Microbial challenge-testing of treatment processes for quantifying stormwater recycling risks and management.

Pathogenic microorganisms have been identified as the main human health risks associated with the reuse of treated urban stormwater (runoff from paved and unpaved urban areas). As part of the Smart Water initiative (Victorian Government, Australia), a collaborative evaluation of three existing integrated stormwater recycling systems, and the risks involved in non-potable reuse of treated urban stormwater is being undertaken. Three stormwater recycling systems were selected at urban locations to provide a range of barriers including biofiltration, storage tanks, UV disinfection, a constructed wetland, and retention ponds. Recycled water from each of the systems is used for open space irrigation. In order to adequately undertake exposure assessments, it was necessary to quantify the efficacy of key barriers in each exposure pathway. Given that none of the selected treatment systems had previously been evaluated for their treatment efficiency, experimental work was carried out comprising dry and wet weather monitoring of each system (for a period of 12 months), as well as challenging the barriers with model microbes (for viruses, bacteria and parasitic protozoa) to provide input data for use in Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment.

Psychological distress, hopelessness and welfare.

This article assesses the validity of the claim that welfare in itself has deleterious psychological consequences for single mothers. The analysis compares single mothers who are recipients of AFDC with single mothers who are not recipients in terms of their depressive symptoms (as measured by the CES-D) and hopelessness (as measured by Pearlin Mastery Scale). The analysis uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the National Survey of Families and Households. The authors find that higher levels of both depression and hopelessness among welfare recipients can be explained by their material hardship rather than the stigma attached to welfare. They show that AFDC recipients report similar levels of depression and hopelessness as jobless non-recipients as well as low-wage non-recipients. An additional finding is that long-term welfare recipients do not experience greater emotional problems than short-term welfare recipients. Finally, the paper shows that feelings of hopelessness mediate the relationship between material deprivation and psychological distress for both recipients and non-recipients.

Effects of poverty and maternal depression on early child development.

Researchers have renewed an interest in the harmful consequences of poverty on child development. This study builds on this work by focusing on one mechanism that links material hardship to child outcomes, namely the mediating effect of maternal depression. Using data from the National Maternal and Infant Health Survey, we found that maternal depression and poverty jeopardized the development of very young boys and girls, and to a certain extent, affluence buffered the deleterious consequences of depression. Results also showed that chronic maternal depression had severe implications for both boys and girls, whereas persistent poverty had a strong effect for the development of girls. The measures of poverty and maternal depression used in this study generally had a greater impact on measures of cognitive development than motor development.