Suchergebnisse

The creation and accumulation of robust bodies of knowledge, along with their dissemination, utilisation and integration in decision support are key to improving the use of evidence in decision-making. Systematic reviews (SRs), through their emphasis on transparency, replicability and rigour, offer numerous benefits throughout the policy-making cycle and for improving the use of evidence in environmental policy-making. As a result there have been numerous calls to increase the use of SRs in environmental policy-making. This commentary paper introduces the challenges of engaging policy-makers with SRs and, using experiences of producing SRs with Government Departments and Agencies within the UK and Europe, identifies possible solutions and shares our lessons learned. It highlights that co-production can help to overcome a number of challenges by ensuring that review questions are policy-relevant, that the context of the review is taken into consideration and that review's findings are communicated so that they are recognised and used in policy decision-making processes. Additionally, a pragmatic approach to the review's methodology may be required to respond to policy-making requirements. Here, a risk-based approach can communicate the trade-offs between the rigour and timeliness of the review. Ensuring that systematic approaches are upheld at all times can help address impartiality concerns and can develop skills in both reviewers and policy-makers to increase awareness of systematic methods, leading to changes in practice and culture within decision-making organisations and the promotion of evidence informed policy development and decisions.

Agricultural intensification has increased diffuse source pollution within water catchments, reduced heterogeneity within the landscape and caused major declines in farmland wildlife, including birds, mammals, invertebrates and wildflowers. This increase in pollution and wildlife decline, has effected three vital ecosystem services, pollination, biological pest control and water quality protection. The morphological traits of plant species, such as floral display size and leaf area, provide support to these services and vegetative strips can be established with plants that have these desirable traits. Vegetative strips are widely used across Europe and integrated into government environmental schemes such as The Common Agricultural Policy and The Water Framework Directive. However, issues of land availability and food security require a sustainable intensification of current agricultural practices. One component of this process is to sow vegetative strips that are designed to support multiple ecosystem services. To do this, combinations of plant species that will support specific ecosystem services, have been designed. However, to enable a fully-informed design process, evidence must be collated on which specific plant traits provide the support to the target ecosystem services. We propose to systematically map all evidence on which specific plant traits provide support for three of the most vital ecosystem services, pollination, bio-control and water quality protection. Information from this map could inform future decisions on which plant species are suitable for inclusion within a multifunctional vegetative strip that aims to provide the target ecosystem services. The aim of this systematic map is to create a searchable database of studies that demonstrate evidence of plant traits and how they support the named ecosystem services.

A theory-based systems approach, such as AcciMap accident analysis, has been widely used over the years in multiple safety critical sectors such as the nuclear, petrochemical, aviation and railway industries to provide a detailed understanding of complex systems and the chain of events contributing to accidents resulting from system failure. However, despite its advantages, the use of a systems approach in the food safety context has to date been limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate three established norovirus incidents using the AcciMap accident analysis approach to determine its efficacy at informing the design of food safety policies following a norovirus outbreak to prevent reoccurrence. This approach was found to be of value in analysing norovirus outbreaks. The findings of the AcciMap analysis reveal the norovirus outbreaks were not the outcome of a single causal incident, but a chain of events and interactions that involved governmental failure to control and enforce safety regulations and the impact on managerial and individual behaviours at a lower level in the system. The analysis identified the common contributory factors such as poor inspections, lack of regular monitoring of quality of water supply, inadequate management of wastewater and ineffective communication that led to each incident across the hierarchical levels within a socio-technical system. The value of using the AcciMap approach is that it does not constrain the analysis to individual components or particular types of incident allowing for a more holistic and interconnected risk assessment.

Background Neonicotinoid insecticides (NNIs) have been routinely used in arable crop protection since their development in the early 1990s. These insecticides have been subject to the same registration procedures as other groups of pesticides, thus meet the same environmental hazard standards as all crop protection products. However, during the last 10 years the debate regarding their possible detrimental impact on non-target organisms, particularly pollinators, has become increasingly contentious and widely debated. Against this background, legislators and politicians in some countries, have been faced with a need to make decisions on the future registration of some or all of this class of insecticides, based on published evidence that in some areas is incomplete or limited in extent. This has created much concern in agricultural communities that consider that the withdrawal of these insecticides is likely to have significant negative economic, socio-economic and environmental consequences. Methods The proposed systematic map aims to address the following primary question: What is the available evidence for the effects of neonicotinoids used in arable crop production on non-target organisms and concentrations of residues in relevant matrices? The primary question will be divided into two sub-questions to gather research literature for (1) the effect of NNIs on non-target organisms (2) the occurrence of concentrations of NNIs in matrices of relevance to non-target organisms (i.e. exposure routes). The systematic map will focus on NNIs used in arable crop production: imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam, acetamiprid, thiacloprid and dinotefuran. Separate inclusion criteria have been developed for each sub-question. Traditional academic and grey literature will be searched for in English language and a searchable databases containing extracted meta-data from relevant included studies will be developed.

Purpose The hospitality sector underpins the Dominican Republic's (DR) economy but may be a setting where foodborne disease outbreaks (FBDOs) can occur. The purpose of this research is to conduct a systematic mapping exercise on the available scientific literature related to FBDOs in hospitality in the DR and their link to reported food safety and hygienic practices. Design/methodology/approach A predefined search protocol applied the principles of PRISMA guidance. Publications (n = 2,793) from databases (e.g. Web of Science, PubMed) were identified and systematically selected for relevance. A full-text assessment based on the inclusion criteria led to the identification of a refined list of studies and academic publications (n = 22) included in this review. The descriptive analysis of the collated data is then presented graphically. Findings A low rate of reporting highlights a knowledge gap on FBDOs, the related food safety hazards and how they are mitigated by stakeholders and local health authorities in the DR. Improving government and other stakeholder capacity to report, investigate and understand FBDOs and the practices involved is essential. Research limitations/implications The research has implications for Government, businesses and public health officials and managers in the hospitality sector in the DR. A potential research limitation is that the search strategies could miss some relevant articles. Practical implications The findings provide a framing for improved risk analysis in implementing food safety management strategies for FBDOs. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first systematic mapping research assessing evidence of FBDOs affecting hospitality in the DR.

Background There are several standards that offer explicit guidance on good practice in systematic reviews (SRs) for the medical sciences; however, no similarly comprehensive set of recommendations has been published for SRs that focus on human health risks posed by exposure to environmental challenges, chemical or otherwise. Objectives To develop an expert, cross-sector consensus view on a key set of recommended practices for the planning and conduct of SRs in the environmental health sciences. Methods A draft set of recommendations was derived from two existing standards for SRs in biomedicine and developed in a consensus process, which engaged international participation from government, industry, non-government organisations, and academia. The consensus process consisted of a workshop, follow-up webinars, email discussion and bilateral phone calls. Results The Conduct of Systematic Reviews in Toxicology and Environmental Health Research (COSTER) recommendations cover 70 SR practices across eight performance domains. Detailed explanations for specific recommendations are made for those identified by the authors as either being novel to SR in general, specific to the environmental health SR context, or potentially controversial to environmental health SR stakeholders. Discussion COSTER provides a set of recommendations that should facilitate the production of credible, high-value SRs of environmental health evidence, and advance discussion of a number of controversial aspects of conduct of EH SRs. Key recommendations include the management of conflicts of interest, handling of grey literature, and protocol registration and publication. A process for advancing from COSTER's recommendations to developing a formal standard for EH SRs is also indicated.