This study estimated the burden of disease due to 48 major causes in the Netherlands in 1994 in disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), using national epidemiologic data and disability weights, and ...explored associated problems and uncertainties.
A continuous record of atmospheric lead since 12,370 carbon-14 years before the present ($^{14}$C yr BP) is preserved in a Swiss peat bog. Enhanced fluxes caused by climate changes reached their ...maxima 10,590 $^{14}$C yr BP (Younger Dryas) and 8230 $^{14}$C yr BP. Soil erosion caused by forest clearing and agricultural tillage increased lead deposition after 5320 $^{14}$C yr BP. Increasing lead/scandium and decreasing lead-206/lead-207 beginning 3000 $^{14}$C yr BP indicate the beginning of lead pollution from mining and smelting, and anthropogenic sources have dominated lead emissions ever since. The greatest lead flux (15.7 milligrams per square meter per year in A.D. 1979) was 1570 times the natural, background value (0.01 milligram per square meter per year from 8030 to 5320 $^{14}$C yr BP).
The temporal evolution of atmospheric lead deposition and its possible sources were assessed in eastern Canada and in western Scotland, using blanket peat bogs as geochemical archives. Short cores ...were taken from two remote sites located close to the sea. Significant lead enrichments in the upper layers at both sites reflect the increasing emission of lead into the atmosphere due to anthropogenic activities during the last century. At the Scottish site, a region under aeolian influence from Europe, anthropogenic derived lead could be recognized by the distinctive unradiogenic composition (
206Pb/
207Pb ratios down to ∼1.115), being clearly different from the pre-industrial values (
206Pb/
207Pb ∼1.166). In contrast, the lead pollution in eastern Canada (influenced by North American sources) is identified by a more radiogenic lead isotope composition (
206Pb/
207Pb ratios up to ∼1.199) compared to pre-industrial values (
206Pb/
207Pb ∼1.161). Emission inventories and isotope characteristics suggest that industrial (coal burning, mining) and traffic (leaded gasoline) outputs are the most likely sources during the first and the second half of the 20th century, respectively, in both, western Scotland and eastern Canada alike. The Scottish record is in line with previous studies of past atmospheric lead deposition. However, the Canadian deposit suggests that the wind derived, pre-industrial lead, is less radiogenic as previously implied using sediment archives. These results are thus the first to report pre-industrial lead isotope ratios and concentrations of atmospheric derived aerosols in North America.
We present a framework to aggregate divergent health impacts associated with different types of environmental exposures, such as air pollution, residential noise, and large technologic risks. From ...the policy maker's point of view, there are at least three good reasons for this type of aggregation: comparative risk evaluation (for example, setting priorities), evaluation of the efficiency of environmental policies in terms of health gain, and characterizing health risk associated with geographical accumulation of multiple environmental exposures. The proposed impact measure integrates three important dimensions of public health: life expectancy, quality of life, and number of people affected. Time is the unit of measurement. "Healthy life years" are either lost by premature death or by loss of quality of life, measured as discounted life years within a population. Severity weights (0 for perfect health, 1 for death) are assigned to discount the time spent with conditions associated with environmental exposures. We combined information on population exposure distribution, exposure response relations, incidence, and prevalence rates to estimate annual numbers of people affected and the duration of the condition, including premature death. Using data from the fourth Dutch National Environmental Outlook, we estimated that the long-term effects of particulate air pollution account for almost 60% of the total environment-related health loss in the Netherlands as modeled here. Environmental noise accounts for 24%, indoor air pollution (environmental tobacco smoke, radon, and dampness, as well as lead in drinking water) for around 6%, and food poisoning (or infection) for more than 3%. The contribution of this set of environmental exposures to the total annual burden of disease in the Netherlands is less than 5%.
A peat core from a Swiss bog reveals significant enrichments of As, Sb and Pb extending back to Roman times, indicating that the anthropogenic fluxes of these metals have exceeded the natural fluxes ...for more than 2000 years. The isotopic composition of Pb provides no evidence of vertical downward Pb migration, suggesting that the bog has faithfully preserved the historical record of atmospheric Pb deposition. Age dating using
210Pb (verified independently using pollen markers) provides the chronology of changing metal concentrations during the past 150 years. Present day enrichment factors (relative to the metal/Sc ratios of typical crustal rocks) are of the order of 20 times (As), 70 (Sb), and 130 (Pb). Given the potential toxicity of As and Sb, these new findings suggest that the environmental significance of these, and perhaps other less common trace elements, deserve more attention.
