Using blood as a method of assessing metal levels in turtles may be useful for populations that are threatened or endangered or are decreasing. In this study the levels of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), and selenium (Se) in blood of four species of turtles from the tributaries of the Rio Negro in the Amazon of Brazil were examined. The turtles included the six-tubercled Amazon (river) turtle (Podocnemis sextuberculata), red-headed Amazon (river) turtle (Podocnemis erythrocephala), big-headed Amazon (river) turtle (Peltocephalus dumerilianus), and matamata turtle (Chelus fimbriatus). Blood samples were taken from the vein in the left hind leg of each turtle. There were significant interspecific differences in the sizes of the turtles from the Rio Negro, and in concentrations of Pb, Hg, and Se; the smallest species (red-headed turtles) had the highest levels of Pb in their blood, while Se levels were highest in big-headed turtles and lowest in red-headed turtles. Hg in blood was highest in matamata, intermediate in big-headed, and lowest in the other two turtles. Even though females were significantly larger than males, there were no significant differences in metal levels as a function of gender, and the only relationship of metals to size was for Cd. Variations in metal levels among species suggest that blood may be a useful bioindicator. Metal levels were not high enough to pose a health risk to the turtles or to consumers, such as humans.

Some fish contain high levels of mercury (Hg), which could pose a risk to fish eaters themselves or their children. In making decisions about fish consumption, people must decide whether to eat fish, how much to eat, what species to eat, and what size fish to eat, as well as suitable (or unsuitable) locations, among other factors. Yet to make sound decisions, people need to know the levels of Hg in fish as a function of species, size, and location of capture. Levels of Hg and selenium (Se) were examined in three species of flatfish (fluke or summer flounder [Paralichthys dentatus], winter flounder [Pseudopleuronectes americanus], and windowpane [Scophthalmus aquosus]) from New Jersey as a function of species, fish size, season, and location. Flatfish were postulated to have low levels of Hg because they are low on the food chain and are bottom feeders, and data were generated to provide individuals with information on a species that might be safe to eat regularly. Although there were interspecific differences in Hg levels in the 3 species, total Hg levels averaged 0.18, 0.14, and 0.06 ppm (mug/g, wet weigh) in windowpane, fluke, and winter flounder, and selenium levels averaged 0.36, 0.35, and 0.25 ppm, respectively. For windowpane, 15% had Hg levels above 0.3 ppm, but no individual fish had Hg levels over 0.5 ppm. There were no significant seasonal differences in Hg levels, although Se was significantly higher in fluke in summer compared to spring. There were few geographical differences among New Jersey locations. Correlations between Hg and Se levels were low. Data, based on 464 fish samples, indicate that Hg levels are below various advisory levels and pose little risk to typical New Jersey fish consumers. A 70-kg person eating 1 meal (8 oz or 227 g) per week would not exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reference dose of 0.1 mug/kg body weight/d of methylmercury (MeHg). However, high-end fish eaters consuming several such meals per week may exceed recommended levels.

This study evaluates a new decontamination technique for the mitigation and abatement of hazardous particulates. The traditional decontamination methods used to clean facilities and equipment are time-consuming, prolonging workers' exposure time, may generate airborne hazards, and can be expensive. The use of removable thin film coating as a decontamination technique for surface contamination proved to be a more efficient method of decontamination. This method was tested at three different sites on different hazardous metals. One application of the coating reduced the levels of these metals 90% and had an average reduction of one magnitude. The paired t-tests that were performed for each metal demonstrated that there was a statistically significant reduction of the metal after the use of the coating: lead (p = 0.03), beryllium (p = 0.05), aluminum (p = 0.006), iron (p = 0.0001), and copper (p = 0.004). The Kendall tau-b correlation coefficient demonstrates that there was a positive correlation between the initial levels of contamination and the removal efficiency for all the samples taken from different locations on the floor for each of the three sites. This new decontamination technique worked efficiently, requiring only one application, which decreased exposure time and did not generate any airborne dust.

