Journal articles on the topic 'Hazardous substances Victoria Health aspects'

Abstract When government actors seek to restrict the sale of hazardous substances, industry actors tend to intervene, deploying coordinated strategies aimed at delaying, preventing or weakening attempts to regulate their products. In many cases, this has involved deliberate efforts to obfuscate science, mislead the public and manipulate political actors in order to ensure desired policy outcomes. Strategies of regulatory obstructionism have resulted in the prolonged dispersal of harmful chemical substances with tangible impacts on public health. This article proposes that this behavior should be interpreted as a form of violence. Examining the regulatory histories of lead, benzene, asbestos and PCBs, the article demonstrates how regulatory obstructionism and violence have become intractable characteristics of the chemical industry.

Abstract This article investigates how hazardous substances and toxicity information can be integrated into the Construction Material Pyramid [Pyramid] in order to showcase the potential health impacts of material choices in architecture. The current Pyramid indicates different materials’ upfront environmental impacts in the initial life phase of a building product, specifically in the Life Cycle Assessment phases A1-A3. The success of the Pyramid hinges on its communicative strength of conveying complex data in a simple format, easily understood by architects and planners. Can other aspects of material impacts be conveyed with a similar graphic ease to provide a more complete material assessment? Material health and toxicity is notoriously difficult to assess, as data is insufficient and hard to acquire due to proprietary concerns from manufacturers and lack of proper legislation to ensure transparency. The Pyramid has not yet dealt with health and toxicity as a parameter and there exists no predefined method as to how these problems can be included in a comparative model such as the Pyramid. This article’s first line of inquiry is to discuss a suitable methodology to disclose the potential health impacts of construction materials and their associated, often invisible, chemical products applied for mounting, finishing, mold or fire resistance. The Swedish Chemicals Agency’s and the European Chemicals Agency’s evaluation of substances will inform the framework for a comparative system. Secondly, the article will address how the model can graphically convey the potential health and environmental impacts from the production and construction phases of prime and associated materials. This augmentation of the Pyramid would enable architects and designers to more easily obtain information regarding potential health impacts resulting from hazardous chemical content and could provide incentives for selecting less-toxic alternatives. By drawing on H-phases and SundaHus’s product assessment, a ‘stop-sign method’ is used to indicate hazard levels of construction materials.

Background: Green chemistry is the application of methodologies and techniques to reduce the use of hazardous substances, minimize waste generation and apply benign and cheap applications. Methods: In this article, the following issues were considered: greener solvents and reagents, miniaturization of analytical instrumentation, reagent-free methodologies, greening with automation, greener sample preparation methods, and greener detection systems. Moreover, the tables along with the investigated topics including environmental analysis were included. The future aspects and the challenges in green analytical chemistry were also discussed. Results: The prevention of waste generation, atomic economy, use of less hazardous materials for chemical synthesis and design, use of safer solvents, auxiliaries and renewable raw materials, reduction of unnecessary derivatization, design degradation products, prevention of accidents and development of real-time analytical methods are important for the development of greener methodologies. Conclusion: Efforts should also be given for the evaluation of novel solid phases, new solvents, and sustainable reagents to reduce the risks associated with the environment. Moreover, greener methodologies enable energy efficient, safe and faster that reduce the use of reagents, solvents and preservatives which are hazardous to both environment and human health.

For the past six years the conservation and collection management departments at Museums Victoria have been conducting a major survey to determine the type and extent of hazardous substances in the collections to better inform safe handling and storage practices. This paper focuses on mercury compounds in the collection, including mercury chloride applied as a pesticide, mercury sulfide pigments, liquid mercury used in scientific equipment, and mineral specimens such as native mercury and cinnabar. All these compounds can release volatile mercury vapour into storage furniture and have the potential to contaminate both the cabinet and other specimens stored nearby. Although previous testing had confirmed that the air in storage rooms and workspaces contained no detectable levels of mercury vapour, recent publications by Hawks et al. 2004, Havermans et al. 2015 and Marcotte et al. 2017 showing high levels of mercury vapour inside storage containers in herbaria raised concern that there could be higher than acceptable levels of mercury vapour building up inside storage cabinets at Museums Victoria. This prompted analysis of the headspace in cabinets using a Jerome J405 portable mercury vapour meter. Testing was informed by the results of previous hazards surveys using X-ray fluorescence spectrography to target cabinets where mercury vapour was likely to be present. Air from cabinets was sampled across the indigenous cultures, history, technology and natural sciences collections. Results showed levels of mercury vapour could be considerably above 25 μg/m3 the Australian time-weighted average (TWA) exposure standard for an 8 hour workday in cabinets of bird skins and indigenous artefacts treated with mercuric chloride pesticides. Results above 150 μg/m3 the temporary emergency exposure level (TEEL) were measured in the mineralogy collection. Mitigation strategies are being implemented to reduce the risks to staff health and contamination of other collection materials, including enclosing mercury-containing species of minerals in gas barrier film, venting high risk cabinets to dissipate vapour before accessing specimens, and engineering controls during the handling of specimens.

To preserve the ecological balance and health of the population of the African continent, it is necessary to maintain the cleanliness of the surrounding rivers, lakes and ocean coasts. Oil production, transportation of oil and petroleum products inevitably lead to pollution of sea waters due to accidents on tankers, equipment breakdowns, and fires. Oceanic coasts are of great importance for the development of the tourism industry, which plays a significant role in the national economies of African countries. However, many coastal areas are contaminated with industrial and household waste, oil refining waste and sewage. As a result of the growth of cities, the increase in the number of urban residents and the development of industry, a huge number of substances that do not decompose naturally is discharged into water sources. Currently, domestic sewage in most coastal cities does not meet modern sanitary requirements, since the repair of old and the laying of new sewage treatment plants require large financial investments. In the interests of nature and human health, a number of international instruments has been adopted prohibiting the import of hazardous and radioactive waste, as well as the dumping or incineration of hazardous waste in the oceans and inland waters on the African continent. In some African countries, periodic clean-up activities are carried out on ocean and river coasts, but they are ad hoc and do not have a decisive impact on the state of contaminated areas. Experts of international environmental organizations have proposed a set of measures for the conservation and rational use of water resources: construction of wastewater treatment plants; mandatory environmental assessment of all major water management projects; development of measures to eliminate possible damage; control of new industrial installations and industrial waste disposal; design and operation of landfills based on reliable hydrogeological information and environmental expertise. However, these regulations are often violated, and solving the problem of coastal water pollution remains a distant prospect.

Introduction: This chapter addresses chemical aspects of occupational health and marine oil-spill response and is restricted to exposures to crude oil in its various forms. Thus in-situ burning of oil is included, but ancillary chemicals such as surfactants or bioremediation agents are not. The content of this chapter is largely based on the literature published after 1985, the date of a comprehensive review conducted by Politzer et al. [1985] for the American Petroleum Institute, and on a review carried out for the Marine Spill Response Corporation early in 1993 [Holliday and Park, 1993].Concern about health and safety is a normal part of every oil spill. In general, safety is easier to understand and address than are concerns about exposure to crude oil and other chemicals which might be used in the response. At one level, human exposure can be addressed through the enforcement of very conservative requirements for the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). In the real world, however, conditions at a spill site make the use of such equipment inconvenient or even hazardous, and so the goal becomes to balance the risk from exposure with the appropriate level of PPE.While oil-spill cleanup is a comparatively new aspect of occupational-health practice, and dates from the formalization of response measures by companies and national and international agencies (something that occurred over the last 30 years), exposure to crude oil itself is a "mature" occupational-health matter. Workers have been exposed, both by inhalation and dermally, to the effects of crude oil for the past century. The exposure of response workers during the early phases of the oil-spill response can be likened to that experienced by oil-well-drilling crews and, to a lesser extent, by oil-well-maintenance personnel or fighters of oil-well fires. In contrast, exposures in the later stages of the cleanup are less clearly related to occupations within the oil industry. The crude oil will have been altered by weathering, and exposure to cleanup chemicals (e.g., dispersants, bioremediation agents) will become relatively more prominent. Such substances are beyond the scope of this chapter, and in any event, few data are available on the compositions or mammalian toxicity of dispersants. Although there are frequent references to toxicity in connection with dispersants, these invariably seem to refer to ecotoxicity. Human hazard does not appear to be an issue. For example, in a recently published paper entitled, "Effectiveness and safety of biosurfactants as agents of oil spill response" [Lepo et al., 1997], "safety" refers to possible toxicity to crustaceans and fish.

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) presents the dual characteristic of containing both hazardous substances and valuable recoverable materials. Mainly found in WEEE plastics, brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are a component of particular interest. Several actions have been taken worldwide to regulate their use and disposal, however, in countries where no regulation is in place, the recovery of highly valuable materials has promoted the development of informal treatment facilities, with serious consequences for the environment and the health of the workers and communities involved. Hence, in this review we examine a wide spectrum of aspects related to WEEE plastic management. A search of legislation and the literature was made to determine the current legal framework by region/country. Additionally, we focused on identifying the most relevant methods of existing industrial processes for determining BFRs and their challenges. BFR occurrence and substitution by novel BFRs (NBFRs) was reviewed. An emphasis was given to review the health and environmental impacts associated with BFR/NBFR presence in waste, consumer products, and WEEE recycling facilities. Knowledge and research gaps of this topic were highlighted. Finally, the discussion on current trends and proposals to attend to this relevant issue were outlined.

Chemical safety is a component of general and professional competencies of future doctors, namely: general culture (handling of chemical substances, household chemicals); promotion of a healthy lifestyle; prevention of diseases of the population; protection and preservation of public health; providing emergency medical care in emergencies (related to chemical accidents). The article substantiates the method of improving the professional training of future doctors by integrating modern aspects of chemical safety into biochemical training. The potential of the discipline "Biological and Bioorganic Chemistry" as a tool for the formation of competence in chemical safety of future physicians, due to a combination of theoretical training (training material on the mechanisms of inhibition of enzymatic reactions by toxicants; inhibitors and disintegrants of oxidative phosphorylation; molecular mechanisms of action of toxicants; formation and disposal of endogenous toxins; biotransformation of xenobiotics) and laboratory workshops (handling of chemical reagents; modern approaches to hazard labeling and labeling of chemicals; toxicants’ action modeling) is substantiated. The method of studying the educational material of the discipline "Biological and Bioorganic Chemistry" in the context of modern ideas on chemical safety is described. It provides a comprehensive application of modern teaching methods (design, solving situational problems, laboratory experiments, simulating the action of hazardous chemicals, testing) and teaching aids (glossary of terms on biochemical aspects of chemical safety; video lectures and methodical recommendations for independent work of students). The stages of the study method realization of the "Biological and bioorganic chemistry" discipline’s educational material in the context of modern ideas on chemical safety are described. These are the substances’ handling culture formation; formation of biochemical aspects of chemical safety; integration of modern ideas in the field of chemical safety and biochemical components

