Securing effective and equitable coverage of marine protected areas : the UK's progress towards achieving Convention on Biological Diversity commitments and lessons learned for the way forward

Current international agreements call for protecting 10% of marine and coastal waters by 2020, with the intention of increasing that target to 30% by 2030. With 24% of its territorial waters protected, the UK falls short of the new expected target. As well as quantitative targets, qualitative criteria have been internationally agreed for protected area designation, including minimum coverage values and characteristics that encompass effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well-connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, and integrated into the wider landscape and seascape. The legal framework supporting protected area designations at sea is summarized and explained for UK territorial waters. Efforts to date to achieve current marine protected area (MPA) targets are reviewed, with emphasis on how well the existing protected area portfolio captures the qualitative criteria. Examples are given of other effective conservation measures complementary to formalized MPAs, especially with regard to achieving and promoting qualitative criteria for biodiversity conservation, including appropriate recognition of and support for areas conserved by indigenous people, local communities and private entities. A precis on the governance of MPAs and other effective conservation measures in the UK and its overseas territories is presented. Whilst the UK has made exceptional progress with quantitative MPA coverage, it is still not clear whether designated areas offer effective protection. A UK-level strategy is in place to address this; and at site level, Lyme Bay MPA illustrates the benefits of addressing qualitative criteria. Illustrated by the UK example, an urgent call is made for ongoing and future marine in situ area-based conservation efforts to substantiate quantitative and qualitative considerations, and to ensure that MPA networks are ultimately fit for purpose

Concentrations and Migratabilities of Hazardous Elements in Second-Hand Children's Plastic toys.

About 200 second-hand plastic toys sourced in the UK have been analyzed by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry for hazardous elements (As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, Sb, Se) and Br as a proxy for brominated flame retardants. Each element was detected in >20 toys or components thereof with the exception of As, Hg, and Se, with the frequent occurrence of Br, Cd, and Pb and at maximum concentrations of about 16000, 20000, and 5000 μg g-1, respectively, of greatest concern from a potential exposure perspective. Migration was evaluated on components of 26 toys under simulated stomach conditions (0.07 M HCl) with subsequent analysis by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry. In eight cases, Cd or Pb exceeded their migration limits as stipulated by the current EU Toy Safety Directive (17 and 23 μg g-1, respectively), with Cd released from yellow and red Lego bricks exceeding its limit by 1 order of magnitude. Two further cases were potentially noncompliant based on migratable Cr, with one item also containing >250 μg g-1migratable Br. While there is no retroactive regulation on second-hand toys, consumers should be aware that old, mouthable, plastic items may present a source of hazardous element exposure to infants

Institutions versus market forces: Explaining the employment insecurity of European individuals during (the beginning of) the financial crisis

In reaction to the recent financial crisis, the European Commission re-stated its view that the balance between flexibility and security is the key to success for the future of the European social economy, as well as its belief in the power of institutional arrangements it deems necessary for this balance. However, do powerful institutions actually counter market forces where flexicurity is concerned? In this paper we address this question by analysing the impact of institutional configurations and market factors on perceived employment insecurity among workers in Europe. We use the 4th wave of the European Social Survey for 2008/2009, which covers 22 countries, and implement a multi-level approach where contextual effects are taken into account and individuals are considered to be embedded within a country. We find that policies that secure one’s income and employability skills, such as passive and active labour market policies, are more important for providing employment security for individuals than institutions that secure one’s current job, such as employment protection. Of the economic and labour market factors, general market conditions (measured as employment rate average) and the strength of the financial crisis (measured as gross domestic product growth rate from 2008 to 2009) are both similarly influential in explaining cross-national variance in the employment insecurity perception of individuals. More generally, and most interestingly, we find that institutional factors lose their significance when market factors are taken into account. Thus, it seems that differences in economic and labour market conditions between countries better explain why workers feel insecure about their employment, than the differences in employment and income policies. Although this result could be influenced by the time period under investigation, which is characterized by a financial crisis, results from previous studies using data from different periods suggest that it is not period-specific

