The purpose of this study is to examine external auditors´ current practices when performing an audit of companies with environmentally hazardous activities, i.e. if the environmental risks are taken into account by the auditor of an audit. To understand what the auditors should review, this study also examines how these companies control their environmental risks. A qualitative method has been conducted based on ten semi-structured interviews, consisting of auditors experienced in auditing industrial companies as well as corporate managers of the largest industrial companies within the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Furthermore, information has also been obtained from annual reports of the companies. This study shows that the auditors` practices, when conducting audits of environmental hazardous companies, do not include a comprehensive investigation of risks arising from environmental hazardous activities. Furthermore, the study shows that big, listed industrial companies have a strong internal control that manages their environmental risks. The companies are aware that they are exposed to risks due to their operations and they are taking adequate actions to control them such as different management systems.

The following thesis presents the results of a two year study that addressed lay perceptions of the risks to the water resources of the Lower Fraser Basin, British Columbia. Studies of this nature are important because by clarifying public perceptions, risk communication policies as well as land and water resource use plans that accommodate people's concerns can be developed appropriately. The study was based on a written survey that was administered to 183 lay subjects in four communities within the Lower Fraser Basin. Sixteen experts participated in a portion of the survey. Analysis involved the determination of how people perceive distinct human activities in terms of the risk each may pose to the health of aquatic ecosystems. Further analysis compared these perceptions to those of specialists in the aquatic sciences. The thesis is structured as a collection of three papers that examine different aspects of the study. The First paper provides a review of the overall data set, while the remaining two papers address related subsets of the data. One paper reviews perceptions of activities that cause eutrophication problems and the other reviews perceptions of forest industry activities. The results demonstrated that people tend to view risks to water environments in a multi-faceted fashion. Four factors were found to influence people's general perception of risk and the need for regulation of the activities that were perceived to pose the risk. These factors were termed Ecological Impact, Human Benefit, Controllability and Knowledge. Another significant result was the fact that there were often striking differences between the views of the lay sample and those of the expert sample. Some activities were perceived by the lay sample as posing substantial risk while the experts did not view this to be the case. Alternatively, for some activities, the reverse scenario occurred. Accordingly, there were differences in judgements between the two groups as to the degree of regulation that should be imposed on the respective activities. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The urbanization process in Brazil is characterized by its fast and disorderly drivingthe occupation of houses in fragile physical environments characterized as the use and occupation. This dynamic puts the population, especially low purchasing power in a situation of environmental risks they are hydrological and / or geomorphological features. The risk is that the probability of loss and / or damage to the social and environmental point of view which the population is exposed. In this context, the present study was to examine the environmental risks physical geomorphological and hydrological and consolidated in the urban expansion area of Aracaju in the prevention of accidents. To achieve this and other proposed objectives was made using different procedures, focusing initially the literature survey and mapping for the systematization