Social acceptability is a determinant factor in the failure or success of the government's decisions about which electricity generation sources will satisfy the growing demand for energy. The main ...goal of this study was to validate a causal trust-acceptability model for electricity generation sources. In the model, social acceptance of an energy source is directly caused by perceived risk and benefit and also by social trust in regulatory agencies (both directly and indirectly, through perceived risk and benefit). Results from a web-based survey of Chilean university students demonstrated that data for energy sources that are controversial in Chilean society (fossil fuels, hydro, and nuclear power) fit the hypothesized model, whereas data for non conventional renewable energy sources (solar, wind, geothermal and tidal) did not. Perceived benefit had the greatest total effect on acceptability, thus emerging as a key predictive factor of social acceptability of controversial electricity generation sources. Further implications for regulatory agencies are discussed.
► We tested a causal trust-acceptability model for electricity generation sources in Chile. ► Data for controversial energy sources in the Chilean society (fossil fuels, hydro and nuclear power) fit the hypothesized model. ► Data for non conventional renewable energy sources did not fit the data. ► Perceived benefit showed the greatest total effect on acceptability.
Bans on single-use plastic shopping bags (SUPBs) are a popular policy to tackle plastic pollution. However, their success has been evaluated solely based on reduced SUPBs consumption, ignoring the ...impacts of substitutes. This article addresses this gap by analyzing the Chilean plastic bag ban law. Results show a reduction of ~249 kilotons of SUPBs consumed and a change in the materiality of shopping bags (mainly toward paper), but also an increase of more than 50% of bin liners after the enactment of the ban. Despite some undesired effects, an improvement in the environmental performance of the bag market is obtained in fifteen of the eighteen categories studied. The environmental impacts are on average 38% lower than in the counterfactual scenario. This suggests that the law is being effective in protecting the environment. The strictness of the ban and its rapid enforcement were positive aspects of its design, but ignoring the end-of-life of the bags could be limiting its impact. To reduce the environmental impact of substitutes, it is recommended to create design guidelines for shopping bags and bin liners.
It has been found that both preparedness for disasters and public response are significantly influenced by risk perceptions and trust in authorities and experts. Although Chile is a country with a ...long history of natural disasters, few studies have evaluated the risk perceptions of natural hazards or the degree of social trust. The aim of this study was to evaluate risk perception in Chile regarding various natural hazards and the degree of trust on authorities and institutions. A survey was conducted in five major cities in Chile during the year 2013 and was completed by a total sum of 2054 participants. We assessed risk perception of nine natural hazards and the level of trust in ten national institutions and authorities. According to declared levels of trust, the institutions and authorities included in this study were categorized into three groups: (1) low trust, which included governmental authorities and institutions; (2) medium trust, formed by institutions with educational and preparation roles; and (3) high trust, formed by institutions and authorities responsible for maintaining public order and conducting rescue and aid operations. Although our results show that earthquakes, tsunamis and wildfires were natural hazards of greatest concern to the national population, they also reflect that there are specific additional concerns in different cities that are coherent with their individual history of natural disasters. Implications for natural disaster risk preparedness are discussed.
Air pollution is an important public health concern especially for children who are particularly susceptible. Latin America has a large children population, is highly urbanized and levels of ...pollution are substantially high, making the potential health impact of air pollution quite large. We evaluated the effect of air pollution on children respiratory mortality in four large urban centers: Mexico City, Santiago, Chile, and Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
Generalized Additive Models in Poisson regression was used to fit daily time-series of mortality due to respiratory diseases in infants and children, and levels of PM10 and O3. Single lag and constrained polynomial distributed lag models were explored. Analyses were carried out per cause for each age group and each city. Fixed- and random-effects meta-analysis was conducted in order to combine the city-specific results in a single summary estimate.
These cities host nearly 43 million people and pollution levels were above the WHO guidelines. For PM10 the percentage increase in risk of death due to respiratory diseases in infants in a fixed effect model was 0.47% (0.09–0.85). For respiratory deaths in children 1–5 years old, the increase in risk was 0.58% (0.08–1.08) while a higher effect was observed for lower respiratory infections (LRI) in children 1–14 years old 1.38% (0.91–1.85). For O3, the only summarized estimate statistically significant was for LRI in infants. Analysis by season showed effects of O3 in the warm season for respiratory diseases in infants, while negative effects were observed for respiratory and LRI deaths in children.
We provided comparable mortality impact estimates of air pollutants across these cities and age groups. This information is important because many public policies aimed at preventing the adverse effects of pollution on health consider children as the population group that deserves the highest protection.
