressures; there is also a policy gap related to the generation rate. Accordingly, a set of policies was proposed to overcome the two medical waste issues. Moreover, to overcome issues associated with MW, the study recommended reforming regulations aiming to reduce and manage medical waste efficiently in order to focus more on drivers and pressure causing an elevation in MW issues in Bahrain.
Indigenous peoples (IPs) worldwide are confronted by the increasing threat of pollution. Based on a comprehensive review of the literature (n = 686 studies), we present the current state of knowledge on: 1) the exposure and vulnerability of IPs to pollution; 2) the environmental, health, and cultural impacts of pollution upon IPs; and 3) IPs' contributions to prevent, control, limit, and abate pollution from local to global scales. Indigenous peoples experience large burdens of environmental pollution linked to the expansion of commodity frontiers and industrial development, including agricultural, mining, and extractive industries, as well as urban growth, waste dumping, and infrastructure and energy development. Nevertheless, IPs are contributing to limit pollution in different ways, including through environmental monitoring and global policy advocacy, as well as through local resistance toward polluting activities. This work adds to growing evidence of the breadth and depth of environmental injustices faced by IPs worldwide, and we conclude by highlighting the need to increase IPs' engagement in environmental decision-making regarding pollution control. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2020;16:324-341. © 2019 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).
Human activities both depend upon and have consequences on the environment. Environmental risk assessment (ERA) is a process of estimating the probability and consequences of the adverse effects of human activities and other stressors on the environment. Bayesian networks (BNs) can synthesize different types of knowledge and explicitly account for the probabilities of different scenarios, therefore offering a useful tool for ERA. Their use in formal ERA practice has not been evaluated, however, despite their increasing popularity in environmental modeling. This paper reviews the use of BNs in ERA based on peer-reviewed publications. Following a systematic mapping protocol, we identified studies in which BNs have been used in an environmental risk context and evaluated the scope, technical aspects, and use of the models and their results. The review shows that BNs have been applied in ERA, particularly in recent years, and that there is room to develop both the model implementation and participatory modeling practices. Based on this review and the authors' experience, we outline general guidelines and development ideas for using BNs in ERA. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:62-78. © 2020 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of fluorinated substances that are in the focus of researchers and regulators due to widespread presence in the environment and biota, including humans, of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Fluoropolymers, high molecular weight polymers, have unique properties that constitute a distinct class within the PFAS group. Fluoropolymers have thermal, chemical, photochemical, hydrolytic, oxidative, and biological stability. They have negligible residual monomer and oligomer content and low to no leachables. Fluoropolymers are practically insoluble in water and not subject to long-range transport. With a molecular weight well over 100 000 Da, fluoropolymers cannot cross the cell membrane. Fluoropolymers are not bioavailable or bioaccumulative, as evidenced by toxicology studies on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE): acute and subchronic systemic toxicity, irritation, sensitization, local toxicity on implantation, cytotoxicity, in vitro and in vivo genotoxicity, hemolysis, complement activation, and thrombogenicity. Clinical studies of patients receiving permanently implanted PTFE cardiovascular medical devices demonstrate no chronic toxicity or carcinogenicity and no reproductive, developmental, or endocrine toxicity. This paper brings together fluoropolymer toxicity data, human clinical data, and physical, chemical, thermal, and biological data for review and assessment to show that fluoropolymers satisfy widely accepted assessment criteria to be considered as "polymers of low concern" (PLC). This review concludes that fluoropolymers are distinctly different from other polymeric and nonpolymeric PFAS and should be separated from them for hazard assessment or regulatory purposes. Grouping fluoropolymers with all classes of PFAS for "read across" or structure-activity relationship assessment is not scientifically appropriate. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2018;14:316-334. © 2018 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).