LCA and communication: Environmental Product Declaration

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Life Cycle Assessment of ship recycling: metals recovery

In 2010 the International Maritime Organization (IMO) reported that more than 100.000 ships where operating world wide for people and goods transport. (Maritime Knowledge Centre, 2011). This huge number of ships need to be dismantled at the end of their life cycle. Thus, during the last decade, concerns about the environmental costs of ship breaking activity start to develop around science and policy makers, (Hiremath et al., 2015). Ship recycling help in recovering great numbers of materials and valuables, such as, machineries, household accessories, plastic, glass and most of all metals. Ship recycling industry can be considered Sustainable and participant to the circular economy principles, as almost the whole ship products can be reused, recycled and resold, (Sarraf et al., 2010). Although the great economic and environmental benefits originate by ship recycling; barriers still exist within the current system, (Choi et al., 2016). Policies have been promoted by many international authorities, such as the United Nations, to address the issue related to ship breaking, (Chang et al., 2010). In 2009, the Hong Kong Convention (HKC), (IMO, 2013) and in 2013 the European Union, with the “Ship Recycling Regulation” (EU, 2013), regulated the ship recycling, ensuring that ships, during their end of life phase, do not pose any risks to human, and developed authorization of ship recycling facilities and safe and environmentally sound recycling of ship, (Hiremath et al., 2016). The night of the 13 January 2012 the cruise ship Concordia shipwrecked near the Giglio Island in the Mediterranean sea. The Concordia wreck have been processed in accordance with the previously presented policies, and given the size and the uniqueness represents an important case study for many and multidisciplinary studies. Giving the fact that more than 95% of ship weight is represented by steel and metal scrap, (Deshpande et al., 2013), this study evaluates the environmental burdens of the operations for metals recycling with a Life cycle assessment methodology. The assessment is developed as a comparison between conventional metal production and metals recycled from the cruise ship. Five different metal waste flows, are investigated, taking into account all the operations for the dismantling of the materials, their transport to the different recycling facility and the transformation of the metal scraps in recycled metals. The same analysis was done for the traditional metals (Figure 1). Acidification, eutrophication, climate change and energy requirement are the impact categories evaluated. Moreover, an economic analysis of the traditional metals and the recycled metals is carried out. Results show that recycled metals from the wrecked cruise ship have an overall better environmental score than the conventional ones. However, in the light of the results of this study, metal scrap recycling induce significant environmental impacts, especially in the climate change category, where the separation from impurity process results as highly incisive in the generation of green house gasses Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Responsabilização juvenil na justiça restaurativa

Divulgação dos SUMÁRIOS das obras recentemente incorporadas ao acervo da Biblioteca Ministro Oscar Saraiva do STJ. Em respeito à Lei de Direitos Autorais, não disponibilizamos a obra na íntegra.Localização na estante: 343.915(81) B732

Monitoring of carbon dioxide uptake in accelerated carbonation processes applied to air pollution control residues

The application of Accelerated Carbonation Technology (ACT) has potential for the sequestration of carbon in waste and geological materials. ACT also has potential to be supported by carbon credit mechanisms based upon the amount of carbon sequestered from industrial emissions. For this to happen, the routine monitoring of CO2 sequestered into the solid phase is required for the planning and operation of any accelerated carbonation plant. The present paper reports the preliminary results from an assessment of existing methods for measuring CO2 imbibed into a solid by an accelerated carbonation processes. Laboratory-scale experiments were carried out to evaluate the accuracy of methodologies for measuring mineralised carbon including: loss on ignition, acid digestion and total carbon analysis. The CO2 reactivity of several wastes from municipal incineration known as Air Pollution Control residues (APCr) were also included in the study. A detailed characterisation of the materials being carbonated, using X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and ion chromatography was carried out. The results of this study showed that monitoring CO2 during accelerated carbonation is made difficult by the complex mineralogy of materials such as APCrs. As such, the presence of calcium bearing species and polymorphs of calcium carbonate formed varied between the materials investigated. The use of an acid digestion technique was not subject to interference from the chemistry or mineralogy of an ash. Among the investigated methods, acid digestion gives the most promising results as it provided robust data on the amount of carbon imbibed during processing

A look at the past to draw lessons for the future: how the case of an urgent ICU transfer taught us to always be ready with a plan B

