European Union Standards Research Articles

Development and use of modelling techniques for real‐time bathing water quality predictions

AbstractReal‐time prediction of bathing water quality is suggested as an appropriate regulatory approach in recent WHO Guidelines and new European Union (EU) standards for bathing water quality. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has developed the first EU real‐time bathing water quality predictions at 10 sites throughout Scotland since 2004. This paper covers two stages in the evolution of modelling tools which inform these predictions based on antecedent rainfall and river flow, using four sites as examples. These tools, together with associated advisory systems, demonstrate the potential to minimise public exposure to adverse water quality where this occurs in discrete episodes after rainfall events. In addition, they allow an effective prediction and communication system to provide significant compliance benefits as samples taken during periods when bathing is not advised are disregarded for classification purposes.

Impact of Labour Law on South Africa’s New Corporate Rescue Mechanism

South Africa's recently enacted Companies Act introduces a new corporate rescue mechanism known as 'business rescue'. One of the aims of corporate rescue is the resuscitation or reorganization of companies in financial distress. The legal disciplines of labour, insolvency, and corporate law interact during business rescue proceedings. In this contribution, the question is posed whether an appropriate balance has been struck between employees' and creditors' interests in this new corporate rescue mechanism. The investigation is conducted against the background of International Labour Organization (ILO) and European Union (EU) standards and South Africa's labour, insolvency, and corporate law frameworks. The conclusion is drawn that the potential success that this rescue mechanism has to offer could be weakened due to provisions that result in the over-protection of employees.

Evaluation of the physical and mechanical properties of particleboard made from giant reed (Arundo donax L.)

Single-layer experimental particleboards were made from various sizes of Arundo donax particles bonded with urea formaldehyde resin. The experimental panels were tested for their mechanical strength including modulus of rupture (MOR), modulus of elasticity (MOE), internal bonding (IB), screw holding strength (SH), and physical properties (density, moisture content, thickness swelling (TS), and water absorption (WA)) according to the procedures defined by European Union (EN) Standards. The overall results showed that most panels exceeded the EN Standards for MOE, MOR, and IB. The mechanical properties of the particleboard were enhanced as the density increased. Particle size was found to have a profound effect on the board properties.

Survey of counterfeit melamine tableware available on the market in Thailand, and its migration

A simple measurement of sample density by adopting the principles of buoyancy could help screen counterfeit melamine ware if the density was below 1.50 g cm−3. However, samples with a density exceeding 1.50 g cm−3 were not necessarily made from melamine formaldehyde. FTIR analysis showed that all counterfeit products were made of urea formaldehyde and coated on the food-contact side with melamine formaldehyde, a tactic probably intended to cover up the true product features. The overall migration of real and counterfeit melamine samples complied with both European Union and Thai regulations, as the exposure layers in both cases were melamine formaldehyde. Formaldehyde migration failed to comply with Thai standards, but this was not the case for European Union standards. However, the results showed a significant inconsistency between individual items of the same brand and between individual exposures of the same test specimen. This indicated the inherent inhomogeneity between individual items, which mainly resulted from the manufacturing process: for instance, insufficient temperature and time to obtain complete polycondensation of monomers. Therefore, it is recommended that constant surveillance be conducted on melamine articles available in the marketplace in terms of quality and safety.

Beyond the Information Technology Agreement: Harmonisation of Standards and Trade in Electronics

Product standards can have a dual impact on costs and, thus, on trade. They can impose costs on exporters as it may be necessary to adapt products for specific markets (cost effect). In contrast, standards can reduce exporters information costs as they convey information on product characteristics (informational effect). Using a new World Bank database of European standards for electronic products, we examine the net impact of internationally harmonised European standards on European Union imports. We find that European Union standards for electronic products that are harmonised to international standards have a significant and a positive net effect on trade. The results suggest that efforts to promote trade in electronic products could be complemented by steps to promote standards harmonisation. This might include, for example, restarting talks to extend the WTOs Information Technology Agreement to commitments to harmonise national standards in electronic products.