The European Union’s 7th Environmental Action Programme (EAP) aims to assess and minimize environmental health risks from the use of hazardous chemicals by 2020. From this angle, policy questions like whether an implemented policy to reduce chemical exposure has had an effect over time, whether the health of people in specific regions or subpopulations is at risk, or whether the body burden of chemical substances (the internal exposure) varies with, for example, time, country, sex, age, or socio-economic status, need to be answered. Indicators can help to synthesize complex scientific information into a few key descriptors with the purpose of providing an answer to a non-expert audience. Human biomonitoring (HBM) indicators at the European Union (EU) level are unfortunately lacking. Within the Horizon2020 European Human Biomonitoring project HBM4EU, an approach to develop European HBM indicators was worked out. To learn from and ensure interoperability with other European indicators, 15 experts from the HBM4EU project (German Umweltbundesamt (UBA), Flemish research institute VITO, University of Antwerp, European Environment Agency (EEA)), and the World Health Organization (WHO), European Core Health Indicator initiative (ECHI), Eurostat, Swiss ETH Zurich and the Czech environmental institute CENIA, and contributed to a workshop, held in June 2017 at the EEA in Copenhagen. First, selection criteria were defined to evaluate when and if results of internal chemical exposure measured by HBM, need to be translated into a European HBM-based indicator. Two main aspects are the HBM indicator’s relevance for policy, society, health, and the quality of the biomarker data (availability, comparability, ease of interpretation). Secondly, an approach for the calculation of the indicators was designed. Two types of indicators were proposed: ‘sum indicators of internal exposure’ derived directly from HBM biomarker concentrations and ‘indicators for health risk’, comparing HBM concentrations to HBM health-based guidance values (HBM HBGVs). In the latter case, both the percentage of the studied population exceeding the HBM HBGVs (PE) and the extent of exceedance (EE), calculated as the population’s exposure level divided by the HBM HBGV, can be calculated. These indicators were applied to two examples of hazardous chemicals: bisphenol A (BPA) and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), which both have high policy and societal relevance and for which high quality published data were available (DEMOCOPHES, Swedish monitoring campaign). European HBM indicators help to summarize internal exposure to chemical substances among the European population and communicate to what degree environmental policies are successful in keeping internal exposures sufficiently low. The main aim of HBM indicators is to allow follow-up of chemical safety in Europe.

Assessment of carcinogenic hazards of substances involves evalua tion and classification of qualitative and quantitative data, includ ing the attendant uncertainty,. Recently proposed EPA guidelines represent a significant step towards a uniform carcinogenic risk assessment procedure and its appropriate use. The Methodology for Assessing Carcinogenic Hazards of Chemicals proposed here shares common characteristics with the EPA guidelines but it also focuses on other aspects of carcinogen assessment, not addressed by the guidelines, such as: folding together quantitative and quali tative data into a combined hazard index; classification of limited, incomplete or flawed qualitative data; utilization of quantitative risk estimates based on weak qualitative evidence. The elements are used to assess carcinogenic hazards of chemicals, qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative assessment consists of stratification into one of five categories of weight-of evidence, whereas quantitative assessment consists of stratification into one of four potency categories on the basis of carcinogenic unit risk estimate. Carcinogenic hazard index, codified in letters A to E, is derived from the quantitative and qualitative elements of assess ment in a two-dimensional matrix. The matrix is designed so that weaker evidence for carcinogenicity requires a correspondingly higher unit risk value for a given score. Assessment of 100 chemicals using our methodology shows a good distribution of scores from A to E. Group B, which can be described as moderately hazardous, is most frequently represented. The methodology represents a mixture of two possible approaches to assessing hazards of carcinogens: one which gives the highest rank to those likely to produce the greatest risk, the other which ranks highest those most likely to produce cancer in humans. By using this com bined approach, it is ensured that a chemical hazardous on either count is not missed. The methodology also makes maximum use of all available data without over-interpreting some highly uncertain procedures such as quantitative risk estimation or extrapolation of animal response to humans.

Male reproductive functions are an important area affecting men´s overall health and well-being. However, during the last years, there has been observed increasing incidence of male reproductive issues. The radical growth has been recorded parallelly with a massive expanse of industrialization and agricultural chemigation. Many groups of experts have begun to identify several potential factors and substances that may have adverse effects on men´s reproductive health. Since then, xenobiotics have become a major concern of many scientific studies. There is evidence that most of them have multigenerational and transgenerational effects on reproductive health, which is a serious problem for our population. Bisphenol A could be considered as one of the most studied endocrine disruptors. Until now, several negative effects of bisphenol A were associated with reduced weight testes, histological alterations, impairment spermatogenesis, and steroidogenesis as well as with testes or prostate cancer. Due to convincing evidence, bisphenol A has been started to replace by its analogues such as bisphenol B, S, F, in order to eliminate and suppress the risk of exposure to bisphenol A. However, it seems that a lack of toxicological analyses allows using of these hazardous substances in daily life. Their harmful effect was confirmed by the animal in vitro and in vivo models, while the epidemiological studies monitoring the impact of bisphenol analogues on men's reproductive health are markedly limited. This review provides information about the effects of bisphenol on reproductive health in men. At the same time, it is focused on physiological aspects of sperm viability, steroid hormone secretion, sperm motility, or testes histology in relation to bisphenols exposure.

Implementing Industry 4.0 and interconnected robotization in industrial enterprises drifts towards occupational changes. Nowadays, the task is to create cooperation and collaboration between a robot and a human in a common robotized workplace so that it is safe and effective. The type of robot, the robotic device that works in collaboration with a human operator, is called a cobot. In the case of a closer interaction of the robot or cobot with humans, it is necessary to consider where it is possible to replace human work entirely or where it is possible to merely supplement it. The most socially acceptable option is the implementation of robots only for the performance of supplementary tasks, since the traditional work positions of people in manufacturing processes would remain largely preserved. On the other hand, workplace robotization is particularly suitable for work environments with hazardous chemical substances that are carcinogenic and toxic to humans. Similarly, robotization helps to improve workplace ergonomics and also to avoid, for humans, very laborious and often repetitive work. The SWOT analysis (analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) was used as a relevant tool to assess various aspects of the impact of increasing robotization on working positions in industrial enterprises. SWOT analysis is an indicative assessment of the suitability of implementation of robots in a given workplace, which helps to create an optimal solution and indicate new areas of needed analysis and research directions.

Abstract During the last decades, thermally modified wood has become an object of interest among the wood scientists as an environmentally friendly material, because nowadays environmental aspects of materials have become more and more significant. Leaching is one of the processes that occurs in outdoor use. The aim of this study was to evaluate concentration of potentially hazardous substances in leachates of thermally modified pine wood. Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) wood was thermally modified using Wood Treatment Technology (WTT) company device at 170 °C for 1 hour (TMP170/1) and at 160 °C for 3 hours (TMP160/3) and the mass loss was calculated. Material preparation and leaching procedure was made according to standard LVS EN 84:2000. In obtained leachates, the content of sugars, acetic acid, furfural and tannic acid were determined. Results showed that the total wood mass loss was 7.1 ± 1.4% (n=20) for TMP170/1 and 4.0 ± 1.6% (n=20) for TMP160/3. The initial leaching velocity differs between both modes and is higher for TMP160/3. The velocity decreases exponentially with immersion time and reaches plateau after 7th (5 days) immersion, but leaching still continues after the 9th immersion (14 days). The main components in leachates were tannic acid and pentoses. Among all studied compounds furfural is the hardest leachable one. Thermally modified wood treated at TMP170/1 is more environmentally friendly due to less water leachable substances. It is worth looking forward by investigating volatile organic compounds emissions in the air as it also could give high impact on human health.

During the last several years there has been increasing public concern about chemicals in everyday products. Scientific studies are increasingly revealing the build-up of some substances in ecosystems and in our bodies and new findings are linking exposures to hazardous chemicals to a range of adverse human health effects. Despite these trends, there has been little federal initiative in the United States on reforming chemicals management policies for well over two decades, even though a variety of analyses have identified significant gaps in the regulatory structure. As has historically been the case, states are beginning to fill the holes in federal leadership. This article explores this emerging state leadership and establishes a vision for and elements of policies to reduce hazardous chemicals in the products we buy and the places we go. It examines international efforts to reform chemicals management policies, such as the European REACH legislation and corporate leadership in advancing safer products. Finally, it outlines specific challenges states face in developing integrated, comprehensive chemicals management policies. We conclude that while there are plenty of challenges to implementation of chemicals policy reforms, it is a propitious time for states to become leaders in policy innovation that can help achieve safer production systems and products for future generations. This article is part of a Lowell Center for Sustainable Production report entitled “Options for State Chemicals Policy Reform” that provides in-depth analysis of the pros and cons of policy options to address a range of aspects of state-level chemicals policy reform. The article has been edited slightly for use in New Solutions. The report has been widely distributed to policy-makers, advocates, and others across the United States.

The recent environmental/health and safety regulations placed restrictions of use of hazardous substances on critical manufacturing sectors and consumers’ products. Brass alloys specifically face a challenging issue concerning the elimination of lead (Pb) which has been a critical element affecting both the machinability and overall quality and efficiency of their manufacturing process. The adaptation of novel materials and processing routes in the green economy constitutes a crucial decision for competitive business and industry growth as a worldwide perspective with substantial industrial and social impact. This paper aims to review the emergent innovative and sustainable material solutions in the manufacturing industry, in line with environmental regulations, by highlighting smart alloy design practices and promoting new and innovative approaches for material selection and manufacturing process optimisation. In this review we analyse the processing, structure and machinability aspects of leaded brasses and underline the major guidelines and research methodologies required to overcome this technical challenge and further improve the mechanical properties and machinability of lead-free brass alloys. Various alloying and processing strategies were reviewed together with the most important failure types, as they were extracted from the existing industrial and technological experience, covering more than 20 years of research in this field.

Purpose: The environment is increasingly threatened by human activities. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of the different activities carried out at Madingring Medical Center on the various environmental components. Methodology: To do this, the identification, characterization, and evaluation of the impacts were carried out during several field works using the Léopold and Fecteau matrices. The analysis of the waste management system was done using the Ishikawa 5M diagram. Findings: During the study, the real and potential impacts were identified on the various environments. The incineration of medical waste is classified as hazardous and the poor management of toilets emits polluting and toxic substances into the air, as well as unpleasant odors that modify air quality. The presence of stagnant water from the activities of the medical center due to the lack of good drainage degrades soil quality. Added to this, there is a development of algae and moss on the site. Concerning waste management, it appears that the Center does not have an environmental permit and a waste management plan, the sorting carried out is approximate, hazardous waste is incinerated illegally and others are dumped in landfills, contributing to environmental pollution. For each impact identified, corrective measures have been proposed and may make it possible to mitigate or eliminate the negative effects and improve the positive aspects, by implementing the environmental specifications. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: At the end of this study, some recommendations were made. These include training of medical staff in best practices and techniques for medical waste management, monitoring of the implementation of regulations on hospital waste management in Cameroon, information and sensitization of users on the social and environmental impacts of environmental degradation, as well as the best practices and behaviors to adopt within health facilities, the use of bins for the collection and sorting of waste, the creation of a pre-collection unit of waste within the health centers of Cameroon in general and those of Madingring in particular.

