Measuring the impacts of air pollution.

Reduced air pollution from coal power plants decreased mortality more than expected.

Health risks of heavy metals in food and their economic burden in Armenia.

Mining leads to excessive heavy metal contamination of agricultural products in Armenia and can adversely impact human health. We quantify the concentrations of toxic heavy metals (lead, nickel, cadmium, and mercury) in food sampled from local markets of the capital city, Yerevan. We combine these measured concentrations with data from a diet survey of 1,195 people. The results provide an estimate of people's heavy metal intake in a typical day. The study finds that only dietary exposure to lead raises consumer safety concerns. More than 50 % of the population have daily intakes of lead that exceed the benchmark dose level (BMDL10) of 0.63 µg/kg b.w./day established by European Food Safety Authority. Moreover, risk assessment results indicate that approximately 96 % of the population has dietary exposure values for lead that exceed the threshold level, with animal products as the primary source. The lead exposure observed in sampled population has the potential to increase blood pressure on average by 0.54 mmHg, lower IQ levels by 1.2 point, and reduce lifetime earnings by $5000. The study reveals a strong need to determine the specific pathways by which lead enters the food supply, to mitigate the excess exposures, and to reduce the potential or severity of the resulting adverse health impacts.

What Role Do the Impacts from High Emissions and High Temperatures Have on Choosing Optimal Mitigation Targets?

When choosing among emission trajectories that lead to final expected temperatures between 2 and 4 °C, society needs to weigh the extra mitigation cost of each strategy against the extra benefit (additional reduced damage). The damage associated with high emissions that lead to high temperatures play no role in this calculation. With uncertainty about the link between emissions and temperature, high temperatures can play a role in desired near term mitigation but it will generally be a modest effect. We need to focus scientific attention on policy relevant emission paths and their consequences and pay much less attention to what happens in high emission scenarios.

Economic vulnerability to tropical storms on the southeastern coast of Africa.

Climate change will hit Africa economically hard, not least Southeast Africa. Understanding the impact of extreme climatic events is important for both economic development and climate change policy. Global climatological summaries reveal high damage potential pathways for developed countries. Will countries in Africa, especially in the southeastern board of the continent, be vulnerable to loss-generating extreme climate events? This study examined for countries in the sub-region, their vulnerability and damage costs, the impact of climate change on tropical storm damage, as well as the differential impacts of storm damages. An approach using a combination of physical and economic reasoning, as well as results of previous studies, reveals that in Southeast Africa, the economic response to the key damage parameters of intensity, size and wind speed is significant for all the countries. Damages in Kenya and Tanzania are sensitive to wind speed. Both vulnerability and adaptation are important for Madagascar and Mozambique - two countries predicted to be persistently damaged by tropical storms. For Mauritius and South Africa, inflictions from extreme events are expected to be impactful, and would require resilient public and private infrastructure. Reducing the physical and socio-economic vulnerability to extreme events will require addressing the underlying socio-economic drivers, as well as developing critical public infrastructure.

Incorporating health impacts into a differentiated pollution tax rate system: A case study in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in China.

This paper argues for an efficient pollution tax rate system that reflects the differentiation of marginal health damages of the individual emission sources. Although China is the first country in the world to launch a regionally differentiated pollution tax rate program, due to the absence of marginal damage estimation, whether this policy is efficient and equitable remains unknown. In this paper, we build an Integrated Assessment Model to measure the marginal damage of SO2, NOx and PM2.5 emitted from 38 coal-fired power plants in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and evaluate the policy performance of tax rate systems with different differentiation magnitudes. Results show that the spatial variations are huge, the range of marginal health damages of coal-fired power plants in the BTH region between the lowest and highest emission source is $2375 to $33245 per ton for SO2, $307 to $4984 per ton for NOx, and $11513 - $163126 per ton for PM2.5. Shifting from the uniform tax rate system to the current partially differentiated tax rate system will increase the total health benefits by 51.6% but with some regions worse-off than the uniform tax rate system. If we incorporate the source-specific variations of marginal health damages into the tax rate system, such a fully differentiated tax rate system will further increase the total health benefits of current partially differentiated tax rate system by 43.1% with every region better-off. Furthermore, even though the policy benefits of both differentiated tax rate systems are much more unequally distributed than uniform tax rates, their impacts on environmental inequalities are better than the uniform tax rate system. Because uniform tax rate systems do not offset the original inequalities of environmental health burdens while differentiated tax rate systems achieve this buy efficiently allocate mitigation targets among regions with different burdens.

