BackgroundAlthough from a societal point of view a modal shift from car to bicycle may have beneficial health effects due to decreased air pollution emissions, decreased greenhouse gas emissions, and increased levels of physical activity, shifts in individual adverse health effects such as higher exposure to air pollution and risk of a traffic accident may prevail.ObjectiveWe describe whether the health benefits from the increased physical activity of a modal shift for urban commutes outweigh the health risks.Data sources and extractionWe have summarized the literature for air pollution, traffic accidents, and physical activity using systematic reviews supplemented with recent key studies.Data synthesisWe quantified the impact on all-cause mortality when 500,000 people would make a transition from car to bicycle for short trips on a daily basis in the Netherlands. We have expressed mortality impacts in life-years gained or lost, using life table calculations. For individuals who shift from car to bicycle, we estimated that beneficial effects of increased physical activity are substantially larger (3–14 months gained) than the potential mortality effect of increased inhaled air pollution doses (0.8–40 days lost) and the increase in traffic accidents (5–9 days lost). Societal benefits are even larger because of a modest reduction in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and traffic accidents.ConclusionsOn average, the estimated health benefits of cycling were substantially larger than the risks relative to car driving for individuals shifting their mode of transport.
Determinants of car ownership among young households in the Netherlands General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. AbstractIn the Netherlands, car ownership among young adults has slowly decreased in recent decades. The main causes of this trend are still unclear. Using a unique dataset in which vehicle registration data were combined with population and income register data for 2012/2013, this paper explores how car ownership among young Dutch households varies with household composition, urbanisation level (of household location), household income, employment status and ethnic background. Logistic regression analysis of this data revealed that urbanisation level and household composition are essential factors influencing car ownership. In addition, we found significant interaction effects between these two factors: the influence of urbanisation level on car ownership was much stronger for young couples than for young families or singles. Our results imply that increasing urbanisation and postponement of parenthood could reduce future car ownership among young adults in general. However, the increasing number of young families moving to more urbanised areas could increase future car ownership in cities.
Do the Health Benefits of Cycling Outweigh the Risks?Os benefícios à saúde em andar de bicicleta superam os riscos?Resumo Embora uma mudança do uso de carro para bicicleta possa trazer efeitos benéficos para a saúde devido à diminuição da poluição do ar e a um aumento da atividade física, esta mudança também pode trazer efeitos adversos à saúde como exposição à poluição e risco de acidentes de trân-sito, os quais podem superar os benefícios. Nós resumimos a literatura sobre poluição do ar, acidentes de trânsito e atividade física, utilizando revisões sistemáticas suplementadas com estudos recentes. Quantificamos também o impacto na causa de mortalidade se 500 mil pessoas fizessem a transição de carro para bicicleta em viagens curtas diárias na Holanda. Estimamos que os efeitos benéficos do aumento da atividade física são substancialmente maiores do que o efeito potencial da mortalidade por inalação de ar poluído e aumento de acidentes de trânsito. Os benefícios sociais são ainda maiores devido a uma modesta redução na poluição do ar e nos acidentes de trânsito. Em média, os benefícios de saúde devido ao uso da bicicleta são substancialmente maiores do que os riscos relativos a dirigir um carro para pessoas em transição do modo de transporte. Palavras-chave Poluição do ar, Bicicleta, Mudança, Atividade física, Acidentes de trânsito Abstract Although from a societal point of view a modal shift from car to bicycle may have beneficial health effects due to decreased air pollution emissions and increased levels of physical activity, shifts in individual adverse health effects such as higher exposure to air pollution and risk of a traffic accident may prevail. We have summarized the literature for air pollution, traffic accidents, and physical activity using systematic reviews supplemented with recent key studies. We quantified the impact on all-cause mortality when 500,000 people would make a transition from car to bicycle for short trips on a daily basis in the Netherlands. We estimate that beneficial effects of increased physical activity are substantially larger (3-14 months gained) than the potential mortality effect of increased inhaled air pollution doses (0.8-40 days lost) and the increase in traffic accidents (5-9 days lost). Societal benefits are even larger because of a modest reduction in air pollution and traffic accidents. On average, the estimated health benefits of cycling were substantially larger than the risks relative to car driving for individuals shifting their mode of transport.
Pedigree dog breeding has been the subject of public debate due to health problems caused by breeding for extreme looks and the narrow genepool of many breeds. Our research aims to provide insights in order to further the animal-ethical, political and society-wide discussion regarding the future of pedigree dog breeding in the Netherlands. Guided by the question 'How far are we allowed to interfere in the genetic make-up of dogs, through breeding and genetic modification?', we carried out a multi-method case-driven research, reviewing literature as well as identifying the perceptions of pedigree dog breeding of a variety of parties in the Netherlands. We examined what moral arguments and concepts different stakeholders, including breeders, veterinarians and animal protection societies, put forward when considering this question. While welfare arguments were often used as a final justification, we also frequently encountered arguments beyond welfare in practice, in particular the arguments that certain adaptations were unnatural, that they instrumentalised animals, or that they amounted to playing God. We argue that the way these arguments are employed points to a virtue ethical approach, foregrounding the virtue of temperance, as a balance between extreme positions was sought by our respondents in a variety of ways. Moreover, we argue against a rejection of unnaturalness arguments based on the naturalistic fallacy, as philosophers tend to do. We point out that unnaturalness arguments are related to people's worldviews, including views on the proper human-animal relationship. We argue that such arguments, which we label 'life-ethical', should be the subject of more public discussion and should not be relegated to the private sphere.
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