of the knowledge produced on the subject in various sources and public institutions, in addition to field work to show and record the risks geomorphological and hydrological. The methodology used allowed the crossing of the environmental variables considered basic to identify the level of vulnerability in Aracaju. The investigative analysis shows that in the places of occurrence of the events / accidents dominate the standard urban periphery, except in the expansion area of the municipality. Floods and flooding are common in many locations mainly in expansion and in the more consolidated, as well as near the drainage channels, whether natural or rectified. The areas with the greatest evidence of geomorphological hazards Floods and flooding are common in many locations mainly in expansion and in the more consolidated, as well as near the drainage channels, whether natural or rectified. The areas with the greatest evidence of geomorphological hazards (erosion and mass movements) are tied to insecurity or lack of basic infrastructure, mainly present in the Santa Maria neighborhoods, Jabotiana, America, Cidade Nova, Port Dantas / Coqueiral and Soledade. The absence of detailed studies and a plan to manage environmental risks in difficult decision making framework for ensuring the combat and / or mitigation of environmental risks in Aracaju. Therefore, it is necessary that the Government undertake preventive actions to avoid the uncontrolled growth of the city, as of works of sanitation, to ensure the safety population, and the development and implementation of structural measures (technical control) and non-structural (prevention plans and alerts, risk zoning, flood insurance) to combat the risk / O processo de urbanização brasileira se caracteriza pela sua forma rápida e desordenada impulsionando a ocupação de moradias em ambientes físicos caracterizados como frágeis ao uso e ocupação.Essa dinâmica coloca a população, principalmente de poder aquisitivo baixo, em situação de riscos ambientais sejam eles hidrológicos e/ou geomorfológicos. O risco se constitui na probabilidade de perda e/ou danos do ponto de vista socioambiental a qual a população esteja exposta. Nesse contexto, o presente estudo buscou analisar os riscos ambientais físicos geomorfológicos e hidrológicos na malha urbana consolidada e zona de expansão de Aracaju, visando à prevenção de ocorrência de acidentes. Para o alcance desse e outros objetivos propostos fez-se o uso de procedimentos distintos, priorizando inicialmente o levantamento bibliográfico e cartográfico para sistematização do conhecimento produzido sobre o assunto em diversas fontes e instituições públicas, além do trabalho de campo para evidenciar e registrar os riscos geomorfológicos e hidrológicos. A metodologia utilizada permitiu o cruzamento das variáveis ambientais consideradas básicas para identificação do nível de vulnerabilidade em Aracaju.A análise investigativa evidencia que nos lugares de ocorrência dos eventos/acidentes predominam o padrão urbano periférico, exceto na área de expansão do município. As enchentes e os alagamentos são frequentes em diversas localidades principalmente na área de expansão e na área mais consolidada, bem como nas proximidades dos canais de drenagem, sejam eles naturais ou retificados. Já as áreas com maiores evidências de riscos geomorfológicos (erosão e movimentos de massas) estão atreladas a precarização ou inexistência de infraestrutura básica, presentes principalmente nos bairros Santa Maria, Jabotiana, América, Cidade Nova, Porto Dantas/Coqueiral e Soledade. A ausência de estudos detalhados e de um plano de gestão dos riscos ambientais dificulta na tomada de decisão coerente para a garantia do combate e/ou mitigação dos riscos ambientais em Aracaju. Sendo assim, é necessário que o Poder Público estabeleça ações preventivas afim de evitar o crescimento desordenado do município, a partir da realização das obras de saneamento básico, que garantam segurança a população residente, além da elaboração e execução de medidas estruturais (técnicas de controle) e não estruturais (planos de prevenção e alerta, zoneamento do risco, seguro enchentes) para combate ao risco