Increasingly managers and scientists are recognizing that solving environmental problems requires the inclusion of a wide range of disciplines, governmental agencies, Native American tribes, and other stakeholders. Usually such inclusion involves communication at the problem-formulation phase, and at the end to report findings. This paper examines participatory research, the differences between the traditional stakeholder involvement method of communication (often one-way, at the beginning and the end), compared to full collaboration, where parties are actively involved in the scientific process. Using the Department of Energy's (DOE) Amchitka Island in the Aleutians as a case study, we demonstrate that the inclusion of Aleut people throughout the process resulted in science that was relevant not only to the agency's needs and to the interested and affected parties, but that led to a solution. Amchitka Island was the site of three underground nuclear tests from 1965 to 1971, and virtually no testing of radionuclide levels in biota, subsistence foods, or commercial fish was conducted after the 1970s. When DOE announced plans to close Amchitka, terminating its managerial responsibility, without any further testing of radionuclide levels in biota, there was considerable controversy, which resulted in the development of a Science Plan to assess the potential risks to the marine environment from the tests. The Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) was the principle entity that developed and executed the science plan. Unlike traditional science, CRESP embarked on a process to include the Alaskan Natives of the Aleutian Islands (Aleuts), relevant state and federal agencies, and other stakeholders at every phase. Aleuts were included in the problem-formulation, research design refinement, the research, analysis of data, dissemination of research findings, and public communication. This led to agreement with the results, and to developing a path forward (production of a biomonitoring plan designed to provide early warning of any future radionuclide leakage and ecosystem/human health risks). The process outlined was successful in resolving a previously contentious situation by inclusion and collaboration with the Aleuts, among others, and could be usefully applied elsewhere to complex environmental problems where severe data gaps exist.

Studies of fish consumption often focus on awareness of and adherence to advisories, how much fish people eat, and contaminant levels in those fish. This paper examines knowledge and accuracy of risks and benefits of fish consumption among fishers and other recreationists in the New York Bight, indicative of whether they could make sound dietary decisions. While most respondents knew about health risks (70%) and benefits (94%) of consuming fish, far fewer could name specific risks and benefits. Less than 25% of respondents mentioned mercury and less than 15% mentioned that pregnant women and children were at risk. Far fewer people mentioned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Nearly 70% said it was healthy to eat fish, and 45% were aware that fish were rich in healthful oils. Despite the lack of details about what specific risks and benefits of fish, well over a third did not feel they needed more information. Other respondents had basic questions, but did not pose specific questions about the fish they caught or ate that would have clarified their individual risk-balancing decisions. Knowledge of which fish were high in contaminants did not match the mercury or PCB levels in those fish. There was a disconnect between the information base about specific risks and benefits of fish consumption, levels of mercury and PCBs in fish, and the respondent's desire for more information. These data indicate that respondents did not have enough accurate information about contaminants in fish to make informed risk-balancing decisions.

There is widespread agreement that stakeholders should be included in the problem-formulation phase of addressing environment problems and, more recently, there have been attempts to include stakeholders in other phases of environmental research. However, there are few studies that evaluate the effects of including stakeholders in all phases of research aimed at solving environmental problems. Three underground nuclear blasts were detonated on Amchitka Island from 1965 to 1971. Considerable controversy developed when the Department of Energy (DOE) decided to "close" Amchitka. Concerns were voiced by subsistence Aleuts living in the region, resource trustees, and the State of Alaska, among others. This article evaluates perceptions of residents of three Aleutian village before (2003) and after (2005) the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation's (CRESP) Amchitka Independent Science Assessment (AISA). The CRESP AISA provided technical information on radionuclide levels in biota to inform questions of seafood safety and food chain health. CRESP used the questions asked at public meetings in the Aleut communities of Atka, Nikolski, and Unalaska to evaluate attitudes and perceptions before and after the AISA. Major concerns before the AISA were credibility/trust of CRESP and the DOE, and information about biological methodology of the study. Following the AISA, people were most concerned about health effects and risk reduction, and trust issues with CRESP declined while those for the DOE remained stable. People's relative concerns about radionuclides declined, while their concerns about mercury (not addressed in the AISA) increased, and interest in ecological issues (population changes of local species) and the future (continued biomonitoring) increased from 2003 to 2005. These results suggest that questions posed at public meetings can be used to evaluate changes in attitudes and perceptions following environmental research, and the results are consistent with the hypothesis that the AISA answered questions about radionuclides, and lowered overall concern about radionuclides, but left unanswered concerns about the health effects of mercury.