Questions have been raised apropos the emerging problem of microbial resistance, which may pose a great hazard to the human health. Among biosafe compounds are essential oils which captured consumer draw due to their multifunctional properties compared to chemical medication drugs. Here, we examined the chemical profile and the mechanism(s) of action of the Thymus vulgaris essential oil (TVEO) against a Gram-negative bacterium Salmonella enterica Typhimurium ATTCC 10028 (S. enterica Typhimurium ATTCC 10028) and two Gram-positive bacteria Staphyloccocus aureus ATCC 6538 (S. aureus ATCC 6538) and Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 19117 (L. monocytogenes ATCC 19117). Findings showed that TVEO was principally composed of thymol, o-cymene, and γ-terpinene with 47.44, 16.55, and 7.80%, respectively. Molecular docking simulations stipulated that thymol and β-sesquiphellandrene (a minor compound at 1.37%) could target multiple bacterial pathways including topoisomerase II and DNA and RNA polymerases of the three tested bacteria. This result pointed plausible impairments of the pathogenic bacteria cell replication and transcription processes. Through computational approach, the VEGA quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) model, we revealed that among twenty-six TVEO compounds, sixteen had no toxic effects and could be safe for human consumption as compared to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs (ciprofloxacin and rifamycin SV). Assessed by the SwissADME server, the pharmacokinetic profile of all identified TVEO compounds define their absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) properties and were assessed. In order to predict their biological activity spectrum based on their chemical structure, all TVEO compounds were subjected to PASS (Prediction of Activity Spectra for Substances) online tool. Results indicated that the tested compounds could have multiple biological activities and various enzymatic targets. Findings of our study support that identified compounds of TVEO can be a safe and effective alternative to synthetic drugs and can easily combats hazardous multidrug-resistant bacteria.

Mining operation brings great economic benefits to human society and seriously threatens the health of the ecological environment. It is urgent to restore the ecosystem and the treatment of the ecological environment in the mining area. Most academic articles only focus on researching a specific mine area, and the solutions proposed are single and not universal, which is difficult to use for reference by other mine restoration work. Therefore, based on a broader perspective, this paper comprehensively and systematically summarizes the public ecological environment problems and treatment methods of different mining operations. The main work is as follows: (1) through the comparative analysis of many mining academic articles, the main environmental hazards are summarized. This paper mainly introduces the threat of mining to the human living environment from the aspects of water source, soil, and biology. (2) Referring to different mining area restoration practices and mining waste treatment cases, the author combined with the main hazardous substances produced by mining and summarized the effective treatment methods and intervention means. This paper summarizes the methods to reduce Mining Hazards in detail from the perspectives of physics, chemistry, biology, and government. These summary contents have extremely important guiding significance for the restoration of the ecological environment of the mining area and the reuse of waste mining resources to maintain the orderly circulation of the ecological environment and realize the sustainable development of the mining area.

Post-extraction birch bark residues as a potential binder in particleboards. Nowadays, in the wood-based composites industry, aspects such as ecology and joining the current circular economy play a very important role. However, user safety is also very important. Formaldehyde is one of the hazardous substances which, if emitted too high, can harm human health. Unfortunately, binders containing formaldehyde still reign supreme in the wood-based panels' industry. Therefore, this paper concerns the possibility of using post-extraction residues obtained during the extraction of suberinic acid, as a formaldehyde-free and ecological binder in the production of particleboards. The main component, suberinic acid, is a colorless, crystalline solid used in the synthesis of drugs and the production of plastics. The aim of the research was to answer the question: since suberinic acid itself is a good binder in the production of particle boards, as described in other publications, it is worth checking whether the post-extraction residues also have similarly good properties of joining particles in particle boards, depending on the size of the wood particles? In addition, the use of post-extraction residues of bark, and thus the elimination of synthetic adhesives in the wood-based composites production process, allows the reuse of wood raw material, which fits perfectly with the idea of upcycling. The tests showed that using post-extraction residues of birch bark, using 10% and 20% resination, the requirements of the EN 312: 2010 standard were met only in the case of the modulus of elasticity for boards made of the largest wood particles used in the tests. The resination and the size of wood particles contributed to the improvement of the properties of the tested boards.

The introduction of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data applications have garnered a massive amount of digital data. Processing and analysing these data demand vast computing resources, proportionately. The major downside of producing and using computing resources in such volumes is the deterioration of the Earth's environment. The production process of the electronic devices involves hazardous and toxic substances which not only harm human and other living being’s health but also contaminate the water and soil. The production and operations of these computers in largescale also results in massive energy consumption and greenhouse gas generation. Moreover, the low use cycle of these devices produces a huge amount of not-easy-to-decompose e-waste. In this outlook, instead of buying new devices, it is advisable to use the existing resources to their fullest, which will minimize the environmental penalties of production and e-waste. This paper advocates for using smartphones and smartphone crowd computing (SCC) to ease off the use of PCs/laptops and centralized high-performance computers (HPCs) such as data centres and supercomputers. The paper aims to establish SCC as the most feasible computing system solution for sustainable computing. Detailed comparisons, in terms of environmental effects (e.g., energy consumption, greenhouse gas generation, etc.), between SCC and supercomputers and other green computing initiatives such as Grid and Cloud Computing, are presented. The key enablers of SCC are identified and discussed. One of them is today's computationally powerful smartphones. A comprehensive statistical survey of the various commercial CPUs, GPUs, SoCs for smartphones is presented confirming the capability of the SCC as an alternative to HPC. The challenges involved in realizing SCC are also considered. One of the major challenges is handling the issue of limited battery in smartphones. The reasons for battery drain are recognized with probable measures. An exhaustive survey is presented on the present and optimistic future of the continuous improvement and research on different aspects of smartphone battery and other alternative power sources which will allow users to use their smartphones for SCC without worrying about the battery running out.

<p><em>The current industrial development has entered the industrial era 4.0 marked by progress from various aspects, for example the development of microcontroller-based controller technology to be applied to smarthomes. One of them is controlling and monitoring dangerous air pollution and if it is inhaled directly by humans in large enough quantities it will cause health problems in respiratory function. There are various kinds of air pollution, such as CO and CO2 which are found in burning cigarettes or other burning which is carried out every day in households. In addition to hazardous substances, to support a complete smarthome-based research, it is also necessary to add a sensor to detect fires and gas leaks in households. This study aims to design and manufacture a room pollution detector using the MQ-2, MQ-6 and Flame Sensor sensors to detect air pollution caused by CO and CO2 and detect LPG gas leaks and detect fires with notifications via led matrix and based alarms. arduino . The results of this study indicate that to design and manufacture pollution detectors using a smoke sensor that uses Arduino Uno as a microcontroller that controls the work of the system connected to the MQ-2 sensor used to detect smoke, the MQ-6 sensor to detect LPG gas, and to detect fire use Flame. Sensor (Fire Sensor) DFR0076. From the results obtained by the MQ2 smoke sensor, the resistance value of the sensor will decrease when smoke is given, otherwise the sensor resistance value will increase when smoke is not given. The sensor resistance ranges from 150 Ω – 300 Ω when smoked and 1.5 KΩ to 1.7 KΩ when not smoked. gas sensor resistance increases when given gas and decreases when it does not detect gas. The sensor resistance when reading the presence of gas in the air is between 100 Ω - 400 Ω, and when it does not detect gas, it is 0 Ω - 12 Ω. On the Flame sensor, the sensor voltage value changes when it detects fire. The voltage value increases if it detects fire and vice versa the sensor voltage decreases when it does not detect fire. The sensor voltage value when detecting fire is between 1.2 Volts – 5 Volts, while when it does not detect fire, it is between 0 Volts – 0.9 Volts.</em></p>

Problem. In modern conditions as health care workers are fighting the coronavirus infection, the state of their occupational safety and hygiene needs to be studied. The article is devoted to this problem.Aim. The work aims to conduct a comprehensive assessment of occupational safety and hygiene of health care workers and develop recommendations for its improvement in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.Research methods. During performing the research used complex methods of scientific knowledge: the philosophi-cal (dialectical), general (methods of complex, formal-logical and systematic analysis and synthesis) and comparative-law.The object of the study is the safety and hygiene of health care workers.The scientific novelty lies in a comprehensive study of theoretical and practical aspects of occupational safety and hygiene of medical workers to reduce occupational injuries and occupational diseases, as well as to lower the degree of occupational risks.Results. The article considers the state of occupational safety and health of health care workers, who in the performance of their professional duties face a whole range of dangerous and harmful factors that can lead to the development of occupational diseases. Coronavirus infection paid particular attention. The article analyzes the latest research and publications on this issue, examines current law and regulations, considers the rights of physicians to healthy and safe working conditions.Conclusions and recommendations. In order to improve the state of occupational safety and hygiene of health care workers we recommend: to resume the operation of sanitary and epidemiological services in the country; to continue the educational training of epidemiologists and hygienists in universities; to ensure the organization of special training for all employees of medical institutions on modern methods of infection prevention, post-exposure prevention, as well as measures and means of infection control (introductory - during employment, periodic - once a year before the annual outbreak of infectious diseases, target - in case of sudden mass outbreaks of dangerous infections and their significant spread or after an occupational accident (infection)); to oblige to teach occupational safety disciplines in universities of medical profiles; at the state level to provide for the establishment of an appropriate system of occupational safety and health in the field of health care; to carry out obligatory assessment of working conditions and determination of the category of severity of work of medical workers; to provide all medical workers involved in the fight against infectious diseases with personal protective equipment at the required amount; to provide rational working and leisure conditions for medical workers in order to protect and preserve their health and ability to work; to ensure proper control over com-pliance with safety requirements when working with equipment that is a source of physically hazardous and harmful production factors; to carry out constant control over the amount of chemical and biological substances in the air of the working zone, air ionization, not allowing the maximum permissible concentrations to be exceeded.