Kenya has one of the oldest and most developed national park and reserve systems among developing nations in Africa. Kenya's ecosystems have felt the impact of tourists, from big game hunters to photographic safaris, for over a century. This project contains the research on which the author intends to base a future book about Kenyan ecoturism for the general public.

A travers les risques que l’entreprise fait peser sur l’environnement ou à travers les risques qui pèsent surelle eu égard à la multiplication des obligations légales visant à protéger l’environnement, l’entreprise nepeut plus se permettre d’ignorer le risque environnemental. L’exigence d’appréhension du risqueenvironnemental doit dorénavant accompagner l’entreprise tout au long de son existence. Le droitcomptable, autant pour ses capacités historiques d’appréhension des risques qu’en sa qualitéd’ordonnateur du langage de l’entreprise, apparaît comme l’instrument idoine d’identification et demaîtrise du risque environnemental. Par le biais du concept de passif environnemental, le droitcomptable offre une grille de lecture du risque environnemental mettant en lumière la plupart desnuances de ce risque. Toujours grâce au concept de passif environnemental, le droit comptable révèleson aptitude à contrôler les conséquences dommageables que le risque environnemental fait peser surl’entreprise ou l’environnement. Les mérites du droit comptable dans l’appréhension du risqueenvironnemental de l’entreprise ne doivent cependant pas masquer une conception originelleexclusivement basée sur la reconnaissance des atteintes portées au capital financier de l’entreprise. Parceque persister dans la voie de l’ignorance d’un capital environnemental a pour effet de restreindrel’appréhension du risque environnemental, la refondation du droit comptable dans le sens del’intégration d’un capital environnemental offre au droit comptable l’opportunité de s’affirmer en tantque branche du droit qui, bien que spécifique, n’en est pas moins vivante et à ce titre, douée d’évolution. / Whether it is through the risks that the company imposes on the environment or through the risks thatweigh on it with regard to the multiplication of legal obligations aimed at protecting the environment,the company can no longer afford to ignore the environmental risk. Henceforth, the environmental riskapprehension requirement must guide the company throughout its existence. The accounting law, asmuch for its historical abilities to apprehend the risks of the company as for its quality of organizing thelanguage of the company, appears as the instrument that can help in the identification and control of theenvironmental risk. Through the concept of environmental liability, the accounting law offers, on onehand, an environmental risk reading grid that highlights most of the nuances of this risk. On the otherhand, because of the concept of environmental liability, the accounting law reveals its ability to controlthe damaging consequences that the environmental risk imposes on the company or the environment.The merits of the accounting law as regards the apprehension of the environmental risk of the companymust not however mask an original conception exclusively based on the recognition of the violations ofthe financial capital of the company. Because persisting in the path of ignorance of an environmentalcapital has the effect of restricting the apprehension of environmental risk, the refoundation of theaccounting law in the direction of the integration of an environmental capital offers to the accountinglaw the opportunity to assert itself as a branch of law which, although specific, is none the less alive andas such, capable of evolution.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), like fluoxetine, are widely used to treat depressive disorders during pregnancy. These antidepressants reach water reservoirs through sewage treatment facilities and expose the aquatic vertebrates, including fish. It has been shown that early-life exposure to fluoxetine could disrupt the normal function of the stress axis by decreasing the level of circulating glucocorticoids in humans, rodents, and teleosts. Our lab recently showed that early life exposure to fluoxetine resulted in transgenerational hyporcortisolism and altered exploratory behaviour in adult male zebrafish and their descendant male adults for at least three generations. In the current study, we used a stress-responsive transgenic zebrafish line (SR4G) that expresses green fluorescence protein (eGFP) under the control of six consecutive glucocorticoid response elements. The effects of developmental exposure to fluoxetine on the transcriptional profiles of genes in the larval head and male adult telencephalon and hypothalamus were analysed using high throughput RNA sequencing. We also assessed the potential of eGFP mRNA to evaluate blunted stress response as an alternative to cortisol immunoassay measurements. The effects of bisphenol A, vinclozolin and fluoxetine were ytested in the SR4G line. Developmental exposure to fluoxetine resulted in a life-long dysregulation of pathways involved in nervous system development, stress response, and lipid metabolism in both larvae and adult zebrafish. Numerous differentially expressed genes in zebrafish are orthologous to genes in Homo sapiens linked the development of the major depressive disorder and epigenetics regulation and include bdnf, trkb, npas4, per1, per2, dnmt3a, adarb1, adaeb2, hdac4, hdac5, hdac8, and atf2. It is suggested that the dysregulation of the primary transcription regulators of circadian rhythm (clocka) and stress response (nr3c1), amongst others, were the potential drivers of the observed life-long effects. Furthermore, we report on a significant positive linear correlation between cortisol levels and eGFP mRNA levels in SR4G transgenic zebrafish larvae (R2> 0.9). Random forest and logistic regression models trained by eGFP mRNA levels both correctly predicted the blunted stress response. The negative predictive value (NPV) for both models was 100%. Models based on the mRNA levels of 11 genes associated with neurogenesis, stress response and depression resulted in a similar 100% NPV. These findings provide evidence for a life-long effect of developmental exposure to fluoxetine. This study also provides a proof-of-concept for an in vivo biomonitoring assay to screen chemicals for their stress-disrupting potential.

