Search Results for: Environmental health

Knitwear microfactories have been expanding in number this year (2023) due to industrial, regulatory and societal changes accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Manufacturers have been eyeing the potential of small-scale, high-tech facilities, which can streamline production and be better suited to operate on an on-demand basis than larger plants.…

The secretiveness with which China guards its tobacco news and figures – even of tobacco leaf production – says much about the state’s priorities under President Xi Jinping. This strongman leader who has of late prioritised security/repression over economic growth, has blocked the site of the China National Tobacco Corporation (CNTC), the national tobacco monopoly, to users outside China.…

As a chemical-based sector, the paint and coatings industry is particularly sensitive to changes to environmental regulation, and while governments have a duty to protect the planet and its human health, they need to avoid damaging manufacturers in the process.

Unfortunately for the British paint and coatings industry, the UK government has been failing to efficiently replace the European Union’s (EU) REACH chemical control system with a UK REACH, following Britain’s December 2020 exit from the EU.…

Human trafficking and modern slavery have grown exponentially in recent years: in 2021, 50 million people worldwide were estimated to be living in modern slavery, 10 million more than in 2016, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). (1) These crimes – sometimes referred to with the acronym HT-MS – are extremely profitable, ahead of narcotics and arms trafficking, according to Tarana Baghirova, programme officer at the Organisation for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) in Europe.…

With ChatGPT and related large language model (LLM) systems being adopted by a wide range of industries, landowners and farmers are increasingly assessing the benefits that artificial intelligence (AI) can bring to their businesses. The potential is clear – from sharper land valuations for sellers and data enabling enhanced biodiversity programmes for environmentalists to better animal welfare and crop production, especially from improved weather forecasting.…

The sustainability of the global fashion industry is coming under increased scrutiny. Concerns about how the industry uses water, chemicals and human labour, its greenhouse gas emissions and the mounting landfilling of ‘fast fashion’ disposables, have led politicians, sustainability activists and consumers to put pressure on the industry to change.…

The European Commission’s revision of the European Union (EU) Waste Framework Directive, likely to incentivise EU companies that ensure their products are designed with circularity principles, is just one reason why the the textile dyeing and finishing segment is innovating over reducing waste.…

The signing of the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (A-UKFTA) may have created one new trade deal, but it is regarded in contrasting lights by the two countries’ respective dairy industries.

On the UK-side, industry association Dairy UK regards this as an unequal deal, giving British exporters little to leverage.…

The European personal care product industry is facing a barrage of new European Union (EU) regulations, with a review of the 2009 Cosmetics Products Regulation (CPR) (1) being combined with environmental reforms. These changes, debated at the 2023 annual conference of personal care product industry association Cosmetics Europe – called ‘Preparing for the Future’- will be a major challenge.…

Higher education institutions harmed by a five-years-old Islamist insurgency in Mozambique’s northern Muslim-majority province Cabo Delgado province, are reluctant to restart operations, despite security guarantees from the Mozambican military, and their allied forces from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).…