Indirect Regulation of Environmental Hazards Through the Provision of Information to The Public: The Case of SARA, Title III

Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 seeks to reduce the risks of chemical accidents through a strategy of indirect regulation that relies on providing the public with information about chemical hazards. For this strategy to be effective, citizens must aggressively utilize the information provided to monitor industrial practices and press for risk reduction. Since prior research suggests it is very difficult to evoke the degree of citizen action that would be required to make a strategy of indirect regulation successful, and since the federal legislation provided no funds for implementation, there is a question o/whether the structures set up by Title III are sufficient to achieve its objectives. This article reports the results of a national study that examined selected aspects of the implementation of Title III in an effort to assess the likely outcome of its attempt at indirect regulation. Our focus is on the degree to which the Title Ill-mandated Local Emergency Planning Committees are pursuing policies that are likely to get the necessary information to citizens and foster community debate on hazardous materials issues

Old and new cluster designs in emergency field surveys: in search of a one-fits-all solution

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Cluster surveys are frequently used to measure key nutrition and health indicators in humanitarian emergencies. The survey design of 30 clusters of 7 children (30 × 7) was initially proposed by the World Health Organization for measuring vaccination coverage, and later a design of 30 clusters of 30 children (30 × 30) was introduced to measure acute malnutrition in emergency settings. Recently, designs of 33 clusters of 6 children (33 × 6) and 67 clusters of 3 children (67 × 3) have been proposed as alternatives that enable measurement of several key indicators with sufficient precision, while offering substantial savings in time. This paper explores expected effects of using 67 × 3, 33 × 6, or 30 × 7 designs instead of a "standard" 30 × 30 design on precision and accuracy of estimates, and on time required to complete the survey.</p> <p>Analysis</p> <p>The 67 × 3, 33 × 6, and 30 × 7 designs are expected to be more statistically efficient for measuring outcomes having high design effects (e.g., vaccination coverage, vitamin A distribution coverage, or access to safe water sources), and less efficient for measuring outcomes with more within-cluster variability, such as global acute malnutrition or anemia. Because of small sample sizes, these designs may not provide sufficient levels of precision to measure crude mortality rates. Given the small number (3 to 7) of survey subjects per cluster, it may be hard to select representative samples of subjects within clusters.</p> <p>The smaller sample size in these designs will likely result in substantial time savings. The magnitude of the savings will depend on several factors, including the average travel time between clusters. The 67 × 3 design will provide the least time savings. The 33 × 6 and 30 × 7 designs perform similarly to each other, both in terms of statistical efficiency and in terms of time required to complete the survey.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Cluster designs discussed in this paper may offer substantial time and cost savings compared to the traditional 30 × 30 design, and may provide acceptable levels of precision when measuring outcomes that have high intracluster homogeneity. Further investigation is required to determine whether these designs can consistently provide accurate point estimates for key outcomes of interest. Organizations conducting cluster surveys in emergency settings need to build their technical capacity in survey design to be able to calculate context-specific sample sizes individually for each planned survey.</p

Food Groups Associated with a Composite Measure of Probability of Adequate Intake of 11 Micronutrients in the Diets of Women in Urban Mali

The prevalence of micronutrient deficiency is high among women of reproductive age living in urban Mali. Despite this, there are little data on the dietary intake of micronutrients among women of reproductive age in Mali. This research tested the relationship between the quantity of intake of 21 possible food groups and estimated usual micronutrient (folate, vitamin B-12, calcium, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin A, iron, thiamin, vitamin B-6, vitamin C, and zinc) intakes and a composite measure of adequacy of 11 micronutrients [mean probability of adequacy (MPA)] based on the individual probability of adequacy (PA) for the 11 micronutrients. Food group and micronutrient intakes were calculated from 24-h recall data in an urban sample of Malian women. PA was lowest for folate, vitamin B-12, calcium, and riboflavin. The overall MPA for the composite measure of 11 micronutrients was 0.47 +/- 0.18. Grams of intake from the nuts/seeds, milk/yogurt, vitamin A-rich dark green leafy vegetables (DGLV), and vitamin C-rich vegetables food groups were correlated (Spearman's rho = 0.20-0.36; P 0.5, respectively. These findings can be used to further the development of indicators of dietary diversity and to improve micronutrient intakes of women of reproductive age. J. Nutr. 140: 2070S-2078S, 2010

Mapping current issues in administrative justice: austerity and the ‘more bureaucratic rationality’ approach

This article critically reviews recent developments in the administrative justice system; in particular, it considers three key themes: improving initial decisions; administrative review; and the future of tribunals. In each of these areas, some aspects of administrative justice work well, but austerity has presented acute challenges in ensuring the fair and just treatment of people through restrictions upon legal aid; the withdrawal of some appeal rights; and the expansion of administrative review. Consequently, the system is moving away from a ‘legal’ model of administrative justice to the ‘bureaucratic rationality’ model, which focuses upon accurate and efficient implementation. However, the reality does not correspond with the goals of the model. Rather than accurate and efficient implementation of policy, what we find is poor decision-making made by junior officials with insufficient quality controls. Digitising tribunals may have potential benefits in terms of increased accessibility. Nonetheless, the prospects for administrative justice are weak

The grammar of administrative justice values

The debate concerning administrative justice in the UK often involves reliance upon a certain set of values. Examples of such values include openness, confidentiality, timeliness, transparency, secrecy, fairness, efficiency, accountability, user-friendliness, consistency, participation, rationality and equal treatment. These values are often deployed, both in academic and policy contexts, without much precision. This produces confusion which can hamper debate. This article therefore argues there is a need to reflect on how these oft-used values are deployed, and consider the particular concerns which underlie them. In this sense, this article suggests there is a need to refine the grammar of administrative justice. This argument is demonstrated through an extended analysis of the value of ‘user-friendliness’: a site of emerging disagreement in recent years. It proposes that an important distinction must be drawn between two understandings of the value: the ‘accessibility’ and ‘consumerist’ understandings. This article concludes by suggesting that, going forward, it is important to consider whether the use of abstractions is helpful at all in administrative law and justice debates

Place- and age-responsive disaster risk reduction for Hong Kong: Collaborative Place Audit and Social Vulnerability Index for elders

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