A number of guiding principles for teaching the total human ecosystem were formulated by a curriculum development team at the Curriculum Development Center at Haifa University. These include: 1.

Actual environmental problems confronting the learner have to serve as the starting point of the curriculum.

2.

One specific environmental issue has to be presented as an inquiry study in depth, exemplifying the complex nature of the human ecosystem.

3.

A system approach is to be used as a basis for understanding the human ecosystem.

4.

The philosophical rationale of the curriculum is to be made explicit for teachers and students.

5.

Opportunities for personal involvement and application of ecological knowledge are to be emphasized in the curricular material.

6.

The curriculum has to be modular and suitable for flexible use by teachers according to the specific needs of their educational situations.

The “Man in Nature” project at Haifa University has implemented these principles in the following way: A number of topics were selected as components of the curriculum. Each topic was developed into a didactic unit. The various units serve as source materials for teachers’ choice. All units emphasize the system approach and include opportunities for application of knowledge. Teacher education accompanying the project stresses personal involvement and flexible use of the materials. Details of the project and a discussion of its implementation are presented in the paper.

Manganese chloride was administered daily intraperitoneally to growing and adult rats for a period of 30 days to compare certain biochemical parameters in both groups of animals. Marked alterations in the levels of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain was observed in manganese-treated growing rats. Furthermore, the contents of tyrosine, tryptophan in blood, liver, and brain have been significantly altered in these animals. Identical manganese administration to adult rats had no effect on the contents of tyrosine in liver and brain, nor tryptophan, and dopamine in the brain. Some of the parameters which were altered in the adult rats were less in magnitude compared to the growing animals. The experiments indicated higher susceptibility of the growing rats to the toxic effects of this metal.

First, if you’ll pardon me, I’ll start with a facetious remark. I thought a few minutes about the subtitle of this conference: “How Safe is Safe Enough?” My judgmental, but professional, assessment is.3624 units. Really, all the members in this conference realize that this question, in the abstract, does not make sense. It could make sense, of course, if suitably amplified. There is no absolute standard for safety — nor should there be. In any particular policy or decision choice where safety is a concern there is undoubtedly a myriad of other concerns. What are the full panoply of costs of benefits and of risks and what are their distributional impacts? If an action is contemplated, what are other possible contending action alternatives? What do we know about present uncertainties, the disputes about these uncertainties and how might the assessments of these uncertainties change over time? What about the precedent that will be established if such and such an action is taken? “How Safe is Safe Enough?” is a short-hand, catchy-sounding phrase that is merely a pitifully weak and misleading simplification of a very complex problem.

The evaluation of risks is a part of any rational decision-making process. But what risks? And whose evaluation? Measures of risk tend to fall in two broad categories: those that purport to observe or calculate the actual risk of a process or project and those that rely upon the judgments of those assessing the risk. A nomenclature problem arises here. Some characterize the categories as “objective” and “subjective”; others, perhaps somewhat arrogantly, call them “real” and “imagined.” Technical experts tend to consider the use of measures of the first sort the only legitimate way of describing risk, yet measures of the second sort tend to dominate the thinking and actions of most individuals. Whatever they are called, the two measures of risk seem seldom, if ever, to agree. The social and psychological reasons (or explanations) for the disparity are interesting but, beyond them, there are important implications of the disparity for decision making in an increasingly technological society. The distinction between the two measures of risk creates difficulties for decision makers and regulators among which are: an increase in the use of propaganda and indoctrination by government, industry, and technical experts in attempts to convince the public that technical estimates of risk are valid; a continued erosion of trust and understanding between experts and the rest of the public; further complication in the already involved process of setting priorities for government or corporate programs; and a challenge to decision makers to explain uncertainties about the effects of their actions.

Summary

The present study of 30 healthy industrial workers having occupational contact with beryllium has revealed specific humoral responses to beryllium in 37% of the investigated group. Antitissue antibodies to lung and to thymus were found in 30% and to suprarenals in 27% of the subjects examined. A tendency to an increased level of IgG and IgA and some deficiency of IgM was observed. The cellular immunity examinations showed positive skin reactions to beryllium salts in 19% and specific blast transformation of PBL in 4% of the persons investigated.

The results of determinations of humoral and cellular reactivity were not correlated. The afore-mentioned tests are useful in estimating the type and degree of hypersensitivity to beryllium, indicating the necessity of carrying out a long-term study on the population to evaluate their prognostic value.

There is growing interest in the bacterial leaching of low-grade ore bodies in the Australasian region. Operational aspects of local heap leaching have been described by Andersen and Allman (1968). The experimental approach to this process frequently employs the use of percolation leaching columns (Madsen et al., 1975; Bruynesteyn et al., 1977; Le Roux and Mehta, 1978; Murr and Brierley, 1978). The results to be presented arise from laboratory leaching studies on copper porphyry ores from Bougainville Island, Papua-New Guinea. The detailed mineralogy of these rock types have been described by Lawrence and Savage (1975). Espie (1971) has described the Bougainville Copper Project mining operation.