To explore complex associations among demographic factors, risk factors, health care, and fatality rates of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
We ...based this study on analysis of a publicly accessible line listing of 1256 MERS-CoV cases (2013 to October 2018) available on the World Health Organization's Web site. For analyses of demographic factors (e.g., age, gender), access to health care, promptness of laboratory services, risk factors (comorbidity, exposure to camels and persons with MERS-CoV), occupation (health care), and outcome (fatality), we used descriptive statistics, risk ratio (RR), and the Pearson χ
test.
Presence of comorbidity (RR = 3; 95% confidence interval CI = 2.2, 3.9), being male (RR = 1.6; 95% CI = 1.2, 2.1), exposure to dromedary camels (RR = 1.6; 95% CI = 1.3, 2.3), and consumption of camel milk (RR = 1.5; 95% CI = 0.9, 1.7) can significantly increase risk for fatality. Health care workers have significantly lower fatality (
< .001) than the rest of the persons with MERS-CoV.
Policies that promote health awareness for the high-risk population and their prompt seeking of health care should be considered. Publicly accessible line lists of infectious diseases such as MERS-CoV can be valuable sources for epidemiological analysis.
A pervasive sense of dissatisfaction is driving an unstoppable longing for materialistic things, resulting in anthropogenic disruptions of the earth’s natural systems. Behavioral economics integrates ...insights from psychological research into economic science. This policy brief explores how behavioral economics can be a practical approach citizens can use to adopt pro-environmental behavior without significant economic interference. It is worth examining why some people maintain the status quo by not embracing green options despite knowing their positive environmental impacts and even after financial incentives are offered for such options. Human decision anomalies are often driven by simple intuition, with decisions made by mental shortcuts known as
heuristics
.
Nudging
people and setting up a choice architecture may be a better way to alter people’s behavior to adopt a pro-environment lifestyle.
Brief Biosketch
He is the author of 5 books and edited 7 books (chapters). He has published peer-reviewed articles in several reputed journals. He is serving as a Course Coordinator for Undergraduate ...(MD) teaching: Environmental health. There are 2 notified research grants in his credit: CIHR Project Grant (Spring 2019) and NSERC along with 3 ongoing projects. He was awarded Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University Outstanding Research Excellence Award (2015) and SSHRC Travel Grants Competition, Annual conference of International Society of Environmental Epidemiology, Basel, Switzerland (2013). His area of research interest is Environmental contamination and ecosystem health, Climate change and health, Indigenous health, Global Health and Social epidemiology.
Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are the exogenous substances that can cause adverse health effects through disruption to the body's endocrine systems. This can result in changes to circulating hormone concentrations, which act as signals to regulate growth, metabolism and reproduction. Hormones are maintained at very low concentrations in the bloodstream; therefore, even low levels of EDC exposure can have large consequences on endocrine homeostasis. The potential adverse health effects resulting from exposure to EDCs, including developmental abnormalities, abnormal hormonal profiles, disorders of the reproductive systems, increased incidence of cancer, and alterations to both the immune and nervous systems.
There are numerous chemicals used in our day to day basis have endocrine disruption property, such as pesticides, flame retardants, and various other industrial chemicals. Humans are exposed to those chemicals from direct exposures while using them, and also from the diet. EDCs reach environment from deposition via industrial effluents or direct application and also through wastewater and landfills. Eventually, these chemicals destine to aquatic ecosystems, such as rivers, ponds, lakes, seas and oceans. Humans further get exposed to EDCs by eating marine products. The bio-accumulative and bio-magnification nature of EDCs result in their very high levels in large predatory fish and marine mammals.
Studies show the people who regularly eat marine products contaminated with EDCs encounter various forms of adverse health outcomes such as thyroid hormone disruptions, infertility, and other endocrine diseases. Despite extensive literature available in industrialized countries, studies conducted in resource constraint countries are very few. Therefore, more research needed to generate further evidence.
Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are commonly used in consumer products and they shed off these products and eventually build up in household dust. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), in ...particular, are known endocrine-disrupting chemicals affecting various hormone syntheses. Portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) is the most common non-destructive method in identifying BFRs in environmental samples. However, the method is insensitive to bromine speciation. Synchrotron-based XRF has been shown to have very low detection limits (< 1 μg/g) that is suitable for detecting BFRs and can be combined with X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) to identify the bromine species present in the household dust. Twenty indoor dust samples were collected from rural homes in Newfoundland (Canada) to assess the use of synchrotron-based techniques to identify BFRs. Synchrotron-based XRF analysis identified bromine in all the samples, with concentrations ranging from 2–19 μg/g. XANES analysis identified organic-based bromine species in several samples that are likely BFRs based on the spectral line shape. The accuracy of using XANES to identify BFRs is highly dependent on the source and size of the dust samples. Therefore, for future research, it is important to take into account the sources of dust sample and to focus on fine dust particles.
In India, tuberculosis is an enormous public health problem. This study provides the first description of molecular diversity of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) from Sikkim, India. A ...total of 399 Acid Fast Bacilli sputum positive samples were cultured on Lőwenstein-Jensen media and genetic characterisation was done by spoligotyping and 24-loci MIRU-VNTR typing. Spoligotyping revealed the occurrence of 58 different spoligotypes. Beijing spoligotype was the most dominant type constituting 62.41% of the total isolates and was associated with Multiple Drug Resistance. Minimum Spanning tree analysis of 249 Beijing strains based on 24-loci MIRU-VNTR analysis identified 12 clonal complexes (Single Locus Variants). The principal component analysis was used to visualise possible grouping of MTBC isolates from Sikkim belonging to major spoligotypes using 24-MIRU VNTR profiles. Artificial intelligence-based machine learning (ML) methods such as Random Forests (RF), Support Vector Machines (SVM) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) were used to predict dominant spoligotypes of MTBC using MIRU-VNTR data. K-fold cross-validation and validation using unseen testing data set revealed high accuracy of ANN, RF, and SVM for predicting Beijing, CAS1_Delhi, and T1 Spoligotypes (93-99%). However, prediction using the external new validation data set revealed that the RF model was more accurate than SVM and ANN.
Mass production and insatiable consumption are leading to enormous waste worldwide, contaminating the entire biosphere, losing biodiversity, and climate change. Craving for materialistic things and ...buying sprees for newer products indicate the dominant roles of human behavior in imminent ecological, social, and economic crises. However, existing global environmental governance has failed to address the current consumption patterns, particularly in rich countries. There is no inclusive developmental policy that integrates human behavior intervention to reduce unnecessary consumption, closed-loop material flow systems to keep waste out of the system, and economic strategies addressing ecological disaster from a social equity standpoint. The paper is based on a critical literature review of three concepts, relevance of behavioral economics in pro-environmental decision making, scope and limitations of circular economy as technological solutions, and conflicts of ecological economics with dominant neoclassical economics pitting ‘degrowth’ as an alternative. The paper proposes a theoretical concept of a novel economic model (minimalonomics) that aims to provide an institutional framework for a minimalist lifestyle without compromising wellbeing, prosperity, equity, and justice. The model focuses on minimizing consumption at the individual and societal levels, integrating theories and principles of ecological economics and behavioral economics, and efficient application of circular economy. Minimalonomics emphasizes creating a pro-environmental attitude in all levels of society (producers, consumers, and government) and translating the individual's perspective to collective and coordinated action for protecting the biosphere. Contrary to the standard economic approach, minimalonomics restores the value of localization and appropriates local social and cultural norms regarding consumption, waste reduction, and environmental protection; thus, the model is more inclusive. Minimalonomics is a novel concept; therefore, before application to governance and policies, it needs further research on creating theories, developing indicators, and testing them in the field.
•Craving for new things & endless consumption generating enormous amount of wastes.•Waste mitigation strategies fail to address the current patterns of consumption.•Promote minimalist lifestyle at individual levels, and degrowth at policy levels.•Minimalonomics emphases on creating a pro-environmental attitude in the society.•Need to integrate ecological economics, behavioral economics and circular economy.
Presence of PBDEs tested in 127 liver samples from Atlantic Cod (
Gadus morhua
) and Turbot (
Scophthalmus Maximus
) and 80 adult participants from two rural Newfoundland communities. Seafood ...consumption was measured through a validated seafood consumption questionnaire. PBDEs (-28, -47, -99, -156, and -209) were found in all fish liver samples, and PBB-153 and PBDEs-28, -47, -99, -100, -153 were identified as the most prominent congeners from the participants' serum samples. Cod was the most frequently consumed species in the seafood consumption survey. PBB-153 was higher amongst older (> 50 years age) participants (
p
< 0.0001), however, no PBDE congeners were significantly different by age. PBB-153 (
p
= 0.001), PBDE-153 (
p
= 0.006), and
5
PBDE (
p
= 0.008) levels were significantly higher in males. The study shows that the marine ecosystem around Newfoundland has been contaminated by PBDEs, and that rural coastal residents are potentially exposed to these contaminants through local seafood consumption.
Noise is a significant health hazard for fish harvesters. Chronic exposure to hazardous noise levels of 85 dB (A) for an 8-h work shift can have adverse health impacts, including both auditory and ...non-auditory health problems such as noise-induced hearing loss, stress, hypertension, sleeping disorders, and impaired cognitive performance.
A review of legislation and policies governing workplace noise exposure, as well as qualitative, semi-structured interviews, were conducted to assess how fish harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) manage onboard occupational noise exposure and perceive noise-induced health problems, as well as the barriers and challenges associated with preventing and controlling noise exposure.
The legal review shows no compulsory noise preventive measure at the fishing vessel design stage in Canada. Limited implementation of
to control and prevent onboard noise by employers in Newfoundland and Labrador. Fishers reported that their workplace is noisy. Over time, fish harvesters adapted to the environment and learned to tolerate loud noise, displaying fatalistic behavior. Fish harvesters reported avoiding using hearing protection onboard due to navigation safety concerns. Fishers reported hearing loss as well as other non-auditory health problems. Inadequate noise control measures adopted by employers, a limited supply of hearing protection onboard, and a lack of regular hearing testing, training, and education were identified as the main barriers to preventing and controlling noise exposure.
Proper implementation of NL
and the development of hearing conservation initiatives by employers are necessary. All stakeholders, including the federal and provincial governments, WorkplaceNL, and not-for-profit fishing organizations in the province, are strongly recommended to initiate training and education campaigns to help fish harvesters understand noise exposure and adopt preventive measures.
Nuclear power and uranium mining Sarkar, Atanu
Journal of public health policy,
12/2019, Letnik:
40, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Despite the Fukushima power plant accident (2011), development of next-generation nuclear reactors and rapid expansion of uranium mining in low-income countries are likely to improve prospects for ...the nuclear industry. Trends in the nuclear energy industry have given rise to new public health challenges. Driven by high power demands, electricity production from nuclear plants has continually risen. Africa and Asia have emerged as major sources of uranium due in part to the poorly enforced labor laws resulting in low operating costs, plus less stringent regulatory frameworks. There is ample evidence of the industry transgressing environmental regulations as well as unethical practices that pose serious threats to public health. Anticipated safety issues associated with new reactors need to be addressed before promoting them as a viable alternative. This article provides recommendations for multilateral institutional collaboration on public health surveillance plus capacity building for young researchers.
•Perception of variability presents a challenge to social science of climate research.•Treatment of variability in social science research remains limited.•Excluding variability complicates the ...synthesis of climate perceptions/observations.•An example is presented for rural Newfoundland (Canada).•Understanding of variability perception can improve climate communication efforts.
Although the spatial and temporal scales on which climate varies is a prominent aspect of climate research in the natural sciences, its treatment in the social sciences remains relatively underdeveloped. The result is limited understanding of the public's capacity to perceive climate variability as distinct from change, and uncertainty surrounding how and when to best communicate information on variability/change. Ignoring variability in favour of change-focused analyses and language risks significant misrepresentation of public perception and knowledge, and precludes detailed synthesis of data from the social and natural sciences. An example is presented based on a regional comparison of variability-dominated climate observations and change-focused survey data, collected in western Newfoundland (Canada). This region experiences pronounced, slow-varying natural variability, which acted to obscure broader climate trends through the 1980s and 1990s; since the late 1990s, the same variability has amplified apparent change. While survey results confirm residents perceive regional climate change, it is not clear whether respondents distinguish variability from change. This presents uncertainty in the best approach to climate science communication in this region, and raises concern that subsequent variability-driven transient cooling will erode public support for climate action. Parallels are drawn between these regional concerns and similar uncertainty surrounding treatment of variability in discussion of global temperature trends, highlighting variability perception as a significant gap in human dimensions of climate change research.
PDF