Use of measurement uncertainty in a probabilistic scheme to assess compliance of bottled water with drinking water standards

Ground water bodies are important resources for drinking water, including bottled water, and national regulatory bodies should assess their quality continuously. For this purpose, an effective assessment system of bottled water at source should be installed. A hierarchical nested balance design for the collection of random primary duplicate water samples, and their replicate analyses, is described, and the use of robust analysis of variance to estimate measurement uncertainty. The latter is subsequently used for the development of four probabilistic categories for the classification of element concentrations in bottled water with respect to legislative standard values, i.e., (a) compliant (below Lower Threshold Limit), (b) possibly non-compliant (possibly above Standard Value), (c) probably non-compliant (probably above Standard Value), and (d) non-compliant (above Upper Threshold Limit), for the reliable assessment of compliance to European Union and national drinking water standards. Overall, the quality of European bottled water is considered good, with the exception of a few that have concentrations in Mn, B, Ba, As, Fe, Ni, Se, and Al, which are definitely above the estimated respective Upper Threshold Limit and, thus, exceed the corresponding legislative standard value defined by European Union directives. National regulatory bodies should verify these results, and install an efficient assessment system of compliance to regulatory limits using the methodology described in this paper.

An audit improves the quality of water within the dental unit water lines of general dental practices across the East of England

To evaluate and improve upon the quality of water emanating from the dental unit waterlines (DUWLs) which supply irrigation for dental handpieces and triple spray syringes in general practice. A prospective clinical audit. Seventy-two general dental practices in the East of England. In 2006, 124 dentists initially registered to participate in the audit. By 2007, 72 had begun and by 2008, 68 had completed the project. This involved collecting samples of water discharged from the DUWLs in the dental practices both before the start and mid-way through a morning session. These were tested microbiologically at a United Kingdom Accreditation Service testing laboratory. Before the audit, 56% of the DUWLs were reportedly flushed through for 2 minutes at the start of the day, 29% were purged for 20 seconds in between each patient, 50% were treated with a wide range of different disinfectant solutions, 44% were drained down dry at the end of the day and 9% had no cross-infection control measures applied to them at all. In the audit, 100% used a disinfectant solution alone, predominantly either Alpron or Sterilox. The minimum audit standard set was for the water samples to meet the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guideline on the quality of DUWL water, namely that the United States' Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory standards for drinking water be adopted, in that no more than 5% of water samples should be contaminated with total coliforms and that they should not have more than 500 colony forming units per ml (cfu/ml) of heterotrophic water bacteria. However, the participating dentists were encouraged to try and achieve the more stringent European Union (EU) standards for potable (drinking) water, namely for the water samples to have neither Escherichia coli nor any other faecal coliforms present and for the aerobic colony count to be less than 100 cfu/ml at 22°C after 72 hours of culturing. In the pre-audit survey, none of the 72 DUWL water samples were contaminated with E. coli but in five of them (7%) coliforms were recovered. Only 25% reached the EU potable water standard, of which 11% had zero planktonic bacterial contamination. Three percent were above the EU standard but below the CDC guideline/EPA regulatory drinking water standard, while alarmingly, 72% of them failed to reach this minimum audit standard altogether. However, after the application of a suitable disinfectant for at least a month, the audit revealed that E. coli still remained absent in the water samples taken from the 68 DUWLs that completed the project and in only one (1.5%) were coliforms recovered. Remarkably, nearly 81% reached the EU potable water standard, of which 54% had zero planktonic bacterial contamination, with nearly an additional 6% reaching the American CDC/EPA standard and with only 13% failing outright. Clinical audit using appropriate DUWL disinfectants can result in the improvement of the quality of water that is discharged through DUWLs, thereby minimising both the risk of cross-infection to vulnerable patients as well as to dental staff chronically exposed to contaminated aerosols.

Regulation of waste and waste management in Turkey

Industrial and technological developments have increased rapidly throughout the world including Turkey. Furthermore, the population of Turkey is also increasing and the ever-increasing consumption creates larger amounts of waste materials and adversely affects the environment and human health. The development of a waste management and disposal system has become necessary in all countries of the world. As part of the process of seeking entry to the European Union, Turkey continues to prepare the necessary legislation to satisfy European Union regulations for the disposal of solid waste, packaging waste, biodegradable waste and medical waste materials within the framework of the strategy. An integrated waste management system is necessary for each town in Turkey that is suitable for the different contents and increasing amounts of waste produced. In the present study, Turkey's geographical regions were examined in terms of population and the total amount of solid waste generated in each province to produce detailed data for the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry. As a result of this study, it is understood that Turkey has drawn up a 'road map' which will be followed by the 2008-2012 Waste Management Action Plan. To achieve this, the Ministry of the Environment and Forestry, Turkey and the municipalities must fulfill the tasks that have been allocated to them. Turkey will attain the European Union standards for waste management if these tasks lead to the achievement of the targets within the action plan.

