Consumer and environmental protection depend on the careful regulation of all classes of chemicals. Toxicology is the key science used to evaluate safety and so underpins regulatory decisions on chemicals. With the growing body of EU legislation involved in chemical regulation, there is a concomitant need to understand the toxicological principles underlying safety assessments Regulatory Toxicology in the European Union is the first book to cover regulatory toxicology specifically in Europe. It addresses the need for a wider understanding of the principles of regulatory toxicology and their application and presents the relationship between toxicology and legislative processes in regulating chemical commodities across Europe. This title has a broad scope, covering historical and current chemical regulation in Europe, the role of European agencies and institutions, and also the use of toxicology data for important classes of chemicals, including human and veterinary medicines, animal feed and food additives, biocides, pesticides and nanomaterials. This book is therefore extremely pertinent and timely in the toxicology field at present. This book is an essential reference for regulatory authorities, industrialists, academics, undergraduates and postgraduates working within safety and hazards, toxicology, the biological sciences, and the medicinal and pharmaceutical sciences across the European Union.

Health care reform has been a dominant theme in public discourse for decades now. The passage of the Affordable Care Act was a major milestone, but rather than quell the rhetoric, it has sparked even more heated debate. In the latest edition of Introduction to US Health Policy, Donald A. Barr reviews the current structure of the American health care system, describing the historical and political contexts in which it developed and the core policy issues that continue to confront us today. Barr's comprehensive analysis explores the various organizations and institutions that make the US health care system work-or fail to work. He describes in detail the paradox of US health care-simultaneously the best in the world and one of the worst among developed countries-while introducing readers to broad cultural issues surrounding health care policy, such as access, affordability, and quality. Barr also discusses specific elements of US health care with depth and nuance, including insurance, especially Medicare and Medicaid. He scrutinizes the shift to for-profit managed care while analyzing the pharmaceutical industry, issues surrounding long-term care, the plight of the uninsured, the prevalence of medical errors, and the troublesome issue of nursing shortages. The thoroughly updated edition of this widely adopted text focuses on the Affordable Care Act. It explains the steps taken to carry out the Act, the changes to the Act based on recent Supreme Court decisions, the success of the Act in achieving the combined goals of improved access to care and constraining the costs of care, and the continuing political controversy regarding its future. Drawing on an extensive range of resources, including government reports, scholarly publications, and analyses from a range of private organizations, Introduction to US Health Policy provides scholars, policymakers, and health care providers with a comprehensive platform of ideas that is key to understanding and influencing the changes in the US health care system.

Following the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), librarians are more frequently called upon to provide assistance with navigating the Health Insurance Marketplace and understanding health insurance terminology and forms. Libraries offer an ideal context for health insurance information seeking, as librarians have traditionally assisted with completing public assistance forms and are well-trained in ascertaining and meeting information needs. This book is designed to serve as a practical guide for librarians seeking to learn more about the ACA; locate authoritative, nonbiased information regarding the ACA; and serve patrons searching for ACA information for personal or research purposes. While the book focuses specifically on the unique role that health sciences librarians play in serving the general public, health care providers, biomedical researchers, and health sciences students, the book contains guidance relevant to any information professional working with ACA information. Tailored to a librarian audience, this authoritative guide from the Medical Library Association begins with a general introduction to the Affordable Care Act, highlighting the aspects of the ACA legislation most pertinent to librarians. The following chapter focuses on the role of the librarian in relation to ACA implementation. Next, a chapter on health insurance literacy provides a foundation for those seeking to familiarize themselves with research on individuals' understanding of health insurance concepts. The following chapter builds on this foundation, discussing how a librarian can breakdown an ACA question, including a step-by-step guide. The last part of the book focuses on trends in ACA and health insurance information provision. It begins with a general overview of the types of ACA information services librarians are providing. Next, ten librarians are highlighted as case studies of the types on information services provided by health sciences librarians responding to ACA information needs. These chapters are designed to serve as springboards for those librarians interested in learning best practices and recommendations. The last chapter contains an authoritative list of recommended, unbiased ACA resources. This annotated bibliography is an excellent place for librarians to familiarize themselves with ACA logistical information as well as locate authoritative resources on insurance terminology. As librarians are increasingly being called upon to address health insurance information needs from the general public as well as researchers, this text provides concrete, helpful advice in providing unbiased, evidence-based answers.

This book contributes towards EU studies and the growing discourse on law and public health. It uses the EU's governance of public health as a lens through which to explore questions of legal competence and its development through policy and concrete techniques, processes and practices, risk and security, human rights and bioethics, accountability and legitimacy, democracy and citizenship, and the nature, essence and 'future trajectory' of the European integration project. These issues are explored first by situating the EU's public health strategy within the overarching architecture of governance and subsequently by examining its operationalisation in relation to the key public health problems of cancer, HIV/AIDS and pandemic planning. The book argues that the centrality and valorisation of scientific and technical knowledge and expertise in the EU's risk-based governance means that citizen participation in decision-making is largely marginalised and underdeveloped - and that this must change if public health and the quality, accountability and legitimacy of EU governance and its regulation are to be improved. Subsequently the book goes on to argue that the legitimating discourses of ethics and human rights, and the developing notion of EU (supra-)stewardship responsibility, can help to highlight the normative dimensions of governance and its interventions in public health. These discourses and dimensions provide openings and possibilities for citizens to power 'technologies of participation' and contribute important supplementary knowledge to decision-making.