Progressing quality control in environmental impact assessment beyond legislative compliance: An evaluation of the IEMA EIA Quality Mark certification scheme

The effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) systems is contingent on a number of control mechanisms: procedural; judicial; evaluative; public and government agency; professional; and development aid agency. If we assume that procedural and judicial controls are guaranteed in developed EIA systems, then progressing effectiveness towards an acceptable level depends on improving the performance of other control mechanisms over time. These other control mechanisms are either absent, or are typically centrally controlled, requiring public finances; this we argue is an unpopular model in times of greater Government austerity. Here we evaluate a market-based mechanism for improving the performance of evaluative and professional control mechanisms, the UK Institute of Environmental Management and Assessments' EIA Quality Mark. We do this by defining dimensions of effectiveness for the purposes of our evaluation, and by identifying international examples of the approaches taken to delivering the other control measures to validate the approach taken in the EIA Quality Mark. We then evaluate the EIA Quality Mark, when used in combination with legal procedures and an active judiciary, against the effectiveness dimensions and use time-series analysis of registrant data to examine its ability to progress practice. We conclude that the EIA Quality Mark has merit as a model for a market-based mechanism, and may prove a more financially palatable approach for delivering effective EIA in mature systems in countries that lack centralised agency oversight. It may, therefore, be of particular interest to some Member States of the European Union for ensuring forthcoming certification requirements stemming from recent amendments to the EIA Directive

Cadmium pigments in consumer products and their health risks

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Cadmium is a toxic heavy metal that has been increasingly regulated over the past few decades. The main exposure routes for the general public are the consumption of certain foods and the inhalation of cigarette smoke. However, additional exposure may occur through the current and historical use of the metal in consumer products. In this paper, the uses of Cd in consumer goods are reviewed, with the focus on brightly-coloured Cd sulphide and sulphoselenide pigments, and measurements of Cd in historical and contemporary products ascertained by XRF are reported. Cadmium is encountered across a wide range of contemporary plastic products, mainly because of the unregulated recycling of electronic waste and polyvinyl chloride. However, concentrations are generally low (<100 μg g−1), conforming with current limits and posing minimal risk to consumers. Of greater concern is high concentrations of pigmented Cd (up to 2% by weight) in old products, and in particular children's toys that remain in circulation. Here, tests conducted suggest that Cd migration in some products exceeds the Toy Safety Directive limit of 17 μg g−1 by an order of magnitude. The principal current use of Cd pigments is in ceramic products where the metal is encapsulated and overglazed. Leaching tests on new and secondhand items of hollowware indicate compliance with respect to the current Cd limit of 300 μg L−1, but that non-compliance could occur for items of earthenware or damaged articles should a proposed limit of 5 μg L−1 be introduced. The greatest consumer risk identified is the use of Cd pigments in the enamels of decorated drinking glasses. Thus, while décor is restricted to the exterior, any enamel within the lip area is subject to ready attack from acidic beverages because the pigments are neither encapsulated nor overglazed. Glass bottles decorated with Cd-based enamel do not appear to represent a direct health hazard but have the propensity to contaminate recycled glass products. It is recommended that decorated glassware is better regulated and that old, brightly-coloured toys are treated cautiously

Ensuring the right to education for Roma children : an Anglo-Swedish perspective

Access to public education systems has tended to be below normative levels where Roma children are concerned. Various long-standing social, cultural, and institutional factors lie behind the lower levels of engagement and achievement of Roma children in education, relative to many others, which is reflective of the general lack of integration of their families in mainstream society. The risks to Roma children’s educational interests are well recognized internationally, particularly at the European level. They have prompted a range of policy initiatives and legal instruments to protect rights and promote equality and inclusion, on top of the framework of international human rights and minority protections. Nevertheless, states’ autonomy in tailoring educational arrangements to their budgets and national policy agendas has contributed to considerable international variation in specific provision for Roma children. As this article discusses, even between two socially liberal countries, the UK and Sweden, with their well-advanced welfare states and public systems of social support, there is a divergence in protection, one which underlines the need for a more consistent and positive approach to upholding the education rights and interests of children in this most marginalized and often discriminated against minority group