Possibilities of more efficient usage of genetic potential of broilers breeders.

During the last ten years, poultry production in the world and particularly, EU has been specific due to new trends, whereby special attention is focused on regulations and procedures that are adopted by European Union (EU), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the World Trade Organization. Legal regulations in EU (standards, directions) are focused on all species and categories of poultry. Based on this, breeding of broiler (meat-type line strains) and production of hatching eggs and day old chickens (incubation) as well as other issues are the focus of this review. This paper presented results of studies carried out using different technological procedures in the breeding of broiler and production of one day old chickens. These showed a full expression of genetic potential of strains, along with preservation of poultry welfare.

Auditing animal welfare at slaughter plants

The OIE Welfare Standards on slaughter transport, and killing of animals for disease control are basic minimum standards that every country should follow. The OIE, European Union, and many private standards used by commercial industry have an emphasis on animal based outcome standards instead of engineering based standards. Numerical scoring is used by both private industry and some governments to access animal welfare at slaughter plants. Five variables are measured. They are: 1) Percentage of animals effectively stunned on the first attempt, 2) Percentage rendered insensible, 3) Percentage that vocalize (bellow, moo, squeal) during handling and stunning, 4) Percentage that fall during handling, and 5) Percentage moved with an electric goad. Each one of these critical control points measures the outcome of many problems. A good animal welfare auditing system also has standards that prohibit really bad practices such as dragging, dropping, throwing, puntilla, and hoisting live animals before ritual slaughter. On farm and transport problems that can be measured at the slaughter plant are: percentage of lame animals, percentage of thin animals, percentage of dirty animals, percentage with sores, bruises or lesions, death losses, morbidity, and percentage of birds with broken wings and legs.

Enabling harmonization – Business actors and the eastern enlargement of the EU

In recent years, most enlargement research has focused on theorizing the process of eastern enlargement and analysing the incentives of both the European Union (EU) and candidate member states to initiate a gradual process of legal and policy approximation with the prospect of eventual membership. Although the bulk of the literature draws on bilateral executive negotiations between the European Commission and central governments, there is little systematic account of the role of non-actors in the process of policy approximation with EU standards during the pre-accession negotiations. In light of the enormous economic, political and administrative challenges posed by the EU's eastern enlargement, we raise the question of the extent to which eastern enlargement has provided new opportunities to private actors from the Central Eastern European region to pursue their interests in the process of aligning domestic regulatory regimes to European policies. Drawing on empirical evidence from pharmaceutical harmonization in Hungary and Poland, the article analyses the extent to which enlargement has empowered non-state actors as shapers of success or failure in the efficient and effective adoption of and adaptation to EU regulatory requirements.

Gender Equality in Employment in Turkish Legislation with Comparisons to EU and International Law

As a candidate for membership of the European Union (EU), Turkey has to harmonize its existing legislation with the EU requirements for gender equality in employment. Also the amended Turkish Constitution states that where a conflict between ratified international treaties and domestic law exists, international treaties shall prevail. These treaties are binding upon the legislative, executive, and judicial organs, the administrative authorities, and other institutions and individuals. Turkey has therefore been undergoing a period of rapid legislative change and development, in order to comply with the EU's acquis communautaire and with Council of Europe (COE), International Labour Organisation (ILO), and United Nations (UN) conventions, which have been ratified by Turkey. In this respect, the new Employment Act (EA), the Criminal Act (CA), and the amended Constitution represent a major step forward toward gender equality in employment. However, there are problems of harmonization with EU and international standards in the wording of the EA and CA, and in some provisions of the Constitution. In the present article, the EA's legal framework for women employees is analyzed from a critical point of view. The provisions of the EA, the CA, and the Constitution are compared with EU and international standards and possible changes are proposed. (Less)

