Good practices for take-back and disposal of unused pharmaceuticals in the Baltic Sea region. Clear Waters from Pharmaceuticals (CWPharma) Activity 4.1 Report

Appropriate collection and disposal of medicine-related waste has been identified as one of the main ways to decrease the emission of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) into the environment. Improvement to the take-back and treatment of collected pharmaceutical waste may be considered low-hanging fruit when one is considering measures to reduce API emissions. However, comparable information that would enable estimating the potential impact of these efforts has not been available. Directive 2004/27/EC, related to medicinal products for human use, mandates that EU member states implement appropriate collection schemes for unused or expired human-use medicinal products. However, it does not provide any guidelines on practical implementation of these schemes. Several studies have pointed out significant differences among Member States in this regard. In March 2019, the European Commission published the European Union Strategic Approach to Pharmaceuticals in the Environment. The actions specified therein cover all stages of the pharmaceutical life cycle, from design and production to disposal and waste management. It emphasizes such elements as sharing good practices, co-operating at international level, and improving understanding of the risks. This report is aimed at filling knowledge gaps and proposing good practices for take-back and disposal of unused human and veterinary medicines and other pharmaceutical waste. The report is targeted to e.g. ministries, environment and medicines agencies, supervisory authorities, municipalities, hospitals, NGOs, pharmacists, doctors, and veterinarians. For the report, current national practices for take-back and disposal of unused medicines and other pharmaceutical waste in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden were evaluated. The pharmaceutical waste originating from households, hospitals and other health care institutions, the pharmaceutical industry, and veterinary use was considered. The proportion of citizens who return unused pharmaceuticals via designated collection points varies greatly between Baltic Sea countries, from about 10% to 70%, with 16–80% disposing of them of as mixed household waste and 3–30% flushing them down the drain. The most commonly cited reason for improper disposal of medicines on households’ part is lack of information about their environmental impacts and how to get rid of them in an environmentally sound manner. Separate collection of unused household pharmaceuticals does not exist in Russia, and the collection mechanism functions poorly in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Information on the take-back schemes for unused human medicines is more readily available than is corresponding information on veterinary medicines. We identified, all told, 21 good practices and recommendations for take-back and disposal of unused pharmaceuticals and other pharmaceutical waste and for promoting the rational use of pharmaceuticals in the Baltic Sea region. Nevertheless, implementing them at national level requires particular consideration due to differences in national legislation and other characteristics of the EU Baltic Sea countries and Russia. The good practices identified in this report answer the call issued in the EU strategic approach for an efficient risk-reduction strategy

Neoliberal Steering in Swedish Integration Policy : the Rise and Fall of Introduction Guides

In the past decades, many policy sectors within European countries have encountered political reforms of neoliberal character. One of the key shifts has been the reorientation of public employment services that has been enforced, for example, through the establishment of what have been denoted as quasi-markets. Simultaneously with the rise of quasi-markets, welfare policy as a whole, including integration policy, has beenincreasingly oriented toward “activation”, with its focus on the individual’s obligationsand duties in relation to welfare services. These circumstances pose particular challenges to those charged with the governance of welfare services due to increasingly complex requirements for collaboration and control involving a multitude of actors. The reform is an example of a hybrid system where for- and non-profit actors compete for the“customer”, in this case, the newly arrived immigrant. This article focuses on the changes in Swedish integration reform as an archetype of these changes and studies a clearly defined case study. Empirically, this study draws from both documents and interviews. The article illustrates an unregulated and ill-monitored policy containing a model that comprises mixed modes of steering. The governance of the reform bears traits from both centralist and cooperative forms of governance and, thereby, involves competing philosophies of steering

Regionalpolitik i förändring : en fallstudie av regionalpolitikens aktörer och former i Åre kommun

Regional politics is changing; it is transforming from being mainly a responsibility of the central state to a concern that is more for the regional or local governments. At the same time, there are signs of a transformation of the political system in general. The development indicates a decreasing hierarchy as the power of the state is challenged and the political agents are increasing in number. This indicates that the political agents are changing but there are also indications that the political forms are transforming. The politics is increasingly characterised by project and process politics, networks, cooperation and partnerships. This transformation is generally described as the transformation “from government to governance”. New governance is one of the most frequently discussed issues in contemporary political science literature, and this has led to a wide variety of conceptualizations. Considering the changing regional politics and general changes as the political forms and agents, this thesis studies who governs the regional politics and how regional politics is governed.The purpose of this thesis is to provide empirical contributions in order to increase the understanding of changes in regional politics at the local level. This is done by dividing governance modes into typologies. Four political processes at the local level in the municipality of Åre between the years 1973-2007 are analyzed. The thesis is based on qualitative semi-structured elite interviews. The informants have been selected by snowball sampling. The interviews have also been complemented by documentary studies. The documents that have been studied are the protocols from the municipal assembly from 1973, when the municipality was created, to2007. The documents also consist of the parish archives (sockenkrönikor) governmental reports and official documents of the local and state-level government. The material has been analyzed by using process tracing.The main results of the study are that there have been changes in the regional politics at the local level in relation to the political agents and the forms of politics. The 1970s were characterized by strong state power and hierarchy. The political processes have increasingly been characterized by the typology of the new governance. The study has shown that in practice the regional politics in Åre is characterized by both traditional governance and new governance at the same time there has not been a paradigmatic shift. The elements of new governance are increasing but there are still significant signs of the traditional bureaucratic system such as hierarchy and ordered rule. As the signs of new governance increase, the political entrepreneurs play a bigger role in the processes being analyzed. The study also shows that the critique of traditional forms of governance relating to participation and influence has not become irrelevant as the signs of new governance increases

