Why is Pollution from U.S. Manufacturing Declining? The Roles of Trade, Regulation, Productivity, and Preferences

Between 1990 and 2008, emissions of the most common air pollutants from U.S. manufacturing fell by 60 percent, even as real U.S. manufacturing output grew substantially. This paper develops a quantitative model to explain how changes in trade, environmental regulation, productivity, and consumer preferences have contributed to these reductions in pollution emissions. We estimate the model’s key parameters using administrative data on plant-level production and pollution decisions. We then combine these estimates with detailed historical data to provide a model-driven decomposition of the causes of the observed pollution changes. Finally, we compare the model-driven decomposition to a statistical decomposition. The model and data suggest three findings. First, the fall in pollution emissions is due to decreasing pollution per unit output within narrowly defined products, rather than to changes in the types of products produced or changes to the total quantity of manufacturing output. Second, the implicit pollution tax that rationalizes firm production and abatement behavior more than doubled between 1990 and 2008. Third, environmental regulation explains 75 percent or more of the observed reduction in pollution emissions from manufacturing

Harm from Known Others' Drinking by Relationship Proximity to the Harmful Drinker and Gender: A Meta-Analysis Across 10 Countries

Background: Drinking is a common activity with friends or at home but is associated with harms within both close and extended relationships. This study investigates associations between having a close proximity relationship with a harmful drinker and likelihood of experiencing harms from known others' drinking for men and women in 10 countries. Methods: Data about alcohol's harms to others from national/regional surveys from 10 countries were used. Gender-stratified random-effects meta-analysis compared the likelihood of experiencing each, and at least 1, of 7 types of alcohol-related harm in the last 12 months, between those who identified someone in close proximity to them (a partner, family member, or household member) and those who identified someone from an extended relationship as the most harmful drinker (MHD) in their life in the last 12 months. Results: Women were most likely to report a close male MHD, while men were most likely to report an extended male MHD. Relatedly, women with a close MHD were more likely than women with an extended MHD to report each type of harm, and 1 or more harms, from others' drinking. For men, having a close MHD was associated with increased odds of reporting some but not all types of harm from others' drinking and was not associated with increased odds of experiencing 1 or more harms. Conclusions: The experience of harm attributable to the drinking of others differs by gender. For preventing harm to women, the primary focus should be on heavy or harmful drinkers in close proximity relationships; for preventing harm to men, a broader approach is needed. This and further work investigating the dynamics among gender, victimperpetrator relationships, alcohol, and harm to others will help to develop interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm to others which are specific to the contexts within which harms occur

The social location of harm from others’ drinking in 10 societies

© 2018 Society for the Study of Addiction Aims: Survey data from 10 diverse countries were used to analyse the social location of harms from others’ drinking: which segments of the population are more likely to be adversely affected by such harm, and how does this differ between societies?. Methods: General-population surveys in Australia, Chile, India, Laos, New Zealand, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United States and Vietnam, with a primary focus on the social location of the harmed person by gender, age groups, rural/urban residence and drinking status. Harms from known drinkers were analysed separately from harms from strangers. Results: In all sites, risky or moderate drinkers were more likely than abstainers to report harm from the drinking of known drinkers, with risky drinkers the most likely to report harm. This was also generally true for harm from strangers’ drinking, although the patterns were more mixed in Vietnam and Thailand. Harm from strangers’ drinking was more often reported by males, while gender disparity in harm from known drinkers varied between sites. Younger adults were more likely to experience harm both from known drinkers and from strangers in some, but not all, societies. Only a few sites showed significant urban/rural differences, with disparities varying in direction. In multivariate analyses, most relationships remained, although some were no longer significant. Conclusion: The social location of harms from others’ drinking, whether known or a stranger, varies considerably between societies. One near-commonality among the societies is that those who are themselves risky drinkers are more likely to suffer harm from others’ drinking

Regular Alcohol Consumption Is Associated With Impaired Atrial Mechanical Function in the Atrial Fibrillation Population: A Cross-Sectional MRI-Based Study

OBJECTIVES This study sought to determine the impact of regular alcohol consumption on left atrial (LA) mechanical and reservoir function. BACKGROUND Earlier studies suggest that regular alcohol intake is associated with increased atrial fibrillation (AF) and LA dilatation. METHODS This study prospectively enrolled 160 patients with paroxysmal or persistent AF to undergo 3-T cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging in sinus rhythm. Patients self-reported alcohol consumption in standard drinks (w12 g alcohol) per week over the preceding 12 months and were categorized into 4 groups: 1) lifelong nondrinkers; 2) mild drinkers (3 to 10 standard drinks/week); 3) moderate drinkers (11 to 20 standard drinks/week); 4) heavy drinkers (>20 standard drinks/week). Permanent AF and cardiomyopathy were excluded. On CMR, maximum LA volume (LAmax) and minimum LA volume (LAmin), global LA emptying fraction (LAEF) as (LAmax LAmin) / LAmax, and LA reservoir function as (LAmax LAmin) / LAmin were calculated. RESULTS Regular alcohol consumption (mean 15.8 6.9 standard drinks/week, n ¼ 120) was associated with larger LA size (LA volume index 50 13 ml/m2 vs. 43 12 ml/m2 ; p ¼ 0.005), reduction in LAEF (40 14% vs. 52 15%; p < 0.001), and reduction in reservoir function (77 48% vs. 119 63%; p < 0.001) compared with lifelong nondrinkers (n ¼ 40). There were progressive dose-related impairments in LAEF (mild 45.4 13.5% vs. moderate 39.1 14.7% vs. heavy drinkers 35.6 12.6%; p < 0.01) and reservoir function (mild 95.8 55.6% vs. moderate 74.8 47.1% vs. heavy drinkers 61.7 34.4%; p < 0.01). Predictors of atrial mechanical dysfunction included weekly alcohol intake (p ¼ 0.001), older age (p ¼ 0.018), and persistent AF (p ¼ 0.016), but not binge drinking or beverage type. CONCLUSIONS In patients with AF, habitual alcohol consumption is associated with significantly increased LA size and atrial mechanical dysfunction compared with non drinkers.Aleksandr Voskoboinik, Benedict T. Costello, Elana Kalman, Sandeep Prabhu, Hariharan Sugumar, Geoff Wong, MChrishan Nalliah, Liang-Han Ling, Alex McLellan, Thushan Hettige, Fabian Springer, Andre La Gerche, Jonathan M. Kalman, Andrew J. Taylor, Peter M. Kistle