Doing the 'dirty work of the green economy: Resource recovery and migrant labour in the EU

Europe has set out its plans to foster a ‘green economy’, focused around recycling, by 2020. This pan-European recycling economy, it is argued, will have the triple virtues of: first, stopping wastes being ‘dumped’ on poor countries; second, reusing them and thus decoupling economic prosperity from demands on global resources; and third, creating a wave of employment in recycling industries. European resource recovery is represented in academic and practitioner literatures as ‘clean and green’. Underpinned by a technical and physical materialism, it highlights the clean-up of Europe’s waste management and the high-tech character of resource recovery. Analysis shows this representation to mask the cultural and physical associations between recycling work and waste work, and thus to obscure that resource recovery is mostly ‘dirty’ work. Through an empirical analysis of three sectors of resource recovery (‘dry recyclables’, textiles and ships) in Northern member states, we show that resource recovery is a new form of dirty work, located in secondary labour markets and reliant on itinerant and migrant labour, often from accession states. We show therefore that, when wastes stay put within the EU, labour moves to process them. At the micro scale of localities and workplaces, the reluctance of local labour to work in this new sector is shown to connect with embodied knowledge of old manufacturing industries and a sense of spatial injustice. Alongside that, the positioning of migrant workers is shown to rely on stereotypical assumptions that create a hierarchy, connecting reputational qualities of labour with the stigmas of different dirty jobs – a hierarchy upon which those workers at the apex can play

Cross-Sector Review of Drivers and Available 3Rs Approaches for Acute Systemic Toxicity Testing

Acute systemic toxicity studies are carried out in many sectors in which synthetic chemicals are manufactured or used and are among the most criticized of all toxicology tests on both scientific and ethical grounds. A review of the drivers for acute toxicity testing within the pharmaceutical industry led to a paradigm shift whereby in vivo acute toxicity data are no longer routinely required in advance of human clinical trials. Based on this experience, the following review was undertaken to identify (1) regulatory and scientific drivers for acute toxicity testing in other industrial sectors, (2) activities aimed at replacing, reducing, or refining the use of animals, and (3) recommendations for future work in this area

A Strategy for Structuring and Reporting a Read-Across Prediction of Toxicity

Category formation, grouping and read across methods are broadly applicable in toxicological assessments and may be used to fill data gaps for chemical safety assessment and regulatory decisions. In order to facilitate a transparent and systematic approach to aid regulatory acceptance, a strategy to evaluate chemical category membership, to support the use of read-across predictions that may be used to fill data gaps for regulatory decisions is proposed. There are two major aspects of any read-across exercise, namely assessing similarity and uncertainty. While there can be an over-arching rationale for grouping organic substances based on molecular structure and chemical properties, these similarities alone are generally not sufficient to justify a read-across prediction. Further scientific justification is normally required to justify the chemical grouping, typically including considerations of bioavailability, metabolism and biological/mechanistic plausibility. Sources of uncertainty include a variety of elements which are typically divided into two main issues: the uncertainty associated firstly with the similarity justification and secondly the completeness of the read-across argument. This article focuses on chronic toxicity, whilst acknowledging the approaches are applicable to all endpoints. Templates, developed from work to prepare for the application of new toxicological data to read-across assessment, are presented. These templates act as proposals to assist in assessing similarity in the 50 context of chemistry, toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics as well as to guide the systematic characterisation of uncertainty both in the context of the similarity rationale, the read across data and overall approach and conclusion. Lastly, a workflow for reporting a read-across prediction is suggested

Concurrent use of prescription drugs and herbal medicinal products in older adults: A systematic review

