toxics and enviromental Flashcards
what is chronic toxicity?
Chronic toxicity produce health damage after long exposures even at low concentrations
what is acute toxicity?
Acute toxicity produce health damage after short exposures even at low concentrations
why is it important to study toxic exposure?
Studied to protect human life mainly but has secondary objective of protecting animals and plants
what are the two most important factors in determing the health effects of toxics?
Substance concentration and exposure are key factors in determining health consequences
what is the latency?
Latency is the time between exposure and the manifestation of health effects
what is a marginal trash charge?
a tax levied on the consumer at the time of disposal
what is an advanced disposal fee?
a tax levied on the producer of packaging at the time of sale of the product
what are the key differences between the marginal trash charge and the advanced disposal fee?
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
what are the benefits of the recycling scheme with a marginal trash charge and a recylcing collection charge but without an advanced disposal fee?
it has the correct reuse incentives and the marginal trash charge might be tailored to to local communities
what are the negatives of the recycling scheme with a marginal trash charge and a recylcing collection charge but without an advanced disposal fee?
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.
what are the benefits of the scheme with a Advanced disposal fee and a marginal trash charge but no recycling collection charge?
uses adf which is easy to administer, mtc is low so lowers risk of illegal disposing.
what are the negatives of the scheme with a Advanced disposal fee and a marginal trash charge but no recycling collection charge?
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
what are the positives of a scheme with an advanced disposal fee and a recycling refund without a marginal trash charge?
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
what are the negatives of a scheme with an advanced disposal fee and a recycling refund without a marginal trash charge?
ADF probably at national level while recycling at local level which is administratively costly
what scheme does the OECD support?
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
what are the two extreme views on regulation
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
what are the market proponents arguements against regulation?
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
how does varying levels of optios to make the workplace safer affect the cost of precautions?
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
what is the outcome when there is low exposure and few options to improve safety?
there is the lowest degree of precaution and the second highest marginal cost
what is the outcome when there is high exposure and many options to improve safety?
there is the highest degree of precaution and the second lowest marginal cost
what is the outcome when there is low exposure but many options to improve safety?
there is the second highest degree of precaution at the lowest marginal cost
what is the outcome when there is a high exposure but low options to improve safety?
there is the second lowest degree of precaution with the highest marginal cost
do wages really vary with risk levels and do employers want to pay for more precaution to lower hazard exposure?
the willingness to accept compensation varies widely and the willingness to pay for a risk reduction is substantial
what are the ethical concerns with risk premiums?
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.
what is the role of the government to protect workerS?
– 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
what is the arguement for self regulating capacity of markets for products safety?
the theory states that producers will fail if their products is not safe enough to survive in the market.
what is the arguement against the self regulating capacity of markets for products safety?
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
what does the court need to ascertain for liability laws to be most efficient?
1) the damage that has happened
2) that it was caused by a toxic substance
3) the substance originated from a specific source
what is the issue with hazardous waste siting?
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
what are the economics of hazardous plant siting?
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
what are the possible explanations for the toxic storage and disposal facilities sites correlated positively with marginal groups?
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
what were the USA policy responses to environmental inequality?
- 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”
what were canada and the EU policy responses to environmental inequality?
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)
why are incentives to reduce important?
it will reduce the use of virgin materials
why are incentives to reuse, recover and recycle important?
the reuse of existing material will allow you to reduce the use of virgin materials
when is the recovery optimised?
it is optimised at the point of product design. this therefore calls for producer extended responsibility
how can the government affect waste on the production side?
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
how can manufacturs reudce the advanced disposal fee?
- Using material less costly to collect and recycle;
- Using material that is more variable once recycled
- Fostering the recyclable market in the input side
- May lease product and recapture it at the end of life to remanufacture
