The industrial pollution projection system

The World Bank's technical assistance work with new environmental protection institutions stresses cost-effective regulation, with market-based pollution control instruments implemented wherever feasible. But few environmental protection institutions can do the benefit-cost analysis needed because they lack data on industrial emissions and abatement costs. For the time being, they must use appropriate estimates. The industrial pollution projection system (IPPS) is being developed as a comprehensive response to this need for estimates. The estimation of IPPS parameters is providing a much clearer, more detailed view of the sources of industrial pollution. The IPPS has been developed to exploit the fact that industrial pollution is heavily affected by the scale of industrial activity, by its sectoral composition, and by the type of process technology used in production. Most developing countries have little or no data on industrial pollution, but many of them have relatively detailed industry-survey information on employment, value added, or output. The IPPS is designed to convert this information to a profile of associated pollutant output for countries, regions, urban areas, or proposed new projects. It operates through sectoral estimates of pollution intensity, or pollution per unit of activity. The IPPS is being developed in two phases. The first prototype has been estimated from a massive U.S. data base developed by the Bank's Policy Research Department, Environment, Infrastructure, and Agriculture Division, in collaboration with the Center for Economic Studies of the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This database was created by merging manufacturing census data with Environment Protection Agency data on air, water, and solid waste emissions. It draws on environmental, economic, and geographic information from about 200,000 U.S. factories. The IPPS covers about 1,500 product categories, all operating technologies, and hundreds of pollutants. It can project air, water, or solid waste emissions, and it incorporates a range of risk factors for human toxins and ecotoxic effects. The more ambitious second phase of IPPS development will take into account cross-country and cross-regional variations in relative prices, economic and sectoral policies, and strictness of regulation.Water and Industry,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Sanitation and Sewerage,Water and Industry,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Sanitation and Sewerage,TF030632-DANISH CTF - FY05 (DAC PART COUNTRIES GNP PER CAPITA BELOW USD 2,500/AL

Paraganglioma of the cauda equina: a tertiary centre experience and scoping review of the current literature.

Cauda equina paragangliomas are rare benign extra-adrenal neuroendocrine tumours arising from the neural crest cells associated with autonomic ganglia. These tumours are often mistaken preoperatively for ependymomas or schwannomas. Patients present with axial or radicular pain with or without neurological deficits. Recurrence, secretory features and length of follow-up are controversial. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of paraganglioma through searching a prospectively maintained histopathology database. Patient demographics, presentation, surgery, complications, recurrence, follow-up and outcome between 2004 and 2016 were studied. The primary aim was to collate and describe the current evidence base for recurrence and secretory features of the tumour. The secondary objective was to report outcome and follow-up strategy. A scoping review was performed in accordance with the PRISMA-ScR Checklist. Ten patients were diagnosed (M:F 7:3) with a mean age of 53.6 ± 5.1 (range 34-71 years). MRI scans revealed intradural lumbar enhancing lesions. All patients had complete microsurgical excisions without adjuvant therapy with no recurrence with a mean follow-up of 5.1 ± 1.4 years. Tumours were attached to the filum terminale. Electron microscopic images demonstrated abundant neurosecretory granules with no evidence of catecholamine production. A total of 620 articles were screened and 65 papers (including ours) combining 121 patients (mean age 48.8 and M:F 71:50) were included. The mean follow-up was 3.48 ± 0.46 (range 0.15-23 years). Back pain was the most common symptom (94%). Cure following surgery was achieved in 93% of the patients whilst 7% had recurrence. Total resection likely results in cure without the need for adjuvant therapy or prolonged follow-up. However, in certain situations, the length of follow-up should be determined by the treating surgeon

Post-operative paediatric cerebellar mutism syndrome: time to move beyond structural MRI

PURPOSE: To determine the value of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in predicting post-operative paediatric cerebellar mutism syndrome (pCMS) in children undergoing surgical treatment for medulloblastoma. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study design. Electronic/paper case note review of all children with medulloblastoma presenting to Great Ormond Street Hospital between 2003 and 2013. The diagnosis of pCMS was established through a scoring system incorporating mutism, ataxia, behavioural disturbance and cranial nerve deficits. MRI scans performed at three time points were assessed by neuroradiologists blinded to the diagnosis of pCMS. RESULTS: Of 56 children included, 12 (21.4%) developed pCMS as judged by a core symptom of mutism. pCMS was more common in those aged 5 or younger. There was no statistically significant difference in pre-operative distortion or signal change of the dentate or red nuclei or superior cerebellar peduncles (SCPs) between those who did and did not develop pCMS. In both early (median 5 days) and late (median 31 months) post-operative scans, T2-weighted signal change in SCPs was more common in the pCMS group (p = 0.040 and 0.046 respectively). Late scans also showed statistically significant signal change in the dentate nuclei (p = 0.024). CONCLUSIONS: The development of pCMS could not be linked to any observable changes on pre-operative structural MRI scans. Post-operative T2-weighted signal change in the SCPs and dentate nuclei underlines the role of cerebellar efferent injury in pCMS. Further research using advanced quantitative MRI sequences is warranted given the inability of conventional pre-surgical MRI to predict pCMS

Air and water pollution over time and industries with stochastic dominance

We employ a stochastic dominance (SD) approach to analyze the components that contribute to environmental degradation over time. The variables include countries\u2019 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water pollution. Our approach is based on pair-wise SD tests. First, we study the dynamic progress of each separate variable over time, from 1990 to 2005, within 5-year horizons. Then, pair-wise SD tests are used to study the major industry contributors to the overall GHG emissions and water pollution at any given time, to uncover the industry which contributes the most to total emissions and water pollution. While CO2 emissions increased in the first order SD sense over 15 years, water pollution increased in a second-order SD sense. Electricity and heat production were the major contributors to the CO2 emissions, while the food industry gradually became the major water polluting industry over time. SD sense over 15 years, water pollution increased in a second-order SD sense. Electricity and heat production were the major contributors to the CO2 emissions, while the food industry gradually

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