Mediating the spaces of diet and health: A critical analysis of reporting on nutrition and colorectal cancer in the UK

The media are one of the main arenas in which nutrition information is framed and developed. Research has shown a predominantly individualistic framing of diet-related health issues such as obesity, type-2 diabetes and coronary heart disease in international media coverage. These issues are framed as personal, ’lifestyle’ issues rather than requiring policy or structural change. In addition, research has shown a tendency in nutrition research and media coverage of it, to emphasize individual ingredients or components more than overall diet. The media have a tendency to report diet related research simplistically, often without contextualization. Taking a case study approach, this paper analyses UK news media coverage and framing of British Medical Journal (BMJ) published research into dietary fibre and bowel cancer risk. I investigate how the health issue fibre and bowel cancer is framed and dissect the process of mediation (from press release to mass media to local media), analysing the shifting ’geographies of responsibility’ that result. This paper argues that media coverage of research into diet and bowel cancer can be explained by the technologies, conventions and routines of media representation. Key gatekeepers were found to have an important role in framing the information that was reported. Taking a critical approach, this paper argues that like obesity, type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease, coverage of nutritional means of preventing bowel cancer is set predominantly in the ’lifestyle’ frame, laying responsibility for increasing dietary fibre at the door of the individual rather than looking at broader social, economic, or political drivers of dietary change.     

A hydro-geochemical analysis of the saturation process with salt water of a bentonite crushed granite rock mixture in an engineered nuclear barrier

A MX-80 sodium bentonite crushed granite rock mixture is being saturated in the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory managed by SKB (the Swedish Company of nuclear waste management) as part of the “Backfill and Plug Test Project”. The Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory is placed in the Swedish Island of Äspö, an underground full-scale laboratory where different testing construction procedures and handling techniques are being studied. The groundwater of Äspö has a variable salt concentration according to the zone considered. The added water during the mixing process of both materials had an average salt concentration of 6 g/L. However, backfill is being saturated with salt water containing higher salt content (up to 16 g/L, 50 / 50 of NaCl and CaCl₂ by mass) to speed up the saturation process. The mixture swelling capacity is small due to the low backfill bentonite content, but its activity is still large if compared with natural clayey soils. A coupled hydro-chemical approach was used to simulate the backfill hydration process, comparing the results with in situ measurements. An intrinsic permeability law, depending on salt concentration in the liquid phase, was incorporated into the model. The retention curve was also determined taking into account the effect of the chemical species on backfill behaviour. The simulation of the saturation process shows the importance of studying these problems with a HC (hydro-chemical) formulation, especially if long term behaviour of such mixtures is going to be reproduced.     

岩溶地下河中砷迁移过程及其影响因素分析——以广西南丹县里湖地下河为例

以广西南丹县里湖地下河作为研究区,对砷在地下河中的存在形态,迁移过程及其影响因素进行了分析。结果发现,里湖地下河中砷浓度较高且与人类活动密切相关;由于地下河中相对较低的氧化还原环境,使毒性更强的 As（Ⅲ）含量超过 As（V）,占总无机砷的53%,增加了该地区发生砷中毒的风险;总 As、As （III）和 As（V）在地下河中衰减了51%、36%、59%。相关性分析结果表明,沉积物中的 Fe、Ca、Mn、有机质及水体中的 Ca2＋与沉积物中的砷呈现显著正相关关系,有助于水体中砷的吸收;而水体中的 Cl-、SO 2-4、HCO -3与沉积物中的砷呈现负相关关系,不利于砷的吸附,其中 HCO -3的抑制作用最为明显。与非岩溶区水体相比,Ca 和 HCO -3成为影响砷迁移转化的主要因素,因此在岩溶地下河砷污染治理中应考虑岩溶区的水文地质特点,提高砷的污染治理效率。