28 research outputs found
BTEX air concentrations and self-reported common health problems in gasoline sellers from Cotonou, Benin
Rel and Coll Inclusion Needs - OLD ITEMS
These data contain the scale of Relational and Collective Inclusion Needs that is not used in further research. We improved the scale greatly. We would like to direct you to the manuscript published in EJSP, if you would like to take knowledge of the improved scal
BTEX air concentrations and self-reported common health problems in gasoline sellers from Cotonou, Benin.
To examine the relation between BTEX exposure levels and common self-reported health problems in 140 gasoline sellers in Cotonou, Benin, a questionnaire documenting their socioeconomic status and their health problems was used, whereas 18 of them went through semi-directed qualitative individual interviews and 17 had air samples taken on their workplace for BTEX analysis. Median concentrations for BTEX were significantly lower on official (range of medians: 54-207 μg/m³, n = 9) vs unofficial (148-1449 μg/m³, n = 8) gasoline-selling sites (p < 0.05). Self-reported health problems were less frequently reported in sellers from unofficial vs official selling sites (p < 0.05), because, as suggested by the semi-directed interviews, of their fear of losing their important, but illegal, source of income. Concluding, this study has combined quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches to account for the complex socioeconomic and environmental conditions of the investigated sellers, leading to their, in some cases, preoccupying BTEX exposure.JOURNAL ARTICLESCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
Grassland species will not necessarily benefit from future elevated air temperatures: a chlorophyll fluorescence approach to study autumn physiology
Effects of climate warming and species richness on photochemistry of grasslands
In view of the projected climatic changes and the global decrease in plant species diversity, it is critical to understand the effects of elevated air temperature (T-air) and species richness (S) on physiological processes in plant communities. Therefore, an experiment of artificially assembled grassland ecosystems, with different S (one, three or nine species), growing in sunlit climate-controlled chambers at ambient T-air and ambient T-air + 3 degrees C was established. We investigated whether grassland species would be more affected by midday high-temperature stress during summer in a warmer climate scenario. The effect of elevated T-air was expected to differ with S. This was tested in the second and third experimental years by means of chlorophyll a fluorescence. Because acclimation to elevated T-air would affect the plant's stress response, the hypothesis of photosynthetic acclimation to elevated T-air was tested in the third year by gas exchange measurements in the monocultures. Plants in the elevated T-air chambers suffered more from midday stress on warm summer days than those in ambient chambers. In absence of severe drought, the quantum yield of PSII was not affected by elevated T-air. Our results further indicate that species had not photosynthetically acclimated to a temperature increase of 3 degrees C after 3 years exposure to a warmer climate. Although effects of S and T-air x S interactions were mostly not significant in our study, we expect that combined effects of T-air and S would be important in conditions of severe drought events