We analyzed arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese, mercury, and selenium in the feathers of common eiders (Somateria mollissima) and tufted puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) from Amchitka and Kiska islands (Aleutians). Between species, puffins had 10 times higher chromium (arithmetic mean = 1820 ppb), 7.5 times higher selenium (mean = 6600 ppb), and 3 times higher mercury (mean = 2540 ppb) than eiders. Eiders had significantly higher levels of manganese than puffins. Puffins are higher on the food chain than eiders, which is reflected in their generally higher levels of metals in their feathers. Interisland differences were generally small, and there were few significant differences as a function of the three nuclear test locations on Amchitka. The only sex-related difference was that female puffins had higher mercury than males (arithmetic mean of 3060 ppb vs. 2270 ppb). Mean levels of metals in the feathers of puffins and eiders from the Aleutians were low compared with comparable studies elsewhere, and the relatively low levels of metals do not indicate the potential for adverse behavioral or reproductive effects in the birds themselves, nor pose concern for other consumers, including subsistence hunters.

It is becoming increasingly clear that scientists, managers, lawyers, public policymakers, and the public must decide how to value what is provided by, and is a consequence of, natural resources. While "Western" scientists have clear definitions for the goods and services that ecosystems provide, we contend that these categories do not encompass the full totality of the values provided by natural resources. Partly the confusion results from a limited view of natural resources derived from the need to monetize the value of ecosystems and their component parts. Partly it derives from the "Western" way of separating natural resources from cultural resources or values, and partly it derives from the false dichotomy of assuming that ecosystems are natural, and anything constructed by man is not natural. In this article, we explore the previous assumptions, and suggest that because cultural resources often derive from, and indeed require, intact and unspoiled natural ecosystems or settings, that these values are rightly part of natural resources. The distinction is not trivial because of the current emphasis on cleaning up chemically and radiologically contaminated sites, on restoration of damaged ecosystems, on natural resource damage assessments, and on long-term stewardship goals. All of these processes depend upon defining natural resources appropriately. Several laws, regulations, and protocols depend upon natural resource trustees to protect natural resources on trust lands, which could lead to the circular definition that natural resources are those resources that the trustees feel they are responsible for. Where subsistence or tribal peoples are involved, the definition of natural resources should be broadened to include those ecocultural attributes that are dependent upon, and have incorporated, natural resources. For example, a traditional hunting and fishing ground is less valued by subsistence peoples if it is despoiled by contamination or physical ecosystem degradation; an Indian sacred ground is tarnished if the surrounding natural environment is degraded; a traditional homeland is less valued if the land itself is contaminated. Our argument is that intact natural resources are essential elements of many cultural resources, and this aspect requires and demands adequate consideration (and may therefore require compensation).

Levels of mercury and other contaminants should be lower in birds nesting on isolated oceanic islands and at high latitudes without any local or regional sources of contamination, compared to more urban and industrialized temperate regions. We examined concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese, mercury and selenium in the eggs, and the feathers of fledgling and adult glaucous-winged gulls (Larus glaucescens) nesting in breeding colonies on Adak, Amchitka, and Kiska Islands in the Aleutian Chain of Alaska in the Bering Sea/North Pacific. We tested the following null hypotheses: 1) There were no differences in metal levels among eggs and feathers of adult and fledgling glaucous-winged gulls, 2) There were no differences in metal levels among gulls nesting near the three underground nuclear test sites (Long Shot 1965, Milrow 1969, Cannikin 1971) on Amchitka, 3) There were no differences in metal levels among the three islands, and 4) There were no gender-related differences in metal levels. All four null hypotheses were rejected at the 0.05 level, although there were few differences among the three test sites on Amchitka. Eggs had the lowest levels of cadmium, lead, and mercury, and the feathers of adults had the lowest levels of selenium. Comparing only adults and fledglings, adults had higher levels of cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury, and fledglings had higher levels of arsenic, manganese and selenium. There were few consistent interisland differences, although levels were generally lower for eggs and feathers from gulls on Amchitka compared to the other islands. Arsenic was higher in both adult feathers and eggs from Amchitka compared to Adak, and chromium and lead were higher in adult feathers and eggs from Adak compared to Amchitka. Mercury and arsenic, and chromium and manganese levels were significantly correlated in the feathers of both adult and fledgling gulls. The feathers of males had significantly higher levels of chromium and manganese than did females. The levels of most metals in feathers are below those known to be associated with adverse effects in the gulls or their predators. However, levels of mercury in some gull eggs are within a range suggesting that several eggs should not be eaten in one day by sensitive humans.