Cathodic synthesis is a highly attractive technique for N,O bond reduction.[1] Especially, electro-reductions of nitro arenes enable the access to high-valuable products like nitrones and N-heterocycles.[2] These substances are in general unique structural motifs in natural products or in compounds with significant biological properties, such as antibiotic, antiplasmodial, antimycotic, antihypertensive, hyperglycemic and cytotoxic activities.[3] Commonly used synthesis methods require large amounts of metallic reducing agents, expensive transition metal catalysts, or hazardous oxidizers in case the corresponding heterocycles are accessible otherwise.[4] Several examples have been described with constant potential conditions using mercury or sacrificial lead electrodes.[5] Due to cathodic corrosion of heavy metals, this proves to be a critical aspect and mercury is banned in the most countries for technical applications.[6] Therefore, the urge for more sustainable processes is of high focus. We describe an access to 1H-1-hydroxyquninolin-4-ons by cathodic reaction of nitrobenzoyl acetones synthesized from broad available nitrobenzoic acids. Using metal-free BDD cathodes (boron-doped diamond), sulfuric acid as a simple supporting electrolyte, in addition to an aqueous electrolyte system with an environmentally benign co-solvent agree with sustainable and green aspects. The scalability under constant current conditions in an undivided cell has been shown in a twentyfold scale. The electrochemical synthesis protocol was applied to 18 examples including the antibiotic substance HQNO (1H-2-heptyl-1-hydroxy quinolin-4-ons) and various precursors for enzymatic aurachine synthesis.[7] Furthermore, we developed a method to a novel substance class of 4H-4-hydroxy-1,2,4-benzothiadiazine-1,1-dioxides. Reduction of the nitro precursors applying BDD cathodes result in hydroxylamines using divided cells with glass frits as separators. The applicability of this electro-reductive cyclisation is demonstrated by the synthesis of a broad product scope with activated, deactivated, labile and sterically demanding substitution patterns for potential further modification towards pharmaceutical applications.[8] Particularly, we described the synthesis of the N-Hydroxy analogues of diazoxide, a medication on the WHO list of essential medicines.[8,9] Studies on the biological activities of these new compounds are currently performed. References: [1] T. Wirtanen, E. Rodrigo, S. R. Waldvogel, Adv. Synth. Catal. 2020, 362, 2088–2101. [2] E. Rodrigo, S. R. Waldvogel, Green Chem. 2018, 20, 2013–2017. [3] a) A. Schmoldt, H. F. Benthe, G. Haberland, Biochem. Pharmacol. 1975, 24, 1639–1641; b) B. Kunze, G. Höfle, H. Reichenbach, J. Antibiot. 1987, 40, 258–265; c) K. C. Majumdar, S. Mondal, Chem. Rev. 2011, 111, 7749–7773; d) E. E. Hays, I. C. Wells, P. A. Katzman, C. K. Cain, F. A. Jacobs, S. A. Thayer, E. A. Doisy, W. L. Gaby, E. C. Roberts, R. D. Muir, C. J. Carroll, L. R. Jones, N. J. Wade, J. Biol. Chem. 1945, 159, 725–750. [4] a) J.-C. Jung, Y.-J. Jung, O.-S. Park, J. Heterocycl. Chem. 2001, 38, 61–67; b) M. Enomoto, W. Kitagawa, Y. Yasutake, H. Shimizu, Biosci., Biotechnol., Biochem. 2014, 78, 1324–1327; c) H. G. Walker, C. R. Hauser, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1946, 68, 2742–2743; d) A. Woschek, M. Mahout, K. Mereiter, F. Hammerschmidt, Synthesis 2007, 1517–1522. [5] a) R. Hazard, M. Jubault, C. Mouats, A. Tallec, Electrochim. Acta 1986, 31, 489–497; b) R. Hazard, M. Jubault, C. Mouats, A. Tallec, Electrochim. Acta 1988, 33, 1335–1341; c) H. Lund, L. G. Feoktistov, P. H. Nielsen, Acta Chem. Scand. 1969, 23, 3482–3492; d) B. Hyo Kim, Y. Moo Jun, Y. Rack Choi, D. Byung Lee, W. Baik, Heterocycles 1998, 48, 749–754. [6] T. Wirtanen, T. Prenzel, J.-P. Tessonnier, S. R. Waldvogel, Chem. Rev. 2021, 121, 10241–10270. [7] a) T. Prenzel, S. R. Waldvogel 2021, in preparation; b) E. Stec, D. Pistorius, R. Müller, S.-M. Li, ChemBioChem 2011, 12, 1724–1730. [8] T. Prenzel, T. Wirtanen, S. R. Waldvogel 2021, in preparation. [9] World Health Organization, Model List of Essential Medicines – 22nd List, 2021, World Health Organization, Geneva, 2021. Figure 1

The heavy metals are found naturally on the Earth's crust. Due to the astounding increase of the use of heavy metals, it has resulted in an imminent surge of metallic substances in both the terrestrial environment and the aquatic environment. The urbanization and industrialization have caused the heavy metals to leak into the environment through the runoffs. The dye from textile industry leaked into the system blocked the photosynthesis process of aquatic plants and toxified organisms. Various methods including mechanical filtering, ozonolysis, reverse osmosis, and adsorption have been invented to filter heavy metals and organic matters. Adsorption is the most economical and effective method. Nanotechnology have been widely used in improving adsorption and many other research areas related to suitable and environmental issues such energy, catalysis, sensors and remediations [1-33]. In this research project, the alginate–zeolite gel beads functionalized with carbon quantum dots is synthesized and applied for filtering heavy metals from water. The gel beads was characterized by using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR). The concentrations of heavy metals and methylene blue solution adsorbed by the gel beads were monitored by UV-Vis Spectrophotometer. References: M. Abdel Fattah, M.E. Mahmoud, S.B. Ahmed, M.D. Huff, J.W. Lee, S. Kumar, Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 22, 103 (2015) M. Abdel-Fattah, M.E Mahmoud, M. M. Osmam, S.B. Ahmed, Journal of Environmental Science and health part A, 49, 1064-1076 (2014) ME Mahmoud, MA Khalifa, YM El Wakeel, MS Header, TM Abdel-Fattah, Journal of Nuclear Materials 487, 13-22 (2017) C Huff, T Dushatinski, TM Abdel-Fattah, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 42 (30), 18985-18990 (2017) M Stacey, C Osgood, BS Kalluri, W Cao, H Elsayed-Ali, T Abdel-Fattah, Biomedical Materials 6 (1), 011002 (2011) SE Mohmed Labeb, Abdel-Hamed Sakr, Moataz Soliman, Tarek M.Abdel-Fattah, Optical Materials 79, 331-335 (2018) ME Mahmoud, MM Osman, SB Ahmed, TM Abdel-Fattah, Chemical engineering journal 175, 84-94 (2011) S Ebrahim, M Soliman, M Anas, M Hafez, TM Abdel-Fattah, International Journal of Photoenergy, 2013, 906820, 1 (2013). TM Abdel-Fattah, ME Mahmoud, Chemical engineering journal 172 (1), 177-183 (2011) R Bhure, TM Abdel-Fattah, C Bonner, JC Hall, A Mahapatro, Journal of biomedical nanotechnology 6 (2), 117-128 (2010) TM Abdel-Fattah, D Loftis, A Mahapatro, Journal of biomedical nanotechnology 7 (6), 794-800 (2011) OH Elsayed-Ali, T Abdel-Fattah, HE Elsayed-Ali, Journal of hazardous materials 185 (2-3), 1550-1557 (2011) R Bhure, A Mahapatro, C Bonner, TM Abdel-Fattah, Materials Science and Engineering: C 33 (4), 2050-2058 (2013) BE Bishop, BA Savitzky, T Abdel-Fattah, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 73 (4), 565-571 (2010) C Huff, JM Long, A Heyman, TM Abdel-Fattah, ACS Applied Energy Materials 1 (9), 4635-4640 (2018) TM Abdel-Fattah, EM Younes, G Namkoong, EM El-Maghraby, Synthetic Metals 209, 348-354 (2015) S Ebrahim, M Soliman, TM Abdel-Fattah, Journal of electronic materials 40 (9), 2033-2041 (2011) SH Lapidus, A Naik, A Wixtrom, NE Massa, V Ta Phuoc, L del Campo, Crystal growth & design 14 (1), 91-100 (2014) A Mahapatro, TD Matos Negrón, C Bonner, TM Abdel-Fattah, Journal of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering 3 (2), 196-204 (2013) S Ebrahim, M Labeb, T Abdel-Fattah, M Soliman, Journal of Luminescence 182, 154-159 (2017) T Dushatinski, C Huff, TM Abdel-Fattah, Applied Surface Science 385, 282-288 (2016) ME Mahmoud, SS Haggag, MA Rafea, TM Abdel-Fattah, Polyhedron 28 (16), 3407-3414 (2009) C Huff, JM Long, A Aboulatta, A Heyman, TM Abdel-Fattah, ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology 6 (10), M115 (2017) ME Mahmoud, SS Haggag, TM Abdel-Fattah, Polyhedron 26 (14), 3956-3962 (2007) TM Abdel-Fattah, ME Mahmoud, MM Osmam, SB Ahmed, Journal of Environmental Science and health, part A 49 (9), 1064-1076 (2014) ME Mahmoud, TM Abdel-Fattah, MM Osman, SB Ahmed, Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A 47 (1), 130-141 (2012) C Huff, E Biehler, Q Quach, JM Long, TM Abdel-Fattah, Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects 610 (5), 125734 (2021) K Foe, G Namkoong, TM Abdel-Fattah, H Baumgart, MS Jeong, DS Lee, Thin solid films 534, 76-82 (2013) M Abdel-Fattah, A Wixtrom, K Zhang, W Cao, H Baumgart, ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology 3 (10), M61 (2014) C Huff, T Dushatinski, A Barzanji, N Abdel-Fattah, K Barzanji, ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology 6 (5), M69 (2017) TM Abdel-Fattah, B Bishop, Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A 39 (11-12), 2855-2866 (2014) Quach, E. Biehler, A. Elzamzami, C. Huff, J.M. Long, T.M. Abdel Fattah, Catalysts, 11, 118 (2021). Biehler, Q. Quach, C. Huff, T. M. Abdel-Fattah, Materials, 15, 2692 (2022).

The increases in chemical shipping volumes increase the risk of hazardous noxious substances (HNSs) spills at sea. As one of the most frequently transported HNSs, acrylonitrile (ACN) spill incidents occur from time to time. The spilled ACN will have a wide range of short-term and long-term impacts on the marine environment. To reasonably standardise and optimise the emergency response countermeasures for ACN spill and maintain marine ecological health, the marine ecological hazards and physico-chemical behaviours of ACN were summarised. Based on this, the emergency response countermeasures for ACN spill at sea were studied and summarised in five aspects: spill source control, rapid prediction, emergency monitoring, numerical simulation and impact assessment, and elimination of ACN. This review forms a set of systematic emergency response countermeasures for deployment in ACN maritime spill incidents.

The rising shortage of water resources and the need to provide water in many regions like Morocco around the world has been crucial and will become increasingly alarming in the future. Water bodies can be practically polluted or impaired by industrial, agricultural, and anthropogenic waste. Heavy metals are widely known environmental contaminants due to their toxicity, prevalence, and bioaccumulation. They build up in the environment, disrupting the food chains as chronic pollutants. In organisms, including humans, the deposition of possibly hazardous heavy metals poses a significant threat to health. This review paper highlights the present research on heavy metal removal, focusing on adsorbents and techniques accessible and feasible, such as adsorptive separation by substances, including a metal oxide, graphene, zeolite, and carbon-based composites. These techniques received a lot of acknowledgment due to their significant active surface area, high proportion of functional groups, increased chemical and thermal stability, and impressive adsorption efficiency and efficacy. The economic aspects and feasibility of adsorbents have also been presented.

In 2001, the Commission presented the White Paper on a Strategy for a future Chemicals Policy. Council adopted its conclusions on the White Paper in June 2001; the European Parliament adopted a resolution on it in November 2001. Both institutions welcomed the strategy and asked for it to be strengthened in various aspects. In May 2003, the Commission submitted a draft proposal for internet consultation. As a result of strong industry pressure, the proposal was watered down significantly before its formal adoption in October 2003. Council started the legislative work in January 2004. Due to the change in legislature, the European Parliament started the legislative work only at the end of 2004 and voted in November 2005. This allowed the Council under the UK Presidency to come to a political agreement at an extraordinary meeting of the Competitiveness Council in December 2005. The most fundamental deficiency of the former system was the lack of information on chemicals resulting in a lack of restrictive measures. So will REACH provide sufficient data and adequate structures to restrict and/or control chemical substances - so as to achieve a high level of protection of human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals?

Male reproductive functions are an important area affecting men´s overall health and well-being. However, during the last years, there has been observed increasing incidence of male reproductive issues. The radical growth has been recorded parallelly with a massive expanse of industrialization and agricultural chemigation. Many groups of experts have begun to identify several potential factors and substances that may have adverse effects on men´s reproductive health. Since then, xenobiotics have become a major concern of many scientific studies. There is evidence that most of them have multigenerational and transgenerational effects on reproductive health, which is a serious problem for our population. Bisphenol A could be considered as one of the most studied endocrine disruptors. Until now, several negative effects of bisphenol A were associated with reduced weight testes, histological alterations, impairment spermatogenesis, and steroidogenesis as well as with testes or prostate cancer. Due to convincing evidence, bisphenol A has been started to replace by its analogues such as bisphenol B, S, F, in order to eliminate and suppress the risk of exposure to bisphenol A. However, it seems that a lack of toxicological analyses allows using of these hazardous substances in daily life. Their harmful effect was confirmed by the animal in vitro and in vivo models, while the epidemiological studies monitoring the impact of bisphenol analogues on men's reproductive health are markedly limited. This review provides information about the effects of bisphenol on reproductive health in men. At the same time, it is focused on physiological aspects of sperm viability, steroid hormone secretion, sperm motility, or testes histology in relation to bisphenols exposure.