Percentage increase in daily mortality for respiratory diseases in infants for a 10 μg/m3 raise in PM10 and O3 levels in single lag models, for Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Santiago and Mexico City, 1997–2005. Display omitted
•Air pollution has important impact on children and infant mortality in Latin-American cities.•PM10 and to a lesser degree O3 were associated with respiratory deaths in infants and children.•These results should inform policies to prevent adverse health effects in children.
Air pollution has important impact on children and infant mortality in Latin-American cities with PM10 and to a lesser degree O3 were associated with respiratory deaths.
Background Factors affecting vulnerability to heat-related mortality are not well understood. Identifying susceptible populations is of particular importance given anticipated rising temperatures ...from climatic change. Methods We investigated heat-related mortality for three Latin American cities (Mexico City, Mexico; São Paulo, Brazil; Santiago, Chile) using a case-crossover approach for 754 291 deaths from 1998 to 2002. We considered lagged exposures, confounding by air pollution, cause of death and susceptibilities by educational attainment, age and sex. Results Same and previous day apparent temperature were most strongly associated with mortality risk. Effect estimates remained positive though lowered after adjustment for ozone or PM10. Susceptibility increased with age in all cities. The increase in mortality risk for those ≥65 comparing the 95th and 75th percentiles of same-day apparent temperature was 2.69% (95% CI: −2.06 to 7.88%) for Santiago, 6.51% (95% CI: 3.57–9.52%) for São Paulo and 3.22% (95% CI: 0.93–5.57%) for Mexico City. Patterns of vulnerability by education and sex differed across communities. Effect estimates were higher for women than men in Mexico City, and higher for men elsewhere, although results by sex were not appreciably different for any city. In São Paulo, those with less education were more susceptible, whereas no distinct patterns by education were observed in the other cities. Conclusions Elevated temperatures are associated with mortality risk in these Latin American cities, with the strongest associations in São Paulo, the hottest city. The elderly are an important population for targeted prevention measures, but vulnerability by sex and education differed by city.
In January 2017, hundreds of fires in Mediterranean Chile burnt more than 5000 km², an area nearly 14 times the 40-year mean. We contextualize these fires in terms of estimates of global fire ...intensity using MODIS satellite record, and provide an overview of the climatic factors and recent changes in land use that led to the active fire season and estimate the impact of fire emissions to human health. The primary fire activity in late January coincided with extreme fire weather conditions including all-time (1979–2017) daily records for the Fire Weather Index (FWI) and maximum temperature, producing some of the most energetically intense fire events on Earth in the last 15-years. Fire activity was further enabled by a warm moist growing season in 2016 that interrupted an intense drought that started in 2010. The land cover in this region had been extensively modified, with less than 20% of the original native vegetation remaining, and extensive plantations of highly flammable exotic Pinus and Eucalyptus species established since the 1970s. These plantations were disproportionally burnt (44% of the burned area) in 2017, and associated with the highest fire severities, as part of an increasing trend of fire extent in plantations over the past three decades. Smoke from the fires exposed over 9.5 million people to increased concentrations of particulate air pollution, causing an estimated 76 premature deaths and 209 additional admissions to hospital for respiratory and cardiovascular conditions. This study highlights that Mediterranean biogeographic regions with expansive Pinus and Eucalyptus plantations and associated rural depopulation are vulnerable to intense wildfires with wide ranging social, economic, and environmental impacts, which are likely to become more frequent due to longer and more extreme wildfire seasons.
To reduce air pollution levels in Santiago, Chile on days when the weather is expected to create poor ventilation conditions and increased air pollutant concentrations, the responsible authorities ...impose temporary restrictions on motor vehicles and certain industrial activities. We estimate the impact of these restrictions on the city's air quality using data collected by a network of monitoring stations. The estimates show that the restrictions do reduce the average concentrations of coarse and fine particulate matter, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide (both gases are emitted mainly by vehicles). However, no significant changes were found in the sulfur dioxide concentrations, which are primarily the result of industrial processes.
► Santiago's air quality policy significantly reduced pollutant's concentrations. ► Reductions in PM10 and PM2.5 were 5%–7% in alerts and 12% in pre-emergencies. ► The average decline in CO and NOx was 10% in alerts and 20% in pre-emergencies. ► Restrictions led to significant reductions in CO, NOx, PM10 and PM25 in weekdays.
Greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation policies can provide ancillary benefits in terms of short-term improvements in air quality and associated health benefits. Several studies have analyzed the ancillary ...impacts of GHG policies for a variety of locations, pollutants, and policies. In this paper we review the existing evidence on ancillary health benefits relating to air pollution from various GHG strategies and provide a framework for such analysis.
We evaluate techniques used in different stages of such research for estimation of: (1) changes in air pollutant concentrations; (2) avoided adverse health endpoints; and (3) economic valuation of health consequences. The limitations and merits of various methods are examined. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for ancillary benefits analysis and related research gaps in the relevant disciplines.
