Environmental Impact Assessment of the Life Cycle of a Timber Building

Timber construction offers a number of advantages in terms of sustainability in comparison with other construction technologies. This can partly be attributed to the fact that structural timber products often require less processing for their manufacturing compared to other construction products and their sustainability is therefore relatively increased. As a result, structures such as timber buildings are associated with increased sustainability potential and are therefore selected as sustainable solutions for the construction of housing, commercial or other types of building projects. The current research, described in this paper, is aimed at the quantification of the environmental impact caused by the construction of timber buildings. A case study is used as the basis for the calculations which take into account the whole life cycle of the timber building examined. A life cycle assessment is conducted and the environmental impact assessment results are calculated according to the Eco-Indicator 99 methodology. The interpretation of the results leads to conclusions regarding the level and type of environmental impact caused by the life cycle of timber building projects

The burden of the rheumatic diseases in the general adult population of Greece: the ESORDIG study

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the burden of rheumatic diseases in terms of disability and health-care utilization in the Greek general adult population. METHODS: The study was conducted on the total adult population of seven communities (8547 subjects), as well as on 2100 out of 5686 randomly selected subjects in an additional two communities. Rheumatologists visited the participants at their homes to assess the prevalence of six morbidity indicators concerning disability and health-care utilization associated with rheumatic diseases or other major disease groups. RESULTS: The participation rate in the study was 82.1%. The prevalence of chronic health problems, long-term disability, short-term disability, physician office visits and prescription or non-prescription drug use due to rheumatic diseases in the total target adult population was 14.3, 4.3, 2.9, 2.8, 7.2 and 2.0%, respectively. Compared with all other major disease groups, rheumatic diseases were the most common cause of chronic health problems (38.7%), long-term disability (47.2%), short-term disability (26.2%) and physician office visits (20.5%), while they ranked second for the use of prescription (24.0%) or non-prescription drugs (17.7%). Rheumatic diseases were the main cause of morbidity in five out of six indicators in subjects aged \u3c or =65 yr. Logistic regression analysis revealed an association of female gender, age \u3e or =45 yr and obesity with almost all morbidity indicators related to rheumatic diseases. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that rheumatic diseases constitute a major public health problem and should be considered in planning undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, research and health-care services

Alternative end scenarios for the LCA analysis of a steel-framed residential building

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is currently being widely used within the construction sector as the most accurate and effective methodology to quantify the environmental impact associated with construction projects. Taking into account project stages such as raw material acquisition, construction, operation and the handling of the materials at the demolition stage, it constitutes a valuable tool to optimize the sustainability of technical structures. The purpose of the current research is to investigate the last stage of a project considered in LCA analysis, namely the end scenario. A steel-framed residential building is used as the basis for the definition of a set of alternative end scenarios which cover the complete range of handling options for the construction materials retrieved after the service life of the building. These scenarios are used to complement a corresponding set of alternative life cycles, for which environmental impact assessment calculations are executed. The results are used to draw conclusions regarding the influence of end scenarios and material handling at the end of a construction project on the minimization of its environmental impact and the subsequent optimization of its sustainability

The burden of the rheumatic diseases in the general adult population of Greece: the ESORDIG study

Objective. To estimate the burden of rheumatic diseases in terms of disability and health-care utilization in the Greek general adult population. Methods. The study was conducted on the total adult population of seven communities (8547 subjects), as well as on 2100 out of 5686 randomly selected subjects in an additional two communities. Rheumatologists visited the participants at their homes to assess the prevalence of six morbidity indicators concerning disability and health-care utilization associated with rheumatic diseases or other major disease groups. Results. The participation rate in the study was 82.1%. The prevalence of chronic health problems, long-term disability, short-term disability, physician office visits and prescription or non-prescription drug use due to rheumatic diseases in the total target adult population was 14.3, 4.3, 2.9, 2.8, 7.2 and 2.0%, respectively. Compared with all other major disease groups, rheumatic diseases were the most common cause of chronic health problems (38.7%), long-term disability (47.2%), short-term disability (26.2%) and physician office visits (20.5%), while they ranked second for the use of prescription (24.0%) or non-prescription drugs (17.7%). Rheumatic diseases were the main cause of morbidity in five out of six indicators in subjects aged <= 65 yr. Logistic regression analysis revealed an association of female gender, age >= 45 yr and obesity with almost all morbidity indicators related to rheumatic diseases. Conclusion. These findings suggest that rheumatic diseases constitute a major public health problem and should be considered in planning undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, research and health-care services