Brownfields, from opportunities to development projects: constraints that stakeholders face in the redevelopment process

Peer Reviewe

Brownfields, from opportunities to development projects: constraints that stakeholders face in the redevelopment process

Peer Reviewe

Protecting the Health of First Nation Personnel at Contaminated Sites: A Case Study of Mid-Canada Radar Line Site 050 in Northern Canada

Recently, First Nation (FN) organizations have entered into agreements with federal and provincial government representatives to remediate radar-line sites in Ontario. These agreements stipulated that FN people would take part in the site delineation and remediation process to gain job experience and economic benefits. One important aspect of the process was protecting FN personnel from contaminant exposure and thus, from potential negative health outcomes associated with the cleanup work itself. In this paper, we describe the safety precautions used by FN workers preparing Mid-Canada Radar Line (MCRL) Site 050 for Phase 2 of the delineation process and the health monitoring protocol that was tested. We measured concentrations of total polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs as Aroclor 1260), 14 individual PCB congeners, p,p’-DDT, p,p’-DDE, nine other organochlorine pesticides, and lead in the blood of Fort Albany FN workers before they started work at Site 050 and approximately a week before they completed their three-month work period in the contaminated zone. No significant differences were found in the paired samples. These results indicate that the safety precautions taken were adequate for the work and the site in question. The monitoring protocol discussed here may be used as a template and modified to meet the specific needs of other projects. The results of this study are important because other Aboriginal groups have entered or will be entering into agreements with government organizations for the remediation of other MCRL sites in Ontario and across Canada.Les stations de ligne radar désaffectées situées tant dans l’Arctique que dans le Subarctique canadiens seraient des sources ponctuelles de contamination. Des organismes des Premières nations ont participé dernièrement, avec des représentants des gouvernements fédéral et provinciaux, à des accords visant l’assainissement des stations de ligne radar en Ontario. Ces accords stipulaient que des membres des Premières nations prendraient part à la délimitation des sites et au processus d’assainissement afin d’acquérir de l’expérience de travail et de profiter des retombées économiques. Un volet important de ce processus visait à protéger le personnel autochtone de l’exposition aux contaminants et donc, d’effets potentiels négatifs pour la santé associés aux opérations de nettoyage mêmes. Dans cet article, on décrit les mesures de sécurité utilisées par les travailleurs autochtones oeuvrant sur le site 050 de la ligne radar Mid-Canada durant la phase 2 du processus de délimitation, ainsi que le protocole de contrôle de la santé mis alors à l’essai. On a mesuré les concentrations de l’accumulation de diphényles polychlorés (PCB comme l’Arochlore 1260), de 14 congénères de PCB, de p,p’-DDT, de p,p’-DDE, de neuf autres pesticides organochlorés ainsi que de plomb dans le sang des travailleurs autochtones de Fort Albany avant qu’ils commencent à travailler au site 050 et une semaine environ avant qu’ils terminent leur période de travail de trois mois dans la zone contaminée. On n’a pas trouvé de différences significatives entre les échantillons appariés. Ces résultats révèlent que les mesures de sécurité prises étaient adéquates pour le travail et le site en question. Le protocole de contrôle discuté ici pourrait servir de modèle et être adapté pour répondre aux critères spécifiques d’autres projets. Les résultats de cette étude sont importants car d’autres groupes autochtones participent actuellement ou vont participer à des accords avec des agences gouvernementales visant l’assainissement d’autres sites de la ligne radar Mid-Canada en Ontario et à travers le Canada

The Exploration of Effects of Chinese Cultural Values on the Attitudes and Behaviors of Chinese Restaurateurs Toward Food Safety Training

Citation: Liu, P., & Kwon, J. (2013). The exploration of effects of Chinese cultural values on the attitudes and behaviors of Chinese restaurateurs toward food safety training. Journal of Environmental Health, 75(10), 38-46.Foodborne illness is a challenge in the production and service of ethnic foods. The purpose of the study described in this article was to explore variables influencing the behaviors of U.S. Chinese restaurant owners/operators regarding the provision of food safety training in their restaurants. Seventeen major Chinese cultural values were identified through individual interviews with 20 Chinese restaurant owners/operators. Most participants felt satisfied with their previous health inspections. Several expressed having difficulty, however, following the health inspectors’ instructions and in understanding the health inspection report. A few participants provided food safety training to their employees due to state law. Lack of money, time, labor/energy, and a perceived need for food safety training were recognized as major challenges to providing food safety training in Chinese restaurants. Videos, case studies, and food safety training handbooks were the most preferred food safety training methods of Chinese restaurant owners/operators, and Chinese was the preferred language in which to conduct the training

Effect of Prenatal Exposure to Polychlorinated Biphenyls on Incidence of Acute Respiratory Infections in Preschool Inuit Children

