Ramsar

Non-linear phenomena in biological findings of the residents of high background radiation areas of Ramsar background dose rates among the highest known in the world. As the biological effects of low doses of radiation are not fully understood (2, 3) , the current radiation protection recommendations are based on the predictions of an assumption on the linear non-threshold hypothesis (LNT) relationship between radiation dose and its carcinogenic effects (4, 5). Considering the LNT hypothesis as a scienti ic fact, there is a general belief that even low levels of radiation as well as exposures to natural

The study was accomplished in pure and mixed stands of Quercus castaneifolia and Quercus macranthera in northern Iran. collection of the sample and study of the ecological factors including the seasons, spring, summer and autumn of the years 2009 and 2010 was conducted and the scientific name of the species, life forms and Chorology were recorded using the available resources. 186 species have been identified of 6 Pteridophytes families, 2 families from Gymnosperms and 52 families of Angiosperms (8 families from a Dicotyledone and 44 families of Monocotyledon). The maximum number of species was related to the flowing family: Asteraceae, Papilionaceae, Lamiaceae, Orchidaceae and Poaceae. Raunkiaer’s classification of Hemicryptophytes 49%, Cryptophytes 20%, Phanerophytes 19%, and 8% Therophytes, Chamaephytes 3 percent and 1 percent of Epiphytic species are allocated to the region. Chorology study area showed the highest value in zone of Europe-Siberia (the Caspian), with 41% belonging. The study of the list of endangered species showed one endangered species, 5 vulnerable species. 20 species were identified as lower risk. Lilium ledebourii was identified as a rare species with relatively wide distribution in different parts of the region.

This paper analyses the overall structure of the legal framework and judicial activism in the context of Ecologically Critical Areas in Bangladesh. Ecologically Critical Areas is a globally practiced concept to preserve the natural biodiversity of environmentally endangered areas, which often include significant natural and cultural heritages. Since the adoption of the Stockholm Declaration, other leading international legal instruments have reiterated their consonance with the principles of Intergenerational Equity through recognizing the preservation of Ecologically Critical Areas. This includes the World Heritage Convention 1972, the principal instrument ensuring the protection and preservation of natural and cultural heritage. Bangladesh, a signatory of the World Heritage Convention, has thus incorporated these principles in its domestic laws through making provisions for Ecologically Critical Areas (ECAs) in the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act 1995 (amended in 2010) and the Environment Conservation Rules 1997. In accordance with these laws, the archaeological sites and the Sundarbans, world's largest mangrove forest, have been declared as ECAs, while the Constitution of Bangladesh also pledges to preserve the biodiversity of the State. The obligation placed upon Bangladesh under the international and domestic legal regimes has not been fulfilled satisfactorily, and the preservation of the archaeological sites and the Sundarbans is in questionable state. Ignorance, administrative negligence and faulty legislation have put the heritage sites in serious degradation. The situation has become graver since the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recognized these areas as World heritage sites. However, the judicial activism in Bangladesh provides the only hope for intervention by non-state actors.