Dewatering of primary settled urban sludge in a vertical flow wetland

Sludge drying reed beds (SDRBs) are a combination of traditional sludge drying beds and constructed wetlands. Their main advantages include low investment, infrequent biosolids removal (of the order of years), dewatering and mineralization of biosolids, minimization of biosolid volume, simplicity and economy, and production of a beneficial, well-composted side product. A constructed wetland facility is used to treat the sewage from the municipality of Nea Madytos, Thessaloniki Province, North Greece. The primarily produced biosolids in the Imhoff tank of this facility are treated with a vertical flow SDRB. The performance and dewatering efficiency of this system was monitored for 1year. Over the 12years of operation of the treatment plant, 7884m3 of biosolids from the Imhoff tank were transferred to the SDRBs. Until today, no biosolids were removed, and the level of the dewatered sludge on the bed is built to about 20cm, with a volume of residue sludge of 28m3. This corresponds to a biosolid reduction of 99.64%. At the end of the examination period the TS (VS) content varied from 55% (40%) in the top layer to 65% (35%) in the bottom layer. The heavy metal concentration meets the European Union standards for heavy metals in case of agricultural disposal of the treated sludge.

The J-curve in the emerging economies of Eastern Europe

Devaluation or depreciation of a currency worsens the trade balance before improving it, resulting in a J-curve pattern. A new definition of the hypothesis implies a short-run deterioration combined with the long-run improvement. By using monthly data over the January 1990–June 2005 period from 11 east European emerging economies, most of which are the new European Union (EU) members or the EU candidate countries, this article uses the bounds testing approach to cointegration and error-correction modelling and finds empirical support for the J-curve hypothesis in three countries of Bulgaria, Croatia and Russia. The results have important implications for policymakers involved in economics in terms of using exchange rate policy as a policy device to achieve real convergence toward EU standards.

Is there still a problem with lead in drinking water in the European Union?

The presence of lead in drinking water poses a range of risks to human health, including the retardation of some aspects of child development, the inducement of abortion, and other clinical disorders. The extent of these risks has not been quantified at the European Union (EU) scale. A number of sampling methods are in use across the EU, some of which are inadequate for determining the concentrations of lead in drinking water at consumers' taps. In consequence, non-compliance with the EU standards for lead in drinking water has been under-estimated. Emerging data indicates significant non-compliance with these standards in some countries, particularly with the 10 microg(-1) standard that will become a legal requirement in 2013; the current interim standard of 25 microg l(-1) is also exceeded in some locations. An initial estimate is that 25% of domestic dwellings in the EU have a lead pipe, either as a connection to the water main, or as part of the internal plumbing, or both, potentially putting 120 million people at risk from lead in drinking water within the EU. These issues are relevant to the implementation of the Protocol on Water and Health and to drinking water safety planning.

SWOT analyses of the national energy sector for sustainable energy development

Abstract A holistic perspective of various energy stakeholders regarding the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOTs) of the energy sector in Macedonia is utilized as baseline to diagnose the current state and to sketch future action lines towards sustainable energy development. The resulting SWOT analyses pointed to the progressive adoption of European Union (EU) standards in energy policy and regulation as the most important achievement in the energy sector. The most important problems the national energy sector faces are scarce domestic resources and unfavorable energy mix, low electricity prices, a high degree of inefficiency in energy production and use, as well as insufficient institutional and human capacities. The formulated portfolio of actions towards enabling sustainable energy development urges the adoption of a comprehensive energy strategy built upon sustainability principles, intensified utilization of the natural gas, economic prices of electricity, structural changes in industry, promotion of energy efficiency and renewables, including Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, enforcement of EU environmental standards and meeting the environmental requirements, as well as institutional and human capacity building.

