Public Concern about the Sale of High-Caffeine Drinks to Children 12 Years or Younger: An Australian Regulatory Perspective

Background.Dietary exposure to high caffeine is a health risk for children. Governments are considering measures to restrict the sale of formulated caffeinated beverages (FCB) to children.Objectives.To investigate community concern about sales of high-caffeine drinks to children among Western Australian adults and describe Australian and New Zealand regulatory processes regarding FCB.Methods.Data from the 2009 and 2012 Department of Health’s Nutrition Monitoring Survey Series of 2,832 Western Australians aged 18–64 years was pooled with descriptive and ordinal logistic regression analysis performed. Current regulatory processes for FCB are reported.Results.Most (85%) participants were concerned about the sale of high-caffeine drinks to children; 77.4% were very concerned in 2012 compared to 66.5% in 2009,p< .008. Females and those living with children had higher concern (odds ratio (OR) 2.11; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.44–3.10; OR 2.16; 95% CI 1.51–3.09, resp.,p< .001). Concern increased with each year of age (OR 1.04; 95% CI 1.02, 1.05,p< .001).Conclusions.Community concern regarding sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children is high and increasing. Being female and living with children were associated with greater concern. These findings support the Australian and New Zealand regulatory controls of FCB, including labelling, promotion, and advertising to children.

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A regulatory perspective on safety in design practices in New Zealand

Safety Science ◽

10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105352 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 141 ◽

pp. 105352

Author(s):

Brian H.W. Guo ◽

Rory Weston ◽

Paul Jianphinitnan ◽

Wanjun Liu ◽

Eric Scheepbouwer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Design Practices ◽

Regulatory Perspective

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Characterization and Lifetime Dietary Risk Assessment of Eighteen Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids and Pyrrolizidine Alkaloid N-Oxides in New Zealand Honey

Toxins ◽

10.3390/toxins13120843 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 843

Author(s):

Andrew J. Pearson ◽

Jeane E. F. Nicolas ◽

Jane E. Lancaster ◽

C. Wymond Symes

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids ◽

Pyrrolizidine Alkaloid ◽

Food Additives ◽

Dietary Exposure ◽

World Health ◽

Exposure Model ◽

Average Lifetime ◽

Expert Committee ◽

Dietary Risk

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are a large group of botanical toxins of concern, as they are considered genotoxic carcinogens, with long-term dietary exposure presenting an elevated risk of liver cancer. PAs can contaminate honey through honeybees visiting the flowers of PA-containing plant species. A program of monitoring New Zealand honey has been undertaken over several years to build a comprehensive dataset on the concentration, regional and seasonal distribution, and botanical origin of 18 PAs and PA N-oxides. A bespoke probabilistic exposure model has then been used to assess the averaged lifetime dietary risk to honey consumers, with exposures at each percentile of the model characterized for risk using a margin of exposure from the Joint World Health Organization and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) Benchmark Dose. Survey findings identify the typical PA types for New Zealand honey as lycopsamine, echimidine, retrorsine and senecionine. Regional and seasonal variation is evident in the types and levels of total PAs, linked to the ranges and flowering times of certain plants. Over a lifetime basis, the average exposure an individual will receive through honey consumption is considered within tolerable levels, although there are uncertainties over high and brand-loyal consumers, and other dietary contributors. An average lifetime risk to the general population from PAs in honey is not expected. However, given the uncertainties in the assessment, risk management approaches to limit or reduce exposures through honey are still of value.

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Australian pirates: systematics and phylogeny of the Australasian pirate spiders (Araneae:Mimetidae), with a description of the Western Australian fauna

Invertebrate Systematics ◽

10.1071/is08015 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 231 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Danilo Harms ◽

Mark S. Harvey

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

New Zealand ◽

Morphological Character ◽

Systematic Position ◽

Taxonomic Changes ◽

Species Groups ◽

First Time ◽

Expanded Concept ◽

Western Australian ◽

The Web

Pirate spiders (Mimetidae) are well known for their specialised feeding ecology. They are vagrant araneophagic predators, enter the webs of their prey spiders and exhibit patterns of aggressive mimicry to overcome the web owner. The mimetid fauna of Australia and New Zealand currently consists of 26 species in the following three genera: Australomimetus Heimer, 1986 (18 species), Mimetus Hentz, 1832 (six species), and Ero C.L. Koch, 1836 (two species). The systematic position of the majority of Australasian mimetids was investigated through phylogenetic techniques utilising morphological character systems of 29 exemplar taxa and 87 characters, including the first examination of spinneret structure in species of Australomimetus. The results support an expanded concept for Australomimetus, which, apart from the introduced Ero aphana (Walckenaer, 1802), is found to contain the entire Australian and New Zealand mimetid fauna, also recorded from Asia. The following taxonomic changes are proposed: A. catulli (Heimer, 1989), comb. nov., A. hannemanni (Heimer, 1989), comb. nov., A. japonicus (Uyemura, 1938), comb. nov., A. mendicus (O. P. Cambridge, 1879), comb. nov. and A. sennio (Urquhart, 1891), comb. nov.; Ero luzoniensis Barrion & Litsinger, 1995 is synonymised with Ero aphana, and A. andreae Heimer, 1989 is synonymised with A. daviesianus Heimer, 1986; Mimetus tikaderi Gajbe, 1992 from India is excluded from Mimetidae, and referred to Liocranidae. The Western Australian mimetid fauna is described for the first time and comprises nine species of Australomimetus, including the following five new species: A. diabolicus, sp. nov., A. djuka, sp. nov., A. dunlopi, sp. nov., A. nasoi, sp. nov. and A. stephanieae, sp. nov. Several species-groups of Australomimetus are identified.

