Technical – organizational measures for classifying pyrotechnic articles

Pyrotechnic articles shall be classified by manufacturers according to their type of use, their purpose and their level of risk, including their noise level, and the notified bodies shall confirm the classification as part of the conformity assessment procedures. In accordance with the relevant national legislation, the national authority must take all appropriate measures to ensure that pyrotechnic articles do not endanger the health and safety of persons. If the national market surveillance authority has sufficient reasons to consider that a pyrotechnic article poses a risk to the health, safety of persons or other aspects of the protection of the public interest, it shall carry out an assessment of the pyrotechnic article concerned. INCD INSEMEX Petrosani is an accredited institution, to carry out such technical expertise according to the legislation in force harmonized with the European regulations, having also adequate modern facilities for fulfilling the requirements of the standards in the field. The paper also highlights the results of the modernization of the methodological and practical infrastructure as well as the technical facilities that underlie the substantiation of the new approach in terms of optimizing and increasing the quality of the process.

SMART VILLAGES AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

The “smart village” concept is relatively new among EU decision- and policy it is a result of many-it is a result of many years of debate, economic and territorial inequalities, social exclusion, diversification of certain areas, gradual reduction of agricultural activities and the interaction of cohesion, regional, and common agricultural policy. The concept of smart villages implies saving villages and their inhabitants, protecting cultural heritage and using local potentials to meet modern challenges. In its initial stages, it requires activities of all stakeholders, from individuals living in the rural area in question to decision-makers participating in identifying the strengths, threats, opportunities, and weaknesses of a certain rural area. Apart from the theoretical definition of smart villages, this paper aims to analyse European regulations of smart villages, and to define the challenges and smart village traps in rural development and ways in which they can be prevented.

Advances in identifying GM plants: toward the routine detection of ‘hidden’ and ‘new’ GMOs

In 2018 the Court of Justice of the European Union recalled that organisms with genomes modified by artifactual techniques should be considered GMOs under European regulations. GMOs derived from cultures of cells isolated in vitro or from new genomic techniques must therefore be traceable. This chapter reviews the various technical steps and characteristics of those techniques causing genomic and epigenomic scars and signatures. These intentional and unintentional traces, some of which are already used for varietal identification, and are being standardized, can be used to identify these GMOs and differentiate them from natural mutants. The chapter suggests a routine procedure for operators and control laboratories to achieve this without additional costs.

Monitoring of Pesticide Residues in Imported Datepalm Fruits in United Arab Emirates

The occurrence of pesticide residues in representative samples collected from imported dates palm fruits during 2020 to United Arab Emirates (UAE) was investigated to ensure compliance with the standard specifications and requirements by the regulatory and supervisory authorities, maintain the health and safety of consumers and improve food safety. An accurate, rapid, and reliable method for the simultaneous determination of pesticide multi-residues in 230 samples imported dates by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–ESI (+)-MS/MS) operating in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode and modified quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, safe (QuEChERS) method was used. The performance of the analytical method was validated in accordance with EU SANCO guidelines (SANTE/12682/2019) for monitoring pesticide multi-residues to check compliance with existing regulations, especially for European Community. Residues level of 343 compounds were determined in 230 samples. Results indicated that the percentage of samples with residues above the maximum residue levels (MRL) was 4.34% in dates samples, whereas samples with residues within MRL were 7.39% in dates samples. A total of 230 samples of 88.26% were free from detectable residues. Out of the 343 pesticides tested, 11 pesticides were found above the limit of detection, according to UAE, Codex, and European regulations. The main purpose of this work is to inform citizens and traders who have concerns about food safety on the capability of the MOCCAE on quality assurance regarding pesticide residue in imported food.

Evaluating Inclusive Transparency in Spanish Local Government

This article defines and analyzes a new concept: inclusive transparency. Specifically, it conducts a comparative study of transparency portals in twenty-five Spanish local councils, all of which occupy prime positions in Transparency International’s Index of Municipalities. The evaluation aims to establish their degree of compliance with Spanish and European regulations, ensuring website accessibility for people with disabilities. To this end, an evaluation model (composed of 4 criteria, 11 variables and 45 indicators) has been generated, taking inspiration from electronic accessibility guidelines, which have been applied using automatic techniques and transparency portal revision manuals. The results of the research allow verification of a positive correlation between the levels of active and inclusive transparency. In other words, whether in terms of active advertising benchmark municipalities design and manage their portals in ways which also guarantee, alongside all other citizens, the right of access for people with limited capacities (hearing, visual, mobile and cognitive) thereby enahancing the exercise of their political citizenship and their social integration.

