Recognition of a Safe and Healthy Working Environment as a Fundamental Principle at Work

The 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work was amended by the International Labour Conference at its 110th meeting in June 2022. The adopted resolution decided the inclusion of a safe and healthy working environment as the fifth category of fundamental principles and rights at work. It adds two instruments to the eight ILO conventions already considered as fundamental: namely, the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) and the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187)

Brexit. Lo spazio giudiziario europeo in materia civile e commerciale all'alba dell'exit day

In vista della sua uscita dall’Unione europea il Regno Unito ha adottato nel 2018 il EU (Withdra-wal) Act che prevede come principio generale il mantenimento dell’acquis dell’Unione nella sua legislazione interna in qualità di EU-retained law. Tuttavia nel campo del diritto internazionale priva-to e della cooperazione giudiziaria in materia civile e commerciale il Ministry of Justice, utilizzando i poteri che lo stesso Act gli ha conferito, ha adottato numerose Regulations che revocano la mag-gior parte delle norme uniformi europee ora in vigore. Questo articolo offre una panoramica del probabile assetto che, sulla base dei suddetti provvedimenti, assumeranno le relazioni future tra il Regno Unito e la UE in materia di diritto internazionale privato ed in particolare nei settori della competenza giurisdizionale e del riconoscimento ed esecuzione delle decisioni, dell’insolvenza, del diritto di famiglia, della legge regolatrice delle obbligazioni contrattuali e non contrattuali e ancora in altri campi delle relazioni giuridiche transnazionali di privati e imprese.In view of its exit from the European Union, the United Kingdom adopted in 2018 the EU (Withdrawal) Act that provides as a general principle for the maintenance of the Union acquis in its domestic legislation as “EU-retained law”. In the field of private international law and judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters, however, the Ministry of Justice, acting upon the powers conferred by the Act, has passed several Regulations that revoke most of the European uniform rules now in force. This article offers an overview of the likely legal setting that, in light of the adopted rules, will preside over the UK-EU relationships with respect to matters of pri-vate international law, and in particular to matters of jurisdiction and recognition and enforce-ment of judgments, of insolvency, of family law, of the law applicable to contractual and non contractual obligations, as well as other sectors of cross-border legal issues involving both indi-viduals and companies

Brexit e lo spazio giudiziario europeo in materia civile e commerciale all'alba dell'exit day

In vista della sua uscita dall\u2019Unione europea il Regno Unito ha adottato nel 2018 il EU (Withdra-wal) Act che prevede come principio generale il mantenimento dell\u2019acquis dell\u2019Unione nella sua legislazione interna in qualit\ue0 di EU-retained law. Tuttavia nel campo del diritto internazionale priva-to e della cooperazione giudiziaria in materia civile e commerciale il Ministry of Justice, utilizzando i poteri che lo stesso Act gli ha conferito, ha adottato numerose Regulations che revocano la mag-gior parte delle norme uniformi europee ora in vigore. Questo articolo offre una panoramica del probabile assetto che, sulla base dei suddetti provvedimenti, assumeranno le relazioni future tra il Regno Unito e la UE in materia di diritto internazionale privato ed in particolare nei settori della competenza giurisdizionale e del riconoscimento ed esecuzione delle decisioni, dell\u2019insolvenza, del diritto di famiglia, della legge regolatrice delle obbligazioni contrattuali e non contrattuali e ancora in altri campi delle relazioni giuridiche transnazionali di privati e imprese.In view of its exit from the European Union, the United Kingdom adopted in 2018 the EU (Withdrawal) Act that provides as a general principle for the maintenance of the Union acquis in its domestic legislation as \u201cEU-retained law\u201d. In the field of private international law and judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters, however, the Ministry of Justice, acting upon the powers conferred by the Act, has passed several Regulations that revoke most of the European uniform rules now in force. This article offers an overview of the likely legal setting that, in light of the adopted rules, will preside over the UK-EU relationships with respect to matters of pri-vate international law, and in particular to matters of jurisdiction and recognition and enforce-ment of judgments, of insolvency, of family law, of the law applicable to contractual and non contractual obligations, as well as other sectors of cross-border legal issues involving both indi-viduals and companies

Air conditioning and source-specific particles as modifiers of the effect of PM(10) on hospital admissions for heart and lung disease.

Studies on acute effects of particulate matter (PM) air pollution show significant variability in exposure-effect relations among cities. Recent studies have shown an influence of ventilation on personal/indoor-outdoor relations and stronger associations of adverse effects with combustion-related particles. We evaluated whether differences in prevalence of air conditioning (AC) and/or the contribution of different sources to total PM(10) emissions could partly explain the observed variability in exposure-effect relations. We used regression coefficients of the relation between PM(10) and hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and pneumonia from a recent study in 14 U.S. cities. We obtained data on the prevalence of AC from the 1993 American Housing Survey and data on PM(10) emissions by source category, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and population density from the U.S. EPA. We analyzed data using meta-regression techniques. PM(10) regression coefficients for CVD and COPD decreased significantly with increasing percentage of homes with central AC when cities were stratified by whether their PM(10) concentrations peaked in winter or non-winter months. PM(10) coefficients for CVD increased significantly with increasing percentage of PM(10) emission from highway vehicles, highway diesels, oil combustion, metal processing, decreasing percentage of PM(10) emission from fugitive dust, and increasing population density and VMT/mile(2). In multivariate analysis, only percentage of PM(subscript)10(/subscript) from highway vehicles/diesels and oil combustion remained significant. For COPD and pneumonia, associations were less significant but the patterns of the associations were similar to that for CVD. The results suggest that air conditioning and proportion of especially traffic-related particles significantly modify the effect of PM(10) on hospital admissions, especially for CVD

The association between air pollution and the incidence of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in Northern Italy

Acute exacerbations and worsening of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) have been associated with exposure to ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter, but chronic exposure to air pollution might also affect the incidence of IPF. We investigated the association between chronic exposure to NO2, O3 and particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <10 \u3bcm (PM10) and IPF incidence in Northern Italy between 2005 and 2010. Daily predictions of PM10 concentrations were obtained from spatiotemporal models, and NO2 and O3 hourly concentrations from fixed monitoring stations. We identified areas with homogenous exposure to each pollutant. We built negative binomial models to assess the association between area-specific IPF incidence rate, estimated through administrative databases, and average overall and seasonal PM10, NO2, and 8-hour maximum O3 concentrations. Using unadjusted models, an increment of 10 \u3bcg\ub7m-3 in NO2 concentration was associated with an increase between 7.93% (95% CI 0.36-16.08%) and 8.41% (95% CI -0.23-17.80%) in IPF incidence rate, depending on the season. After adjustment for potential confounders, estimated effects were similar in magnitude, but with larger confidence intervals. Although confirmatory studies are needed, our results trace a potential association between exposure to traffic pollution and the development of IPF

Heat, Heat Waves, and Hospital Admissions among the Elderly in the United States, 1992–2006

Background: Heat-wave frequency, intensity, and duration are increasing with global climate change. The association between heat and mortality in the elderly is well documented, but less is known regarding associations with hospital admissions. Objectives: Our goal was to determine associations between moderate and extreme heat, heat waves, and hospital admissions for nonaccidental causes among Medicare beneficiaries ≥ 65 years of age in 114 cities across five U.S. climate zones. Methods: We used Medicare inpatient billing records and city-specific data on temperature, humidity, and ozone from 1992 through 2006 in a time-stratified case-crossover design to estimate the association between hospitalization and moderate [90th percentile of apparent temperature (AT)] and extreme (99th percentile of AT) heat and heat waves (AT above the 95th percentile over 2–8 days). In sensitivity analyses, we additionally considered confounding by ozone and holidays, different temperature metrics, and alternate models of the exposure–response relationship. Results: Associations between moderate heat and hospital admissions were minimal, but extreme heat was associated with a 3% (95% CI: 2%, 4%) increase in all-cause hospital admissions over the subsequent 8 days. In cause-specific analyses, extreme heat was associated with increased hospitalizations for renal (15%; 95% CI: 9%, 21%) and respiratory (4%; 95% CI: 2%, 7%) diseases, but not for cardiovascular diseases. An added heat-wave effect was observed for renal and respiratory admissions. Conclusion: Extreme heat is associated with increased hospital admissions, particularly for renal causes, among the elderly in the United States. Citation: Gronlund CJ, Zanobetti A, Schwartz JD, Wellenius GA, O’Neill MS. 2014. Heat, heat waves, and hospital admissions among the elderly in the United States, 1992–2006. Environ Health Perspect 122:1187–1192; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.120613

