Evacuation and Return: Increasing Safety and Reducing Risk

The City of New Orleans enlisted UNO-CHART to improve the evacuation of the vulnerable populations in the city, defined broadly to include those who are not able to access or use the standard resources offered in disaster preparedness and planning, response, and recovery. To do this, UNO-CHART analyzed the Regional Transit Authority (RTA), the City Assisted Evacuation Plan (CAEP) and Special Needs Registry databases, conducted a literature review of risk communication best practices, reviewed ready.nola.gov for content and readability, conducted a social vulnerability analysis of the Evacuspots, conducted interviews and focus groups with vulnerable populations in the City of New Orleans, and evaluated the CAEP full scale exercise. UNO-CHART conducted these analyses in order to examine the transportation needs of vulnerable populations on an everyday basis and during a disaster event, and how the city’s services currently meets those needs. The project team discovered that while many members of vulnerable populations use public transportation on a daily basis, there are issues with obtaining transportation during a disaster. The issues stem from a lack of resident knowledge about the City Assisted Evacuation (CAE) process, locations of Evacuspots, accessibility and cultural competence of the CAE, and trust in the city to effectively bring vulnerable populations to safety. Residents detailed many different ways the city can build on the past to create community solutions. The following report details recommendations for how to make residents more aware of the CAEP, make Evacuspots more accessible, better plan for the city’s most vulnerable, integrate cultural competence into the CAEP, and build trust in self-reliant populations

LA SAFE – Louisiana’s Strategic Adaptations for Future Environments: The Collective Search for Common Ground

In coastal Louisiana, subsidence and sea level rise, plus the threat of hurricanes and flooding, combine to create one of the highest rates of relative sea level rise in the world (Penland & Ramsey, 1990). To help address these issues, the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Rockefeller Foundation, awarded funding for LA SAFE – Louisiana’s Strategic Adaptations for Future Environments. The LA SAFE program, a partnership between the Office of Community Development (OCD) and the Foundation for Louisiana (FFL), supported an inclusive public process to identify adaptation strategies to enhance the resilience of coastal Louisiana. This public process involved the six parishes most impacted by Hurricane Isaac in 2012: Jefferson, Lafourche, Plaquemines, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, and Terrebonne. Throughout the planning and implementation process, UNO-CHART conducted an evaluation in an iterative manner that allowed for continual feedback. The evaluation was a mixed methods process that included both qualitative and quantitative measures, involving both process and outcome measures

LA SAFE – Louisiana’s Strategic Adaptations for Future Environments: The Collective Search for Common Ground

In coastal Louisiana, subsidence and sea level rise, plus the threat of hurricanes and flooding, combine to create one of the highest rates of relative sea level rise in the world (Penland & Ramsey, 1990). To help address these issues, the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Rockefeller Foundation, awarded funding for LA SAFE – Louisiana’s Strategic Adaptations for Future Environments. The LA SAFE program, a partnership between the Office of Community Development (OCD) and the Foundation for Louisiana (FFL), supported an inclusive public process to identify adaptation strategies to enhance the resilience of coastal Louisiana. This public process involved the six parishes most impacted by Hurricane Isaac in 2012: Jefferson, Lafourche, Plaquemines, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, and Terrebonne. Throughout the planning and implementation process, UNO-CHART conducted an evaluation in an iterative manner that allowed for continual feedback. The evaluation was a mixed methods process that included both qualitative and quantitative measures, involving both process and outcome measures

Barriers to adoption of recent technology in cervical screening

The Pap smear is one of the modern success stories in the field of preventive medicine. Since its introduction as a screening test, there has been a dramatic reduction in the incidence of cervical cancer. However, the search for a better screening test continues. The new technologies, including liquid-based cytology (LBC), Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) testing and automated or machine-assisted screening have been introduced. However, there is continuous debate about whether society's limited resources are better spent on reaching the underserved rather than on these technologies. Another question is whether these technologies create yet another kind of disparity in delivering preventive care. For example, despite the wide use of LBC (99% of tests submitted to our laboratory are LBC), conventional Pap smears are still used to screen/follow up some women. It is not clear why some providers continue to prefer conventional smear over LBC and what are the barriers for adopting LBC in cervical cancer screening. We hypothesize the lower cost of conventional compared to LBC Pap testing, patient's lower socio-economic indices, a patient's medical history and provider's subspecialty/training all appear to play a role in the choice of using conventional Pap testing rather than LBC. Unintentionally, this choice results in repeat testing, delayed treatment and potentially higher costs than intended. The ultimate goal of this review article is to understand and explore possible barriers and disparities to adopting new technology in cancer screening