Revisiting the sadomasochistic marriage: the paranoid-masochistic relationship.

The sadomasochistic marriage is thought to be very resistant to change because of the object relations of each member of a couple as well as the sadomasochistic dynamics within the couple. However, the picture may be even more complex because there are times when a psychoanalytic therapist may mistakenly believe he or she is treating a sadomasochistic couple when the couple actually is functioning in a paranoid-masochistic relationship. The present paper reexamines the sadomasochistic marriage by revisiting the work of Nydes, who formulated the concept of paranoid-masochism in individuals and contrasted it to the more commonly understood sadomasochist dynamic. This paper applies his concepts to couples: Just as we understand some couples to be sadomasochistic, other couples may have paranoid-masochistic dynamics, which may require a somewhat different kind of understanding and technical approach than the dynamics of a sadomasochistic couple at the same level of object relations. This may be the reason why some marriages, misdiagnosed as sadomasochistic, are even more difficult to treat than others, because they might be more accurately treated as paranoid-masochistic.

"Collusive infidelity," projective identification, and clinical technique.

The author presents the concept of "collusive infidelity" and the role of projective identification as ubiquitous in the unconscious encouragement of infidelity through triangulation. He also discusses how to work with this dynamic in couples therapy, particularly by attending to the clinician's own countertransference reactions. To illustrate these ideas he provides a commentary on a session where collusion dynamics were observed. Finally, he examines how the concept of collusive infidelity can provide a link between psychoanalytic and family systems theories and suggests that the concept of collusive infidelity can be helpful when working with a couple who are in the wake of an affair.

Five types of "couple object-relations" seen in couple therapy: implications for theory and practice.

The author suggests that there are five types of couples seen in couple therapy. Based on the object relations of each, these are parasitic, symbiotic, narcissistic, sibling, and oedipal. Furthermore, each of these couple object-relations corresponds to the developmental level of a couple, and the couple's developmental level can be, and often is, of more primitive object relations than the actual developmental level of either member of the couple alone (that is, the couple is often greater than the sum of its parts; Mendelsohn, 2009). In addition, every couple-relationship is infused with projective identification (Mendelsohn, 2009), but each is also characterized by its own complex of character defenses, so that every couple-relationship presents with a particular of kind transference and a corresponding countertransference. Some of the theoretical and treatment implications of these transference and countertransference matrices are discussed.

"Playing" with the couple's projective identifications: paradigmatic psychotherapy with couples.

This paper is an attempt to (1) expand the concept of the defense of projective identification to include everyday interactions between intimates who are not necessarily deeply disturbed, (2) show the importance of understanding projective identification inductions in couples therapy, (3) introduce a new way of working with normal/neurotic couples where there is at least some evidence of projective identification in their communication, and (4) describe the similarity of my approach with less disturbed couples to the technical modification of paradigmatic psychotherapy as employed by Modern Psychoanalysis in their work with more disturbed individual patients.

Parallel process and projective identification in psychoanalytic supervision.

In the present paper I explore the notion of the parallel process, a controversial concept in psychoanalytic supervision. I suggest that the parallel process is essentially the operation of the defensive process of projective identification, which in some quarters is similarly viewed with skepticism and/or is mistakenly seen as primarily a malignant defense operating exclusively in severe character pathology (Kernberg, 1975; Mendelsohn, 2009). Further, I present several vignettes of psychoanalytic supervision where a series of parallel processes occurred, and I suggest that these parallel enactments are the result of the projective identifications which stimulated them. I agree with critical writers who say that simply suggesting the presence of a parallel process in the supervision adds no new information to the supervision, but I show how an exploration of the parallel enactments, which includes (1) exploring the patient-therapist dyadic dynamics, (2) a narrowly focused exploration of the dynamics of the therapist/presenter, and (3) and an exploration of the dynamics of the therapist-supervisor dyad, can enrich the treatment, as well as the supervision. Finally I suggest that while the projective identification that occurs in the supervisory dyad does not always lead to a parallel process, every parallel process is the result of projective identification(s). I further suggest that while every parallel process does not lead to an enactment via projective identification, enactments can only occur via the parallel process instigated by projective identification.

