Consumers Australia

Figure 12.14 Plastics recycling rates by resin type (pre- and post-consumer), Australia, 2000. ...

Several alternative technologies that were heavily supported failed to become commercially viable. The most obvious case was the fast breeder reactor. Such reactors are designed to produce more fissionable material from nonfissionable uranium than is consumed. The effort was justified by fears of uranium exhaustion made moot by massive discoveries in Australia and Canada. Prior to these discoveries extensive programs to develop breeder reactors were government-supported. In addition, several different conventional reactor technologies were aided. The main ongoing nuclear effort is research to develop a means to effect controlled fusion of atoms. 

The consumer movement, particularly the Consumers Health Fomm, also has considerable political influence. As a result of political pressure exerted by HIV/AIDS pressure groups and industry, the DRA was reviewed, new legislation introduced and new committees established to ensure that the regulatory authority responded more efficiently to public and political needs. Professional associations, especially the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, have traditionally played an active role in decisions related to pharmaceutical regulation. The Australian Pharmaceutical Advisory Council was established by the Australian Government to advise the Commonwealth Minister for Health on pharmaceutical policy. 

In terms of the influence exerted by the public and the private sectors on dmg regulation, these 10 countries can be placed along a continuum, as depicted in Figure 3.3 below. Cuba, where the Government has exclusive power over regulatory decisions, is at one extreme, and Australia, where consumers and the pharmaceutical industry have official representation and make recommendations to the TGA, at the other. 

Consumer ADR reports are collected in the Netherlands, although as a result of consumer participation rather than by design. The dmg information telephone line of the Royal Dutch Association for the Advancement of Pharmacy was initially created merely to provide information to the public on all aspects of dmg use, but it has also become an additional source of ADR reports. In Australia, an ADR reporting system for consumers is planned. 

This study has found that dmg regulation does not meet these requirements in all the countries studied. In some countries, legislation omits or exempts certain areas of pharmaceutical activity from the scope of control. In Australia, Malaysia and the Netherlands, legislation requires traditional/herbal medicines to be assessed and registered. But this is not the case in Cypms, Uganda or Zimbabwe. As a result of such gaps, dmg regulation provides only partial protection for consumers. 

In Australia, therapeutic goods manufactured for export are not subject to the same standards as those consumed locally. Moreover, therapeutic goods that are manufactured by an unincorporated individual, and goods that are not traded across a state boundary, are exempt goods and not subject to control or registration. Use of double standards in the case of exported products raises questions of fairness in international public health. 

In EU countries, the principle behind directives for collection, recovery, and reuse has been EPR, making producers responsible for the take-back of e-waste. Canada and Australia are among other countries developing systems based on these principles. Japan s Reuse, Recycling and Recovery system differs in some ways, while still promoting take-back by manufacturers. The most salient difference is the direct payment of recycling costs by Japanese consumers. 

In 1973, global consumption of nickel was 660,000 tons and that of the United States 235,000 tons (Sevin 1980). End uses of nickel in the United States in 1973 were transportation (21%), chemicals (15%), electrical goods (13%), fabricated metal products (10%), petroleum (9%), construction (9%), machinery (7%), and household appliances (7% IARC 1976). A similar pattern was evident for 1985 (Table 6.3). In 1988, 40% of all nickel intermediate products consumed was in the production of steel 21% was in alloys, 17% in electroplating, and 12% in super alloys (USPHS 1993). The pattern for 1985 was similar (Table 6.3). In Canada, nickel is the fourth most important mineral commodity behind copper, zinc, and gold. In 1990, Canada produced 197,000 tons of nickel worth 2.02 billion dollars and was the second largest global producer of that metal (Chau and Kulikovsky-Cordeiro 1995). Most of the nickel used in the United States is imported from Canada and secondarily from Australia and New Caledonia (USPHS 1977). 

Consumers can also take a more aggressive response, which might be to demand restitution or to try and change the market structure by campaigning for new laws, guidelines, or regulatory systems. Both of these responses can critically wound an industry. In Australia, tainted metwurst caused several known deaths and resulted in an economic boycott of the entire metwurst industry. Now, many years after the fact, the industry is still decimated. 

No milk can be considered hormone free as natural hormones are always present. The question that has been under heated debate since approximately 1995 is whether the bovine somatotropin hormone (BST) injected into cows to increase milk production results in harmful levels of hormone in milk. The use of BST, which is based upon an economic return rather than any health benefit to the animal, raises two important questions what are the health risks to the human consumer, primarily children and what are the effects on the animals It is fairly well accepted that the use of BST increases the incidence of mastitis and therefore the potential for increased residues of antibiotic and antimicrobials in milk. Because of this Canada, Australia, Japan, the U.K., and other European Union countries decided that the health impact on animals was unacceptable and that BST was not to be used in their jurisdictions. Their decisions were not based upon any human health concerns, but strictly on concerns for animal health. 

Several PFCs have been detected in human blood from populations in North and South America, Asia, Australia and Europe [48, 67, 143-146]. Different studies in Europe showed that PFOS is one of the more frequent compound present in human blood [48, 147], and the highest PFOS concentrations were found in Poland, followed by Belgium, being comparable to Sweden, with lowest concentrations in Italy [37]. These results indicate differences in exposure across Europe. However, the sources and pathways of human exposure to PECs are currently not well understood [27]. The wide variety of industrial and consumer applications leads to numerous possibilities for release of PECs into the environment and subsequent exposures to humans via environmental routes and media. However, the relative uniform distribution of blood concentrations of PECs in children and the majority of adult populations points to a common major source, possibly food. 

In August 2003, the Department of Health and Medicines Australia, representing the prescription medicines industry, commenced a joint review of the listing processes post-PBAC. The review s main objective was to advise on any necessary post-PBAC (pPBAC) changes. .. which would improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire process in order to achieve earliest possible subsidised access for consumers to cost-effective medicines, while minimising the regulatory burden on industry. ... 

Prescription medicines may only be advertised to healthcare professionals - they may not be advertised to consumers. Advertisements of prescription medicines directed at healthcare professionals are regulated under a self-regulatory Code of Conduct administered by Medicines Australia. First published in 1960, it includes... 

It was reported that about ten tons of by-catch oilfish and escolar were sun-dried and consumed annually in Japan before the sale prohibition was implemented (Mori et al., 1966c). Up to 400 tons of escolar are caught annually in Australia (Shadbolt et al., 2002). In 2003, escolar catch accounted for up to 16,501 tons of total by-catch species in longline fishing conducted by the Southern and Western Tima and Billfish Fishery... 

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