Pesticide use in banana plantations in Costa Rica-A review of environmental and human exposure, effects and potential risks

Biodiversity is declining on a global scale. Especially tropical ecosystems, containing most of the planetary biodiversity, are at risk. Agricultural monocrop systems contribute to this decline as they replace original hab-itats and depend on extensive use of synthetic pesticides that impact ecosystems. In this review we use large-scale banana production for export purposes in Costa Rica as an example for pesticide impacts, as it is in production for over a century and uses pesticides extensively for more than fifty years. We summarise the research on pesticide exposure, effects and risks for aquatic and terrestrial environment, as well as for human health. We show that exposure to pesticides is high and relatively well-studied for aquatic systems and humans, but hardly any data are available for the terrestrial compartment including adjacent non target ecosystems such as rainforest fragments. Ecological effects are demonstrated on an organismic level for various aquatic species and processes but are not available at the population and community level. For human health studies exposure evaluation is crucial and recognised effects include various types of cancer and neurobiological dysfunctions particularly in children. With the many synthetic pesticides involved in banana production, the focus on insecticides, revealing highest aquatic risks, and partly herbicides should be extended to fungicides, which are applied aerially over larger areas. The risk assessment and regulation of pesticides so far relies on temperate models and test species and is therefore likely underestimating the risk of pesticide use in tropical ecosystems, with crops such as banana. We highlight further research approaches to improve risk assessment and, in parallel, urge to follow other strategies to reduce pesticides use and especially hazardous substances

Empirical agent-based modelling of everyday pro-environmental behaviours at work

We report on agent-based modelling work in the LOCAW project (Low Carbon at Work: Modelling Agents and Organisations to Achieve Transition to a Low Carbon Europe). The project explored the effectiveness of various backcasting scenarios conducted with case study organisations in bringing about pro-environmental change in the workforce in the domains of transport, energy use and waste. The model used qualitative representations of workspaces in formalising each scenario, and decision trees learned from questionnaire responses to represent decision-making. We describe the process by which the decision trees were constructed, noting that the use of decision trees in agent-based models requires particular considerations owing to the potential use of explanatory variables in model dynamics. The results of the modelling in various scenarios emphasise the importance of structural environmental changes in facilitating everyday pro-environmental behaviour, but also show there is a role for psychological variables such as norms, values and efficacy. As such, the topology of social interactions is a potentially important driver, raising the interesting prospect that both workplace geography and organisational hierarchy have a role to play in influencing workplace pro-environmental behaviours

TICAREX: Exposiciones laborales a agentes cancerígenos y plaguicidas en Costa Rica