La Laguna de Cuyutlán se encuentra en el estado de Colima en el Occidente de México. Cuenta con un ecosistema de manglar predominado por Rhizophora mangle, Avicennia germinans y Laguncularia racemosa (Ruíz, 2009). El estudio se desarrolló en la zona Este de la laguna en el llamado vaso IV, que cuenta con una extensión de 1,900 hectáreas de humedal con reconocimiento Ramsar (Secretaría de la Convención de Ramsar, 2009). La laguna se ha visto históricamente influenciada por la actividad humana, principalmente por la producción de sal, la agricultura y la pesca; recibiendo el mayor impacto a sus ecosistemas en la época contemporánea, derivado del desarrollo industrial en la zona que el crecimiento del Puerto de Manzanillo produjo (Torres y Quintanilla-Montoya, 2014) y que se intenta mitigar a través de la compensación ambiental basada en la reproducción de plántulas y la reforestación (API, 2010). La falta de un estudio de valoración económica del manglar limita la capacidad de planeación de las instituciones involucradas en la gestión del ecosistema y sus servicios ambientales. Esto dificulta la correcta evaluación de las acciones compensatorias implementadas, por lo que se necesita información útil que permita hacer un uso eficiente de los recursos públicos y privados implicados, siendo el valor económico del recurso natural un elemento clave para lograrlo. Se utilizó un método de tipo hipotético llamado Valoración Contingente que consiste en la estimación del valor económico total del ecosistema tomando como base la disposición de pago para su conservación declarada por los principales usuarios, en este caso habitantes de la comunidad, turistas, salineros, lancheros, ejidatarios e investigadores. Se aplicó también un análisis multivariado TWINSPAN a los resultados para definir los distintos clústeres conformados por los usuarios. Se aplicaron 296 encuestas en 5 poblaciones para recabar los datos, a partir de los cuales se encontró que aquellos usuarios del manglar que viven en mayor contacto con él tienen una disposición de pago media 54.9% menor que aquellos que no tienen tanto contacto. Se estimó que una hectárea de manglar en el vaso IV de la Laguna de Cuyutlán tiene un valor de US$34,545.12 anuales, mientras que suvalor actual neto considerando un plazo de 5 años y una tasa de descuento del 12% (Bancode México, 2015) es de US$124,527.24. Con estos datos y con los resultados del análisis multivariado se tiene información aplicable en materia ambiental, económica y fiscal.

Ramsar of northern Iran located on the littoral of the Caspian Sea is considered one of the radon prone areas of the world. The annual effective dose in the district of Talesh-Mahalleh is higher than the dose limits for radiation workers by at least 13 times. In the present study, the indoor radon concentration and radon annual effective dose of the lung were estimated using a Prassi portable radon gas survey meter in a ventilated model house containing top soil samples from different parts of Ramsar. The average wind speed was maintained at 3.0 ms -1 matching the average wind speed of the region. For the extremely hot samples, the annual effective dose of the lung was 111±10.20mSv y -1 when the windows closed. However, when the windows opened in the wind direction and in the opposite wind direction, the annual effective doses of the lung were 2.46±0.86 and 4.16±0.81mSvy -1 , respectively. Also, when the crossed windows opened in no wind condition, the radon annual effective dose of the lung was 5.43±0.86mSvy -1 . The results suggest by opening the windows a significant reduction of the radon annual effective dose in buildings of Ramsar can be achieved.

Timely and accurate information about various habitats
of a wetland ecosystem is necessary for the assessment,
monitoring and management of a wetland. In
this article, the state-of-the-art Polarimetric Synthetic
Aperture Radar (PolSAR) data have been analysed to
characterize various components of a wetland ecosystem.
SAR polarimetry has received negligible attention
in India, mostly owing to lack of data over the
Indian sub-continent. With a recent DLR-ESAR (Experimental-
SAR) flight over India, it was possible to
conduct a detailed, planned experiment to explore the
potentials of SAR polarimetry. This study has been
carried out using fully polarimetric, multi-frequency
DLR–ESAR data over parts of a world heritage and
Ramsar site, the Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur,
India. Scattering models based on physical principles
have been applied to characterize the wetland targets
like open-water habitat, various types of aquatic vegetation
with or without standing water, along with
various species of forested areas. Entropy, alpha angle
and anisotropy have been derived by performing eigen
vector-based target decomposition on L- and P-bands
fully polarimetric SAR data, enabling us to understand
the differences in wetland targets in terms of
their scattering behaviour at the L- and P-bands. A
significant outcome of this study is that it explores and
demonstrates the potential of the state-of-the-art
technique of PolSAR for characterizing scattering behaviour
of various components of a wetland ecosystem,
which is a less explored application of SAR,
particularly in the Asian countries.

Timely and accurate information about various habitats of a wetland ecosystem is necessary for the assess-ment, monitoring and management of a wetland. In this article, the state-of-the-art Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) data have been analysed ...

