The way forward for assessing the human health safety of cosmetics in the EU - Workshop proceedings

Although the need for non-animal alternatives has been well recognised for the human health hazard assessment of chemicals in general, it has become especially pressing for cosmetic ingredients due to the full implementation of testing and marketing bans on animal testing under the European Cosmetics Regulation. This means that for the safety assessment of cosmetics, the necessary safety data for both the ingredients and the finished product can be drawn from validated (or scientifically-valid), so-called "Replacement methods". In view of the challenges for safety assessment without recourse to animal test data, the Methodology Working Group of the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety organised a workshop in February 2019 to discuss the key issues in regard to the use of animal-free alternative methods for the safety evaluation of cosmetic ingredients. This perspective article summarises the outcomes of this workshop and reflects on the state-of-the-art and possible way forward for the safety assessment of cosmetic ingredients for which no experimental animal data exist. The use and optimisation of "New Approach Methodology" that could be useful tools in the context of the "Next Generation Risk Assessment" and the strategic framework for safety assessment of cosmetics were discussed in depth.</p

GEO-6 assessment for the pan-European region

Through this assessment, the authors and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) secretariat are providing an objective evaluation and analysis of the pan-European environment designed to support environmental decision-making at multiple scales. In this assessment, the judgement of experts is applied to existing knowledge to provide scientifically credible answers to policy-relevant questions. These questions include, but are not limited to the following:• What is happening to the environment in the pan-European region and why?• What are the consequences for the environment and the human population in the pan-European region?• What is being done and how effective is it?• What are the prospects for the environment in the future?• What actions could be taken to achieve a more sustainable future?<br/

Relationship Between Trade, Investment and Environment: A Review of Issues

The inter-linkage between economic openness and environmental repercussions is a widely researched area. The current study contributes in the existing pool of research by conducting a cross-country empirical analysis for the year 2008 by exploring the interrelationship between openness indicators (trade and investment) and environmental performance of a country. For this purpose, the analysis separately considers export orientation, import orientation, FDI inwardness and FDI outwardness of the countries in different variations of the proposed empirical model. The regression results do not provide strong support to the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH). The findings also confirm a relationship between socio-economic and socio-political factors in a country and its environmental performance

The Crowdsourced Replication Initiative: Investigating Immigration and Social Policy Preferences. Executive Report.

In an era of mass migration, social scientists, populist parties and social movements raise concerns over the future of immigration-destination societies. What impacts does this have on policy and social solidarity? Comparative cross-national research, relying mostly on secondary data, has findings in different directions. There is a threat of selective model reporting and lack of replicability. The heterogeneity of countries obscures attempts to clearly define data-generating models. P-hacking and HARKing lurk among standard research practices in this area.This project employs crowdsourcing to address these issues. It draws on replication, deliberation, meta-analysis and harnessing the power of many minds at once. The Crowdsourced Replication Initiative carries two main goals, (a) to better investigate the linkage between immigration and social policy preferences across countries, and (b) to develop crowdsourcing as a social science method. The Executive Report provides short reviews of the area of social policy preferences and immigration, and the methods and impetus behind crowdsourcing plus a description of the entire project. Three main areas of findings will appear in three papers, that are registered as PAPs or in process

Cucurbit crops in temperate Australia are visited more by native solitary bees than by stingless bees

The propagation and management of stingless bees for pollination services is a growing industry in Australia, but we need to better understand in which crops and environments these pollinators are most useful. We investigated the potential of two Australian stingless bee species, Tetragonula carbonaria and Tetragonula hockingsi, to pollinate cucumber and watermelon crops in both field and protected cropping (greenhouse or polytunnel) environments. We recorded floral visitation rates and fruit yield in cucumber and watermelon and characterized the assemblage of wild pollinators visiting both field-grown crops. Of 229 surveys of cucumber flowers and 144 surveys of watermelon flowers in field experiments where T. carbonaria colonies were deployed, no stingless bees were recorded visiting cucumber flowers, and only one was recorded visiting watermelon flowers. Visitor assemblages in both crops were dominated by the introduced Apis mellifera, with a high number of native solitary halictid bees also visiting watermelon flowers. In a no-choice experiment, stingless bee (T. carbonaria and T. hockingsi) visits to watermelon flowers in a polytunnel occurred after four days but were low in number at first, compared to a greenhouse experiment where visits to cucumber flowers occurred only after 22 days and resulted in poor fruit set. In fact, T. hockingsi more readily collected fungal spores than pollen from cucumbers. Our results indicate that T. carbonaria and T. hockingsi do not make major contributions to the pollination of cucumber and watermelon, but other native flower visitors, including halictid bees, may be important pollinators of these crops.</p

Cucurbit crops in temperate Australia are visited more by native solitary bees than by stingless bees

The propagation and management of stingless bees for pollination services is a growing industry in Australia, but we need to better understand in which crops and environments these pollinators are most useful. We investigated the potential of two Australian stingless bee species, Tetragonula carbonaria and Tetragonula hockingsi, to pollinate cucumber and watermelon crops in both field and protected cropping (greenhouse or polytunnel) environments. We recorded floral visitation rates and fruit yield in cucumber and watermelon and characterized the assemblage of wild pollinators visiting both field-grown crops. Of 229 surveys of cucumber flowers and 144 surveys of watermelon flowers in field experiments where T. carbonaria colonies were deployed, no stingless bees were recorded visiting cucumber flowers, and only one was recorded visiting watermelon flowers. Visitor assemblages in both crops were dominated by the introduced Apis mellifera, with a high number of native solitary halictid bees also visiting watermelon flowers. In a no-choice experiment, stingless bee (T. carbonaria and T. hockingsi) visits to watermelon flowers in a polytunnel occurred after four days but were low in number at first, compared to a greenhouse experiment where visits to cucumber flowers occurred only after 22 days and resulted in poor fruit set. In fact, T. hockingsi more readily collected fungal spores than pollen from cucumbers. Our results indicate that T. carbonaria and T. hockingsi do not make major contributions to the pollination of cucumber and watermelon, but other native flower visitors, including halictid bees, may be important pollinators of these crops

What We Know (and Could Know) About International Environmental Agreements

Initiated in 2002, the International Environmental Agreements Data Base (IEADB) catalogs the texts, memberships, and design features of over 3,000 multilateral and bilateral environmental agreements. Using IEADB data, we create a comprehensive review of the evolution of international environmental law, including how the number, subjects, and state memberships in IEAs have changed over time. By providing IEA texts, the IEADB helps scholars identify and systematically code IEA design features. We review scholarship derived from the IEADB on international environmental governance, including insights into IEA membership, formation, and design as well as the deeper structure of international environmental law. We note the IEADB?s value as a teaching tool to promote undergraduate and graduate teaching and research. The IEADB?s structure and content opens up both broad research realms and specific research questions, and facilitates the ability of scholars to use the IEADB to answer those questions of greatest interest to them