International Regulations on Amino Acid Use in Foods and Supplements and Recommendations to Control Their Safety Based on Purity and Quality.

We examined international regulatory developments related to the use of proteinogenic amino acids in human nutrition and concluded that the current risk-assessment practices tend to focus exclusively on setting maximum daily limits. In this brief review we argue that controlling the standards of purity and ingredient quality are the key safety issues that should be considered during risk assessment. Moreover, if maximum intake limits on amino acids are implemented, they should be defined using a well-established rationale for the health risks associated with high intakes. This would avoid setting limits that are so low that they render the dietary supplements ineffective and which, therefore, could mislead the consumer. We further suggest that there should be greater regional concordance in how the use of amino acids as ingredients is regulated and use the capacity of industry to oversee pre-competitive issues, such as standards of purity and scientific research on the safety of generic ingredients. Our arguments are based on clinical safety scientific research and oversights of amino acid purity standards conducted in the last decade by the not-for-profit international association, the International Council on Amino Acid Science.

Social Media Posts by Recreational Marijuana Companies and Administrative Code Regulations in Washington State.

Importance: Recreational marijuana use was legalized in the state of Washington in 2012, and the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 314-55-155 was implemented to limit the exposure of youths to marijuana advertisements. Objectives: To evaluate the content of social media posts by marijuana companies and to assess the compliance of these posts with WAC regulations. Design, Setting, and Participants: In a cross-sectional study, a content analysis of 1027 social media posts was conducted to identify and assess compliance of WAC regulations with the business pages of recreational marijuana companies located on Facebook and Twitter platforms in the state of Washington from December 1, 2015, through November 30, 2016. Main Outcomes and Measures: Application of coding based on WAC regulations to focus on the prohibition of language that promoted the overconsumption of marijuana, that described its curative or therapeutic benefits, or that was designed to appeal to youths; and the requirements for warnings about intoxication, driving, health risks, and age restrictions for marijuana. Results: Of the 1027 posts on Facebook and Twitter from business pages of 6 marijuana companies, Facebook followers ranged from 342 to 1592 persons and Twitter followers ranged from 374 to 2915 persons per company. Findings for WAC regulations included 17 posts (1.7%) that encouraged overconsumption; 137 posts (13.3%) that promoted therapeutic benefits; and 9 posts (0.01%) that appealed to youths. Requirements for warnings addressing intoxication, driving, health risks, and age restrictions were present on 110 posts (10.7%). Some businesses repeatedly violated particular regulations; 7 of 17 (41.2%) posts encouraging overconsumption derived from 1 marijuana company. Conclusions and Relevance: Most social media posts by marijuana companies were consistent with WAC regulations that prohibit particular messages, but few companies provided required warning messages. Findings can be used toward implementation strategies for marijuana prevention to address these influential media messages.

The worker's ear: a history of noise-induced hearing loss.

Hearing loss afflicts millions of people throughout the world, and many of those millions are workers who have been exposed to excessive noise. People have always been surrounded by a variety of sounds in their environments, but the invention of gunpowder and the Industrial Revolution introduced new sounds of greater intensity than ever before. It is only within the past 40 years that serious efforts to reduce excessive noise at work sites have been initiated. In the latter half of the 20th century, many governments imposed regulations to limit workers' exposure to loud sounds. Because of this recent action, some people may believe that the recognition of occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is relatively new. However, a review of selected historical and medical manuscripts, books, and articles show that the association of hearing changes with loud noise exposure was recognized for centuries before systematic attempts were made to limit the exposure. Delays in implementing controls to limit noise exposure were due to cultural reasons, technical problems in controlling noise generation, and a lack of understanding of the mechanics of hearing loss. A historical perspective on this issue may remind health care providers that they need to continue to emphasize hearing conservation measures as occupational noise exposures change with the shift of industrial activities between countries.

Unlikely alliances: encounters between state science, nature spirits, and indigenous industrial forestry in Mexico, 1926-2008.