Around the world more than 3 billion people are directly or indirectly dependent on our oceans for food, medicines, shelter, and livelihood. Industries like sea food, tourism and transportation provides livelihood to millions of people around the globe. Due to climate change and various human activities like oil spills, dumping of waste and extensive sea bed mining, the quality of the oceans as well as the quality and health of various flora and fauna inhabiting the oceans have been adversely affected. This in turn causes harm to the human beings and their health thus violating their basic human right to a healthy life. A clean, safe and healthy environment is a precondition for overall wellbeing of every human being. The Indian Judiciary has encouraged an innovative approach to environmental rights in the country. Judicial activism has provided impetus to campaign against various environmental pollution issues arising in the country in recent times. The Indian Judiciary has interpreted Art. 21 to give it an expanded meaning to bring within its ambit the right of every citizen to a clean, safe and healthy environment. The Judiciary while showing keen interest in the environmental issues affecting various aspects of the life of human beings passed appropriate orders, directions and writs against persons adversely affecting the environment. The Parliament of India has also made efforts to protect and preserve the marine environment by ratifying various international agreements, treaties and conventions. Currently efforts are being made at local, national and international level to build Marine Protected Areas (MPAs); local communities are also standing up for their right to healthy environment and to address the issue of accumulation of plastic and such other toxic substances in the oceans. But still a lot of ocean conservation efforts, through laws designed to manage fisheries, land based pollution, formation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), strict regulation of various hazardous industrial activities and processes, anti-dumping laws and coastal waste management laws are required to address the issue of marine environment pollution. Moreover lack of awareness among citizens is also a major impediment in the field of marine environment conservation which also needs to be addressed adequately.

In the last decade, the market for new psychoactive substances has been enriched by numerous psychedelic phenethylamines, which mimic the psychoactive effect of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). In particular, the -NBOMe series, which are more potent than their 2C compounds analogs, are considered worthy substitutes for LSD by users. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of 25H-NBOMe and its halogenated derivatives (25I-NBOMe and 25B-NBOMe) in comparison to their 2C compounds analogs and LSD on the sensorimotor (visual, acoustic, and overall tactile), reaction time, spontaneous (total distance traveled) and stimulated (drag, accelerod test) motor activity, grip strength test, and prepulse inhibition (PPI) responses in mice. Systemic administration of -NBOMe, 2C compounds analogs, and LSD (0.001–10 mg/kg) differently impaired the sensorimotor, reaction time, motor, and PPI responses in mice. In particular, halogenated (25I and 25B)-NBOMe derivatives appear to be more effective than the entire class of 2C compounds analogs in altering visual and acoustic responses, affecting reaction time, and motor and sensory gating in PPI test. In fact, the specific rank order of compounds potency for nearly all of the experiments showed that (25I and 25B)-NBOMe were more potent than 2C compounds analogs and LSD. -NBOMe and 2C compounds analogs impaired not only the reception of incoming sensory stimuli (visual and acoustic), but their correct brain processing (PPI) in an equal and sometimes stronger way than LSD. This sensory impairment directly affected the spontaneous motor response and reaction time of mice, with no change in performance in stimulated motor activity tests. These aspects should be carefully considered to better understand the potential danger that psychedelic phenethylamines, in particular -NBOMe, may pose to public health, with particular reference to decreased performance in driving and hazardous works that require special sensorimotor skills.

Nanotechnology represents one of the emerging technologies used in recent years in a more or less widespread way in the world of research, study and work, and especially in the latter sector the risks associated with the production and use of nanomaterials are still largely unknown. To date, there is a substantial imbalance of knowledge between the application of nanotechnologies and their impact on health; the information currently available on the health effects and risk assessment of nanomaterials in the workplace is limited; systematic methodologies to assess exposure are not yet known and, given the intensive and highly diversified use of nanomaterials by industry in recent years, it is difficult to estimate the number of workers exposed and the effects on their health. It is well known that the research and development activity currently underway in the nanotech sector, both at public and private level, covers a wide spectrum of thematic areas such as chemistry and materials (structural and functional), nanoelectronics and photonics, bio(nano)sciences, medical and instrumentation. The potential application effects concern fundamental productive sectors ranging from pharmaceuticals and development of electromedical devices, to cosmetics, electronics and information technology, from transport to environment and energy, but also sectors that typically involve small and medium-sized enterprises, such as textiles and fashion, footwear, food, construction materials, advanced mechanics and the preservation of cultural heritage. The healthcare sector is not exempt from being affected by nanotechnology as well, and this generally poses a greater risk for worker exposure to nanomaterials within its work and professional settings. Specifically, nanotechnology and nanomaterials in healthcare, with their applications can certainly offer significant advantages, for example techniques and approaches of miniaturization through chemical synthesis and control of molecular assembly which represent indispensable opportunities in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. However, although there are still ongoing studies and research in this area, the field of nanotechnology is developing faster than the generation of knowledge on health and safety aspects of nanomaterials. Living and working environments, in fact, can be exposed during all stages of the entire production cycle of substances in nanoform: during production, transport and storage, or during use and disposal. However, the lack of information on the behavior of nanomaterials in the environment makes it difficult to assess their risks in different sectors. The present research work aims to explicate the areas of development of nanotechnologies, and to explain how workers might encounter nanomaterials in their workplaces when performing their daily activities. There will be a focus on exposure from nanomaterials, on the assessment and management of potential risks of these new forms of materials, on the knowledge and / or study of the hazardous properties of substances in nanoform and their safe use with a view to verify how to currently try to contain the potentially harmful impacts on the environment and the health of workers and contribute to the implementation of the legislation of the sector although aware that the risk of exposure to nanomaterials is a toxicological issue still being explored by medical science. The use of nanomaterials, in fact, may represent an emerging health and safety risk that must be assessed and managed through a specific approach, particularly within the complexity of work environments. Therefore, an attempt will be made to indicate the prevention and protection measures to reduce the impact on workers' health and safety, also by referring to the relevant legislation and the precautionary principle.

Preserving fresh food, such as meat, is significant in the effort of combating global food scarcity. Meat drying is a common way of preserving meat with a rich history in many cultures around the globe. In modern days, dried meat has become a well enjoyed food product in the market because of its long shelf-life, taste and health benefits. This review aims to compile information on how the types of meat, ingredients and the used drying technologies influence the characteristics of dried meat in physicochemical, microbial, biochemical and safety features along with technological future prospects in the dried meat industry. The quality of dried meat can be influenced by a variety of factors, including its production conditions and the major biochemical changes that occur throughout the drying process, which are also discussed in this review. Additionally, the sensory attributes of dried meat are also reviewed, whereby the texture of meat and the preference of the market are emphasized. There are other aspects and concerning issues that are suggested for future studies. It is well-known that reducing the water content in meat helps in preventing microbial growth, which in turn prevents the presence of harmful substances in meat. However, drying the meat can change the characteristics of the meat itself, making consumers concerned on whether dried meat is safe to be consumed on a regular basis. It is important to consider the role of microbial enzymes and microbes in the preservation of their flavor when discussing dried meats and dried meat products. The sensory, microbiological, and safety elements of dried meat are also affected by these distinctive changes, which revolve around customer preferences and health concerns, particularly how drying is efficient in eliminating/reducing hazardous bacteria from the fish. Interestingly, some studies have concentrated on increasing the efficiency of dried meat production to produce a safer range of dried meat products with less effort and time. This review compiled important information from all available online research databases. This review may help the food sector in improving the efficiency and safety of meat drying, reducing food waste, while maintaining the quality and nutritional content of dried meat.

