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Exposures To Multiple Environmental Chemicals (Lead, Methylmercury And Polychlorinated Biphenyls) Among Childbearing-Aged Women In The U.S., Marcella Remer Thompson

Open Access Dissertations

It is estimated that 5 to 20% of neurodevelopmental disabilities in children are caused by environmental toxic exposures. Lead, methylmercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are known to have neurobehavioral and neurodevelopmental consequences in animal models and human population studies. Bioaccumulation and exposures during gestation transfer from mother to fetus via the placenta and to an infant and young child through lactation. Little is known about multiple environmental chemical exposures, especially among childbearing-aged women.

This descriptive and exploratory study involved analysis of existing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a national probability sample. Lead, methylmercury and the …

Getting Around When You’Re Just Getting By: The Travel Behavior And Transportation Expenditures Of Low-Income Adults, Mti Report 10-02, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Evelyn A. Blumenberg, Sarah Abel, Gregory Pierce, Charles N. Darrah

Mineta Transportation Institute

How much do people with limited resources pay for cars, public transit, and other means of travel? How does their transportation behavior change during periods of falling employment and rising fuel prices? This research uses in-depth interviews with 73 adults to examine how rising transportation costs impact low-income families. The interviews examine four general areas of interest: travel behavior and transportation spending patterns; the costs and benefits of alternative modes of travel; cost management strategies; and opinions about the effect of changing transportation prices on travel behavior. Key findings include: Most low-income household are concerned about their transportation costs. Low-income …

Harmonizing Climate Change Policy And International Investment Law: Threats, Challenges And Opportunities, Daniel M. Firger, Michael Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter responds to a chorus of commentary about the potential for conflict between the international investment law regime and an array of national and international actions being undertaken to mitigate and adapt to global climate change. Contrary to conventional wisdom, while some climate-friendly regulations may indeed be facially incompatible with the obligations imposed on states by typical international investment agreements (IIAs), many climate policies – especially those related to clean energy finance and technology transfer – involve principles common to foreign investment law and are largely compatible with that regime. Moreover, pending the unlikely negotiation of a single global …

The Human-Environment Dialog In Award-Winning Children’S Picture Books, J. Allen Williams, Christopher Podeschi, Nathan Palmer, Philip Schwadel, Deanna Meyler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Picture books often play an important role in childhood socialization. Given the seriousness of environmental problems, we ask how natural, modified, and built environments have been portrayed in children’s books. To answer this question, we analyze the 296 books receiving Caldecott awards from 1938 to 2008. Two possibilities are explored with respect to content change. Growing concern about critical environmental problems, such as decline in biodiversity and deforestation, may have led to an increase in illustrations and stories about wild animals and the natural environment. Alternatively, the increasing isolation of people from the natural world may have resulted in a …

Poverty Tourism And The Problem Of Consent, Kyle Powys Whyte, Evan Selinger, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

Is it morally permissible for financially privileged tourists to visit places for the purpose of experiencing where poor people live, work, and play? Tourism associated with this question is commonly referred to as 'poverty tourism.' While some poverty tourism is plausibly ethical, other practices will be more controversial. The purpose of this essay is to address mutually beneficial cases of poverty tourism and advance the following positions. First, even mutually beneficial transactions between tourists and residents in poverty tourism always run a risk of being exploitative. Second, there is little opportunity to determine whether a given tour is exploitative since …

La Ola Verde: Female, Hispanic Consumers And The Green Movement, Stefanie Ann Ramirez

LSU Master's Theses

Due to their impact on the environment, apparel companies have gradually begun to change manufacturing and production processes and provide consumers with environmentally responsible apparel product options. Among these consumers are Hispanics, a consumer group which research has shown to have a strong purchasing power and astounding population increase. Between 2000 and 2010, the total population in the United States increased by 23.7million people, with Hispanics accounting for over 50% of that total increase (Humes, Jones, & Ramirez, 2011). It is estimated that by 2125 Hispanics will account for 50% of the total U.S. population (Day, 1996). Additionally, between 1990 …

