Scientific Controversy, Issue Salience, and E-Cigarette Regulation: A Comparative Study of Policy Debates in Germany and England

Electronic cigarettes pose a regulatory challenge to governments seeking to balance their potential risks and benefits in the absence of conclusive scientific evidence. This comparative paper aims to explain the presence and absence of controversy about e-cigarette regulation in England and Germany, respectively. It identifies three sets of factors that help explain why e-cigarettes regulation became highly controversial in England, while in Germany this debate has been almost entirely absent. These factors relate to (1) differences in the perceived salience of e-cigarettes resulting from existing tobacco control measures, prevalence of e-cigarette use, the presence of the tobacco industry, and the role of public health community in public debate; (2) differences in institutional context and pathways of policy-making; and (3) differences in approaches to legitimize policy decisions through science and the judiciary. The paper highlights the complex interplay of political, institutional, and cultural factors in explaining differences in public health decision making

From SOMAmer-Based Biomarker Discovery to Diagnostic and Clinical Applications: A SOMAmer-Based, Streamlined Multiplex Proteomic Assay

Recently, we reported a SOMAmer-based, highly multiplexed assay for the purpose of biomarker identification. To enable seamless transition from highly multiplexed biomarker discovery assays to a format suitable and convenient for diagnostic and life-science applications, we developed a streamlined, plate-based version of the assay. The plate-based version of the assay is robust, sensitive (sub-picomolar), rapid, can be highly multiplexed (upwards of 60 analytes), and fully automated. We demonstrate that quantification by microarray-based hybridization, Luminex bead-based methods, and qPCR are each compatible with our platform, further expanding the breadth of proteomic applications for a wide user community

CSR Business as Usual? The Case of the Tobacco Industry

Tobacco companies have started to position themselves as good corporate citizens. The effort towards CSR engagement in the tobacco industry is not only heavily criticized by anti-tobacco NGOs. Some opponents such as the the World Health Organization have even categorically questioned the possibility of social responsibility in the tobacco industry. The paper will demonstrate that the deep distrust towards tobacco companies is linked to the lethal character of their products and the dubious behavior of their representatives in recent decades. As a result, tobacco companies are not in the CSR business in the strict sense. Key aspects of mainstream CSR theory and practice such as corporate philanthropy, stakeholder collaboration, CSR reporting and self-regulation, are demonstrated to be ineffective or even counterproductive in the tobacco industry. Building upon the terminology used in the leadership literature, the paper proposes to differentiate between transactional and transformational CSR arguing that tobacco companies can only operate on a transactional level. As a consequence, corporate responsibility in the tobacco industry is based upon a much thinner approach to CSR and has to be conceptualized with a focus on transactional integrity across the tobacco supply chain

Krebsinzidenz und digitale Informationssuche in Deutschland (KREDID)

Ziel: Primäres Ziel des Vorhabens ist es, den möglichen räumlichen und temporalen Zusammenhang zwischen der Inzidenz häufiger Krebserkrankungen und den Suchvolumina auf Google, der meist genutzten Suchmaschine, innerhalb Deutschlands zu charakterisieren. Hintergrund und Vorarbeiten: Um Maßnahmen der Krebsprävention zu verbessern, ist es nötig die öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit für Krebserkrankungen und ihre Prävention zu messen. Nutzer:innen von Internet-Suchmaschinen, wie Google, hinterlassen bei ihrer Suche digitale Spuren, die zu diesem Zweck nutzbar gemacht werden können. Studien aus dem US-amerikanischen Raum konnten signifikante Korrelationen zwischen dem Suchvolumen (die Anzahl an getätigten Suchanfragen) und Krebsinzidenzen feststellen

Micro-simulation analysis of the cost-effectiveness of competing lung cancer screening strategies in Germany

The US National Lung Cancer Screening Trial (NLST), the Dutch-Belgian Randomized Lung Cancer Screening Trial (NELSON), the the German Lung Cancer Screening Intervention (LUSI) Trial all showed that lung cancer screening using Low-dose computed tomography (LCDT) reduced lung-cancer mortality. Following favorable results from the trials that lung cancer screening with LDCT could save lives, expert panels in different countries have released recommendations and position statements to support the implementation of population-based screening programmes in Europe, including in Germany. However, more detailed questions remain with regard to the optimization of screening programmes, such that one obtains a maximum benefit (gain in life years) at an acceptable financial cost and at acceptable overall risk for negative side effects that may be caused by false-positive screen tests or over-diagnosis. Although several microsimulation studies have been performed to evaluate cost-effectiveness of screening with LCDT in different regions, so far no extensive modeling has been performed for the evaluation of the expected benefits, risks of harms and financial costs of diverse lung cancer screening scenarios in Germany. For instance, prevalence rates of smoking and smoking intensity are higher in Europe and in Germany compared to the US and Canada, where most quantitative modeling studies have been conducted. Here, we propose to investigate the benefits, harms and cost-effectiveness of numerous lung cancer screening implementation scenarios for the population of Germany

A health economic evaluation of prostate-specific antigen-based risk-stratified prostate cancer screening strategies in Germany

Prostate cancer (PCa) screening remains a controversial topic. The value of population-based screening in reducing premature deaths remains unclear, primarily due to over-diagnosis and overtreatments. However, with an increased understanding of the strong linkage between prostate-specific antigen (PSA) dynamics and PCa progression, we can hypothesise that a PSA-based risk-stratified PCa screening can reduce overdiagnosis and overtreatment associated with the current PCa screening strategies. Therefore, our objective is to evaluate if a PSA-based risk-adapted PCa screening could potentially reduce the total number of screens for the entire population and the screening costs while producing a similar level or better health outcomes, which may lead to a cost-effective screening strategy. To answer these relevant policy and decision-making questions, the Division of Health Economics at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) is currently adapting, extending and recalibrating a prostate cancer natural history model to the German setting. Model calibration involves the identification of suitable observable parameters with sufficiently robust data available (calibration targets). The most commonly used calibration targets are the disease epidemiological parameters that include but are not limited to incidences, stage distribution at diagnosis, and survival and mortality data. Once the natural history model is calibrated and validated, it can answer several critical questions regarding the cost and value questions related to prostate cancer screening. The project will highly benefit from accessing anonymised Robert Koch Institute individual-level data, primarily used to estimate the relevant epidemiological parameters (calibration targets)

Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum Heidelberg. Veroeffentlichungen 1986

Copy held by FIZ Karlsruhe; available from UB/TIB Hannover / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Modellvorhaben 'Untersuchung moeglicher gesundheitlicher Risikofaktoren bei der Produktion und Verarbeitung von Wolfsmilchgewaechsen (Euphorbiaceen) in der Landwirtschaft Abschlussbericht

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F94B1274 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technologie (BMFT), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman