Norwegian Climate Policy: From Pusher to Laggard?

Initially Norwegian climate policy was very ambitious and Norway stood forth as a pusher on the international scene. Over time Norwegian policy has become more sober, stressing the need for differentiated commitments and flexible implementation. In contrast to the initial enthusiastic phase, climate change policy has been increasingly seen in pragmatic economic terms. Still, Norway is no laggard, as it has shown more willingness to pay for abatement measures than many other countries.     

Knowledge-based management of protected areas and hydropower: the case of Norway

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - How has ecological knowledge been applied in Norwegian management of hydropower and protected areas? By recognizing a diversity...     

Co-offending and the diversification of crime types

There is theoretical and empirical support for co-offending being important not only for understanding current offending but also subsequent offending. The fundamental question is--why? In this article, an aggregate analysis is performed that begins to answer this question. Disaggregating solo- and co-offending by single year of age (12-29 years) and crime type in a largely metropolitan data set from British Columbia, Canada, 2002 to 2006, it is shown that the distribution of co-offences is significantly more varied than the distribution of solo offences. This more varied distribution of co-offences favors property crimes during youth but fades as offenders age.     

Investigations on the cause of death in a polytoxicomanic patient treated with wires and intermaxillary fixation for a chronic, infected mandibular fracture

The case of a 36-year-old male and former patient is presented who died for initially unknown reasons, with intermaxillary wire fixation for the treatment of an infected mandibular fracture still in place. The combined investigation of forensic experts and maxillofacial surgeons excluded aspiration and asphyxia as cause of death. Evidence was found for lethal methadone concentrations after intravenous drug abuse and a broncho pneumonia. Despite the clear evidence of a fatal intoxication in this case, caution must be exercised when dealing with individuals carrying intermaxillary fixation.     

Suicidal monointoxication with flunitrazepam. Further comment on coloration phenomena of the upper gastrointestinal tract

Fatal monointoxications with benzodiazepines, for instance with a suicidal intention, are exceptional findings. We report the autopsy case of an 82-year-old woman who died due to a suicidal monointoxication with Rohypnol 1 mg film tablets (therapeutical agent: flunitrazepam). 0.065 mg/L flunitrazepam and 0.34 mg/L 7-aminoflunitrazepam were detected in a postmortem heart blood sample and toxicological analysis revealed the metabolite 7-aminoflunitrazepam in gastric contents, too. At external examination, a bluish-turquoise coloration was seen around the woman's right nostril and within the oral cavity. At autopsy, similar coloration phenomena were seen on the mucosa of the distal esophagus and the stomach. Formerly, bluish stains on mouth and nostrils were considered indicative of intoxications with organophosphates such as parathion (E 605). More recently, case reports accumulate where an intoxication with Rohypnol 1 film tablets (containing the coloring agent indigocarmine in its core) have to be considered as a potential differential diagnosis of such coloration phenomena.     

Fatal methanol intoxication with different survival times--morphological findings and postmortem methanol distribution

Three corresponding cases of fatal methanol intoxication with different survival times were investigated ante-mortem and postmortem. Ante-mortem serum methanol concentrations were determined during treatment in hospital for 4 days. Furthermore, postmortem distribution of methanol in various tissues and fluids was measured after autopsy. Morphological and toxicological findings are discussed based on the literature. The morphological findings correlated with the different survival times. The results of the toxicological analyses were partly in keeping with previously published data. Interestingly, very high methanol levels were determined in brain with very low concentrations in femoral venous blood. These results may have implications for postmortem toxicological analysis, brain death diagnosis and organ explanation for transplantation.     

Regulating the invisible: interaction between the EU and Norway in managing nano-risks

Over the last decade, the need for governance of human health and environmental safety risks of nanotechnology (NT) has received increased attention at international, national and EU levels. There were early calls for increased funding of independent research, risk analysis and voluntary or mandatory regulation, but currently overall regulatory efforts have not materialised. One possible explanation is that research has revealed little need to regulate environmental and health safety risks of NT. Alternatively, there is a gap between politics and governance and the evolving state of knowledge. Such a gap can be caused by various factors including change in interests, saliency and organisation. Organisational challenges related to the science–policy interface at national, international and the EU can affect how new knowledge is channelled into decision-making processes. Decrease in public saliency is another possibility. Finally, opposition to regulation among affected producers may have increased and in turn stalled regulation through lobbying. The two explanations are analysed in a multi-level governance context. Norway is chosen as an interesting case: Highly profiled as a frontrunner i.a. in regulating gene technology, but currently awaiting regulations in the EU due to the European Economic Area agreement.