Progress report on the development of standard methods for the characterisation of textile fibres and yarns and for the safety of textile products and toys

There is a strong need of standardisation in the field of textile products and toys, in order to allow the enforceability of restrictions established in the EU legislation. The JRC has been actively involved in the progresses made on the development of standard methods for the characterisation of textile fibres and yarns and for the safety of textile products and toy, which are reviewed in this report. A number of standard methods published or under development are entirely or partly based on the JRC work. The work performed by Working Groups (WGs), of which the JRC is member, is described: CEN/TC 248/WG 26 (on test methods for analysis of EC restricted substances in textiles); CEN/TC 248/WG 30 (on quantitative analysis of fibre mixtures); CEN/TC/52/WG 5 (on chemical properties of toys); and ISO/TC/WG 22 (on composition and chemical testing of textiles). The need for the test methods and their principles are explained, together with their stage in the approval process. The following standard methods have been published in 2013: EN ISO 1833-22 Textiles - Quantitative chemical analysis - Part 22: Mixtures of viscose or certain types of cupro or modal or lyocell and flax fibres (method using formic acid and zinc chloride) EN ISO 1833-25 Textiles - Quantitative chemical analysis - Part 25: Mixtures of polyester and certain other fibres (method using trichloroacetic acid and chloroform) EN ISO 1833-26 Textiles - Quantitative chemical analysis - Part 26: Mixtures of melamine and cotton or aramide fibres (method using hot formic acid) EN 71-3 Safety of toys Part 3: Migration of certain elements EN 71-12 Safety of toys Part 12: N-nitrosamines and N-nitrosatable substances ISO 2076 Textiles - Man-made fibres - Generic names The following standard methods and technical reports are under development or in revision or in publication: PrEN ISO 16373-1, -2 and -3 Textile – Dyestuffs - Part 1: General principles of testing coloured textiles for dyestuff; Part 2: General method for the determination of extractable dyestuffs including allergenic and carcinogenic substances; Part 3: Method for determination of carcinogenic extractable dyestuffs (method using triethylamine/methanol) PrEN 15777:2009/prA1 Textiles - Test methods for phthalates Technical report - guidance on health and environmental issues related to the chemical content of textile products intended to clothing, interior textiles and upholstery prEN ISO 18254 - Textile – Detection and determination of APEO in textiles by HPLC-MS WI 00248537 and WI 00248536 Textile – Determination of metal content Part 1: Determination of metals using microwave digestion; Part 2: Determination of metals extracted by acidic artificial perspiration solution prEN 71-3/pr A1 Safety of toys Part 3: Migration of certain elements WD 18074 Textiles - Identification of some animal fibres by DNA analysis method - Cashmere, wool, yak and their blends ISO/CD 17751-1 and -2 Textiles - Quantitative analysis of cashmere, wool, other specialty animal fibers and their blends Part 1: Light Microscopy method; Part 2: Scanning Electron Microscopy method ISO FDIS 14389 Textiles- Determination of the content of phthalates - tetrahydrofuran WD 17881-1, -2 and -3 Textiles - Determination of certain flame retardants – Part 1: Brominated flame retardants; Part 2: Phosphorus flame retardants; Part 3: Short chain paraffin flame retardantsJRC.I.1-Chemical Assessment and Testin

Development Partner Group-Health Retreat

Following the publication of the draft Tanzanian Joint Assistance Strategy (JAS) in July 2005 which outlined a medium-term framework for enhancing aid effectiveness through the rationalisation and alignment of development partner approaches, a series of consultations on this draft strategy took place both within government agencies and among Development Partners. The Development Partner Group in Health (DPG-H) took this opportunity to hold a two-day workshop in late September with the first day devoted to discussing the implications of the JAS for Development Partners, Ministry of Health and President's Office Regional Administration and Local Government. The second day was used as a time to internally reflect on the present functioning of the DPG-H Group, identifying ways of enhancing the work of the group in response to the changing environment. Discussions on the first day of the Retreat were structured around the five key elements of the JAS, i.e., Sector Dialogue, Aid Modalities, TA and Capacity Building, Division of Labour and Monitoring & Evaluation. Presentations were made by Development Partners with input/comments and clarification given by the Ministry of Health, President's Office Regional Administration and Local Government; and Ministry of Finance. Group work was undertaken in the afternoon to further address pertinent issues that were raised from the plenary discussions in the morning session. This resulted in a number of recommendations that included the following: supporting an effective division of labour; harmonising support with government plans and priorities irrespective of the funding modality; complementarity and coordination enhanced between the various aid modalities; basket funding to continue as a transition towards General Budget Support (GBS); demand driven technical assistance; and over time developing an agreed competency/profile skills mix of health development partners. The second day was an opportunity for members of the DPG-H to come together and reflect on the work of the group - where it had come from, the current functioning of the group (strengths/challenges) and looking forward. A number of presentations were made that covered the background of the group; the history of the Sector Wide Approach (SWAp) and the role of development partners; the sector dialogue structures, the expectations and challenges with respect to communication; strengthening the ways of working as a group and the development of an activity plan for prioritising activities. During the plenary sessions a number of recommendations were agreed that included better structuring of the DPG-H meetings; regularity of meetings (once month but more frequently when required); enhancing the coherency and linkages with the overall Development Partner Group; developing and agreeing a work plan and communication strategy; re-visiting the division of labour in terms of roles and responsibilities; putting in place a fully staffed DPG-H Secretariat and organising a troika chairing structure for the group. Moreover, a number of critical suggestions and recommendations were made for further strengthening sector dialogue that centred around revising the structure of the SWAp. As they had implications beyond the mandate of the DPG-H, it was concluded that this would require further discussions, elaboration and agreement by the Ministry of Health/PORALG.\u

