Benzene Inhalation by Parts Washers: New Estimates Based on Measures of Occupational Exposure to Solvent Coaromatics

Questions persist regarding assessment of workers’ exposures to products containing low levels of benzene, such as mineral spirit solvent (MSS). This study summarizes previously unpublished data for parts‐washing activities, and evaluates potential daily and lifetime cumulative benzene exposures incurred by workers who used historical and current formulations of a recycled mineral spirits solvent in manual parts washers. Measured benzene concentrations in historical samples from parts‐washing operations were frequently below analytical detection limits. To better assess benzene exposure among these workers, air‐to‐solvent concentration ratios measured for toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (TEX) were used to predict those for benzene based on a statistical model, conditional on physical‐chemical theory supported by new thermodynamic calculations of TEX and benzene activity coefficients in a modeled MSS‐type solvent. Using probabilistic methods, the distributions of benzene concentrations were then combined with distributions of other exposure parameters to estimate eight‐hour time‐weighted average (TWA) exposure concentration distributions and corresponding daily respiratory dose distributions for workers using these solvents in parts washers. The estimated 50th (95th) percentile of the daily respiratory dose and corresponding eight‐hour TWA air concentration for workers performing parts washing are 0.079 (0.77) mg and 0.0030 (0.028) parts per million by volume (ppm) for historical solvent, and 0.020 (0.20) mg and 0.00078 (0.0075) ppm for current solvent, respectively. Both 95th percentile eight‐hour TWA respiratory exposure estimates for solvent formulations are less than 10% of the current Occupational Safety and Health Administration permissible exposure limit of 1.0 ppm for benzene.     

A note on actor network utilities and network evolution

The corrections provided by Xie and Cui [Xie, F., Cui, W., in press. Cost range and network structures. Social Networks, 30] to one of the theorems provided by Doreian [Doreian, P., 2006. Actor network utilities and network evolution. Social Networks, 28, 137–164] are both necessary and helpful. Accepting these corrections, and linking them more closely to the work of Hummon [Hummon, N.P., 2000. Utility and dynamic social networks. Social Networks, 22, 221–249], leads to some additional suggestions which, together with a restatement of some earlier results, help set the foundations for future work in this area.     

Food Security: The Elaboration of Contested Claims to a Consensus Frame*

Abstract This article demonstrates Gamson's claim that behind the apparent agreement implied by “consensus frames” lies considerable dissensus. Ironically, the very potency of consensus frames may generate contested claims to the ownership of a social problem. Food security is a potent consensus frame that has generated at least three distinct collective action frames: food security as hunger; food security as a component of a community's developmental whole; and food security as minimizing risks with respect to an industrialized food system's vulnerability to both “normal accidents” as well as the “intentional accidents” associated with agriterrorism. We show that each collective action frame reflects internal normative variation identified here with Goffman's “keying” concept. These keys suggest power differentials in the endorsement or critique of dominant institutional practices. Each frame and associated keys reflect distinct sets of interests by collective actors, such as demands for substantively different applications of science and technology. The prognostic framing of the community food security movement coincidentally holds potential for reducing not only the accidental risks of productivist agriculture but also the uncertainty induced by the risk of terrorist exploitation of those vulnerabilities. The article explores power differentials and variable levels of oppositional consciousness as mechanisms by which keys generate contentious politics within frames while serving as potential bridges between frames. This contested ownership of food security has implications for the associated movements' and organizations' capacity to influence the structure of the agrifood system as well as the broader socioeconomic organization of rural regions.     

The dementia narrative: Writing to reclaim social identity

The social needs of individuals with dementia are often not addressed. Impoverished social interactions can place the person at risk of being negatively positioned by others and without means to assert their unique identity. In seeking strategies to help these individuals reclaim their social and personal identity, we have turned to the analysis of published memoirs by writers with dementia. Selected quotations show that through writing it is possible for an individual with dementia to engage with others in a dialogue that creates meaning and forms identity. Writing renews an individual's status as a contributing social partner, provides new and positive roles, and introduces empowerment and control. The memoirs demonstrate that dementia can be a time of growth and that authors with dementia construct and project positive new identities, which are full expressions of personhood.     