"Doctor, will I live longer if I give up alcohol and sex?" "No, but it will seem like it." The paradigm of the self as it is conceptualised in Western society includes an implicit assumption that one of the primary activities of the self is to engage in protective behaviours. This is a basic assumption in mass media promotion of healthy behaviours: 'Quit smoking' to protect yourself from lung cancer; 'Work safe' to protect yourself from injury, etc. Mass media social marketing campaigns inform the general population of the dangers to the self's existence of smoking, drink-driving, unsafe sex, over-eating, under-exercising and so on. These campaigns are based on models such as the Health Belief Model (Janz and Becker), the Fear Drive paradigm (Janis; McGuire), the Parallel Response Model (Leventhal), Thayer's Arousal Model, Roger's Protection Motivation Theory (Rogers & Mewborn; Maddux & Rogers), Ordered Protection Motivation Theory (Tanner, Hunt and Eppright) and the Extended Parallel Process Model (Witte). Fundamental to all these models is the assumption that people are motivated to protect themselves from harm. Information is provided that warns of the severity and likelihood of consequences of unhealthy behaviours. In some cases this information does motivate people to give up harmful behaviours and adopt safer options. However, worldwide, we see an increasing prevalence of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer that are related to preventable causes such as obesity, smoking and a sedentary lifestyle. To meet this challenge, the media strategy has generally focused on how to get health information across more effectively, that is, by making it more persuasive, more vivid, more salient, more imminent, more probable, and so on. Media exhortations to: 'say no to drugs', 'Quit because you can!', 'Respect yourself' etc. do not always achieve the desired change and may increase frustration, hopelessness and even depression (Henley & Donovan). It may be helpful to consider that this protection motivation paradigm does not take into account the prevalence of paradoxical behaviours, that is, behaviours that are harmful to the self (Apter). When talking about health, I think it is useful to divide paradoxical behaviours into two categories: thrill-seeking behaviours such as sky-diving and bungie-jumping where the individual enjoys the experience of being at risk without (usually) craving it; craved or 'addictive' behaviours (using the term loosely), such as smoking, binge-drinking, over-eating, drug-taking, where the individual craves a certain sensation and the gratification of the craving supersedes protective impulses. In both cases, the individual knows the behaviour is potentially harmful but chooses to engage in it. In the first case, there is a conscious choice that the enjoyment of the thrill experience outweighs the risk. The person feels in control of the decision (even if the decision is to abandon oneself to the feeling of being temporarily out of control). In the second case, there is a need to gratify the craving, regardless of the risk. The person is fully aware that it is not in their long term self-interest but feels out of control of the decision (Lowenstein). This second category of paradoxical behaviours consists of many unhealthy behaviours targeted by health practitioners. This paper discusses 1) the concept of the self in Western society; 2) the concept of paradoxical behaviour, distinguishing it from deviant behaviour; and 3) the suggestion that people may engage in addictive paradoxical behaviours to satisfy the 'empty self' (Cushman). Finally, the paper suggests that this attention to the empty self may be in a perverse way protective (though not healthy), and calls for a health promotion approach that directly addresses the needs of the 'empty self'. Concept of Self The concept of the self varies across cultures and time. Cushman (599) defined the concept of the self as 'the concept of the individual as articulated by the indigenous psychology of a particular cultural group.... the self embodies what the culture believes is humankind's place in the cosmos: its limits, talents, expectations, and prohibitions'. The Eastern concept of self extends 'beyond one's physical and psychosocial identity to include all other people in the world' (Westman & Canter 419) while the concept of self as it has developed in Western society 'has specific psychological boundaries, an internal locus of control, and a wish to manipulate the external world for its own personal ends' (Cushman 600). This Western concept of the self has been traced to Augustine's Confessions, identified by Weintraub (cited in Freeman 26) as the first reflective, autobiographical review of a life history in which selfhood is examined and understood. The concept of self encapsulates the most profound sense of cosmic place, worth and meaning. One of the aspects of the Western concept of self is a sense of mastery, of being able to act upon the world. Paradoxical vs Deviant Behaviour Apter makes a distinction between deviant behaviour, which is defined by social norms, and paradoxical behaviour, which is defined as any behaviour potentially harmful either to the individual or to society. Parachuting would be an example of behaviour potentially harmful to the individual, while celibacy, by threatening the survival of the social group, would be behaviour potentially harmful to society. Neither of these behaviours would be regarded as 'deviant'. Apter (10) calls this sort of behaviour paradoxical 'because it has the opposite effect to that which, from a biological and evolutionary point of view, one would expect behaviour to have'. While there will be considerable overlap in practice between deviant and paradoxical behaviour - child abuse, vandalism, drug and alcohol abuse, suicide, etc. would all be both deviant and paradoxical - there is a distinction in perspective between these two terms. Deviant behaviour, by definition, is always regarded by a society as anti-social (and therefore is often harmful); paradoxical behaviour is, by definition, always regarded by the individual's self-concept as harmful or potentially harmful (and therefore is also often anti-social). As our self-concept is socially learned, it is difficult to arrive at a true separation of these definitions but the following example may clarify the distinction: smoking was a widespread, socially acceptable activity in the 1950s, even glamorised by Hollywood. When the scientific evidence showed that it was harmful to the individual's health, that is, paradoxical behaviour, many people were sufficiently motivated to quit. Since the dangers of passive smoking have been highlighted and smoking is becoming regarded as socially unacceptable, that is, deviant behaviour, many more people are trying to stop, and succeeding. For many people, motivation for change is successful when an activity is recognised as both deviant and paradoxical. Social marketing campaigns have targeted these two areas for years, informing of health risks and dispelling the glamorous image. Yet, people still smoke, even when they know the health dangers and daily experience the open disapproval of others. At the extreme is the person who lies in a hospital bed with both legs amputated, being told and believing that continued smoking will result in the loss of remaining limbs, but who is still not motivated sufficiently to quit; this person is clearly exhibiting extreme paradoxical behaviour. It is useful to call this behaviour paradoxical rather than deviant because it is defined primarily by the extreme injury to the individual rather than the degree to which it departs from social norms. Why an individual would persist in such irrational behaviour is a seemingly unanswerable question. As Menninger has said, 'the extraordinary propensity of the human being to join hands with external forces in an attack upon his own existence is one of the most remarkable of biological phenomena' (cited in Apter 10). In trying to understand it, we look at three alternatives: 1) what people say their reasons may be; 2) how people defend against knowledge of risk; and 3) the role of visceral influences. Van Deurzen-Smith (165-6), an existential counsellor, gives some insight into the complexity of one of her patient's reasons for smoking: The dangers of heart disease or lung cancer had, far from making her want to give up smoking, been a real secret attraction which had been hard to give up. She had experienced smoking as playing with fire and that was highly enjoyable.... smoking in this sense had represented her experience of her body as concretely her own. Inhaling smoke was like breathing fire and feeling extra-alive; exhaling smoke was like seeing her own body's power being projected out of her mouth. Carrying cigarettes and fire on her every minute of the day used to give her a sense of oneness with the substances of the natural world; it was like possessing the secret power of some magical ritual. When smoking she was in command of the physical world, she was master of her own destiny. In other words, smoking had become an integral part of this person's self-concept. An alternative viewpoint is that smokers simply defend against knowledge of the health risks. In an examination of 'psychic defences against high fear appeals', Stuteville identified three techniques which people use to reduce fear-arousal: a) they deny the validity of the information; b) they unconsciously assert 'I am the exception to the rule - it won't happen to me'; and c) they defuse the danger by making it laughable or ridiculous. He suggested that campaigns can be more effective if they involve a threat to significant others, especially children, or are made to seem 'offensive to small group norms' (45), that is, seen as deviant rather than paradoxical. Lowenstein attempted to understand the discrepancies between what people do and what it is in their self-interest to do by postulating the operation of 'visceral factors', drive states relating to hunger, fear, pain, sex and emotions. He suggested that the need to satisfy these drives can supersede virtually all other needs, and that people consistently fail to recognise the strength of the influence of visceral factors in themselves and in others, despite all previous experience and evidence to the contrary. One of the characteristics of visceral factors is the effect of time-shortening so that immediate gratification outweighs long-term goals. Attempts to exercise self-control are made when thinking long-term and usually at the expense of short-term gratification (Lowenstein 288). Although this concept of visceral influences explains some irrational behaviour, Lowenstein made little attempt to explain why some people seem to be more at the mercy of visceral factors than others. For this, it may be helpful to explore Cushman's concept of the 'empty self'. The Hungry 'Empty Self' Cushman (600) identified the configuration of the concept of self in the United States as having developed into an 'empty self ... a self that experiences a significant absence of community, tradition, and shared meaning. It experiences these social absences and their consequences 'interiorly' as a lack of personal conviction and worth, and it embodies the absences as a chronic, undifferentiated emotional hunger'. It is this notion of emotional hunger that may have particular relevance to a discussion of paradoxical behaviours generated by cravings. Cushman referred to a strong desire for consumer products to assuage this hunger, but it may be useful when thinking of health to consider the hunger more literally, as a need to ingest substances (drugs, alcohol, food etc) and experiences (shopping, sex, speed, etc) to fill up the emptiness. Emotional hunger may lead to a number of self-destructive but self-nourishing and addictive habits, identified by Firestone as psychological defences against anxiety. Cushman identified advertising as one of the two professions responsible for healing the empty self (the other was psychotherapy), while recognising that it is also one of the professions that perpetuates and profits from the psychopathology. Perhaps the responsibility falls to social marketing which is concerned with the marketing of ideas, attitudes and beliefs, including health and safety lifestyle issues. At present, it could be said that health promotion tends to make people feel bad (Henley & Donovan), with an emphasis on the dire consequences of unhealthy behaviours. Is it reasonable to suggest that social marketing could be used to try to heal the empty self? Interestingly, this is already happening to some extent. Mental health is a priority issue and a recent mental health campaign in Victoria, Australia, 'Together We Do Better', stresses the need for community and social connection. Western Australia is exploring whether to undertake a similar campaign. The campaign includes messages relating to friendship, parenting, talking about problems, bullying, sledging, and inter-generational communication (Campaign materials). The overall aim is to work towards a more inclusive, caring, connected and tolerant society. Conclusion This paper has discussed the apparent limitation of the current paradigm in health promotion that people are primarily motivated to protect themselves by considering the prevalence of paradoxical behaviours, that is behaviours that are harmful to the self, especially those that are generated by a need to satisfy cravings. One explanation for such paradoxical behaviours is that they are motivated by visceral factors relating to physical and emotional drives. However, this does not explain why some people are more susceptible than others. Cushman's concept of the hungry, empty self, alienated from community and disconnected from social traditions and meaning, may go further to explain why some people are more susceptible to cravings than others. Social marketing could play a helpful role in healing people's sense of isolation in mental health campaigns such as VicHealth's 'Together We Do Better'. Finally, it may be more intuitive to understand apparently paradoxical behaviour as an urgent attempt to heal the empty self. This would make it in a perverse way protective, though not healthy. This way, people are seen as doing the best they can to protect themselves against the most immediate threat to the self, a sense of hollowness and isolation. If so, the fact that this need is able to supersede other major health needs suggests that it is one of the most urgent imperatives of the self. References Apter, M.J. The Experience of Motivation: The Theory of Psychological Reversals. London: Academic Press, 1982. 'Campaign Materials.' Victoria Health 'Together We Do Better Campaign'. http://www.togetherwedobetter.vic.gov.au... [accessed 26 Aug. 2002]. Cushman, P. 'Why the Self is Empty: Toward a Historically Situated Psychology.' American Psychologist (1990, May): 599-611. Firestone, R. W. 'Psychological Defenses Against Death Anxiety.' Death Anxiety Handbook: Research, Instrumentation, and Application. Series in Death Education, Aging, and Health Care. Ed. R. A. Neimeyer. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1994. 217-241. Henley, N. & Donovan, R. Unintended Consequences of Arousing Fear in Social Marketing. Paper presented at ANZMAC Conference. Sydney, Nov. 1999. Janis, I. L. 'Effects of Fear Arousal on Attitude Change: Recent Developments in Theory and Experimental Research.' Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 3 (1967): 167-225. Janz, N. & M. Becker. 'The Health Belief Model: A Decade Later.' Health Education Quarterly 11 (1984): 1-47. Leventhal, H. 'Findings and Theory in the Study of Fear Communications.' Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 5. Ed. L. Berkowitz . New York: Academic Press, 1970. 119-86. Maddux, J. E. & R.W Rogers. 'Protection Motivation and Self-efficacy: A Revised Theory of Fear Appeals and Attitude Change.' Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 19 (1983): 469-79. Lowenstein, G. 'Out of Control: Visceral Influences on Behaviour.' Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes. 65.3 (1996): 272-92. McGuire, W. J. 'Personality and Attitude Change: An Information-processing Theory.' Psychological Foundations of Attitudes. Ed. A. G. Greenwald, T. C. Brock, and T. M. Ostrom. New York: Academic Press, 1968. pp. 171-96. Rogers, R. W. & C.R. Mewborn. 'Fear Appeals and Attitude Change: Effects of a Threat's Noxiousness, Probability of Occurrence, and the Efficacy of Coping Responses.' Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 34.1 (1976): 54-61. Stuteville, J. R. 'Psychic Defenses against High Fear Appeals: A Key Marketing Variable.' Journal of Marketing 34 (1970): 39-45. Tanner, J. F., J.B. Hunt and D.R. Eppright. 'The Protection Motivation Model: A Normative Model of Fear Appeals.' Journal of Marketing 55 (1991): 36-45. van Deurzen-Smith, E. Existential Counselling in Practice. London: Sage Publications, 1988. Witte, K. 'Putting the Fear Back into Fear Appeals: The Extended Parallel Process Model.' Communication Monographs 59.4 (1992): 329-349. Links http://www.togetherwedobetter.vic.gov.au/resources/campaign.asp Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Henley, Nadine. "The Healthy vs the Empty Self" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5.5 (2002). [your date of access] < http://www.media-culture.org.au/mc/0210/Henley.html &gt. Chicago Style Henley, Nadine, "The Healthy vs the Empty Self" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5, no. 5 (2002), < http://www.media-culture.org.au/mc/0210/Henley.html &gt ([your date of access]). APA Style Henley, Nadine. (2002) The Healthy vs the Empty Self. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5(5). < http://www.media-culture.org.au/mc/0210/Henley.html &gt ([your date of access]).