Promoting fair globalization in textiles and clothing in a post-MFA environment

The working paper reports on the current trade conditions in the textile clothing industry in the post Multifibre Agreement era. Additionally, the paper advocates for a fairer globalization, promoting better work conditions, labor wages and general social equality in producer countries

The Dag-Brucken ASRS Case Study

In 1996 an agreement was made between a well-known beverage manufacturer, Super-Cola Taiwan, (SCT) and a small Australian electrical engineering company, Dag-Brücken ASRS Pty Ltd, (DB), to provide an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) facility as part of SCT’s production facilities in Asia. Recognising the potential of their innovative and technically advanced design, DB was awarded a State Premiers Export Award and was a finalist in that year’s National Export Awards. The case tracks the development and subsequent implementation of the SCT ASRS project, setting out to highlight how the lack of appropriate IT development processes contributed to the ultimate failure of the project and the subsequent winding up of DB only one year after being honoured with these prestigious awards. The case provides compelling evidence of the types of project management incompetency that, from the literature, appears to contribute to the high failure rate in IT projects. For confidentiality reasons, the names of the principal parties are changed, but the case covers actual events documented by one of the project team members as part of his postgraduate studies, providing an example of the special mode of evidence collection that Yin (1994) calls ‘participant-observation’

A Review into eHealth Services and Therapies: Potential for Virtual Therapeutic Communities - Supporting People with Severe Personality Disorder

eHealth has expanded hugely over the last fifteen years and continues to evolve, providing greater benefits for patients, health care professionals and providers alike. The technologies that support these systems have become increasingly more sophisticated and have progressed significantly from standard databases, used for patient records, to highly advanced Virtual Reality (VR) systems for the treatment of complex mental health illnesses. The scope of this paper is to initially explore e-Health, particularly in relation to technologies supporting the treatment and management of wellbeing in mental health. It then provides a case study of how technology in e-Health can lend itself to an application that could support and maintain the wellbeing of people with a severe mental illness. The case study uses Borderline Personality Disorder as an example, but could be applicable in many other areas, including depression, anxiety, addiction and PTSD. This type of application demonstrates how e-Health can empower the individuals using it but also potentially reducing the impact upon health care providers and services.Comment: Book chapte

Working career progress in the tourism industry : temp-to perm transitions in Spain

In this article, we analyze the dynamics of temporary workers’ transitions into permanent contracts for workers related to the tourism industry. For this purpose, we use an administrative retrospective dataset from Spanish Social security records. Results show that while individuals with a weaker attachment to the tourism industry achieve open-ended contracts sooner than in most other industries, on the contrary, it takes more time to those with a greater attachment to the tourism industry to exit from the temporary status. In addition, we find that for workers substantially engaged in the tourism industry, it takes more time to reach an open-ended contract when they have held between six and ten contracts in the past (as opposed to holding only one previous contract). On the contrary, for individuals with a weaker attachment to the tourism industry, holding between two and ten previous contracts implies a quicker exit from temporality

Minority students’ responses to racism : the case of Cyprus

While research has focused on the role of racism in (re)producing ethnic/racial inequalities in education, there is very little research that investigates how variability in minority students' responses to racism can be explained. By using an ecological approach to integrate existing research on actors' responses to racism, this study finds that researchers have generally neglected factors and processes situated at the micro- and meso-levels of analysis. Qualitative interview data with Turkish-Cypriot children enrolled in schools in the predominantly Greek-speaking part of the Republic of Cyprus are used to investigate their strategies in response to racism and the factors that explain the observed variability in their responses. The findings suggest the importance of and interactions between factors situated at different levels of analysis, including the level of organizations and social groups and face-to-face interactions in explaining variability in young people's responses to racism