Objective: The urgent transfer of an intensive care unit (ICU) is particularly challenging because it carries a high clinical and infectious risk and is a critical node in a hospital’s patient flow. In early 2017, exceptional rainfall damaged the roof of the tertiary hospital in Udine, necessitating the relocation of one of the three ICUs for six months. We decided to assess the impact of this transfer on quality of care and patient safety using a set of indicators, primarily considering the incidence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and mortality rates. Methods: We performed a retrospective, observational analysis of structural, process, and outcome indicators comparing the pre- and posttransfer phases. Specifically, we analyzed data between July 2016 and June 2017 for the transferred ICU and examined mortality and the incidence of HAI. Results: Despite significant changes in structural and organizational aspects of the unit, no differences in mortality rates or cumulative incidence of HAIs were observed before/after transfer. We collected data for all 393 patients (133 women, 260 men) admitted to the ICU before (49.4%) and after transfer (50.6%). The mortality rate for 100 days in the ICU was 1.90 (34/1791) before and 2.88 (37/1258) after transfer (p = 0.063). The evaluation of the occurrence of at least one HAI included 304 patients (102 women and 202 men), as 89 of them were excluded due to a length of stay in the ICU of less than 48 h; again, there was no statistical difference between the two cumulative incidences (13.1% vs. 6.9%, p = 0.075). Conclusion: In the case studied, no adverse effects on patient outcomes were observed after urgent transfer of the injured ICU. The indicators used in this study may be an initial suggestion for further discussion

Exercise-Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation for Interstitial Lung Diseases: A Review of Components, Prescription, Efficacy, and Safety

Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) comprise a heterogeneous group of disorders (such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis, asbestosis, and pneumonitis) characterized by lung parenchymal impairment, inflammation, and fibrosis. The shortness of breath (i.e., dyspnea) is a hallmark and disabling symptom of ILDs. Patients with ILDs may also exhibit skeletal muscle dysfunction, oxygen desaturation, abnormal respiratory patterns, pulmonary hypertension, and decreased cardiac function, contributing to exercise intolerance and limitation of day-to-day activities. Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) including physical exercise is an evidence-based approach to benefit functional capacity, dyspnea, and quality of life in ILD patients. However, despite recent advances and similarities with other lung diseases, the field of PR for patients with ILD requires further evidence. This mini-review aims to explore the exercise-based PR delivered around the world and evidence supporting prescription modes, considering type, intensity, and frequency components, as well as efficacy and safety of exercise training in ILDs. This review will be able to strengthen the rationale for exercise training recommendations as a core component of the PR for ILD patients

Pay for performance in primary care: the contribution of the Programme for Improving Access and Quality of Primary Care (PMAQ) on avoidable hospitalisations in Brazil, 2009-2018.

BACKGROUND: Evidence on the effect of pay-for-performance (P4P) schemes on provider performance is mixed in low-income and middle-income countries. Brazil introduced its first national-level P4P scheme in 2011 (PMAQ-Brazilian National Programme for Improving Primary Care Access and Quality). PMAQ is likely one of the largest P4P schemes in the world. We estimate the association between PMAQ and hospitalisations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) based on a panel of 5564 municipalities. METHODS: We conducted a fixed effect panel data analysis over the period of 2009-2018, controlling for coverage of primary healthcare, hospital beds per 10 000 population, education, real gross domestic product per capita and population density. The outcome is the hospitalisation rate for ACSCs among people aged 64 years and under per 10 000 population. Our exposure variable is defined as the percentage of family health teams participating in PMAQ, which captures the roll-out of PMAQ over time. We also provided several sensitivity analyses, by using alternative measures of the exposure and outcome variables, and a placebo test using transport accident hospitalisations instead of ACSCs. RESULTS: The results show a negative and statistically significant association between the rollout of PMAQ and ACSC rates for all age groups. An increase in PMAQ participating of one percentage point decreased the hospitalisation rate for ACSC by 0.0356 (SE 0.0123, p=0.004) per 10 000 population (aged 0-64 years). This corresponds to a reduction of approximately 60 829 hospitalisations in 2018. The impact is stronger for children under 5 years (-0.0940, SE 0.0375, p=0.012), representing a reduction of around 11 936 hospitalisations. Our placebo test shows that the association of PMAQ on the hospitalisation rate for transport accidents is not statistically significant, as expected. CONCLUSION: We find that PMAQ was associated with a modest reduction in hospitalisation for ACSCs