Identifying an indoor air exposure limit for formaldehyde considering both irritation and cancer hazards

Formaldehyde is a well-studied chemical and effects from inhalation exposures have been extensively characterized in numerous controlled studies with human volunteers, including asthmatics and other sensitive individuals, which provide a rich database on exposure concentrations that can reliably produce the symptoms of sensory irritation. Although individuals can differ in their sensitivity to odor and eye irritation, the majority of authoritative reviews of the formaldehyde literature have concluded that an air concentration of 0.3 ppm will provide protection from eye irritation for virtually everyone. A weight of evidence-based formaldehyde exposure limit of 0.1 ppm (100 ppb) is recommended as an indoor air level for all individuals for odor detection and sensory irritation. It has recently been suggested by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the National Toxicology Program (NTP), and the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) that formaldehyde is causally associated with nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) and leukemia. This has led US EPA to conclude that irritation is not the most sensitive toxic endpoint and that carcinogenicity should dictate how to establish exposure limits for formaldehyde. In this review, a number of lines of reasoning and substantial scientific evidence are described and discussed, which leads to a conclusion that neither point of contact nor systemic effects of any type, including NPC or leukemia, are causally associated with exposure to formaldehyde. This conclusion supports the view that the equivocal epidemiology studies that suggest otherwise are almost certainly flawed by identified or yet to be unidentified confounding variables. Thus, this assessment concludes that a formaldehyde indoor air limit of 0.1 ppm should protect even particularly susceptible individuals from both irritation effects and any potential cancer hazard

Democratic governance and political rationalities in the implementation of the water framework directive in the Netherlands

Multi-level governance, network governance, and, more recently, experimentalist governance are important analytical frameworks through which to understand democratic governance in the EU. However, these analytical frameworks carry normative assumptions that build on functionalist roots and undervalue political dynamics. This can result in a lack of understanding of the challenges that democratic governance faces in practice. This article proposes the analysis of democratic governance from the perspective of multiple political rationalities to correct such assumptions. It analyses the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in the Netherlands as a paradigmatic case study by showing how governmental, instrumental, and deliberative rationalities are at work in each of the governance elements that it introduces. The article concludes by discussing the implications of a perspective of multiple political rationalities for the understanding and promotion of democratic governance in practice

Spiders in the Web: Understanding the Evolution of REDD+ in Southwest Ghana

The implementation of the global programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing countries, and the role of Conservation, Sustainable Management of Forests and Enhancement of Forest Carbon Stocks (REDD+) is lacks a robust financial mechanism and is widely criticized for producing too little positive impact for climate, nature, and people. In many countries with tropical forests however, a variety of REDD+ projects continue to develop on the ground. This paper fills in some of the gaps in our understanding of the dynamic relation between global policy making and implementation of REDD+ on the ground. Using the introduction of REDD+ in Southwest Ghana as an example, we apply a practice-based approach toanalyze the different roles that local actors and global-local intermediaries played in the introduction of REDD+. Our results show a more balanced picture than polarized debates at the global levels suggest. The logic of practice explains how REDD+ was translated to the local situation. Global actorstook a lead but depended on local actors to make REDD+ work. Together, they integrated elements of existing practices that helped REDD+ ‘land’ locally but also transformed REDD+ globally to resemble such local practices. REDD+ initiatives absorbed elements from established community-basedconservation, forest restoration, and sustainable agro-forestry practices. The evolution of REDD+ in Ghana reflects global trends to integrate REDD+ with landscape approaches

Sustainable Forest Management and Social-Ecological Systems: An Institutional Analysis of Caatinga, Brazil

Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) has globally gained support as a strategy to use and manage forest resources while maintaining forest ecosystem services. However, type, relevance, and utilisation of forest ecosystem services vary across eco-regions, countries, and policy implementation pathways. As such, the concept of SFM is subject to a series of translations within the social-ecological context in which it is implemented. This article discusses translations of SFM in Caatinga biome—a tropical dry forest in the north-eastern semi-arid region of Brazil. Our analysis is based on a qualitative analysis of 24 semi-structured interviews and 30 documents. We discuss SFM and the interplay of resources, governance, and actors. Results for Caatinga show that (1) a technical approach to SFM that focuses on firewood and charcoal production is dominant; that (2) SFM implementation practices hardly address the needs and interests of local populations; and that (3) local actors show little support for the implementation of SFM. We conclude that the social-ecological context of Caatinga shapes translations of SFM mostly in a techno-bureaucratic rather than a socially embedded way. As a result, local practices of forest use are excluded from the regional SFM approach, which negatively affects its implementatio