The European data system CAREX takes the workforce of a country grouped into 55 economic sectors according to the International Economic Activity Classification (IEAC) of the United Nations, the second 1968 revision and through the application of proportions of workers exposed to 139 carcinogenic agents based on data from industrial hygiene studies, converting it into the total workforce exposed to carcinogens by sector. . In this article we describe a modification and extension of of the CAREX system in order to calculate the number of workers exposed to carcinogens in Costa Rica. It is the first use of CAREX outside Europe (TICAREX) in Costa Rica, Central America, for 27carcinogens and 7 groups of pesticides thought to be of interest for the country, with separate estimations for men and women. The most frequent agents of exposure for the 1.3 million workers of Costa Rica were solar radiation (333,000 workers); diesel exhaust (278,000); paraquat and diquat (175,000); environmental tobacco smoke (71,000); hexavalent chromium compounds (55,000); benzene (52,000); mancozeb, maneb and zineb (49,000); chlorothalonil (38,000); wood dust (32,000); quartz (27,000); benomyl (19,000); lead and its inorganic compounds (19,000); tetrachloroethylene (18,000); and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (17,000). Owing to the different occupational distribution between the genders, exposures to formaldehyde, radon and methylene chloride were more frequent than pesticides, hexavalent chromium, wood dust, and quartz in women. Agriculture, construction, personal and domestic services, manufacture of wood products, mining, forestry, fishing, manufacture of electrical products, and bars and restaurants were sectors with frequent exposures. Substantial reduction of occupational and environmental exposures to these agents would significantly improve public and occupational health. Reduction of occupational exposures is usually also followed by improvement of environmental quality. Monitoring of exposures and health of workers and the general public is an essential element in the control of environmental contamination and human exposures.El sistema europeo de datos CAREX ( CARcinogen Exposure ) considera la fuerza laboral de un país agrupada en 55 sectores económicos según la Clasificación Internacional de Actividades Económicas ( CIAE ) de las Naciones Unidas, segunda revisión de 1968 y mediante la aplicación de proporciones de trabajadores expuestos a partir de datos generados en estudios de higiene industrial para 139 agentes carcinógenos , los convierte a total de fuerza laboral expuesta y número de trabajadores expuestos a agentes carcinogénicos según rama de actividad. . En este artículo se describe una modificación y extensión del sistema CAREX (de CARcinogen Exposure) para calcular los números de trabajadores expuestos a agentes cancerígenos y plaguicidas en Costa Rica. Esta es la primera aplicación de CAREX fuera de Europa (TICAREX) fue realizada en Costa Rica, Centroamérica para 27 agentes cancerígenos y 7 grupos de plaguicidas, considerados de interés para el país, realizando estimaciones por separado para mujeres y hombres . Los agentes cancerígenos más frecuentes a los que se expone la fuerza laboral de Costa Rica de 1.3 millones fueron la radiación solar (333,000 trabajadores); las emisiones de diesel (278,000); paraquat y diquat (175,000); el humo de tabaco ambiental (71,000); los compuestos de cromo hexavalente (55,000); el benceno (52,000); mancozeb, maneb y zineb (49,000); clorotalonil (38,000); el polvo de madera (32,000); el cuarzo (27,000); benomil (19,000); el plomo y sus compuestos inorgánicos (19,000); tetracloroetileno (18,000); y los compuestos aromáticos policíclicos (17,000). En los hombres , la distribución se mantuvo muy ajustada a los anteriores rangos, sin embargo en las mujeres, debido a su diferente distribución en los sectores, el formaldehído, el radón y el cloruro de metileno superaron a los plaguicidas, el cromo (VI), el polvo de madera y el cuarzo. La agricultura, la construcción, los servicios personales y domésticos, el transporte terrestre y acuático y los servicios asociados al transporte , la fabricación de productos cerámicos y semejantes, la manufactura de productos de madera, la minería, la silvicultura, la pesca, la fabricación de maquinaria y aparatos eléctricos, bares y restaurantes fueron sectores de donde las exposiciones son frecuentes. Una reducción drástica de exposiciones laborales y ambientales a estos agentes daría por resultado mejoras sustanciales en los niveles de salud pública y ocupacional. . La vigilancia de las exposiciones laborales y de la salud en el trabajo son esenciales para el control de la contaminación y de las exposiciones a los agentes cancerígenos. La adopción de políticas efectivas para la reducción de los peligros por estos agentes , debe considerar todas las fuentes de exposición y la coordinación intersectorial para la creación, administración e implementación de las regulaciones en esta materia. La reducción de los peligros químicos en el trabajo frecuentemente es seguida por una reducción en las emisiones industriales al ambiente cercano a la planta o proceso productivo

Docent in excellentieonderwijs : Ervaringen uit hoger onderwijs vertaald naar het mbo

Wat is het belang van de docent in (excellentie)onderwijs? Welke docentkenmerken passen binnen deze onderwijscontext? Met welke dilemma's kan een docent te maken krijgen? Hoe is het werken met docenten van buiten? Deze en andere vragen komen aan bod in de brochure. Ook gaan de auteurs in op de instellingscultuur, docentprofessionalisering en mogelijke (in)formele taakafspraken

Docent in excellentieonderwijs : Ervaringen uit hoger onderwijs vertaald naar het mbo

Wat is het belang van de docent in (excellentie)onderwijs? Welke docentkenmerken passen binnen deze onderwijscontext? Met welke dilemma's kan een docent te maken krijgen? Hoe is het werken met docenten van buiten? Deze en andere vragen komen aan bod in de brochure. Ook gaan de auteurs in op de instellingscultuur, docentprofessionalisering en mogelijke (in)formele taakafspraken