European periodic system

Part IV deals with the northern European periphery, including the three Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. The chapters in this part describe indifference to the periodic system, much as in France, but for different reasons. Chapter 7 (by Anders Lundgren) explains that a long-standing practical and atheoretical tradition of Swedish chemistry was unaffected by the periodic system, with many new elements discovered by Swedish chemists independently of the system. Because Swedish chemists at the time had little interest in theory, they did not require any explanation of the periodicity of the elements. Nor was the periodic system used as a pedagogical tool for textbooks. Lundgren contends that Mendeleev s periodic system might not have been as important as historians of chemistry have traditionally believed. 

The case of the Russian response to the periodic system was different from other cases, because of the presence of Mendeleev. He not only discovered the periodic law, but also within two years showed its possible consequences, firmly grounding his conclusions on his concept of elements. As the main figure of the newly founded Russian Chemical Society, he succeeded in persuading most of the leading chemists in Russia of the validity of the periodic law by 1871. His famous chemistry textbook Osnovy khimii (The Principles of Chemistry), which continued to be revised for the rest of his life, including translations into the major European languages, played a significant role in the dissemination of the periodic system. 

German subjects of the Russian Empire played an important role in promulgating the periodic system both inside and outside of Russia. This German mediation was another important factor for the acceptance of the periodic system. Victor von Richter, for example, conveyed new developments of the Russian chemical community to Germany as a correspondent for the German Chemical Society. He wrote extremely popular chemistry textbooks, one of the first ones based on the periodic system. His books both in Russian and German were not only published in many editions, but also translated into major European languages. 

Three elements Mendeleev had predicted were discovered by European chemists. Two Britons, Newlands and Odling, are among six originators of the periodic system identified by both Scerri and van Spronsen. In the second half of the research period, 1895-1920, several very significant discoveries were made by other British scientists including Ramsay, Thomson, Soddy, and Moseley, mostly future Nobel Prize winners. 

The personality of Bohuslav Brauner (1855-1935) embodies the multiethnic and multicultural environment of the Habsburg Monarchy. He was predestined by his outstanding chemical education, parentage, social status, and prominent position of his family in the Czech society, to assume significant position among the Czech and European chemists. Some moments in his biography are a key to understanding his role in the acceptance of the periodic system. ... 

The idea of a comparative project on the early reception of the periodic system occurred to one of the editors (Masanori Kaji) during the 6th Science and Technology in the European Periphery (STEP) meeting in Istanbul in June, 2008. 

The main intense sweeteners currently permitted for use in the major markets of Europe and the United States are not natural and have had to go through a food additive approval procedure. Within the European Union, approval is controlled by the EU Commission, with the aim of achieving harmonisation across member states. The current system allows for temporary national approval (and this was the mechanism by which sucralose was approved in the United Kingdom). This in turn allows the other EU countries time to review the data and either approve or reject each product within a specified period. Within the European Union, approved sweeteners are assigned an E number and can also be assigned a maximum use level within a specific application (e.g. soft drinks). The maximum use levels for sweeteners in soft drinks in the European Union are given in Table 4.2. 

This group of compounds disrupt the uptake of adrenal hormones by nerve cells and stimulate the cardiovascular system. When they are used over a prolonged period, three to four months, they also induce a redistribution of fat to muscle tissue. This group of compounds has been used illegally as feed additives in some European member states as an alternative to the banned hormonal growth promoters. However, the quality of the meat produced where these compounds have been used, is of a poor quality. 

Some other analysts express the opposite concern, that prices might rise to levels deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to European industry, and that to prevent this risk the system should contain a price cap or safety valve (e.g. Bouttes et al., 2006). Our assessment of phase II, in terms of both supply-demand balance and the economics of competitiveness over the 5-year period, leads us to be sceptical that this is a realistic concern. It is, however, true that a planned response to any such eventuality would be better than a panic-based reaction such as occurred in the California NOx trading system. Should prices rise to levels that were judged to pose a credible threat to competitiveness of a particular sector, and State-aid rules prevented auction revenues being used to assist it (or the country concerned had not conducted any auctions), the most obvious first step would be to relax supplementarity constraints, and possibly expand the scope of emission credits that could qualify for compliance purposes. We do not consider issues of price ceilings or safety valves beyond this. 

This issue might be more problematic, were the Commission, the Regulatory Committee and/or the Council to take the view that it would not be possible to make the appropriate amendments to Annex III without this undermining the system and provisions of the main text of the Directive -and the main text could only be amended by legislation, adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the Council, after a process that could well be too lengthy to effect the required changes before the commencement of the next reference period. 

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