Preliminary toxicological assessment of heated tobacco products: A review of the literature and proposed strategy

Heated tobacco products (HTP) have become increasingly common in many countries worldwide. The principle of heating tobacco, without combustion, to produce a nicotine-containing aerosol with remarkably reduced levels of other known toxins, compared to combusted tobacco cigarettes, is now well established. As these products are intended as alternatives to traditional combusted products, during the early stages of their development, it is important for manufacturers to ensure that the design of the product does not lead to any unintentionally increased or new risk for the consumer, compared to the traditional products that consumers seek to replace. There is limited guidance from tobacco product regulations concerning the requirements for performing such preliminary toxicological assessments. Here, we review the published literature on studies performed on HTPs in the pursuit of such data, outline a proposed approach that is consistent with regulatory requirements, and provide a logical approach to the preliminary toxicological assessment of HTPs.

The Political Economy of Australia's Waste Crisis: From Neoliberalism to the Circular Economy Agenda

The international trade of waste has come under public spotlight in recent years with China, the world's main waste sink for several decades, effectively banning its waste imports in 2018 and subsequently starting a waste crisis in Australia. This article compares the perspectives of orthodox economics, circular economy and political economy on waste economics and policy in Australia. Taking an approach combining both qualitative and quantitative analysis, this article finds that the political economy of Australia's waste crisis can be understood in terms of two phases: (1) an expansionary phase in Australia's waste industry from the 1990s onwards, driven by export-oriented growth and neoliberal policy which ultimately led to a waste crisis in 2018, and (2) an emerging recovery stage for the industry led by circular economy policy and more domestically oriented development. These findings contribute to ongoing discourse on the circular economy agenda, demonstrating that in the case of Australia's waste crisis, circular economy is more of a pragmatic strategy to stimulate economic recovery rather than some radical change towards environmental sustainability.

Dynamic modelling of Australian rooftop solar photovoltaic product stewardship transition

As rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption in Australia is exponentially growing in the past decade, there is a need to promote effective product stewardship for PV panels reaching their end-of-life (EoL). This paper presents the development of a System Dynamics (SD) model for managing EoL rooftop PV panels based on the circular economy concept. Four stages of the SD modelling process include problem scoping and variable identification, model conceptualisation, SD model development, and scenario analysis. Stakeholder engagement is central to this research as the system under study is underpinned by high uncertainties and limited data availability. Four socio-technical transition pathways examined in this study include market-driven growth, conservative development, shared responsibility, and disruptive change. The simulation results indicated an improvement of collection and recovery performance when a stringent product stewardship scheme is enabled and improvement of installers' participation in the collection program. This study argued that a system of shared responsibility will be capable of balancing techno-economic motivations of stakeholders across the supply chain to participate in the recovery scheme, while being less disruptive to PV adoption. Under this scenario, a gradual change in regulatory requirements (e.g. recovery target and material recovery rate requirements) is introduced to allow a period of industry and market development.

Explosions of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in storage or transportation are preventable accidents

Ammonium nitrate (AN) is a detonable substance which has led to numerous disasters throughout the 20th century and until the present day, with the latest disaster occurring on 17 April 2013. Needed safety lesson have not been learned, since typically each accident was viewed as a great surprise and investigations focused on finding some unique reason for the accident, rather than examining what is common among the accidents. A review is made of accidents which involved AN for fertilizer purposes, and excluding incidents involving ANFO or additional explosives apart from AN. It is found that, for explosions in storage or transportation, 100% of these disasters had a single causative factor-an uncontrollable fire. Thus, such disasters can be eliminated by eliminating the potential for uncontrolled fire. Two actions are required to achieve this: (1) adoption of fertilizer formulations which reduce the potential for uncontrolled fire and for detonation; and (2) adoption of building safety measures which provide assurance against uncontrolled fires. Technical means are available for achieving both these required measures. These measures have been known for a long time and the only reason that disasters continue to occur is that these safety measures are not implemented. The problem can be solved unilaterally by product manufacturers or by government authorities, but preferably both should take necessary steps.

Extended Producer Responsibility and Product Stewardship for Tobacco Product Waste

This paper reviews several environmental principles, including Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Product Stewardship (PS), the Polluter Pays Principle (PPP), and the Precautionary Principle, as they may apply to tobacco product waste (TPW). The review addresses specific criteria that apply in deciding whether a particular toxic product should adhere to these principles; presents three case studies of similar approaches to other toxic and/or environmentally harmful products; and describes 10 possible interventions or policy actions that may help prevent, reduce, and mitigate the effects of TPW. EPR promotes total lifecycle environmental improvements, placing economic, physical, and informational responsibilities onto the tobacco industry, while PS complements EPR, but with responsibility shared by all parties involved in the tobacco product lifecycle. Both principles focus on toxic source reduction, post-consumer take-back, and final disposal of consumer products. These principles when applied to TPW have the potential to substantially decrease the environmental and public health harms of cigarette butts and other TPW throughout the world. TPW is the most commonly littered item picked up during environmental, urban, and coastal cleanups globally.

Gasoline toxicology: overview of regulatory and product stewardship programs

Significant efforts have been made to characterize the toxicological properties of gasoline. There have been both mandatory and voluntary toxicology testing programs to generate hazard characterization data for gasoline, the refinery process streams used to blend gasoline, and individual chemical constituents found in gasoline. The Clean Air Act (CAA) (Clean Air Act, 2012: § 7401, et seq.) is the primary tool for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate gasoline and this supplement presents the results of the Section 211(b) Alternative Tier 2 studies required for CAA Fuel and Fuel Additive registration. Gasoline blending streams have also been evaluated by EPA under the voluntary High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Program through which the petroleum industry provide data on over 80 refinery streams used in gasoline. Product stewardship efforts by companies and associations such as the American Petroleum Institute (API), Conservation of Clean Air and Water Europe (CONCAWE), and the Petroleum Product Stewardship Council (PPSC) have contributed a significant amount of hazard characterization data on gasoline and related substances. The hazard of gasoline and anticipated exposure to gasoline vapor has been well characterized for risk assessment purposes.