Short Term Effects of Particle Exposure on Hospital Admissions in the Mid-Atlantic States: A Population Estimate

Background: Many studies report significant associations between PM2.5 (particulate matter <2.5 micrometers) and hospital admissions. These studies mostly rely on a limited number of monitors which introduces exposure error, and excludes rural and suburban populations from locations where monitors are not available, reducing generalizability and potentially creating selection bias. Methods: Using prediction models developed by our group, daily PM2.5 exposure was estimated across the Mid-Atlantic (Washington D.C., and the states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York and West Virginia). We then investigated the short-term effects of PM2.5 exposures on emergency hospital admissions of the elderly in the Mid-Atlantic region.We performed case-crossover analysis for each admission type, matching on day of the week, month and year and defined the hazard period as lag01 (a moving average of day of admission exposure and previous day exposure). Results: We observed associations between short-term exposure to PM2.5 and hospitalization for all outcomes examined. For example, for every 10-µg/m3 increase in short-term PM 2.5 there was a 2.2% increase in respiratory diseases admissions (95% CI = 1.9 to 2.6), and a 0.78% increase in cardiovascular disease (CVD) admission rate (95% CI = 0.5 to 1.0). We found differences in risk for CVD admissions between people living in rural and urban areas. For every10-µg/m3 increase in PM 2.5 exposure in the ‘rural’ group there was a 1.0% increase (95% CI = 0.6 to 1.5), while for the ‘urban’ group the increase was 0.7% (95% CI = 0.4 to 1.0). Conclusions: Our findings showed that PM2.5 exposure was associated with hospital admissions for all respiratory, cardio vascular disease, stroke, ischemic heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease admissions. In addition, we demonstrate that our AOD (Aerosol Optical Depth) based exposure models can be successfully applied to epidemiological studies investigating the health effects of short-term exposures to PM2.5

Short-Term Changes in Ambient Temperature and Risk of Ischemic Stroke

Background: Despite consistent evidence of a higher short-term risk of cardiovascular mortality associated with ambient temperature, there have been discrepant findings on the association between temperature and ischemic stroke. Moreover, few studies have considered potential confounding by ambient fine particulate matter air pollution <2.5 μm in diameter (PM2.5) and none have examined the impact of temperature changes on stroke in the subsequent hours rather than days. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether changes in temperature trigger an ischemic stroke in the following hours and days and whether humid days are particularly harmful. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 1,705 patients residing in the metropolitan region of Boston, Mass., USA, who were hospitalized with neurologist-confirmed ischemic stroke, and we abstracted data on the time of symptom onset and clinical characteristics. We obtained hourly meteorological data from the National Weather Service station and hourly PM2.5 data from the Harvard ambient monitoring station. We used the time-stratified case-crossover design to assess the association between ischemic stroke and apparent temperature averaged over 1-7 days prior to stroke onset adjusting for PM2.5. We assessed whether differences in apparent temperature trigger a stroke within shorter time periods by examining the association between stroke onset and apparent temperature levels averaged in 2-hour increments prior to stroke onset (0-2 h through 36-38 h). We tested whether the association varied by health characteristics or by PM2.5, ozone or relative humidity. Results: The incidence rate ratio of ischemic stroke was 1.09 (95% confidence interval 1.01-1.18) following a 5°C decrement in average apparent temperature over the 2 days preceding symptom onset. The higher risk associated with cooler temperatures peaked in the first 14-34 h. There was no statistically significant difference in the association between temperature and ischemic stroke across seasons. The risk of ischemic stroke was not meaningfully different across subgroups of patients defined by health characteristics. The association between ischemic stroke and ambient temperature was stronger on days with higher levels of relative humidity. Conclusions: Lower temperatures are associated with a higher risk of ischemic stroke onset in both warm and cool seasons, and the risk is higher on days with higher levels of relative humidity. Based on this study and the body of literature on ambient temperature and cardiovascular events, identifying methods for mitigating cardiovascular risk may be warranted