Assessment of Inhalation Exposures and Potential Health Risks to the General Population that Resulted from the Collapse of the World Trade Center Towers

In the days following the collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers on September 11, 2001 (9/11), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiated numerous air monitoring activities to better understand the ongoing impact of emissions from that disaster. Using these data, EPA conducted an inhalation exposure and human health risk assessment to the general population. This assessment does not address exposures and potential impacts that could have occurred to rescue workers, firefighters, and other site workers, nor does it address exposures that could have occurred in the indoor environment. Contaminants evaluated include particulate matter (PM), metals, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, asbestos, volatile organic compounds, particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, silica, and synthetic vitreous fibers (SVFs). This evaluation yielded three principal findings. (1) Persons exposed to extremely high levels of ambient PM and its components, SVFs, and other contaminants during the collapse of the WTC towers, and for several hours afterward, were likely to be at risk for acute and potentially chronic respiratory effects. (2) Available data suggest that contaminant concentrations within and near ground zero (GZ) remained significantly elevated above background levels for a few days after 9/11. Because only limited data on these critical few days were available, exposures and potential health impacts could not be evaluated with certainty for this time period. (3) Except for inhalation exposures that may have occurred on 9/11 and a few days afterward, the ambient air concentration data suggest that persons in the general population were unlikely to suffer short-term or long-term adverse health effects caused by inhalation exposures. While this analysis by EPA evaluated the potential for health impacts based on measured air concentrations, epidemiological studies conducted by organizations other than EPA have attempted to identify actual impacts. Such studies have identified respiratory effects in worker and general populations, and developmental effects in newborns whose mothers were near GZ on 9/11 or shortly thereafter. While researchers are not able to identify specific times and even exactly which contaminants are the cause of these effects, they have nonetheless concluded that exposure to WTC contaminants (and/or maternal stress, in the case of developmental effects) resulted in these effects, and have identified the time period including 9/11 itself and the days and few weeks afterward as a period of most concern based on high concentrations of key pollutants in the air and dust.     

The impact of citizen evaluation review on community mental health center programs

A field study of techniques for involving local citizens in the evaluation of Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) services shows that lay citizens can make recommendations that service agencies will use to improve services. Seventeen citizen groups received evaluation information from participating CMHCs and developed 310 recommendations. Seventy-one percent of these suggestions were used by the CMHCs. Staff and governing board attitudes, fiscal pressures, and other organizational characteristics affected the success of the citizen groups.     

Challenging the neoliberal view of education: the Center for Ecoliteracy as a transformative educational practice

The neoliberal rationality of recent decades has, as one of its maxims, that of extending market logic to the rest of social dimensions on the basis of competition. However, the spreading of this neoliberal ‘drug’ requires profound political reforms. It calls for a cultural engineering of the public sector which has been fostered by the New Public Management (NPM). This form of governmentality controls current power relations and gives a new meaning to the management of public services, including the educational sector. In this paper, we maintain that there are ‘spaces of resistance’ against the neoliberal educational rationality. We analyse the Center for Ecoliteracy (CFE) as a transformative experience which integrates a holistic perspective into educational practice. We compare the principles of the NPM with those of the CFE, showing that there are more humanistic approaches to education which aim to teach students the need to live in sustainable communities.     

北京旅游业在建设国际商贸中心中的优劣势分析

旅游业是未来北京城市产业升级,城市功能转变的重要支撑行业。本文选取北京国际商贸中心建设中旅游业的发展为研究对象,分析了北京旅游业发展的优势与不足,并在此基础上借鉴巴黎、纽约等国际商贸中心经验,为北京国际商贸中心建设中更好的发展旅游业提供借鉴。     

区域人口分布及空间相关性研究——以安徽省为例

通过ARCGIS9.3空间统计平台,结合相关人口指标,利用2000年、2010年安徽省人口普查数据,对安徽省人口分布的全局与局部相关性、人口分布时空演变特征以及人口分布与自然、经济的空间联系进行了实证分析。分析发现,安徽省人口分布存在空间自相关;自然要素,如地形、河流对安徽省人口分布影响较大;人口重心与经济重心的移动轨迹不一致。据此认为,该结论对安徽省的人口经济发展具有对外加大劳动力转移力度,对内加强新农村和家庭农场建设3大启示。     

从广州大学城流动商贩管理看城管行政执法

城管行政执法一直备受社会各界关注,而城管对流动商贩的管理更是处于舆论的风口浪尖上。流动商贩需以低成本的方式谋生,因而对城管执法有抵触情绪;城管依法履行其监管职责,但由于执法方式多失于简单粗暴,而导致各类矛盾冲突。文章以广州大学城为研究对象,对为期1年的调查访问获取的数据与信息进行分析研判,针对大学城流动商贩管理中存在的公众参与不足等问题提出相应的建议。     

欧美国家反洗钱金融防范及其对我国的启示

文章阐释了欧美国家反洗钱金融防范体系中核心部分的相关措施,旨在说明市场经济条件下我国反洗钱金融防范面临的问题及原因,并对我国建立与健全反洗钱金融防范体系提出了一些具有建设性的意见.     

银行事业部制经营管理模式初探

西方现代商业银行经历了地区组织推动的横向管理方式向业务组织推动的纵向管理模式变迁的历程，矩阵式事业部制已成为银行业组织架构的主要模式。而我国现行国有商业银行仍旧存在体制和机制上的缺陷，其改革势在必然，作为一个综合性的复杂系统工程，需要在思想、组织、政策和方法等方面全面加以考量和落实。     

中小型儿童福利院的发展现状及出路思考

随着我国政府职能的转换以及市场经济的发展,许多民间福利性组织纷纷发展壮大,民间福利组织由于经营方式灵活,自治能力较强,所以在很大程度上迎合了社会的需求。而创建于早期的中小型官办福利组织(养老院、儿童福利院等),由于管理的滞后,经营理念的单一,在很大程度上已经不能满足日益膨胀的社会需求。本文先对现阶段中小型儿童福利院所存在的一系列问题及其原因进行了分析,然后从结构功能主义的角度提出了改革构想。     

萨达特时期埃苏关系破裂的原因

埃苏关系的急剧变化始于萨达特上台之后。萨达特与“权力中心”的斗争 ,增加了双方的不信任。随后 ,双方在埃及实行开放政策、调整中东政策、改善与美国和以色列的关系等方面 ,分歧日增。苏联的霸权主义政策 ,加深了埃苏矛盾的发展 ,两国关系终由盟友走上敌对