Indigenous community leaders and conservationists in Oaxaca, Mexico, believe that deforestation causes streams to dry up and threatens rainfall, authorizing popular mobilizations against industrial logging. This belief was produced by a combination of indigenous beliefs in nature spirits and early-twentieth-century state-sponsored desiccation theory, which was brought to the Valley of Mexico in the 1920s. Desiccation theory acquires political significance because it allows rural people to build political and epistemic alliances that bypass industrial forestry institutions and find sympathetic urban audiences and environmentalist allies, undermining state claims to reason and scientific authority. These alliances require the skillful translation and mistranslation of local environmental concerns by activists and conservationists, who link the concerns of urban audiences with those of rural people. Popular beliefs about climate and forests in Mexico structure the authority and credibility of the state and will powerfully affect efforts to protect forests to mitigate climate change.

Early socio-political and environmental consequences of the Prestige oil spill in Galicia.

The controversial form in which the oil industry is run has once more caused a huge disaster--this one affecting the Galician coastal environment and economy. Oil-spill clean-up operations have been managed in Europe with some success but with considerable economic, environmental and social costs. The oil industry often avoids fully or even partially compensating those affected. The lack of both political will and political power has let the culprit (the oil industry) off the hook. This paper considers the spill of the Prestige to assess whether the balance of power between affected people and the oil industry can be changed. The paper examines the growing awareness of environmental issues among ordinary people in Spain, through the massive involvement of volunteers concerned with the damage done to the environment and to the livelihoods of fishing communities in Galicia. To understand these growing public concerns and the strength of opinion, the paper examines the details of the decisions taken by the central Spanish and local governments and the way these have informed the clean-up operations, the character of the oil companies involved and the feeling of impotence in the face of such disasters. The conclusion here is that the operations of the oil industry should be tightly regulated through EU legislation, and that this can come about as a result of organised political pressure from those affected by the oil spill, from the mass of volunteers, as well as from public opinion at large.

Integrated ergonomics approach toward designing night and shift work in developing countries based on experiences in Bali, Indonesia.

Recently, the effort in carrying out an integrated ergonomics approach known as "SHIP" (systemic, holistic, interdisciplinary and participatory) approach has been intensively undertaken in Bali with the aim of sustaining improvements being done. The People's Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia issued for the 1999-2004 period a "SHIP" Act on the Macro Guidelines of Tourism Development in which ergonomics and other factors must be considered comprehensively to attain sustainable development in tourism. Therefore the night and shift work that is recently increasingly applied in the tourism industry must also be designed and organized through this approach. In fact, however, economic factors have still been the predominant reason for workers to accept any type of night and shift work decided by the management, without taking into account possible impacts and consequences. For example, rapid forward rotation schemes seem more adapted to the hotel industry instead of traditional 6-6-6 rotation. Further, inter-city bus drivers are approved to work a 24-hour shift followed by one day off. These drivers often work an additional risky night shift after two consecutive night shifts so as to meet needed expenses for the family. Cultural or religious activities still presented constraints for workers as they carried out subsequently the night work. Therefore, proactive steps should be taken in a timely manner through the integrated SHIP approach in designing night and shift work so as to achieve work schedules compatible with both social life of shiftworkers and business concerns.

Regulating healthcare technologies and medical supplies in the European Economic Area.

A complex relationship exists among EU regulations, current national practices and rules, institutional capacities to implement regulatory adjustments and the legacy of past health and regulatory policy and traditions. However, there is little empirical information on medical devices policy, the medical devices industry, and the assurance of medical device safety and usage. Drawing on a review of the secondary literature and on-going field work, the evidence suggests that the current mix of state-centric and self-regulatory traditions will be as important in determining the implementation and final outcomes of EU-rules as the new rules themselves. EU directives redesign rules, but they do not necessarily lead to institutional change, create manpower, skills and institutional capacities, or alter governance and administrative practices in the short term. Neither EU directives nor national regulatory adjustments determine the 'man-machine/skills-experience' interface which is shaped and influenced by local medical traditions and the acceptance of these traditions by local publics.