Official Control in Slaughter and Game Handling: Expectations and Prerequisites for Implementation of Remote Meat Inspection in Sweden.

Remote meat inspection is currently not permitted under the European Union food control legislation. However, the environmental impact of travelling to and from abattoirs and increasing shortages of qualified veterinary staff make remote controls a potential future scenario. This paper reports the results of a qualitative study conducted with a sample of nineteen official veterinarians and food business operators in Sweden.

Implications of circular textile policies for the future regulation of hazardous substances in textiles in the European Union.

The textile industry's business model is currently unsustainable and systemic changes must be made. The transition to a circular textile economy can be a major lever for this. However, it faces multiple issues, including the (in)ability of current legislations to provide sufficient protection regarding hazardous chemicals in recirculating materials.

Empirically supported out-of-the-box strategies for science communication by environmental scientists.

Scientists are expected to communicate their research to a wide audience, while often lacking appreciable training. Environmental science poses many value-laden and ethical questions. This necessitates the identification and use of specific strategies or guidelines, which encourage 2-way communication and enable trust in both the experts and the scientific results.

Assessing and managing multiple risks in a changing world-The Roskilde recommendations.

Roskilde University (Denmark) hosted a November 2015 workshop, Environmental Risk-Assessing and Managing Multiple Risks in a Changing World. This Focus article presents the consensus recommendations of 30 attendees from 9 countries regarding implementation of a common currency (ecosystem services) for holistic environmental risk assessment and management; improvements to risk assessment and management in a complex, human-modified, and changing world; appropriate development of protection goals in a 2-stage process; dealing with societal issues; risk-management information needs; conducting risk assessment of risk management; and development of adaptive and flexible regulatory systems. The authors encourage both cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to address their 10 recommendations: 1) adopt ecosystem services as a common currency for risk assessment and management; 2) consider cumulative stressors (chemical and nonchemical) and determine which dominate to best manage and restore ecosystem services; 3) fully integrate risk managers and communities of interest into the risk-assessment process; 4) fully integrate risk assessors and communities of interest into the risk-management process; 5) consider socioeconomics and increased transparency in both risk assessment and risk management; 6) recognize the ethical rights of humans and ecosystems to an adequate level of protection; 7) determine relevant reference conditions and the proper ecological context for assessments in human-modified systems; 8) assess risks and benefits to humans and the ecosystem and consider unintended consequences of management actions; 9) avoid excessive conservatism or possible underprotection resulting from sole reliance on binary, numerical benchmarks; and 10) develop adaptive risk-management and regulatory goals based on ranges of uncertainty.

Risk communication discourse among ecological risk assessment professionals and its implications for communication with nonexperts.

Risk communication, especially to the general public and end users of plant protection products, is an important challenge. Currently, much of the risk communication the general public receives is via the popular press, and risk managers face the challenge of presenting their decisions and their scientific basis to the general public in an understandable way. Therefore, we decided to explore the obstacles in risk communication, as done by expert risk assessors and managers.

Stakeholders' perspective on ecological modeling in environmental risk assessment of pesticides: challenges and opportunities.

The article closely examines the role of mechanistic effect models (e.g., population models) in the European environmental risk assessment (ERA) of pesticides.