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Geographic distribution of mitochondrial cytochrome b DNA haplotypes in New Zealand fur seals (Arctocephalus forsteri)

Canadian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1139/z94-040 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 72 (2) ◽

pp. 293-299 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Gina M. Lento ◽

Robert H. Mattlin ◽

Geoffrey K. Chambers ◽

C. Scott Baker

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Cytochrome B ◽

Geographic Distribution ◽

Statistical Tests ◽

Mitochondrial Cytochrome ◽

Fur Seals ◽

Mitochondrial Cytochrome B ◽

Nucleotide Sequence Difference ◽

East And West ◽

Western Australian

Nucleotides spanning 361 base pairs of the 5′ portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene were sequenced from 16 New Zealand fur seals, Arctocephalus forsteri, representing seven rookeries in three different regions: the east and west coasts of New Zealand, and Western Australia. Five different mitochondrial haplotypes were observed in these novel sequence data for this species. The geographical distribution of the cytochrome b haplotypes was shown to be heterogeneous by three statistical tests. The major finding of this study is the difference between haplotypes found in fur seals from Western Australian rookeries and haplotypes found in fur seals from New Zealand rookeries. The nucleotide sequence difference found in pairwise comparisons among the surveyed individuals is in the range 0.3–0.8%. One individual showed an unexpectedly large sequence divergence (range 3.3–4.2%) from all other fur seals in this study. We compare alternative hypotheses that this individual is a descendant of an ancient maternal lineage which survived a population bottleneck, that New Zealand fur seals exhibit a rather large amount of genetic variability at this locus, or that this particular individual is a hybrid. Western Australian rookeries were extirpated as a result of sealing during the early 1800s. The geographic distribution of mitochondrial cytochrome b haplotypes suggests that the extirpated Australian rookeries were not recolonized by migrants from New Zealand. No genetic division between fur seal populations sampled from the east and west coasts of New Zealand is revealed using this region of the mitochondrial genome as a genetic marker, but we suggest that it should be possible to create a more discriminating test by examining a more variable DNA target such as the mitochondrial control region.

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Dietary exposure and trends of exposure to nutrient elements iodine, iron, selenium and sodium from the 2003–4 New Zealand Total Diet Survey

British Journal Of Nutrition ◽

10.1017/s0007114507812001 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 99 (3) ◽

pp. 614-625 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

Barbara M. Thomson ◽

Richard W. Vannoort ◽

Roger M. Haslemore

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Daily Intake ◽

Dietary Exposure ◽

Infant Food ◽

Exposure Level ◽

Nutrient Elements ◽

Young Males ◽

Upper Limits ◽

Food Concentrations ◽

Daily Intakes

The mean dietary exposure to the nutrient elements iodine, Fe, Se and Na by eight age–sex groups of the New Zealand population was estimated from foods purchased and prepared as for consumption. A total of 968 samples comprising 121 foods were collected and analysed. Mean daily exposures were calculated from mean concentration levels of the selected nutrients in each food combined with simulated diets for a 25+-year-old male and female, a 19–24-year-old male, a 11–14-year-old boy and girl, a 5–6-year-old child, a 1–3-year-old toddler and a 6–12-month-old infant. Food concentrations and dietary exposures are reported and compared with nutrient reference values (for example, recommended daily intakes, adequate intakes or upper limits). Dietary iodine exposures for all age–sex groups were well below recommended levels and have steadily decreased since 1982, raising concern especially for the physical and mental development of infants and young children. Fe exposures meet the recommended daily intake for the average male and 11–14 year olds but are only about half that recommended for adult females. Se exposure is about 20 % less than optimal for females. Na exposures, excluding discretionary salt, are above the acceptable exposure level for all age–sex groups, and exceed the upper intake limits for 25+-year-old males, 19–24-year-old young males, and 11–14-year-old boys and girls by up to 125 % for an average consumer.

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Symposium: Unemployment in New Zealand (Part One) Introduction: Unemployment and its consequences

New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations ◽

10.26686/nzjir.v7i2.3515 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Brian Easton

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Economic Performance ◽

Social Problems ◽

Social Consequences ◽

Public Concern ◽

The Social ◽

Post War

Research on unemployment in New Zealand is not as widespread as in most affluent economies, no doubt partly reflecting that for the post-war period up to the late 1960s unemployment, however measured, and the social problems arising from it were small. In the 1970s, unemployment began to increase sharply, reflecting difficulties in economic performance, and its social consequences became a matter of public concern.

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New Zealand TPP approval is likely despite opposition

Emerald Expert Briefings ◽

10.1108/oxan-db210004 ◽

2016 ◽

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Political Parties ◽

National Policy ◽

Free Trade Agreements ◽

Trade Agreement ◽

Trade Agreements ◽

The Political ◽

Public Concern ◽

Content Type ◽

Housing Boom

Significance New Zealand's main political parties are divided on TPP ratification, which marks the first such division on a trade agreement in 40 years. The main opposition Labour party has opposed the agreement on the basis of 'sovereignty' issues. The political split reflects a wider public concern than there was about past free trade agreements about the degree to which the inclusion of an investor-state dispute clause in the TPP could constrain the ability of the New Zealand government to formulate national policy. Impacts A housing boom in Auckland has fuelled construction, but the rebuild of earthquake-devastated Christchurch has peaked. Early ratification of the TPP by New Zealand may expose acceptable concessions should US rejection lead to renegotiation of the pact. New Zealand's dairy sector may benefit from a 2017 price rebound should EU oversupply retract in the second half of 2016.

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