toxics and enviromental

Question 1

what is chronic toxicity?

Answer 1

Chronic toxicity produce health damage after long exposures even at low concentrations

Question 2

what is acute toxicity?

Answer 2

Acute toxicity produce health damage after short exposures even at low concentrations

Question 3

why is it important to study toxic exposure?

Answer 3

Studied to protect human life mainly but has secondary objective of protecting animals and plants

Question 4

what are the two most important factors in determing the health effects of toxics?

Answer 4

Substance concentration and exposure are key factors in determining health consequences

Question 5

what is the latency?

Answer 5

Latency is the time between exposure and the manifestation of health effects

Question 6

what is a marginal trash charge?

Answer 6

a tax levied on the consumer at the time of disposal

Question 7

what is an advanced disposal fee?

Answer 7

a tax levied on the producer of packaging at the time of sale of the product

Question 8

what are the key differences between the marginal trash charge and the advanced disposal fee?

Answer 8

MTC induces re-use and reduction* ADF does not* Fewer producers than consumers, so ADF easier to administer* MTC induces some evasion, but ADF cannot be evaded* MTC might induce littering and illegal dumping

Question 9

what are the benefits of the recycling scheme with a marginal trash charge and a recylcing collection charge but without an advanced disposal fee?

Answer 9

it has the correct reuse incentives and the marginal trash charge might be tailored to to local communities

Question 10

what are the negatives of the recycling scheme with a marginal trash charge and a recylcing collection charge but without an advanced disposal fee?

Answer 10

adf might be easier to administer due to fact there is less producers then consumers. there is the largest incentive for illegal dumping. the charge for recycling may be misunderstood. it requires different recycling charges.

Question 11

what are the benefits of the scheme with a Advanced disposal fee and a marginal trash charge but no recycling collection charge?

Answer 11

uses adf which is easy to administer, mtc is low so lowers risk of illegal disposing.

Question 12

what are the negatives of the scheme with a Advanced disposal fee and a marginal trash charge but no recycling collection charge?

Answer 12

ADF could vary over products, but difficult to make it vary geographically (inequality of incentives). MTC is expensive to administer if varied across products, so over-incentive to recycle poor value waste and under-incentive to recycle high value waste

Question 13

what are the positives of a scheme with an advanced disposal fee and a recycling refund without a marginal trash charge?

Answer 13

ADF is large here it basically subsidizes recycling disincentivizing re-use, ADF should vary across places and products to really make the equality work in different conditions

Question 14

what are the negatives of a scheme with an advanced disposal fee and a recycling refund without a marginal trash charge?

Answer 14

ADF probably at national level while recycling at local level which is administratively costly

Question 15

what scheme does the OECD support?

Answer 15

Richard Porter in the OECD document supports scheme with a Advanced disposal fee and a marginal trash charge but no recycling collection charge due to it being easy to administer, makes common sne and is politically acceptable and only this scheme gives incentive to the producers

Question 16

what are the two extreme views on regulation

Answer 16

there are the market proponents that suggest the market forces produce the right incentives for the right level of precaution to be implemented bu employers so no regulation is needed
regulation proponents say that the market do not always provide the socially optimum output

Question 17

what are the market proponents arguements against regulation?

Answer 17

1) riskier jobs call for higher wages ( everything else equal)
2) workers will sort themselves across riskier jobs on the basis of a wage compensating for risk and their risk attitudes
3) employers will either pay the higher wage or when economically convenient, spend more in precaution and diminish employees exposure to hazards

Question 18

how does varying levels of optios to make the workplace safer affect the cost of precautions?

Answer 18

when there are fewer options to increase precaution will make expenditure higher at all levels of precaution whereas when there are many options to increase precaution will make expenditure lower at all levels of precaution

Question 19

what is the outcome when there is low exposure and few options to improve safety?

Answer 19

there is the lowest degree of precaution and the second highest marginal cost

Question 20

what is the outcome when there is high exposure and many options to improve safety?

Answer 20

there is the highest degree of precaution and the second lowest marginal cost

Question 21

what is the outcome when there is low exposure but many options to improve safety?