We have explored the use of 40Ar /39Ar dating on Mn ooids and peloids, and fragments of indurated, extremely fine-grained mudstone occurring in cave sediments in the Cradle of Humankind (CoH) UNESCO ...world heritage site, to obtain ages of fossil-bearing cave sediments. Samples analysed were from the Malapa site (envisaged as a testing ground because it was previously dated with high precision by the uranium-lead method and paleomagnetism), the floor of the Dinaledi Chamber in Rising Star Cave, as well as boreholes 2 and 3 of the Sterkfontein Cave. The 40Ar/39Ar apparent ages of the dated samples turned out to be unrelated to cave formation processes, rendering the Malapa-based validation irrelevant. The results do, however, provide insight into aspects of the origin of the cave sediments and dated material. Most samples yielded disturbed 40Ar/39Ar spectra. The apparent pooled gas ages for the Mn ooids analysed from Malapa range between 476 ± 13 Ma and 1964 ± 13 Ma. Of 5 ooids from Sterkfontein, one yielded 1597 ± 13 Ma, while the rest range between 1960 ± 35 Ma and 2081 ± 13 Ma, the latter being a plateau age. Peloidal Mn nodules from Dinaledi Chamber samples yielded apparent ages between 1975 ± 9 Ma and 2096 ± 13 Ma. Indurated mudstone fragments were analysed from Sterkfontein and for 3 out of 4 samples, the apparent pooled gas ages range from 1970 ± 14 Ma to 2059 ± 13 Ma (one yielded 1623 ± 15 Ma). We conclude that ooids, peloids and indurated mudstone fragments are derived from higher levels in the Transvaal Supergroup stratigraphy, trapped in karst features over time as these were eroded, and finally washed into the caves.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
One metre cores were taken from three peat bogs in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland: Etang de la Gruère (EGr), La Tourbière des Genevez (TGe), and Praz Rodet (PRd). Dried peat samples were analyzed ...for lead (Pb) using the EMMA XRF and scandium (Sc) using INAA. Enrichment factors (EF) were calculated by normalizing to the background Pb/Sc ratio at EGr. Age dates were obtained using 210Pb (CRS Model) and confirmed using pollen chronostratigraphic markers in replicate cores. The isotopic composition of Pb in selected peat samples from EGr and TGe was determined using TIMS. Two pronounced peaks in Pb EF occur in the uppermost sections of all three bogs: the upper one corresponds to the late 1960's to late 1970's and the lower one to approximately 1900 to 1920. At EGr, sample 2f5 (11 cm, 86 µg/g Pb, EF = 91, and dated at A.D. 1967 ± 2) has an isotopic composition similar to that of leaded gasoline used in Berne in the 1970's. For comparison, the older peak at EGr (sample 2fl 1 at 29 cm, 84 µg/g Pb, EF = 79 and dated at A.D. 1905 ± 6) is significantly different. In contrast to these two samples, the isotopic composition of sample 2fl 5 (41 cm, 30 µg/g Pb, EF = 13 and pre-dating ca. A.D. 1800) approaches the present day "average terrestrial lead" and is likely to be predominately lithogenic. Therefore, the isotopic data show that the Pb introduced to the bog from leaded gasoline has not penetrated to this depth in the profile. A simple mass balance using the measured Pb concentrations and the isotopic compositions shows that vertical migration of gasoline Pb cannot explain the deeper, older peak in Pb EF. A more likely explanation is that the older peak reflects the rates of atmospheric Pb deposition during the first two decades of the 20th century. Taken together, the Pb concentrations, age dates, and isotopic data suggest that these peat profiles have preserved the record of changing rates of atmospheric Pb deposition. In addition, the results indicate that the isotopic composition of Pb deposited on the surface of the bogs gradually shifted away from lithogenic ratios as long ago as the middle of the 19th century, a change which clearly pre-dates the introduction of leaded gasoline.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Atmospheric Pb deposition since the Industrial Revolution was studied in western, central, and southern Switzerland using five rural peat bogs. Similar temporal patterns were found in western and ...central Switzerland, with two distinct periods of Pb enrichment relative to the natural background: between 1880 and 1920 with enrichments ranging from 40 to 80 times, and between 1960 and 1980 with enrichments ranging from 80 to 100 times. The fluxes also were generally elevated in those time periods: in western Switzerland between 1.16 and 1.55 μg cm-2 y-1 during the first period, and in western and central Switzerland between 0.85 and 1.55 μg cm-2 y-1 during the second period. Between the Industrial Revolution and 1985, nonradiogenic Pb became increasingly important in all five cores because of the replacement of coal by oil after ca. 1920, the use of Australian Pb in industry, and the extensive combustion of leaded gasoline after 1950. The introduction of unleaded gasoline in 1985 had a pronounced effect on the Pb deposition in all five cores. Enrichments dropped sharply (between 2 and 4 times), and the isotopic ratios reverted back toward (but not achieving) natural values. The cores from western and central Switzerland showed very similar isotopic trends throughout the time period studied, implying that these sites were influenced contemporaneously by similar pollution sources and atmospheric pathways. Southern Switzerland revealed a different record with respect to the Pb pollution: it was dominated by a single massive Pb enrichment dated between 1930 and 1950. During this period the Pb enrichment factor reached ∼200 times background and the Pb flux was ∼27 μg cm-2 y-1, more than an order of magnitude higher that at the western and central sites. This core also had significantly different post-1950 changes in the Pb isotope ratios.
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