No abstract

In August-September 2004, a cryptosporidiosis outbreak affected >250 persons who visited a California waterpark. Employees and patrons of the waterpark were affected, and three employees and 16 patrons admitted to going into recreational water while ill with diarrhoea. The median illness onset date for waterpark employees was 8 days earlier than that for patrons. A case-control study determined that getting water in one's mouth on the waterpark's waterslides was associated with illness (adjusted odds ratio 7.4, 95% confidence interval 1.7-32.2). Laboratory studies identified Cryptosporidium oocysts in sand and backwash from the waterslides' filter, and environmental investigations uncovered inadequate water-quality record keeping and a design flaw in one of the filtration systems. Occurring more than a decade after the first reported outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis in swimming pools, this outbreak demonstrates that messages about healthy swimming practices have not been adopted by pool operators and the public.

/ The siting of facilities with undesirable environmental characteristics often leads to public conflict. Efforts to resolve the conflict and make siting decisions frequently exacerbate the problem. Environmental mediation, the process of negotiating an agreeable settlement, is an accepted approach to resolving conflict. This paper explores the use of incentive systems as a means of achieving equity in environmental mediation. Obnoxious and noxious characteristics of facilities are discussed as the basis of conflicts. Four types of incentives--mitigation, compensation, reward, and participation-are discussed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the utility and application of incentives for solving environmental conflicts.

No abstract

The importance of social and institutional issues in the siting of nuclear waste facilities has been recognized in recent years. Limited evidence from a survey of rural Wisconsin residents in 1980 indicates that incentives may help achieve the twin goals of increasing local support and decreasing local opposition to nosting nuclear waste facilities. Incentives are classified according to functional categories (i.e., mitigation, compensation, and reward) and the conditions which may be prerequisites to the use of incentives are outlined (i,e., guarantee of public health and safety, some measure of local control, and a legiti mation of negotiations during siting). Criteria for evaluating the utility of incentives in nuclear waste repository siting are developed. Incentive packages may be more useful than single incentives, and non monetary incentives, such as independent monitoring and access to credi ble information, may be as important in eliciting support as monetary incentives. Without careful attention to prerequisites in the siting process it is not likely that incentives will facilitate the siting process. vi LIST OF TABLES Fa"orability to siting a nuclear waste facility in the respondent's community after exposure to incentives ... 9 Distribution of. persons who changed their position to accept a waste repository in their community by type of incentive package Distribution of the acceptance of incentives to site a nuclear waste repository among Wisconsin residents .... Distribution of persons who changed their position to accept a waste repository in their community by type of incentive package Favorability to siting a nuclear waste facility in the respondent's community after exposure to incentives by selected demographic and social characteristics Favorability to siting a nuclear waste facility in the respondent's community after exposure to incentives by community setting v11