The Lower Ninth Ward: Resistance, Recovery, And Renewal, Alexandra Giancarlo

LSU Master's Theses

After Hurricane Katrina of 2005, New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward became an icon for the failure of recovery efforts and the persistence of inequality and poverty in American society. However, for as long as this community has been marginalized it has been creating advocacy organizations and counter-narratives that battled discrimination and imbued its cultural practices with meaning. Residents often speak of a profound sense of community attachment, a commitment to educational prospects, and a deep historic and cultural identity. Historically, this area has been home to various social and legal campaigns, mirroring the contemporary protests that arose when residents encountered …

Social Vulnerability In Louisiana's Upper Industrial Corridor: Spatial Distribution And Linkages With Cumulative Pollution - A Zip Code Level Analysis, María Belén Toscano

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana’s industrial corridor, the stretch of the lower Mississippi River from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, is one of the areas with the highest concentration of petrochemical facilities and chemical plants in the United States, as well as one of the most heavily polluted. In particular, the present study examined the associations of social vulnerability and potential exposure to environmental pollution in the upper section of the industrial corridor, the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The study was based on the methodology developed by Cutter et al. (2003) to construct an empirically derived index to measure social vulnerability to …

Why Study Large Projects? Environmental Regulation’S Neglected Frontier, Natasha Affolder

All Faculty Publications

Large-scale natural resource and infrastructure projects create some of the most challenging and high-stakes contexts for environmental regulation. Witness the heated debates surrounding the Keystone XL pipeline project. But to date, large projects have attracted relatively little sustained interest from scholars of environmental law and regulation. Case studies stand alone as valuable empirical accounts of individual pipelines, dams, and mining projects. But synthesis of these case studies is lacking. A workshop that celebrates the approaching 20th year anniversary of Ian Ayres’ and John Braithwaite’s 1992 book, Responsive Regulation, provides an opportune moment to reflect on this lacuna in environmental regulatory …

Nafta, Cafta And The Environment: The Role Of Institutions, Sherrie Baver

Publications and Research

This essay examines the institutionalization of environmental concerns, primarily focusing on NAFTA, and argues that the 1994 agreement should be seen as a positive first attempt to raise the profile of environmental concerns within discussions of expanding global trade. More specifically, NAFTA and subsequent U.S. FTAs have contributed to the growth of procedural environmental rights that have the potential to deepen democracy in the wider political system. Given that free trade agreements represent the U.S. approach to world trade at present, this paper takes the practical position that building on NAFTA’s foundation, opportunities exist to continue promoting environmental sustainability within …

Urbanization, Water Quality, And The Regulated Landscape, Dave Owen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Park Access And Distributional Inequities In Pinellas County, Florida, Kyle Ray Hirvela

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although environmental justice research has traditionally focused on environmental disamenities and health hazards, recent studies have begun to examine social inequities in the distribution of urban amenities such as street trees and parks that provide several direct and indirect health benefits to local residents. This thesis adds to this knowledge by evaluating distributional inequities in both distribution and access to parks in Pinellas County, the most densely populated and one of the most racially segregated counties in Florida. An important objective was to determine if neighborhoods with lower levels of park access are more likely to contain a significantly higher …

Notices

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of The Impacts Of Urbanization On Green Space Access And Water Resources: A Developed And Developing World Perspective, Heather E. Wright Wendel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the impact of urbanization and land use change on the availability and accessibility of two urban amenities that are often inequitably distributed: green space and water features. Diverse methodologies were utilized in order to gain a better understanding of the role of these amenities in improving urban quality of life and integrated water management. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this research provides a unique perspective within both a developed and developing world context by evaluating aspects of urbanization to emphasize more sustainable and integrated approaches to development.

A preliminary analysis highlights potential drivers of green space revitalization in …