Environmental protection against the harmful effects of human medicinal products Abstract Medicinal products help humanity, but can they be a risk for it? In recent years, the occurrence of their residues in the environment and their impact on it has been monitored. Their occurrence is found to be widespread. Despite the small concentrations in which they occur, they have been shown to affect, for example, aquatic organisms. The issue of residues of medicinal products in the environment is a current topic, beginning to be also addressed by the European Union. The diploma thesis presents the legal regulations of environmental protection against the adverse effects of human medicinal products; it evaluates their effectiveness and, contains proposals de lege ferenda. First, it outlines the issue and the extent of the occurrence of residues of medicinal products in the environment and their risks for it. Furthermore, the work deals with the legal process of registration of medicinal products regulated by European Union law, within which an environmental risk assessment is created. There are described the shortcomings of the risk assessment procedure, the lack of a link to it that would effectively protect the environment, and the non-disclosure of results, which violates the right to information of the...

Background. Research suggests that low-grade psychotic experiences in the general population are a common but transitory developmental phenomenon. Using two independent general population samples, the hypothesis was examined that common, non-clinical developmental expression of psychosis may become abnormally persistent when synergistically combined with developmental exposures that may impact on behavioural and neurotransmitter sensitization such as cannabis, trauma and urbanicity. Method. The amount of synergism was estimated from the additive statistical interaction between baseline cannabis use, childhood trauma and urbanicity on the one hand, and baseline psychotic experiences on the other, in predicting 3-year follow-up psychotic experiences, using data from two large, longitudinal, random population samples from the Netherlands [The Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS)] and Germany [The Early Developmental Stages of Psychopathology (EDSP) study]. Results. The 3-year persistence rates of psychotic experiences were low at 26% in NEMESIS and 31% in EDSP. However, persistence rates were progressively higher with greater baseline number of environmental exposures in predicting follow-up psychotic experiences (χ2=6·9, df=1, p=0·009 in NEMESIS and χ2=4·2, df=1, p=0·04 in EDSP). Between 21% and 83% (NEMESIS) and 29% and 51% (EDSP) of the subjects exposed to both environmental exposures and psychotic experiences at baseline had persistence of psychotic experiences at follow-up because of the synergistic action of the two factors. Conclusion. The findings suggest that environmental risks for psychosis act additively, and that the level of environmental risk combines synergistically with non-clinical developmental expression of psychosis to cause abnormal persistence and, eventually, need for care.

The presence of pharmaceuticals in the environment has raised an emerging interest due to the fact that they pose negative environmental impact and health hazards related to long-term toxicity effects. As conventional treatments are not able to totally remove these substances it is necessary to seek for alternative advanced technologies such as oxidation with chlorine dioxide (ClO2). The objective of this master thesis is thus to find the most optimal dose – reaction time of ClO2 for the oxidation and maximum removal of selected environmentally relevant pharmaceuticals. Factorial design and subsequent optimization with MODDE was selected as the best approach to find the optimal dose – time. Batch oxidation tests were conducted on 100mL aliquots treated with ClO2 using wastewater effluent from Henriksdal WWTP. Thereafter solid phase extraction and final determination of pharmaceuticals was carried out on a high performance liquid chromatography- triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Results showed that applying a dose of 5 mg ClO2/L and a reaction time of 10 minutes, it is possible to remove more than a half of the 17 analyzed substances. Besides most of the pharmaceuticals with high and moderate environmental risk, would pose a low risk for the environment after treatment with the optimal ClO2 dose – reaction time. Despite the fact that ClO2 could successfully degrade most environmentally relevant pharmaceuticals, deeper research concerning the formation of toxic by-products after oxidative treatment needs to be done before upscaling this technology to pilot or full scale as a suitable end of pipe technology for pharmaceuticals removal.

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