Assessment of the Impact on Human Health of the Presence of Norovirus in Bivalve Molluscs: What Data Do We Miss?

In the latest One Health ECDC EFSA technical report, Norovirus in fish and fishery products have been listed as the agent/food pair causing the highest number of strong-evidence outbreaks in the EU in 2019. This review aims to identify data gaps that must be filled in order to increase knowledge on Norovirus in bivalve molluscs, perform a risk assessment and rank the key mitigation strategies for this biological hazard, which is relevant to public health. Virologic determinations are not included in any of the food safety and process hygiene microbiologic criteria reflected in the current European regulations. In addition, the Escherichia coli-based indices of acceptable faecal contamination for primary production, as well as the food safety criteria, do not appear sufficient to indicate the extent of Norovirus contamination. The qualitative risk assessment data collected in this review suggests that bivalve molluscs present a high risk to human health for Norovirus only when consumed raw or when insufficiently cooked. On the contrary, the risk can be considered negligible when they are cooked at a high temperature, while information is still scarce for non-thermal treatments.

Methods, Instruments in Evaluating the Satisfaction Index of Passengers in Urban Public Transport

Understanding the factors that lie beneath travelers’ satisfaction and how they relate with service performance and different improvements is a key issue for operators and public authorities when aiming to maintain existing users and to attract potential users from the car's users. The purpose of the research is to investigate the perceived quality of public transportation in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, a city with over two million inhabitants and additional other two millions of transit citizens. This approach aims to identify the aspects that mostly influence the perception of overall quality of service and to investigate the main methods/instruments for evaluating the passenger satisfaction index. Moreover, the research aims to assess the public transportation users that are ready and available to shift their travelling habits from a fixed and periodic timetable service to the "mobility-as-a-service" approach. Research methodology combines qualitative study based on focus group with quantitative study based on surveys. The representative sample is selected from the Bucharest public transportation’s users. The results of the research could be used by the both public transportation operators and public authorities that have to comply to the national and european regulations in public transportation quality assurance.

Workers with Cardiac AIMD Exposed to EMF: Methods and Case Studies for Risk Analysis in the Framework of the European Regulations

Workers with cardiac active implantable medical devices (AIMD), such as a pacemaker (PM) or an implantable defibrillator (ICD), are considered by the occupational health and safety regulation framework as a particularly sensitive risk group that must be protected against the dangers caused by the interference of electromagnetic field (EMF). In this paper, we first describe the general methodology that shall be followed for the risk assessment of employees with a cardiac AIMD exposed to EMF, according to the EU regulation, and in particular to the EN 50527-2-1:2016 and 50527-2-2:2018 standards. Then, three case studies related to specific EMF sources are presented, to better describe how the initial analysis of the risk assessment can be performed in practice, and to understand if a further specific risk assessment analysis is required or not.

Possible Discrimination in the Workspace Following Acceptance or Rejection of COVID-19 Vaccination – Opinions of Hungarian Employees

Hungary is proud of Katalin Karikó, who was born in Hungary and educated at the University of Szeged, including a doctorate level. Later she moved to the United States where gained many practical experiences at several renowned universities as a professor. She has played a key role in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. Their opinions are influenced by their political views, religious backgrounds, life experiences, and the country’s turbulent historical past; citizens fear various discriminatory measures. In the first part of our research, the importance of vaccinations and the Hungarian and European regulations are described. In the second section, we demonstrate that sometimes discrimination can be legal. The third part discusses the quantitative research that was conducted about the expected discrimination that can be considered legitimate or illegal. Our opinions are related to foreign travel and the activity of human resource management

Litigation and Lobbying in Support of the Marque: The Scotch Whisky Association, c. 1945–c. 1990

We examine the Scotch Whisky Association’s (SWA) role in protecting “Scotch whisky” between c. 1945 and c. 1990. Using new archival evidence, we demonstrate that the SWA intensively lobbied the UK government to achieve coordination between domestic and European regulations governing Scotch whisky and whisky. The SWA’s nonmarket activities were consonant with some trade associations but in other respects they were atypical. The SWA extended its activities to supranational bodies and engaged in extensive domestic and foreign litigation. The key message from this article is that the SWA built the world-renowned appellation “Scotch whisky” even though this marque was not registered as an appellation until the late twentieth century.