Using air quality modeling to study source-receptor relationships between nitrogen oxides emissions and ozone exposures over the United States.

Human exposure to ambient ozone (O(3)) has been linked to a variety of adverse health effects. The ozone level at a location is contributed by local production, regional transport, and background ozone. This study combines detailed emission inventory, air quality modeling, and census data to investigate the source-receptor relationships between nitrogen oxides (NO(x)) emissions and population exposure to ambient O(3) in 48 states over the continental United States. By removing NO(x) emissions from each state one at a time, we calculate the change in O(3) exposures by examining the difference between the base and the sensitivity simulations. Based on the 49 simulations, we construct state-level and census region-level source-receptor matrices describing the relationships among these states/regions. We find that, for 43 receptor states, cumulative NO(x) emissions from upwind states contribute more to O(3) exposures than the state's own emissions. In-state emissions are responsible for less than 15% of O(3) exposures in 90% of U.S. states. A state's NO(x) emissions can influence 2 to 40 downwind states by at least a 0.1 ppbv change in population-averaged O(3) exposure. The results suggest that the U.S. generally needs a regional strategy to effectively reduce O(3) exposures. But the current regional emission control program in the U.S. is a cap-and-trade program that assumes the marginal damage of every ton of NO(x) is equal. In this study, the average O(3) exposures caused by one ton of NO(x) emissions ranges from -2.0 to 2.3 ppm-people-hours depending on the state. The actual damage caused by one ton of NO(x) emissions varies considerably over space.

Integrated assessment of the spatial variability of ozone impacts from emissions of nitrogen oxides.

This paper examines the ozone (O3) damages caused by nitrogen oxides (NO(x)) emissions in different locations around the Atlanta metropolitan area during a summer month. We calculate O3 impacts using a new integrated assessment model that links pollution emissions to their chemical transformation, transport, population exposures, and effects on human health. We find that increased NO(x) emissions in rural areas around Atlanta increase human exposure to ambient O3 twice as much as suburban emissions. However, increased NO(x) emissions in central city Atlanta actually reduce O3 exposures. For downtown emissions, the reduction in human exposures to O3 from titration by NO in the central city outweighs the effects from increased downwind O3. The results indicate that the marginal damage from NO(x) emissions varies greatly across a metropolitan area. The results raise concerns if cap and trade regulations cause emissions to migrate toward higher marginal damage locations.

The economic impact of sea-level rise on nonmarket lands in Singapore.

Sea-level rise, as a result of climate change, will likely inflict considerable economic consequences on coastal regions, particularly low-lying island states like Singapore. Although the literature has addressed the vulnerability of developed coastal lands, this is the first economic study to address nonmarket lands, such as beaches, marshes and mangrove estuaries. This travel cost and contingent valuation study reveals that consumers in Singapore attach considerable value to beaches. The contingent valuation study also attached high values to marshes and mangroves but this result was not supported by the travel cost study. Although protecting nonmarket land uses from sea-level rise is expensive, the study shows that at least highly valued resources, such as Singapore's popular beaches, should be protected.

Valuing coral reefs: a travel cost analysis of the Great Barrier Reef.

This study examines domestic and international travel to the Great Barrier Reef in order to estimate the benefits the reef provides to the 2 million visitors each year. The study explores the problems of functional form and of measuring travel cost for international visits: comparing actual costs, distance, and lowest price fares. The best estimates of the annual recreational benefits of the Great Barrier Reef range between USD 700 million to 1.6 billion. The domestic value to Australia is about USD 400 million, but the estimated value to more distant countries depends on the definition of travel cost and the functional form. The study conclusively demonstrates that there are very high benefits associated with protecting high quality coral reefs.