Neoliberal Steering in Swedish Integration Policy : the Rise and Fall of Introduction Guides

In the past decades, many policy sectors within European countries have encountered political reforms of neoliberal character. One of the key shifts has been the reorientation of public employment services that has been enforced, for example, through the establishment of what have been denoted as quasi-markets. Simultaneously with the rise of quasi-markets, welfare policy as a whole, including integration policy, has beenincreasingly oriented toward “activation”, with its focus on the individual’s obligationsand duties in relation to welfare services. These circumstances pose particular challenges to those charged with the governance of welfare services due to increasingly complex requirements for collaboration and control involving a multitude of actors. The reform is an example of a hybrid system where for- and non-profit actors compete for the“customer”, in this case, the newly arrived immigrant. This article focuses on the changes in Swedish integration reform as an archetype of these changes and studies a clearly defined case study. Empirically, this study draws from both documents and interviews. The article illustrates an unregulated and ill-monitored policy containing a model that comprises mixed modes of steering. The governance of the reform bears traits from both centralist and cooperative forms of governance and, thereby, involves competing philosophies of steering

Neoliberal Steering in Swedish Integration Policy : the Rise and Fall of Introduction Guides

In the past decades, many policy sectors within European countries have encountered political reforms of neoliberal character. One of the key shifts has been the reorientation of public employment services that has been enforced, for example, through the establishment of what have been denoted as quasi-markets. Simultaneously with the rise of quasi-markets, welfare policy as a whole, including integration policy, has beenincreasingly oriented toward “activation”, with its focus on the individual’s obligationsand duties in relation to welfare services. These circumstances pose particular challenges to those charged with the governance of welfare services due to increasingly complex requirements for collaboration and control involving a multitude of actors. The reform is an example of a hybrid system where for- and non-profit actors compete for the“customer”, in this case, the newly arrived immigrant. This article focuses on the changes in Swedish integration reform as an archetype of these changes and studies a clearly defined case study. Empirically, this study draws from both documents and interviews. The article illustrates an unregulated and ill-monitored policy containing a model that comprises mixed modes of steering. The governance of the reform bears traits from both centralist and cooperative forms of governance and, thereby, involves competing philosophies of steering

Great film, but can you make it shorter?

Som filmskapare i en reklamvärld där utvecklingen ständigt går mot att göra kortare reklamfilmer, kände vi behov av att analysera vad som vinns och förloras i processen. Uppsatsen berör hur en längre välgörenhetsreklamfilm påverkas av att kortas ned i två olika tidsramar. Syftet var att hitta mönster som kan bidra till en ökad förståelse i ämnet för filmskapare. Uppsatsen analyserar de olika versionernas berättarstruktur, tematik, retorik, empati- och sympatiförutsättningar för att sedan diskutera kring hur effektiva de är i förhållande till filmens syfte. Slutsatsen visade att versionerna har olika egenskaper och därmed olika fördelar och nackdelar. För filmskapare innebär det att med noggrannhet och god analysförmåga kunna välja ut bilder i adaptionsprocessen som ger det mest önskvärda resultatet, för att vara säker på att det uttänkta syftet nås fram till åskådaren

Får man vara vem man vill? : En litteraturstudie om pedagogers förhållningssätt till och metoder i barns könsidentitetsprocess

In an overview of research within preschool, there appears a certain ambiguity where the fields “preschool teachers’ attitudes and methods” and “children’s gender identity process” are perceived as separate. The aim of this study is to combine and discuss the relationship between these two separate fields in order to identify patterns that can be applied in preschool practice. The main theoretical framework is Connell’s (2009) gender theory, combined with a didactic perspective that clarifies the pedagogical relationship in children's gender identity process. This study consists of a research overview that includes 24 studies that specifically deal with gender, identity and preschool teachers' didactic methods in preschool. The results of the studies are interpreted and compared both nationally and internationally. Five main patterns are visible regarding preschool teachers' attitudes and methods in children’s gender identity process: Gender stereotypical pattern, Gender equality pattern, Presumed gender neutral pattern, Biological pattern and Compensatory pattern. The central findings in these patterns are discussed, related to previous research, and linked to the pedagogical practice. The results of the study are also discussed in relation to the surrounding society, and suggestions for further research about children’s gender identity are given

Great film, but can you make it shorter?

Som filmskapare i en reklamvärld där utvecklingen ständigt går mot att göra kortare reklamfilmer, kände vi behov av att analysera vad som vinns och förloras i processen. Uppsatsen berör hur en längre välgörenhetsreklamfilm påverkas av att kortas ned i två olika tidsramar. Syftet var att hitta mönster som kan bidra till en ökad förståelse i ämnet för filmskapare. Uppsatsen analyserar de olika versionernas berättarstruktur, tematik, retorik, empati- och sympatiförutsättningar för att sedan diskutera kring hur effektiva de är i förhållande till filmens syfte. Slutsatsen visade att versionerna har olika egenskaper och därmed olika fördelar och nackdelar. För filmskapare innebär det att med noggrannhet och god analysförmåga kunna välja ut bilder i adaptionsprocessen som ger det mest önskvärda resultatet, för att vara säker på att det uttänkta syftet nås fram till åskådaren