We found that to date most assessments have focused their analysis more heavily on one aspect of the framework (e.g., economic analysis). While a wide range of methods was applied to various policies and regions, results from multiple studies provide strong evidence that the short-term public health and economic benefits of ancillary benefits related to GHG mitigation strategies are substantial. Further, results of these analyses are likely to be underestimates because there are a number of important unquantified health and economic endpoints.
Remaining challenges include integrating the understanding of the relative toxicity of particulate matter by components or sources, developing better estimates of public health and environmental impacts on selected sub-populations, and devising new methods for evaluating heretofore unquantified and non-monetized benefits.
Background
Portal hypertension commonly accompanies advanced liver disease and often gives rise to life‐threatening complications, including haemorrhage from oesophageal and gastrointestinal varices. ...Variceal haemorrhage commonly occurs in children with chronic liver disease or portal vein obstruction. Prevention is therefore important. Following numerous randomised clinical trials demonstrating efficacy of non‐selective beta‐blockers and endoscopic variceal ligation in decreasing the incidence of variceal haemorrhage, primary prophylaxis of variceal haemorrhage in adults has become the established standard of care. Hence, band ligation and beta‐blockers have been proposed to be used as primary prophylaxis of oesophageal variceal bleeding in children.
Objectives
To determine the benefits and harms of band ligation compared with any type of beta‐blocker for primary prophylaxis of oesophageal variceal bleeding in children with chronic liver disease or portal vein thrombosis.
Search methods
We searched The Cochrane Hepato‐Biliary Group Controlled Trials Register (February 2019), CENTRAL (December 2018), PubMed (December 2018), Embase Ovid (December 2018), LILACS (Bireme; January 2019), and Science Citation Index Expanded (Web of Science; December 2018). We scrutinised the reference lists of the retrieved publications and performed a manual search from the main paediatric gastroenterology and hepatology conferences (NASPGHAN and ESPGHAN) books from 2009 to 2018. We searched ClinicalTrials.gov for ongoing clinical trials. There were no language or document type restrictions.
Selection criteria
We planned to include randomised clinical trials irrespective of blinding, language, or publication status for assessment of benefits and harms. We planned to also include quasi‐randomised and other observational studies retrieved with the searches for randomised clinical trials for report of harm.
Data collection and analysis
We planned to summarise data from randomised clinical trials using standard Cochrane methodologies.
Main results
We found no randomised clinical trials assessing band ligation versus beta‐blockers for primary prophylaxis of oesophageal variceal bleeding in children with chronic liver disease or portal vein thrombosis.
Authors' conclusions
Randomised clinical trials assessing the benefits or harms of band ligation versus beta‐blockers for primary prophylaxis of oesophageal variceal bleeding in children with chronic liver disease or portal vein thrombosis are lacking. There is a need for well‐designed, adequately powered randomised clinical trials to assess the benefits and harms of band ligation versus beta‐blockers for primary prophylaxis of oesophageal variceal bleeding in children with chronic liver disease or portal vein thrombosis. Those randomised clinical trials should include patient‐relevant clinical outcomes such as mortality, failure to control bleeding, and adverse events.
The diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still limited. Therefore, this study demonstrates the presence of human ether-a-go-go-related gene 1 (hERG1) and heat shock protein 47 (Hsp47) on the ...surface of small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) in human peripheral blood and their association with CVD. In this research, 20 individuals with heart failure and 26 participants subjected to cardiac stress tests were enrolled. The associations between hERG1 and/or Hsp47 in sEVs and CVD were established using Western blot, flow cytometry, electron microscopy, ELISA, and nanoparticle tracking analysis. The results show that hERG1 and Hsp47 were present in sEV membranes, extravesicularly exposing the sequences
AFLLKETEEGPPATE
for hERG1 and
ALQSINEWAAQTT- DGKLPEVTKDVERTD
for Hsp47. In addition, upon exposure to hypoxia, rat primary cardiomyocytes released sEVs into the media, and human cardiomyocytes in culture also released sEVs containing hERG1 (EV-hERG1) and/or Hsp47 (EV-Hsp47). Moreover, the levels of sEVs increased in the blood when cardiac ischemia was induced during the stress test, as well as the concentrations of EV-hERG1 and EV-Hsp47. Additionally, the plasma levels of EV-hERG1 and EV-Hsp47 decreased in patients with decompensated heart failure (DHF). Our data provide the first evidence that hERG1 and Hsp47 are present in the membranes of sEVs derived from the human cardiomyocyte cell line, and also in those isolated from human peripheral blood. Total sEVs, EV-hERG1, and EV-Hsp47 may be explored as biomarkers for heart diseases such as heart failure and cardiac ischemia.
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