Public concerns

Any deposit can increase dealloying. Biological accumulations, such as slime layers, are no exception to this rule. In the age of increasing public concern regarding pollution, biological control via chemical treatment can be difficult. However, good biological control is always beneficial. 

Nitrate is seen as a threat to both public health and natural waters. Of these threats the latter is definitely the more immediate, but the health issue has attracted more public concern. 

Nitrate is not a new problem. Excessive concentrations were recorded in many domestic wells in a survey conducted 100 years ago. What is new is the public concern about nitrate. This arises from two medical conditions that have been linked to nitrate methaemoglobinaemia ( bine-baby syndrome ) in infants, and stomach cancer in adults. Both are serious conditions, so we need to examine possible links carefully, but we need to note that these conditions are not caused by nitrate but by the nitrite to which it may be reduced. Nitrate itself is harmless and is most notable from a medical standpoint as a treatment for phosphatic kidney stones. 

Public concern about the abundance of algae, and of the toxic cyanobacteria in particular, was raised by events in the UK in the summer of 1989 which involved the deaths of dogs and sheep at Rutland Water, Leicestershire, and the acute... 

The unregulated discharge of waste gases, effluent, and solids may result in public concern in the local community and enforce closure of the plant by the authorities. 

A failure to provide safe working conditions for personnel may result in public concern and local and national inquiries that may harm the reputation of the supplier. 

As stated before, it is not practical to test in the range of such a low incidence. In fact, laboratories conduct animal tests at high doses to increase the likelihood of inducing cancer in a portion of a test population. Thus, to apply the results of animal tests to human exposures, the data from the high doses used in the tests must be extrapolated to the low doses of public concern. 

In the past the presence of hazardous substances in soils was not a major public concern. In spite of the large number of documented hazardous waste sites in the United States, relatively few sites liave been cleaned up widi specific redevelopment in mind. Remedial actions usually are undertaken to contain or remove chemical contaminants little or no consideration is given to the ultimate use of the site. If land reuse is decided before the cleanup there may be an opportunity to tailor the cleanup acti ities to best suit the site rcde elopment. 

Public concern about risk ranges from earthquakes, fires, and hurricanes to asbestos, radon emissions, ozone depletion, toxins in our food and water, and so on. Many of the public s worries are out of proportion, because the fear is eidier overestimated or at times underestimated The risks given die most publicity and attention receive the greatest coiicem, while the ones diat are more familiar and accepted are given less thought. 

Environmental risk commmiication is one of the more important problems that industry faces. Since tlie mid 1980s, public concerns about the environment liave grown faster Uian concern about virtually any other national problem. There are two major categories or risk nonfixable and fixable. Nonfixable risks... 

Point to Consider The goal in risk communication in a democracy should be to produce an informed public Uiat is involved, interested, reasonable, Uioughlful, solution-oriented, and collaborative. It should not be to diffuse public concerns or replace action. 

Figure 1 The rise in publications concerning ionic liquids as a function of time, as determined...

Public concerns about air quality led to the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970 to amendments to that act in 1977 and 1990. The 1990 amendments contained seven separate titles covering different regula-toiy programs and include requirements to install more advanced pollution control equipment and make other changes in industrial operations to reduce emissions of air pollutants. The 1990 amendments address sulfur dioxide emissions and acid rain deposition, nitrous oxide emissions, ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide emissions, particulate emissions, tail pipe emissions, evaporative emissions, reformulated gasoline, clean-fueled vehicles and fleets, hazardous air pollutants, solid waste incineration, and accidental chemical releases. 

Report on Progress in Areas of Public Concern. General Motors Technical Center, Warren, Mich., 1973. 

The large and widespread production of plutonium in nuclear power stations combined with its high radiotoxicity has caused great public concern about "plutonium poisoning". Consequently, the spread of plutonium in the environment has been extensively studied for several decades. The results have been reported in journals and more recently in a number of monographs and conference proceedings (e.g. L- 7). ... 

Animal tests were commonly used in the past, also according to the Draize protocol [357,372]. However, such tests have been questioned for several reasons. In addition to the public concern about animal welfare, animal tests are conducted under conditions and at concentrations quite different from those that occur in practice, as in the case of eye irritancy. The effects of surfactants on the skin cannot be compared when the results have been obtained through different protocols and even results obtained by the same method are not comparable if conditions differ. 

Knowledge of phase diagrams is not only a prerequisite for efficient crystal-growth, but also provides information on the formation of solid solutions, in which, for example, physical properties may change continuously. The numerous publications concerning Group VA systems are summarized in Tables XXV-XXVII, together with the respective references and the most important information. Abbreviations used... 

Costs associated with increased government regulation are also difficult to quantify. Public concern in response to chemical release accidents affects regulators and community policy groups. It is evident that the U.S. chemical industry is already spending large amounts of money to avoid accidents and to deal with their consequences when they occur these costs are borne in part by the consumers. Continued expenditures are likely as industry strives to achieve an "acceptable" level of public safety throughout all chemical industry operations. 

The last example for thermal activation to be discussed involves amino phases. Table 2.3 lists the publications concerning the specific detection of sugars and creatine derivatives by means of the fluorescence obtained on heating mobile phase-free amino layer chromatograms . 

There continnes to be public concern about the possibility of their being used in future. When Saddam Hussein was in power in Iraq, there was evidence that a chemical weapon of this type was used against Kurdish villagers. Subsequently, it was widely believed that these were among the weapons of mass destruction held by Saddam Hnssein s regime weapons that failed to materialize after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Since these events, there has been concern that weapons of this type may be in the possession of rogne states— or individual terror groups. 

Public concern about PBDE levels in the environment was heightened when it was shown that a sharp increase in the concentration of certain PBDEs had occurred in human breast milk over only a 10-year period (Meironyte et al. 1999 Noren and Meironyte 2000), and the levels of exposure in some infants and toddlers were similar to those shown to cause developmental neurotoxicity in animal experiments (Costa and Giordano 2007). As a result of these concerns, the majority of commercial PBDE mixtures have been banned from manufacture, sale, and use within the European Union. 

It is the last two problems, particularly in urban areas, that are causing most public concern. Most recent research into biodiesel has focused on vegetable oils such as soybean, sunflower, palm and rapeseed. Although animal fats have been considered, their availability in the quantities required have precluded serious utilization. 

Public confidence in the safely of vaccines and immunization procedures is essential if compliance is to match the needs the community. In this respect public concern and anxiety, in the mid 1970s, over the peroeived safety of pertussis vaccine led to a reduction in coverage of the target group from ca. 80% to ca. 30%. Major epidemics of whooping-cough, with over 100000 notified cases, followed in 1977/1979 and 1981/83. By 1992, public confidence had returned, coverage had increased to 92% and there were only 4091 reported cases. 

As mentioned above, significant changes in dmg regulation in Australia, Cypms and the Netherlands, were made as a result of the thalidomide disaster that occurred in Europe in 1961. This is a classic example of a crisis-led change. The disaster increased public concerns about pharmaceutical safety governments responded by imposing more stringent controls on the pharmaceutical sector, and with less resistance from the industry than would normally have been the case. 

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