The sacred and the profane: biotechnology, rationality, and public debate

Davies G, 2006. The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Environment and Planning A, 38(3), pp. 423 – 443 DOI: 10.1068/a37387This paper explores the forms of argumentation employed by participants in a recent public engagement process in the United Kingdom around new technologies for organ transplantation, with specific reference to xenotransplantation and stem-cell research. Two forms of reasoning recur throughout participants’ deliberations which challenge specialist framing of this issue. First, an often scatological humour and sense of the profane are evident in the ways in which participants discuss the bodily transformations that such technologies demand. Second, a sense of the sacred, in which new biotechnologies are viewed as against nature or in which commercial companies are ‘playing god’, is a repetitive and well-recognised concern. Such forms of reasoning are frequently dismissed by policymakers as ‘uninformed gut reactions’. Yet they also form a significant part of the repertoire of scientists themselves as they proclaim the hope of new medical breakthroughs, or seek to reconstruct ideas of the body to facilitate new biotechnological transformations. Through questioning of assumptions in Habermas’s notion of discourse ethics, and exploring the importance of hybridity and corporeality as concepts in ethical thinking, the author suggests that, far from being ill-formed opinions, such reasonings perform an important function for thinking through the ontological significance of the corporealisation of these proposed new forms of human and animal bodies

Retinol, supplemental vitamin A and bone status

Studies of hypervitaminosis A in animals and anecdotal reports of accidental vitamin A poisoning in humans suggest impairment of bone remodeling and increased numbers of fractures. Because of the widespread use of high-dose vitamin A supplements which may produce subclinical hypervitaminosis associated with decreased bone mass and increased risk of fracture, we studied the relationship between current vitamin A supplement use, serum retinol levels, radial bone mass and fracture history in a geographically-defined population of 246 postmenopausal women, 55-80 years of age. More than 36% of this population used a vitamin A supplement with 8% of these consuming an amount in excess of 2000 retinol equivalents (RE)/day. Serum retinol was measured using high-pressure liquid chromatography and radial bone mass was measured using single photon absorptiometry. After controlling for age, current estrogen replacement, and current thiazide antihypertensive use, we observed no statistically significant relationship between vitamin A supplement use or serum retinol with radial bone mass or fractures.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/28916/1/0000753.pd

Source reduction for prevention of methylene chloride hazards: cases from four industrial sectors

BACKGROUND: Source reduction, defined as chemical, equipment and process changes that intervene in an industrial process to eliminate or reduce hazards, has not figured as a front-line strategy for the protection of workers' health. Such initiatives are popular for environmental protection, but their feasibility and effectiveness as an industrial hygiene approach have not been well described. METHODS: We investigated four cases of source reduction as a hazard prevention strategy in Massachusetts companies that had used methylene chloride, an occupational carcinogen, for cleaning and adhesive thinning. Three cases were retrospective and one was prospective, where the researchers assisted with the source reduction process change. Data were collected using qualitative research methods, including in-depth interviews and site visits. RESULTS: Motivated by environmental restrictions, a new worker health standard, and opportunity for productivity improvements, three companies eliminated their use of methylene chloride by utilizing available technologies and drop-in substitutes. Aided by technical assistance from the investigators, a fourth case dramatically reduced its use of methylene chloride via process and chemistry changes. While the companies' evaluations of potential work environment impacts of substitutes were not extensive, and in two cases new potential hazards were introduced, the overall impact of the source reduction strategy was deemed beneficial, both from a worker health and a production standpoint. CONCLUSION: The findings from these four cases suggest that source reduction should be considered potentially feasible and effective for reducing or eliminating the potential hazards of methylene chloride exposure. Especially when faced with a hazard that is both an environmental and worker health concern, companies may chose to change their processes rather than rely on local exhaust ventilation equipment or personal protective equipment that might not be as effective, might transfer risk and/or not be integrated with financial goals. However, technical assistance sensitive to environmental and health and safety impacts as well as production issues should be provided to guide companies' source reduction efforts

Scenario Planning and Nanotechnological Futures

Scenario planning may assist us in harnessing the benefits of nanotechnology and managing the associated risks for the good of the society. Scenario planning is a way to describe the present state of the world and develop several hypotheses about the future of the world, thereby enabling discussions about how the world ought to be. Scenario planning thus is not only a tool for learning and foresight, but also for leadership. Informed decision-making by experts and political leaders becomes possible, while simultaneously allaying public's perception of the risks of new and emerging technologies such as nanotechnology. Two scenarios of the societal impact of nanotechnology are the mixed-signals scenario and the confluence scenario. Technoscientists have major roles to play in both scenarios