IntroductionLike other forms of embodiment, pregnancy has increasingly become subject to representation and interpretation via digital technologies. Pregnancy and the unborn entity were largely private, and few people beyond the pregnant women herself had access to the foetus growing within her (Duden). Now pregnant and foetal bodies have become open to public portrayal and display (Lupton The Social Worlds of the Unborn). A plethora of online materials – websites depicting the unborn entity from the moment of conception, amateur YouTube videos of births, social media postings of ultrasounds and self-taken photos (‘selfies’) showing changes in pregnant bellies, and so on – now ensure the documentation of pregnant and unborn bodies in extensive detail, rendering them open to other people’s scrutiny. Other recent digital technologies directed at pregnancy include mobile software applications, or ‘apps’. In this article, we draw on our study involving a critical discourse analysis of a corpus of pregnancy-related apps offered in the two major app stores. In so doing, we discuss the ways in which pregnancy-related apps portray pregnant and unborn bodies. We place a particular focus on the ludification and gamification strategies employed to position pregnancy as a playful, creative and fulfilling experience that is frequently focused on consumption. As we will demonstrate, these strategies have wider implications for concepts of pregnant and foetal embodiment and subjectivity.It is important here to make a distinction between ludification and gamification. Ludification is a broader term than gamification. It is used in the academic literature on gaming (sometimes referred to as ‘ludology’) to refer to elements of games reaching into other aspects of life beyond leisure pursuits (Frissen et al. Playful Identities: The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures; Raessens). Frissen et al. (Frissen et al. "Homo Ludens 2.0: Play, Media and Identity") for example, claim that even serious pursuits such as work, politics, education and warfare have been subjected to ludification. They note that digital technologies in general tend to incorporate ludic dimensions. Gamification has been described as ‘the use of game design elements in non-game contexts’ (Deterding et al. 9). The term originated in the digital media industry to describe the incorporation of features into digital technologies that not explicitly designed as games, such as competition, badges, rewards and fun that engaged and motivated users to make them more enjoyable to use. Gamification is now often used in literatures on marketing strategies, persuasive computing or behaviour modification. It is an important element of ‘nudge’, an approach to behaviour change that involves persuasion over coercion (Jones, Pykett and Whitehead). Gamification thus differs from ludification in that the former involves applying ludic principles for reasons other than the pleasures of enjoying the game for their own sake, often to achieve objectives set by actors and agencies other than the gamer. Indeed, this is why gamification software has been described by Bogost (Bogost) as ‘exploitationware’. Analysing Pregnancy AppsMobile apps have become an important medium in contemporary digital technology use. As of May 2015, 1.5 million apps were available to download on Google Play while 1.4 million were available in the Apple App Store (Statista). Apps related to pregnancy are a popular item in app stores, frequently appearing on the Apple App Store’s list of most-downloaded apps. Google Play’s figures show that many apps directed at pregnant women have been downloaded hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of times. For example, ‘Pregnancy +’, ‘I’m Expecting - Pregnancy App’ and ‘What to Expect - Pregnancy Tracker’ have each been downloaded between one and five million times, while ‘My Pregnancy Today’ has received between five and ten million downloads. Pregnancy games for young girls are also popular. Google Play figures show that the ‘Pregnant Emergency Doctor’ game, for example, has received between one and five million downloads. Research has found that pregnant women commonly download pregnancy-related apps and find them useful sources of information and support (Hearn, Miller and Fletcher; Rodger et al.; Kraschnewski et al.; Declercq et al.; Derbyshire and Dancey; O'Higgins et al.). We conducted a comprehensive analysis of all pregnancy-related smartphone apps in the two major app stores, Apple App Store and Google Play, in late June 2015. Android and Apple’s iOS have a combined market share of 91 percent of apps installed on mobile phones (Seneviratne et al.). A search for all pregnancy-related apps offered in these stores used key terms such as pregnancy, childbirth, conception, foetus/fetus and baby. After eliminating apps listed in these searches that were clearly not human pregnancy-related, 665 apps on Google Play and 1,141 on the Apple App Store remained for inclusion in our study. (Many of these apps were shared across the stores.)We carried out a critical discourse analysis of these apps, looking closely at the app descriptions offered in the two stores. We adopted the perspective that sees apps, like any other form of media, as sociocultural artefacts that both draw on and reproduce shared norms, ideals, knowledges and beliefs (Lupton "Quantified Sex: A Critical Analysis of Sexual and Reproductive Self-Tracking Using Apps"; Millington "Smartphone Apps and the Mobile Privatization of Health and Fitness"; Lupton "Apps as Artefacts: Towards a Critical Perspective on Mobile Health and Medical Apps"). In undertaking our analysis of the app descriptions in our corpus, attention was paid to the title of each app, the textual accounts of its content and use and the images that were employed, such as the logo of the app and the screenshots that were used to illustrate its content and style. Our focus in this article is on the apps that we considered as including elements of entertainment. Pregnancy-related game apps were by far the largest category of the apps in our corpus. These included games for young girls and expectant fathers as well as apps for ultrasound manipulation, pregnancy pranks, foetal sex prediction, choosing baby names, and quizzes. Less obviously, many other apps included in our analysis offered some elements of gamification and ludification, and these were considered in our analysis. ‘Pregnant Adventures’: App Games for GirlsOne of the major genres of apps that we identified was games directed at young girls. These apps invited users to shop for clothes, dress up, give a new hair style, ‘make-over’ and otherwise beautify a pregnant woman. These activities were directed at the goal of improving the physical attractiveness and therefore (it was suggested) the confidence of the woman, who was presented as struggling with coming to terms with changes in her body during pregnancy. Other apps for this target group involved the player assuming the role of a doctor in conducting medical treatments for injured pregnant women or assisting the birth of her baby.Many of these games represented the pregnant woman visually as looking like an archetypal Barbie doll, with a wardrobe to match. One app (‘Barbara Pregnancy Shopping’) even uses the name ‘Barbara’ and the screenshots show a woman similar in appearance to the doll. Its description urges players to use the game to ‘cheer up’ an ‘unconfident’ Barbara by taking her on a ‘shopping spree’ for new, glamorous clothes ‘to make Barbara feel beautiful throughout her pregnancy’. Players may find ‘sparkly accessories’ as well for Barbara and help her find a new hairstyle so that she ‘can be her fashionable self again’ and ‘feel prepared to welcome her baby!’. Likewise, the game ‘Pregnant Mommy Makeover Spa’ involves players selecting clothes, applying beauty treatments and makeup and adding accessories to give a makeover to ‘Pregnant Princess’ Leila. The ‘Celebrity Mommy’s Newborn Baby Doctor’ game combines the drawcard of ‘celebrity’ with ‘mommy’. Players are invited to ‘join the celebrities in their pregnancy adventure!’ and ‘take care of Celebrity Mom during her pregnancy!’.An app by the same developer of ‘Barbara Pregnancy Shopping’ also offers ‘Barbara’s Caesarean Birth’. The app description claims that: ‘Of course her poor health doesn’t allow Barbara to give birth to her baby herself.’ It is up to players to ‘make everything perfect’ for Barbara’s caesarean birth. The screenshots show Barbara’s pregnant abdomen being slit open, retracted and a rosy, totally clean infant extracted from the incision, complete with blonde hair. Players then sew up the wound. A final screenshot displays an image of a smiling Barbara standing holding her sleeping, swaddled baby, with the words ‘You win’.Similar games involve princesses, mermaids, fairies and even monster and vampire pregnant women giving birth either vaginally or by caesarean. Despite their preternatural status, the monster and vampire women conform to the same aesthetic as the other pregnant women in these games: usually with long hair and pretty, made-up faces, wearing fashionable clothing even on the operating table. Their newborn infants are similarly uniform in their appearance as they emerge from the uterus. They are white-skinned, clean and cherubic (described in ‘Mommy’s Newborn Baby Princess’ as ‘the cutest baby you probably want’), a far cry from the squalling, squashed-faced infants smeared in birth fluids produced by the real birth process.In these pregnancy games for girls, the pain and intense bodily effort of birthing and the messiness produced by the blood and other body fluids inherent to the process of labour and birth are completely missing. The fact that caesarean birth is a major abdominal surgery requiring weeks of recovery is obviated in these games. Apart from the monsters and vampires, who may have green- or blue-hued skin, nearly all other pregnant women are portrayed as white-skinned, young, wearing makeup and slim, conforming to conventional stereotypical notions of female beauty. In these apps, the labouring women remain glamorous, usually smiling, calm and unsullied by the visceral nature of birth.‘Track Your Pregnancy Day by Day’: Self-Monitoring and Gamified PregnancyElements of gamification were evident in a large number of the apps in our corpus, including many apps that invite pregnant users to engage in self-tracking of their bodies and that of their foetuses. Users are asked to customise the apps to document their changing bodies and track their foetus’ development as part of reproducing the discourse of the miraculous nature of pregnancy and promoting the pleasures of self-tracking and self-transformation from pregnant woman to mother. When using the ‘Pregnancy+’ app, for example, users can choose to construct a ‘Personal Dashboard’ that includes details of their pregnancy. They can input their photograph, first name and their expected date of delivery so that that each daily update begins with ‘Hello [name of user], you are [ ] weeks and [ ] days pregnant’ with the users’ photograph attached to the message. The woman’s weight gain over time and a foetal kick counter are also included in this app. It provides various ways for users to mark the passage of time, observe the ways in which their foetuses change and move week by week and monitor changes in their bodies. According to the app description for ‘My Pregnancy Today’, using such features allows a pregnant woman to: ‘Track your pregnancy day by day.’ Other apps encourage women to track such aspects of physical activity, vitamin and fluid intake, diet, mood and symptoms. The capacity to visually document the pregnant user’s body is also a feature of several apps. The ‘Baby Bump Pregnancy’, ‘WebMD Pregnancy’, ‘I’m Expecting’,’iPregnant’ and ‘My Pregnancy Today’ apps, for example, all offer an album feature for pregnant bump photos taken by the user of herself (described as a ‘bumpie’ in the blurb for ‘My Pregnancy Today’). ‘Baby Buddy’ encourages women to create a pregnant avatar of themselves (looking glamorous, well-dressed and happy). Some apps even advise users on how they should feel. As a screenshot from ‘Pregnancy Tracker Week by Week’ claims: ‘Victoria, your baby is growing in your body. You should be the happiest woman in the world.’Just as pregnancy games for little girls portrayal pregnancy as a commodified and asetheticised experience, the apps directed at pregnant women themselves tend to shy away from discomforting fleshly realities of pregnant and birthing embodiment. Pregnancy is represented as an enjoyable and fashionable state of embodiment: albeit one that requires constant self-surveillance and vigilance.‘Hello Mommy!’: The Personalisation and Aestheticisation of the FoetusA dominant feature of pregnancy-related apps is the representation of the foetus as already a communicative person in its own right. For example, the ‘Pregnancy Tickers – Widget’ app features the image of a foetus (looking far more like an infant, with a full head of wavy hair and open eyes) holding a pencil and marking a tally on the walls of the uterus. The app is designed to provide various icons showing the progress of the user’s pregnancy each day on her mobile device. The ‘Hi Mommy’ app features a cartoon-like pink and cuddly foetus looking very baby-like addressing its mother from the womb, as in the following message that appears on the user’s smartphone: ‘Hi Mommy! When will I see you for the first time?’ Several pregnancy-tracking apps also allow women to input the name that they have chosen for their expected baby, to receive customised notifications of its progress (‘Justin is nine weeks and two days old today’).Many apps also incorporate images of foetuses that represent them as wondrous entities, adopting the visual style of 1960s foetal photography pioneer Lennart Nilsson, or what Stormer (Stormer) has referred to as ‘prenatal sublimity’. The ‘Pregnancy+’ app features such images. Users can choose to view foetal development week-by-week as a colourful computerised animation or 2D and 3D ultrasound scans that have been digitally manipulated to render them aesthetically appealing. These images replicate the softly pink, glowing portrayals of miraculous unborn life typical of Nilsson’s style.Other apps adopt a more contemporary aesthetic and allow parents to store and manipulate images of their foetal ultrasounds and then share them via social media. The ‘Pimp My Ultrasound’ app, for example, invites prospective parents to manipulate images of their foetal ultrasounds by adding in novelty features to the foetal image such as baseball caps, jewellery, credit cards and musical instruments. The ‘Hello Mom’ app creates a ‘fetal album’ of ultrasounds taken of the user’s foetus, while the ‘Ultrasound Viewer’ app lets users manipulate their 3/4 D foetal ultrasound images: ‘Have fun viewing it from every angle, rotating, panning and zooming to see your babies [sic] features and share with your family and friends via Facebook and Twitter! … Once uploaded, you can customise your scan with a background colour and skin colour of your choice’.DiscussionPregnancy, like any other form of embodiment, is performative. Pregnant women are expected to conform to norms and assumptions about their physical appearance and deportment of their bodies that expect them to remain well-groomed, fit and physically attractive without appearing overly sexual (Longhurst "(Ad)Dressing Pregnant Bodies in New Zealand: Clothing, Fashion, Subjectivities and Spatialities"; Longhurst "'Corporeographies’ of Pregnancy: ‘Bikini Babes'"; Nash; Littler). Simultaneously they must negotiate the burden of bodily management in the interests of risk regulation. They are expected to protect their vulnerable unborn from potential dangers by stringently disciplining their bodies and policing to what substances they allow entry (Lupton The Social Worlds of the Unborn; Lupton "'Precious Cargo': Risk and Reproductive Citizenship"). Pregnancy self-tracking apps enact the soft politics of algorithmic authority, encouraging people to conform to expectations of self-responsibility and self-management by devoting attention to monitoring their bodies and acting on the data that they generate (Whitson; Millington "Amusing Ourselves to Life: Fitness Consumerism and the Birth of Bio-Games"; Lupton The Quantified Self: A Sociology of Self-Tracking).Many commentators have remarked on the sexism inherent in digital games (e.g. Dickerman, Christensen and Kerl-McClain; Thornham). Very little research has been conducted specifically on the gendered nature of app games. However our analysis suggests that, at least in relation to the pregnant woman, reductionist heteronormative, cisgendered, patronising and paternalistic stereotypes abound. In the games for girls, pregnant women are ideally young, heterosexual, partnered, attractive, slim and well-groomed, before, during and after birth. In self-tracking apps, pregnant women are portrayed as ideally self-responsible, enthused about their pregnancy and foetus to the point that they are counting the days until the birth and enthusiastic about collecting and sharing details about themselves and their unborn (often via social media).Ambivalence about pregnancy, the foetus or impending motherhood, and lack of interest in monitoring the pregnancy or sharing details of it with others are not accommodated, acknowledged or expected by these apps. Acknowledgement of the possibility of pregnant women who are not overtly positive about their pregnancy or lack interest in it or who identify as transgender or lesbian or who are sole mothers is distinctly absent.Common practices we noted in apps – such as giving foetuses names before birth and representing them as verbally communicating with their mothers from inside the womb – underpin a growing intensification around the notion of the unborn entity as already an infant and social actor in its own right. These practices have significant implications for political agendas around the treatment of pregnant women in terms of their protection or otherwise of their unborn, and for debates about women’s reproductive rights and access to abortion (Lupton The Social Worlds of the Unborn; Taylor The Public Life of the Fetal Sonogram: Technology, Consumption and the Politics of Reproduction). Further, the gamification and ludification of pregnancy serve to further commodify the experience of pregnancy and childbirth, contributing to an already highly commercialised environment in which expectant parents, and particularly mothers, are invited to purchase many goods and services related to pregnancy and early parenthood (Taylor "Of Sonograms and Baby Prams: Prenatal Diagnosis, Pregnancy, and Consumption"; Kroløkke; Thomson et al.; Taylor The Public Life of the Fetal Sonogram: Technology, Consumption and the Politics of Reproduction; Thomas).In the games for girls we examined, the pregnant woman herself was a commodity, a selling point for the app. The foetus was also frequently commodified in its representation as an aestheticised entity and the employment of its image (either as an ultrasound or other visual representations) or identity to market apps such as the girls’ games, apps for manipulating ultrasound images, games for predicting the foetus’ sex and choosing its name, and prank apps using fake ultrasounds purporting to reveal a foetus inside a person’s body. As the pregnant user engages in apps, she becomes a commodity in yet another way: the generator of personal data that are marketable in themselves. In this era of the digital data knowledge economy, the personal information about people gathered from their online interactions and content creation has become highly profitable for third parties (Andrejevic; van Dijck). Given that pregnant women are usually in the market for many new goods and services, their personal data is a key target for data mining companies, who harvest it to sell to advertisers (Marwick).To conclude, our analysis suggests that gamification and ludification strategies directed at pregnancy and childbirth can serve to obfuscate the societal pressures that expect and seek to motivate pregnant women to maintain physical fitness and attractiveness, simultaneously ensuring that they protect their foetuses from all possible risks. In achieving both ends, women are encouraged to engage in intense self-monitoring and regulation of their bodies. These apps also reproduce concepts of the unborn entity as a precious and beautiful already-human. These types of portrayals have important implications for how young girls learn about pregnancy and childbirth, for pregnant women’s experiences and for concepts of foetal personhood that in turn may influence women’s reproductive rights and abortion politics.ReferencesAndrejevic, Mark. Infoglut: How Too Much Information Is Changing the Way We Think and Know. New York: Routledge, 2013. Print.Bogost, Ian. "Why Gamification Is Bullshit." The Gameful World: Approaches, Issues, Applications. Eds. Steffen Walz and Sebastian Deterding. Boston, MA: MIT Press, 2015. 65-80. Print.Declercq, E.R., et al. Listening to Mothers III: Pregnancy and Birth. New York: Childbirth Connection, 2013. Print.Derbyshire, Emma, and Darren Dancey. "Smartphone Medical Applications for Women's Health: What Is the Evidence-Base and Feedback?" International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications (2013).Deterding, Sebastian, et al. "From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining Gamification." Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments. ACM, 2011. Dickerman, Charles, Jeff Christensen, and Stella Beatríz Kerl-McClain. "Big Breasts and Bad Guys: Depictions of Gender and Race in Video Games." Journal of Creativity in Mental Health 3.1 (2008): 20-29. Duden, Barbara. Disembodying Women: Perspectives on Pregnancy and the Unborn. Trans. Lee Hoinacki. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993. Frissen, Valerie, et al. "Homo Ludens 2.0: Play, Media and Identity." Playful Identities: The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures. Eds. Valerie Frissen et al. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press, 2015. 9-50. ———, eds. Playful Identities: The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2015. Hearn, Lydia, Margaret Miller, and Anna Fletcher. "Online Healthy Lifestyle Support in the Perinatal Period: What Do Women Want and Do They Use It?" Australian Journal of Primary Health 19.4 (2013): 313-18. Jones, Rhys, Jessica Pykett, and Mark Whitehead. "Big Society's Little Nudges: The Changing Politics of Health Care in an Age of Austerity." Political Insight 1.3 (2010): 85-87. Kraschnewski, L. Jennifer, et al. "Paging “Dr. Google”: Does Technology Fill the Gap Created by the Prenatal Care Visit Structure? Qualitative Focus Group Study with Pregnant Women." Journal of Medical Internet Research. 16.6 (2014): e147. Kroløkke, Charlotte. "On a Trip to the Womb: Biotourist Metaphors in Fetal Ultrasound Imaging." Women's Studies in Communication 33.2 (2010): 138-53. Littler, Jo. "The Rise of the 'Yummy Mummy': Popular Conservatism and the Neoliberal Maternal in Contemporary British Culture." Communication, Culture & Critique 6.2 (2013): 227-43. Longhurst, Robyn. "(Ad)Dressing Pregnant Bodies in New Zealand: Clothing, Fashion, Subjectivities and Spatialities." Gender, Place & Culture 12.4 (2005): 433-46. ———. "'Corporeographies’ of Pregnancy: ‘Bikini Babes'." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 18.4 (2000): 453-72. Lupton, Deborah. "Apps as Artefacts: Towards a Critical Perspective on Mobile Health and Medical Apps." Societies 4.4 (2014): 606-22. ———. "'Precious Cargo': Risk and Reproductive Citizenship." Critical Public Health 22.3 (2012): 329-40. ———. The Quantified Self: A Sociology of Self-Tracking. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016. ———. "Quantified Sex: A Critical Analysis of Sexual and Reproductive Self-Tracking Using Apps." Culture, Health & Sexuality 17.4 (2015): 440-53. ———. The Social Worlds of the Unborn. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Marwick, Alice. "How Your Data Are Being Deeply Mined." The New York Review of Books (2014). Millington, Brad. "Amusing Ourselves to Life: Fitness Consumerism and the Birth of Bio-Games." Journal of Sport & Social Issues 38.6 (2014): 491-508. ———. "Smartphone Apps and the Mobile Privatization of Health and Fitness." Critical Studies in Media Communication 31.5 (2014): 479-93. Nash, Meredith. Making 'Postmodern' Mothers: Pregnant Embodiment, Baby Bumps and Body Image. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. O'Higgins, A., et al. "The Use of Digital Media by Women Using the Maternity Services in a Developed Country." Irish Medical Journal 108.5 (2015). Raessens, Joost. "Playful Identities, or the Ludification of Culture." Games and Culture 1.1 (2006): 52-57. Rodger, D., et al. "Pregnant Women’s Use of Information and Communications Technologies to Access Pregnancy-Related Health Information in South Australia." Australian Journal of Primary Health 19.4 (2013): 308-12. Seneviratne, Suranga, et al. "Your Installed Apps Reveal Your Gender and More!" Mobile Computing and Communications Review 18.3 (2015): 55-61. Statista. "Number of Apps Available in Leading App Stores as of May 2015." 2015. Stormer, Nathan. "Looking in Wonder: Prenatal Sublimity and the Commonplace 'Life'." Signs 33.3 (2008): 647-73. Taylor, Janelle. "Of Sonograms and Baby Prams: Prenatal Diagnosis, Pregnancy, and Consumption." Feminist Studies 26.2 (2000): 391-418. ———. The Public Life of the Fetal Sonogram: Technology, Consumption and the Politics of Reproduction. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008. Thomas, Gareth M. "Picture Perfect: ‘4d’ Ultrasound and the Commoditisation of the Private Prenatal Clinic." Journal of Consumer Culture. Online first, 2015. Thomson, Rachel, et al. Making Modern Mothers. Bristol: Policy Press, 2011. Thornham, Helen. “'It's a Boy Thing'.” Feminist Media Studies 8.2 (2008): 127-42. Van Dijck, José. "Datafication, Dataism and Dataveillance: Big Data between Scientific Paradigm and Ideology." Surveillance & Society 12.2 (2014): 197-208. Whitson, Jennifer. "Gaming the Quantified Self." Surveillance & Society 11.1/2 (2013): 163-76.