Regional employment and individual worklessness during the Great Recession and the health of the working-age population: cross-national analysis of 16 European countries

Studies from single countries suggest that local labour market conditions, including rates of employment, tend to be associated with the health of the populations residing in those areas, even after adjustment for individual characteristics including employment status. The aim of this study is to strengthen the cross-national evidence base on the influence of regional employment levels and individual worklessness on health during the period of the Great Recession. We investigate whether higher regional employment levels are associated with better health over and above individual level employment. Individual level data (N = 23,078 aged 15–64 years) were taken from 16 countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom) participating in the 2014 European Social Survey. Regional employment rates were extracted from Eurostat, corresponding with the start (2008) and end (2013) of the Great Recession. Health outcomes included self-reported heart or circulation problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, self-rated health, depression, obesity and allergies (as a falsification test). We calculated multilevel Poisson regression models, which included individuals nested within regions, controlling for potential confounding variables and country fixed effects. After adjustment for individual level socio-demographic factors, higher average regional employment rates (from 2008 to 2013) were associated with better health outcomes. Individual level worklessness was associated with worsened health outcomes, most strongly with poor self-rated health. In models including both individual worklessness and the average regional employment rate, regional employment remained associated with heart and circulation problems, depression and obesity. There was evidence of an interaction between individual worklessness and regional employment for poor self-rated health and depression. The findings suggest that across 16 European countries, for some key outcomes, higher levels of employment in the regional labour market may be beneficial for the health of the local population

Landscape development in the safety assessment of a potential repository in Forsmark, Sweden

One challenge in the analysis of far future radiological effects of a deep geological repository is to handle changes in time on ecosystems potentially affected. Under Swedish regulations, the time span that needs to be assessed is 100,000 yrs or more. This has historically been treated by using a reference biosphere that, in short, takes into account the total data range of the site properties that may change with different climates and sites. One problem with this strategy has always been to show that these reference biospheres have relevance for a specific site. To overcome this problem, SKB has adopted a strategy that uses site specific information together with scientific literature to build a narrative. This narrative describes the site development during a 100,000-yrs period (time frame of the present global glacial cycle). The information is used to compile a number of models that describe how the succession of abiotic and biotic features and their properties will develop at the site. The resulting Landscape Development Model is finally used in two ways: to tell the narrative of the site development based on scientific understanding and interdisciplinary consensus, and to populate the Radionuclide Model that is used to describe the effects of released radionuclides in a changing environment

Downstream migration of Salmo salar and S. trutta smolts in two regulated northern Swedish rivers

The downstream migration of Atlantic salmon and anadromous brown trout smolts was studied in two flow controlled northern Swedish rivers. The annual mean flow in Umeälven and Piteälven is c. 430 m3/s and c. 150 m3/s, respectively. Water power constructions located in the lower parts of these rivers may hinder or kill downstream migrating fish. Naturally produced salmon smolts in these rivers have two alternatives for passage of the water power constructions when they undertake their seasonally timed seaward migration in may-june: a) passing the turbines, or b) pass through the spill-way over the dam. Existing power-stations in Stornorrfors (Umeälven) use Francis turbines while Sikfors (Piteälven) use Kaplan turbines. In spring 2002 and 2003 a total of 90 Atlantic salmon and 56 brown trout two-year old hatchery-reared smolts were radio tagged with internal esophageal, individually coded radio transmitters (ATS). Trout were significantly larger (average length: 23.8 cm) than salmon (19.7 cm) (t-test, p<0.01). One to two days post-tagging the fish were released upstream the dammed areas, c. 5.0 km above Stornorrfors dam and c. 2.5 km above Sikfors dam, respectively. Their downstream migration routes were tracked both manually and with automatic listening stations in the horizontal plane (2-dimensional). Simultaneously, velocity profiles were measured in selected cross-sections using an Acoustic Doppler Profiler (ADP) applied to depth measurements giving a digitalised GIS-map over the dammed areas. Our main findings from the telemetry trackings, depth- and flow-measurements, and flow simulation show that the downstream migrating smolts move in the main flow in the river where the highest water velocities were registered. This subsequently resulted that fish entered the power-station, and did not pass downstream over spillways via dams or the fish ladders. The discharge ratio between power-station and spillway, with excess of water passing the power-station, guided fish to pass the turbines giving an extra mortality. Comparing the water velocities in the upper part of the water column with the estimated speed of smolts indicate that the downstream migration is passive. The average migration speed for downstream migrating smolts for the two species tested was found to be c. 0.4 m/s (c. 2 bodylengths/sec). Of the fish that passed trough the Sikfors power-station 83 % was registered downstream the turbine outlet. Remaining fish (17 %) that was not registered could have died or lost their tags in the power-station. Data from a Carlin-tagging study made during the years 98-99 in Piteälven (7450 tagged salmon smolts) is analysed and indicate a mortality of 20-30 % caused by the power-station. These results are discussed and compared to previously conducted studies at Umeälven and other regulated rivers