An Atomic Energy of Canada Limited Gamma Cell 220 self-shielded irradiator acquired in 1974 by the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System was disposed of through the Department of Energy's Off-Site Source Recovery Project in 2006.

PROBLEM: Construction risk management is challenging. METHOD: We combined data on injuries, costs, and hours worked, obtained through a Rolling Owner-Controlled Insurance Program (ROCIP), with data from focus groups, interviews, and field observations, to prospectively study injuries and hazard control on a large university construction project. RESULTS: Lost-time injury rates (1.0/200,000 hours worked) were considerably lower than reported for the industry, and there were no serious falls from height. Safety was considered in the awarding of contracts and project timeline development; hazard management was iterative. A top-down management commitment to safety was clearly communicated to, and embraced by, workers throughout the site. DISCUSSION AND IMPACT: A better understanding of how contracting relationships, workers' compensation, and liability insurance arrangements influence safety could shift risk management efforts from worker behaviors to a broader focus on how these programs and relationships affect incentives and disincentives for workplace safety and health.

Waste management is continuously evolving, moreover, lack of resources and environmental hygiene issues have given more importance to recycling, establishing the basis of an increased risk in these workers. The aim of this study was to provide a description of occupational health of Italian waste workers in order to highlight key points for ad hoc interventions. Data about injuries and professional disease were extracted from the Italian National Labour Insurance Institute (INAIL) Waste work is a well-known cause of occupational accidents, however occupational disease appear to be less-known with many "unclassified" events. While new researches are needed in order to clarify these emerging issues, education could be the key to assure the waste workers health safety.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the paper was to present basic statistical data on occupational diseases diagnosed in 2006. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The work was based on the data compiled from "Occupational Disease Reporting Forms" received by the Central Register of Occupational Diseases in 2006. The data comprised information on individual diseases, gender and age of patients, and duration of occupational exposure to harmful agents responsible for the development of specified pathologies. These data were further classified by sectors of the national economy and voivodships (provinces). The incidence was specified in terms of the number of cases per 100,000 paid employees and per 100,000 employed persons. RESULTS: In Poland, the number of occupational diseases diagnosed in 2006 accounted for 3129 cases. The incidence rate was 32.8 cases per 100,000 paid employees. The highest incidence rates were noted for chronic disorders of the voice organ (8.0 per 100,000), pneumoconioses (7.0), contagious and parasitic diseases (6.3) and permanent bilateral hearing loss (3.1 per 100 000). As many as 75.8% of patients affected by occupational diseases had been exposed to harmful agents for longer than 20 years. In industrial sectors of the national economy, the highest incidence was noted among workers employed in the mining industry (309.1 cases per 100,000 paid employees), particularly in coal mining (366.8). The highest incidence rates were recorded in the Lubelskie (73.7), Silesian (70.2) and Swietokrzyskie (62.6) voivodships. CONCLUSION: The incidence of occupational diseases in Poland continues to abate. A downward trend is primarily due to a lower number of cases of hearing loss, diseases of pleura or pericardium induced by asbestos dust, skin diseases, and intoxications with chemical substances. However, an increase in the number of cases of chronic diseases of the voice organ was revealed.

Neoplastic disease therapy problems, e.g. antiblastic drugs manipulation, is developing. We suggested correlation assessment between the lasting professional workers' exposition of three city hospital and disease development. We selected 43 exposed workers; we gave a questionnaire regarding the modality of activity; then we examined this sample with a protocol including clinical examination and special tests (blood tests, ECG, audiometry and spirometry). RESULTS: over 55% of the workers reported aspecific complaint related to antiblastic exposure (headache, nausea, vertigo, dermatitis, alopecia, rhino-conjunctivitis, asthenia, parageusia, fauces dryness); we registered, instead, the absence of significant diseases related to antiblastic drugs exposure, because of both environmental and personal prevention, and clinical surveillance co-ordinated by occupational physician.