Alterations of PSA, CA15.3, CA125, Cyfra21-1, CEA, CA19.9, AFP and Tag72 tumor markers in human blood serum due to long term exposure to high levels of natural background radiation in Ramsar, Iran

S. Taeb1, S.M.J. Mortazavi1,2*, A. Ghaderi3, H. Mozdarani4, M.R. Kardan5, S.A.R. Mortazavi6, A. Soleimani7, I Nikokar8, M Haghani1, A.Soofi6


1. The Center for Research in Radiation Sciences (CRRS), School of Paramedical Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
2. Department of Medical Physics and Engineering, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
3. Cancer Institute, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
4. Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
5. National Radiation Protection Department (NRPD), Tehran, Iran
6. Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
7. Department of Epidemiology, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
8. Laboratory of Immunology and Microbiology of Infectious Diseases, Paramedicine Faculty, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Guilan, Iran

Background: Ramsar (Mazandran province) is known for its extremely high levels of natural background radiation. Although no excess cancer rate is reported in these areas by epidemiological studies, the study of tumor markers in the inhabitants of these areas may shed some light on the impact of high levels of background radiation on cancer induction.

Materials and Methods: The level of background gamma radiation as well as indoor radon was determined using RDS-110 and CR dosimeters. Thirty five individuals from a high background radiation area (HBRA) and 35 individuals from a normal background radiation area (NBRA) were randomly selected to participate in the study. Commercial ELISA kits (sandwich type ELISA tests) were used to measure the serum levels of PSA, CA15.3, CA125, Cyfra21-1, CEA, CA19.9, AFP and Tag72 tumor markers.

Results: Among the eight biomarkers investigated, the means of PSA, CA15.3, CA125, CA19.9 and AFP concentrations between the HBRAs and NBRAs were not significantly different. However, Cyfra21, CEA and Tag72 in HBRA group revealed statistically significant increases compared to those of NBRA group (P<0.05). Furthermore, a statistically significant correlation between the external gamma dose as well as indoor radon level and the concentration of CEA (P<0.001), Cyfra-21(P<0.001) and TAG 72 (P<0.001 and 0.01 respectively) biomarkers were observed.

Conclusion: Chronic exposure to high background radiation induces significant alterations in Cyfra21, CEA and Tag72 levels. We believe that studies with other relevant tumor markers might overcome the limitations of epidemiological studies on cancer incidence in high background radiation areas.

Keywords: Ramsar, tumor markers, high background radiation areas (HBRAs)

Address for Correspondence:
SMJ Mortazavi, Ph.D
Professor of Medical Physics
Medical Physics & Medical Engineering Department, The Head
The Center for Research on Protection against Ionizing and Non-ionizing Radiation, The Head
Shiraz University of Medical Sciences
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: +98-711-2349332 Fax1: +98-711-2349332 Fax2: +98-711-2289113
http://www.researcherid.com/rid/D-5830-2011
Address:
Medical Physics & Medical Engineering Department
School of Medicine, Setad Square,
Shiraz, Iran""

Although there are substantial experimental, epidemiological and clinical evidences that high doses of ionizing radiation cause cancer and other detrimental biological effects, the health effects of human exposure to chronic low dose radiation exposures are still poorly known. People in some areas around the world live in dwellings with radiation and radon levels as much as more than 200 times the global average. Inhabited areas with high levels of natural radiation are found in different areas around the world including Yangjiang, China; Kerala, India; Guarapari, Brazil and Ramsar, Iran. Ramsar in northern Iran is among the world’s well-known areas with highest levels of natural radiation. Annual exposure levels in areas with elevated levels of natural radiation in Ramsar are up to 260 mGy y-1 and average exposure rates are about 10 mGy y-1 for a population of about 2000 residents. Due to the local geology, which includes high levels of radium in rocks, soils, and groundwater, Ramsar residents are also exposed to high levels of alpha activity in the form of ingested radium and radium decay progeny as well as very high radon levels in their dwellings. Based on the findings obtained by studies on the health effect of high levels of natural radiation in Ramsar, as well as other high background radiation areas, no consistent detrimental effect has been detected so far. Further research is needed to clarify if the regulatory authorities should set limiting regulations to protect the inhabitants against such extraordinary elevated levels of natural radiation. Iran. J. Radiat. Res., 2012; 10 (3‐4): 111‐116