The causes of disaster, both immediate and underlying, that resulted in 54 fatalities in Riga in November 2013 are analyzed in this paper. The collapse of the Maxima supermarket is seen as a safety failure resulting from longer-term deregulation in Latvia encouraged by external advisors such as...

This article outlines aconceptual framework for examining recentoutbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 infectionassociated with the consumption of beef in theUnited States. We argue that beef produced inthis country is generally safer frombacteriological contamination than in the past.Paradoxically,...

The outcome of the so-called <italic>Laval</italic> case and related judgments of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has led to a debate about the future of the European social model. Although several analyses have focused on the downside of the judgments, in particular on the risk of ‘wage dumping’, one...

Since 1990, following Lord Cullen's public inquiry into the Piper-Alpha disaster, the oil industry has spent approximately 2.6 billion pounds on safety improvements. The operators have co-operated with governmental authorities in the design of a new regulatory regime, based on the principles of...

Current, admittedly incomplete evidence, suggests a deteriorating working environment in the new Member States of central and eastern Europe. Moreover, support for occupational health and safety regulation concerning the working environment appears to be limited among business and political...