Implementation of a national electronic reporting system in Lithuania

Electronic reporting systems improve the quality and timeliness of the surveillance of communicable diseases. The aim of this paper is to present the process of the implementation and introduction of an electronic reporting system for the surveillance of communicable diseases in Lithuania. The project which started in 2002 was performed in collaboration between Lithuania and Sweden and was facilitated by the parallel process of adapting the surveillance system to European Union (EU) standards. The Lotus-based software, SmittAdm, was acquired from the Department of Communicable Diseases Control and Prevention of Stockholm County in Sweden and adopted for Lithuania, resulting in the Lithuanian software, ULISAS. A major advantage of this program for Lithuania was the possibility to work offline. The project was initiated in the two largest counties in Lithuania where ULISAS had been installed and put in use by January 2005. The introduction was gradual, the national level was connected to the system during late 2005, and all remaining counties were included during 2006 and 2007. The reporting system remains to be evaluated concerning timeliness and completeness of the surveillance. Further development is needed, for example the inclusion of all physicians and laboratories and an alert system for outbreaks. The introduction of this case-based, timely electronic reporting system in Lithuania allows better reporting of data to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) compared to the former reporting system with paper-based, aggregated data.

Help or Hindrance? The Impact of Harmonised Standards on African Exports

The authors test the hypothesis that product standards harmonized to de facto international standards are less trade restrictive than ones that are not. To do this, the authors construct a new database of European Union (EU) product standards. The authors identify standards that are aligned with ISO standards (as a proxy for de facto international norms). The authors use a sample-selection gravity model to examine the impact of EU standards on African textiles and clothing exports, a sector of particular development interest. The authors find robust evidence that non-harmonized standards reduce African exports of these products. EU standards which are harmonized to ISO standards are less trade restricting. Our results suggest that efforts to promote African exports of manufactures may need to be complemented by measures to reduce the cost impacts of product standards, including international harmonization. In addition, efforts to harmonize national standards with international norms, including through the World Trade Organization Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement, promise concrete benefits through trade expansion.

Pragmatics of Policy: The Compliance of Dutch Environmental Policy Instruments to European Union Standards

Despite a general decrease in Dutch environmental emission trends, it remains difficult to comply with European Union (EU) environmental policy targets. Furthermore, environmental issues have become increasingly complex and entangled with society. Therefore, Dutch environmental policy follows a pragmatic line by adopting a flexible approach for compliance, rather than aiming at further reduction at the source of emission. This may be politically useful in order to adequately reach EU targets, but restoration of environmental conditions may be delayed. However, due to the complexity of today's environmental issues, the restoration of environmental conditions might not be the only standard for a proper policy approach. Consequently this raises the question how the Dutch pragmatic approach to compliance qualifies in a broader policy assessment. In order to answer this question, we adapt a policy assessment framework, developed by Hemerijck and Hazeu (Bestuurskunde 13(2), 2004), based on the dimensions of legitimacy and policy logic. We apply this framework for three environmental policy assessments: flexible instruments in climate policy, fine-tuning of national and local measures to meet air quality standards, and derogation for the Nitrate Directive. We conclude with general assessment notes on the appliance of flexible instruments in environmental policy, showing that a broad and comprehensive perspective can help to understand the arguments to put such policy instruments into place and to identify trade-offs between assessment criteria.

Survey of self-assessed preparedness for clinical practice in one Croatian medical school

BackgroundThe Croatian higher education system is in the process of reforming its medical curricula to comply with European Union standards. We conducted a survey of students enrolled at the University of Zagreb (Croatia) asking them to rate their perception of preparedness for clinical practice prior to initiation of the reform process. The purpose of the survey was to identify self-perceived deficiencies in education and to establish a reference point for the later assessment of ongoing educational reform.FindingsOne-hundred and forty seven (N = 147) graduates reported the levels of perceived preparedness on 30 items grouped into 8 educational domains. Main domains were: understanding science, practical skills/patient management, holistic care, prevention, interpersonal skills, confidence/coping skills, collaboration, and self-directed learning. For each item, graduates self assessed their preparedness on a scale ranging from 1 to 4, with 1 = "Very inadequate", 2 = "Somewhat inadequate", 3 = "Somewhat adequate", and 4 = "Very adequate". In 7 out of 8 domains the achieved median score was ≥ 3. Students expressed low confidence (defined when ≥ 25% of respondents supplied a rating for the survey question as: "very inadequate" or "somewhat inadequate") with interpersonal skills (discussing terminal disease, counseling distraught patients, balancing professional and personal life), and in performing certain basic semi-invasive or invasive procedures.ConclusionZagreb medical graduates identified several deficiencies within educational domains required for standard clinical practice. Ongoing educational efforts need to be directed towards the correction of these deficiencies in order to achieve standards required by the European Union.