Interdisciplinary Social Work and Law

Collaboration between social workers and lawyers has been of particular interest to schools of social work due to the increasing frequency with which social workers intervene with clients involved in the legal system. This article presents an educational model specifically designed to teach the interdisciplinary knowledge and skills necessary to work effectively with domestic violence. The model provides training in collaborative practice between social workers and lawyers while integrating domestic violence content with the relevant legal regulations and procedures and social work interventions. The article describes course content, teaching techniques, and student assessment, and discusses special challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration.     

Domestic Violence and Child Protection: Partnerships and Collaboration

Abstract

The interface between the child protection and domestic violence sectors is often problematic, in that the two sectors operate relatively independently, with little integration. However, it is widely recognised that these sectors need to work more closely to enhance both women's and children's safety. This paper explores the processes needed for the child protection and domestic violence sectors to develop collaborative partnerships that lead to the provision of higher-quality responses to both women and children. Drawing on collaboration theory, a number of barriers to the development of successful partnerships are described, and applied to initiatives that seek to develop integrated approaches between child protection and domestic violence services. It is concluded that there is much scope for the two sectors to work closely together, but that the development of integrated responses involving both child protection and domestic violence services will take a significant commitment, level of determination, and stamina from both parties.     

Implications of work pressure and supervisor support for fathers’, mothers’ and adolescents’ relationships and well-being in dual-earner families

The present study investigates the implications of work pressure and supervisor support for individual psychosocial functioning, marital and parent–adolescent relationships. We examined the effects of work pressure and supervisor support separately for mothers and fathers and their adolescent children (M=17.33 years) in 156 white working- and middle-class, dual-earner families. Results revealed when husbands reported high work pressure and low supervisor support, both parents reported higher levels of depressive symptoms. When wives were in the high pressure/low support group, they reported lower levels of marital love, and both spouses reported less marital satisfaction. When either parent was in the high pressure/low support group, both parents reported higher levels of role overload, and families experienced more conflict and less intimacy in their relationships with their children. Their children also reported higher levels of depressive symptoms. Results associated with parent and child depressive symptoms, however, varied by parent and child sex.     

Expecting the Unexpected: Predicting Physiological and Psychological Wildfire Preparedness from Perceived Risk,Responsibility, and Obstacles

People who live in wildfire‐prone communities tend to form their own hazard‐related expectations, which may influence their willingness to prepare for a fire. Past research has already identified two important expectancy‐based factors associated with people's intentions to prepare for a natural hazard: Perceived risk (i.e., perceived threat likelihood and severity) and perceived protection responsibility. We expanded this research by differentiating the influence of these factors on different types of wildfire preparedness (e.g., preparations for evacuation vs. for defending the house) and measured actual rather than intended preparedness. In addition, we tested the relation between preparedness and two additional threat‐related expectations: the expectation that one can rely on an official warning and the expectation of encountering obstacles (e.g., the loss of utilities) during a fire. A survey completed by 1,003 residents of wildfire‐prone areas in Perth, Australia, revealed that perceived risk (especially risk severity) and perceived protection responsibility were both positively associated with all types of preparedness, but the latter did not significantly predict preparedness after controlling for other predictors and demographics. Also, the two new expectancy‐based factors were significantly associated with all types of preparedness, and remained significant predictors of some types of preparedness after controlling for other predictors and demographics: the expectation of being able to rely on an official fire warning and expecting to lose electricity both still predicted less preparedness around house resilience, and expecting to lose water still predicted increased planning preparedness. We discuss public policy implications that follow from this research.     

Cancer Knowledge and Examination Frequency in College Students

Abstract

College students are now being considered an appropriate target for cancer education programs. However, research has demonstrated that only a fraction of those individuals knowledgeable about the importance of cancer examinations actually practice these examinations. This study investigated whether the personality construct of repression-sensitization could identify which individuals would or would not practice regular examinations for breast, cervical, and testicular cancer. College students were identified as repressors, neutral, or sensitizers and tested as to their knowledge and examination frequency for breast, cervical, and testicular cancer. After a cancer lecture, this information was reasessed. No differences were found among repressors, neutrals, or sensitizers in cancer knowledge or examination frequency, either prelecture or postlecture. Cancer knowledge significantly increased after the lecture for both males and females. No change was found in the frequency of breast self-examination, while frequency of pap smears declined after the lecture. In contrast, testicular self-examination frequency increased. The implications of these results for future research are discussed.