OBJECTIVE: We set out to assess whether environmental prenatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is associated with incidence of acute respiratory infections in preschool Inuit children. STUDY DESIGN: We reviewed the medical charts of 343 children from 0 to 5 years of age and evaluated the associations between PCB-153 concentration in umbilical cord plasma and the incidence rates of acute otitis media (AOM) and of upper and lower respiratory tract infections (URTIs and LRTIs, respectively). RESULTS: The incidence rates of AOM and LRTIs were positively associated with prenatal exposure to PCBs. Compared with children in the first quartile of exposure (least exposed), children in fourth quartile (most exposed) had rate ratios of 1.25 (p < 0.001) and 1.40 (p < 0.001) for AOM and LRTIs, respectively. There was no association between prenatal PCB exposure and incidence rate of URTIs or hospitalization. CONCLUSION: Prenatal exposure to PCBs could be responsible for a significant portion of respiratory infections in children of this population

El muro: una significación de “clase social” segregada en la ciudad

Cette publication électronique est une édition revue et corrigée du numéro 7 d’Enquête. Cahiers du CERCOM, publié conjointement en juin 1992 par l'EHESS, le CNRS et l'université de Nice

A small XY chromosomal region explains sex determination in wild dioecious V. vinifera and the reversal to hermaphroditism in domesticated grapevines

Publis014-agap-029Background In Vitis vinifera L., domestication induced a dramatic change in flower morphology: the wild sylvestris subspecies is dioecious while hermaphroditism is largely predominant in the domesticated subsp. V. v. vinifera. The characterisation of polymorphisms in genes underlying the sex-determining chromosomal region may help clarify the history of domestication in grapevine and the evolution of sex chromosomes in plants. In the genus Vitis, sex determination is putatively controlled by one major locus with three alleles, male M, hermaphrodite H and female F, with an allelic dominance M > H > F. Previous genetic studies located the sex locus on chromosome 2. We used DNA polymorphisms of geographically diverse V. vinifera genotypes to confirm the position of this locus, to characterise the genetic diversity and traces of selection in candidate genes, and to explore the origin of hermaphroditism. Results In V. v. sylvestris, a sex-determining region of 154.8 kb, also present in other Vitis species, spans less than 1% of chromosome 2. It displays haplotype diversity, linkage disequilibrium and differentiation that typically correspond to a small XY sex-determining region with XY males and XX females. In male alleles, traces of purifying selection were found for a trehalose phosphatase, an exostosin and a WRKY transcription factor, with strikingly low polymorphism levels between distant geographic regions. Both diversity and network analysis revealed that H alleles are more closely related to M than to F alleles. Conclusions Hermaphrodite alleles appear to derive from male alleles of wild grapevines, with successive recombination events allowing import of diversity from the X into the Y chromosomal region and slowing down the expansion of the region into a full heteromorphic chromosome. Our data are consistent with multiple domestication events and show traces of introgression from other Asian Vitis species into the cultivated grapevine gene pool. La vigne domestiquée, Vitis vinifera ssp. vinifera, cultivée pour la production de fruit et de vin à travers le monde, dérive de la vigne sauvage, Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris, sous-espèce endémique de l'Eurasie. Au cours de la domestication, le système de reproduction a évolué de la diécie à l'hermaphrodisme. Nous montrons que la région du sexe est sous le contrôle d'une région chromosomique qui couvre au maximum 154kpbp, moins de 1% du chromosome 2. La caractérisation de ce locus en terme de diversité haplotypique, de signature de sélection et de déséquilibre de liaison a permis de révéler un système de détermination sexuelle de type XY. La petite taille de cette région chromosomique semble indiquer un stade très précoce dans l'évolution de chromosomes sexuels, malgré que la diécie soit le trait ancestral chez toutes les espèces de Vitis, ayant divergé du sous-genre Muscadinia il y a plusieurs millions d'années. L'analyse des distances génétiques entre haplotypes dans le locus du sexe a révélé que l'hermaphrodisme observé chez la vigne domestiquée résulte de la mutation de l'allèle mâle présent chez la vigne sauvage. Le réseau d'haplotypes a montré qu'en plus de la contribution de V. sylvestris, une autre espèce de Vitis asiatique a pu contribuer à la constitution du génome actuel de la vigne cultivée moderne. Ces travaux résultent d'une collaboration entre l'équipe DAAV d'AGAP et l'UMR CBAE (Montpellier)

A Randomized Trial of Simplified Maintenance Therapy with Abacavir, Lamivudine, and Zidovudine in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection

This randomized study evaluated the efficacy and tolerability of continued treatment with protease inhibitor plus nucleoside-analogue combination regimens (n = 79) or a change to the simplified regimen of abacavir-lamivudine-zidovudine (n = 84) in patients with suppressed human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA for ⩾6 months who did not have the reverse transcriptase 215 mutation. After a median follow-up of 84 weeks, virologic failure was 6% in the continuation and 15% in the simplified group (P = .081). Previous zidovudine monotherapy or dual therapy and archived reverse transcriptase resistance mutations in HIV-1 DNA at baseline were significant predictors of failure. Study treatment was discontinued because of adverse events in 20% of the continuation and 7% of the simplified group (P = .021). Simplification to abacavir-lamivudine-zidovudine significantly decreased nonfasting cholesterol and triglyceride levels; however, this switch strategy carries a risk of virologic failure when treatment history or resistance testing suggest the presence of archived resistance mutations to the simplified regime