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.The use of herbal medicinal products (HMPs) is common among older adults. However, little is known about concurrent use with prescription drugs as well as the potential interactions associated with such combinations. Objective Identify and evaluate the literature on concurrent prescription and HMPs use among older adults to assess prevalence, patterns, potential interactions and factors associated with this use. Methods Systematic searches in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL, AMED, Web of Science and Cochrane from inception to May 2017 for studies reporting concurrent use of prescription medicines with HMPs in adults (≥65 years). Quality was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute checklists. The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) three stage approach to mixed method research was used to synthesise data. Results Twenty-two studies were included. A definition of HMPs or what was considered HMP was frequently missing. Prevalence of concurrent use by older adults varied widely between 5.3% and 88.3%. Prescription medicines most combined with HMPs were antihypertensive drugs, beta blockers, diuretics, antihyperlipidemic agents, anticoagulants, analgesics, antihistamines, antidiabetics, antidepressants and statins. The HMPs most frequently used were: ginkgo, garlic, ginseng, St John’s wort, Echinacea, saw palmetto, evening primrose oil and ginger. Potential risks of bleeding due to use of ginkgo, garlic or ginseng with aspirin or warfarin was the most reported herb-drug interaction. Some data suggests being female, a lower household income and less than high school education were associated with concurrent use. Conclusion Prevalence of concurrent prescription drugs and HMPs use among older adults is substantial and potential interactions have been reported. Knowledge of the extent and manner in which older adults combine prescription drugs will aid healthcare professionals can appropriately identify and manage patients at risk.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Concentrations of organic contaminants in industrial and municipal bioresources recycled in agriculture in the UK

Many types of bioresource materials are recycled in agriculture for soil improvement and as bedding materials for livestock and have potential for transfer into plant and animal foods. Representative types of industrial and municipal bioresources were selected to assess the extent of organic chemical contamination, including: (i) land applied materials: treated sewage sludge biosolids), meat and bone meal ash (MBMA), poultry litter ash (PLA), paper sludge ash (PSA) and compost-like-output (CLO), and (ii) bedding materials: recycled waste wood (RWW), dried paper sludge (DPS), paper sludge ash (PSA) and shredded cardboard. The materials generally contained lower concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-pdioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) relative to earlier reports, indicating the decline in environmental emissions of these established contaminants. However, concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) remain elevated in biosolids samples from urban catchments. Polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PBDD/Fs) were present in larger amounts in biosolids and CLO compared to their chlorinated counterparts and hence are of potentially greater significance in contemporary materials. The presence of non-ortho-polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in DPS was probably due to non-legacy sources of PCBs in paper production. Emerging flame retardant compounds, including: decabromodiphenylethane (DBDPE)and organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs), were detected in several of the materials. The profile of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) depended on the type of waste category; perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnDA) was the most significant PFAS for DPS, whereas perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was dominant in biosolids and CLO. The concentrations of polychlorinated alkanes (PCAs) and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) were generally much larger than the other contaminants measured, indicating that there are major anthropogenic sources of these potentially hazardous chemicals entering the environment. The study results suggest that continued vigilance is required to control emissions and sources of these contaminants to support the beneficial use of secondary bioresource materials

Urban futures and the code for sustainable homes

Copyright © 2012 ICE Publishing Ltd. Permission is granted by ICE Publishing to print one copy for personal use. Any other use of these PDF files is subject to reprint fees.A 6?6 ha (66 000 m2) regeneration site, commonly referred to as Luneside East, is to be turned from a run down, economically under-achieving area of Lancaster, UK, into a new, distinctive, vibrant, sustainable quarter of the city. As a result several aspects of water planning for 350 new homes and 8000 m2 of workspace needed to be considered before any infrastructure investment was undertaken. This included assessment of the future capacity requirements (i.e. inflows and outflows) for water infrastructure (i.e. mains water supply, wastewater disposal, rainwater storage and stormwater disposal) much of which will be located underground. This paper looks at the implications of various water management strategies on the Luneside East site (e.g. water-efficient appliances, greywater recycling and rainwater harvesting) in line with current policy measures that focus on technology changes alone (e.g. the code for sustainable homes). Based on these findings this paper outlines some basic implications for technological resilience discussed in the context of four ‘world views’ – that is, the urban futures scenarios considered in this special issue. Conclusions are drawn as to how far this can take engineers, planners and developers in understanding and planning for resilient water infrastructure within a development like Luneside East

Chapter 19 Noise pollution and its impact on human health and the environment

This chapter deals with (1) the basic theory of sound propagation; (2) an overview of noise pollution problem in view of policy and standards by the World Health Organization, the United States, and the European Union; (3) noise exposure sources from aircraft, road traffic and railways, in-vehicle, work, and construction sites, and occupations, and households; (4) the noise pollution impact on human health and the biological environment; (5) modeling of regional noise-affected habitats in protected and unprotected land areas and the marine environment; (6) noise control measures and sustainability in view of sustainable building design, noise mapping, and control measures such as barriers and berms along roadsides, acoustic building materials, roadway vehicle noise source control, road surface, and pavement materials; and (7) environmental noise pollution management measures and their impact on human health