Answer 21

there is the second highest degree of precaution at the lowest marginal cost

Question 22

what is the outcome when there is a high exposure but low options to improve safety?

Answer 22

there is the second lowest degree of precaution with the highest marginal cost

Question 23

do wages really vary with risk levels and do employers want to pay for more precaution to lower hazard exposure?

Answer 23

the willingness to accept compensation varies widely and the willingness to pay for a risk reduction is substantial

Question 24

what are the ethical concerns with risk premiums?

Answer 24

it might be seen as unethical not to regulate the risk in the workplace for example risk-loving pregnant workers may be unethical to allow them.
also the workers may not be able assess risk correctly when the data is held by employers and would be costly.

Question 25

what is the role of the government to protect workerS?

Answer 25

– Lower these information costs to the workers
– Promote and validate research
– Manage/mandate the public availability of data so that work place risk can be assessed by workers
– Mandate employers to disclose health hazards to workers and public
– Provide training for risky activities
– Adequate handling of hazardous substances
– Enforce safety thresholds for highly hazardous tasks

Question 26

what is the arguement for self regulating capacity of markets for products safety?

Answer 26

the theory states that producers will fail if their products is not safe enough to survive in the market.

Question 27

what is the arguement against the self regulating capacity of markets for products safety?

Answer 27

the main arguement is the latency of the toxics as the consumers may realise when it is too late for the remedy. therefore there needs to regulation such as labelling, testing and banning

Question 28

what does the court need to ascertain for liability laws to be most efficient?

Answer 28

1) the damage that has happened
2) that it was caused by a toxic substance
3) the substance originated from a specific source

Question 29

what is the issue with hazardous waste siting?

Answer 29

empiracle evidence that hazardous facilities are located in proximity of marginal communities. the USA evidence is associated with race and the EU is associated with income/education

Question 30

what are the economics of hazardous plant siting?

Answer 30

locator wants to minimise costs of siting, low land values therefore are attractive. low income communities might want to hist as there will be employment opportunities. locator will be liable to compensate the damaged parties and the low income communities and likely to require less compensation then high incomes

Question 31

what are the possible explanations for the toxic storage and disposal facilities sites correlated positively with marginal groups?

Answer 31

1) TSDFs lower the value of surrounding land. after the land has lowered the low income people find the location more attractive so move in higher proportion to the area changing the demographic
2) the presence of low income people attract the site to the location in the first place

Question 32

what were the USA policy responses to environmental inequality?

Answer 32

• EPA 1992 Office of Environmental Equity
• Clinton Executive order 12898: Federal action to address the environmental justice in minority and low-income populations– Assessed in 2004 and again in 2014 and still found to be lacking: “Even in 2014 the most potent predictor of health is zip code”

Question 33

what were canada and the EU policy responses to environmental inequality?

Answer 33

canada has a successful participation process, opposition can veto at various stages
In EU employment opportunities also a determinant of voluntary hosting (Italy, Spain,Hungary, France)

Question 34

why are incentives to reduce important?

Answer 34

it will reduce the use of virgin materials

Question 35

why are incentives to reuse, recover and recycle important?

Answer 35

the reuse of existing material will allow you to reduce the use of virgin materials

Question 36

when is the recovery optimised?

Answer 36

it is optimised at the point of product design. this therefore calls for producer extended responsibility

Question 37

how can the government affect waste on the production side?

Answer 37

they can make waste disposal costly to reduce it ie landfill tax
make monitoring effective to reduce illegal dumping ie monitoring services
make new production technology cleaner and less wasteful ie investment in R&D, regulation on industrial material and consumer product design
special incentives for toxic materials - 5 policies examined ( deposit refund for producers, taxes on virgin material eg lead, subsidies for recycling, standards for recycling, producer responsibility to take back toxic products

Question 38

how can manufacturs reudce the advanced disposal fee?

Answer 38

1. Using material less costly to collect and recycle;
2. Using material that is more variable once recycled
3. Fostering the recyclable market in the input side
4. May lease product and recapture it at the end of life to remanufacture