Improving young people’s health and well-being

Adolescents make up about one sixth of the world's population, so policy and practice that improves the lives of young people is hugely beneficial now and for the future. In the current economic climate, most countries in Europe are faced with widening socioeconomic inequalities. It is key to our understanding of how these inequalities impact on young people’s health, to be able to track and measure the differences in health outcomes among children of deprived versus affluent families. The Family Affluence Scale (FAS) devised by Professor Candace Currie, of the School of Medicine, has been used to describe and quantify socioeconomic inequalities in health among young people across Europe and North America and these findings have been published by the World Health Organisation in their report ‘Social Determinants of Health and Wellbeing among Young People’. The indicator has been adapted within the context of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC), a major international study which involves 43 countries across Europe and North America. FAS has been used to demonstrate that material deprivation impacts negatively on wide ranging aspect of adolescent well-being, including mental health, social relations, bullying, physical activity, eating habits and obesity. This evidence has been incorporated into policy events including WHO-HBSC Forums, bringing together policy makers and health programme developers from all over Europe to discuss the relevance of the findings for guiding their work. The Child and Adolescent Health Research Unit (CAHRU), established by Professor Candace Currie in 2000 and at the St Andrews since 2011, has been designated World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre for International Child and Adolescent Health Policy.

Tackling the global tobacco epidemic with geochemistry

One in two smokers will succumb to a smoking-related disease and one billion deaths in the 21st century will be attributable to smoking. The World Health Organisation (WHO) is responding to this global epidemic with a variety of strategies within the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to which 176 countries are signatories. Geochemical research at the University of St Andrews has contributed to FCTC policies and supports their implementation by chemically characterising and monitoring potentially toxic environmental metals such as arsenic and cadmium in tobacco. The group’s research has been helping to combat the global trade in illicit tobacco and its major consequences for health and for government revenues through taxation and criminal activity.

The science 

Approximately 5% of tobacco (dry weight) is inorganic with its origins in soils, atmospheric particles (natural and anthropogenic pollutants) and agrochemicals. Some of this is taken up through the plant roots while particles tend to adhere to the sticky and hairy surface of the leaf. Among this diversity of material are several “heavy metals”. Fundamental to determining whether these metals or metalloids might be toxic to humans is their chemical form (valence and molecular speciation). The contribution each metal makes to the harmful effects of tobacco smoke is determined by a combination of concentration and speciation. As a result of research conducted in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (e.g. Analysis of non-organic elements in plant foliage using polarised X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2004.08.015 and Source and health implications of high toxic metal concentrations in illicit tobacco products, DOI: 10.1021/es049038s), it became clear that toxic metal concentrations, determined primarily by geographical location and legal status, varied by an order of magnitude. The speciation of arsenic in tobacco has now been determined and combustion (i.e. smoking) has been shown to generate the most toxic form (inorganic trivalent arsenic) in respirable smoke (e.g. Controls on the Valence Species of Arsenic in Tobacco Smoke: XANES Investigation with Implications for Health and Regulation, DOI: 10.1021/es4039243).

Principal components analysis of inorganic elements in tobacco
from global sources demonstrating provincial variability.

Using an archive of tobaccos collected over more than a decade from most parts of the world, it proved possible for the first time to identify provinciality among tobaccos products. The figure illustrates that significant differences exist at the continental scale at least. This feature can be used to constrain the geographical origins of illicit products. The same dataset helps to identify regions on a global scale where tobacco smoking represents a major source of exposure to toxic metals.

Health and economic benefits 
Since 2004 FCTC has been the main driver of national and global policy on tobacco control. It is predicted that full implementation of FCTC will prevent over seven million premature deaths by 2050. The unexpected discovery by the University of St Andrews group of high toxic metal concentrations, including carcinogens such as cadmium and arsenic, in most counterfeit tobacco products prompted HMCE (now HMRC) to run a nationwide information campaign in 2004 ("Counterfeit Cigarettes") sponsored by HM Treasury. The illicit share of the UK cigarette market at that time was 18% but was halved to 9% by 2012-13. Evidence presented in Treasury revenue reports indicates that revenues recovered due to the range of UK policies for reducing the supply and demand for illicit tobacco since 2006 may exceed £1 billion. Evidence of the harmful nature of illicit products from the St Andrews laboratories was used to support this effort. Globally over $31 billion is lost in tax revenue. It has been suggested that 164,000 premature deaths might be avoided annually if illicit tobacco was eliminated.

The University of St Andrews research into toxic metals in commercial cigarettes also highlighted legal Chinese tobacco products as among the most heavily contaminated so far analysed (Cigarettes sold in China: design, emissions and metals, DOI: 10.1136/tc.2009.030163). China is the world’s largest tobacco-growing nation with the largest number of smokers. The adverse impact on health of habitual use of contaminated products by the Chinese population is not yet quantifiable but could be considerable. Currently, it accounts for one million deaths annually from tobacco use.

Protecting our Ocean’s future

Public need for better methods to monitor, manage and protect international marine assets has motivated sonar methodologies research by Dr Richard Bates, of the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, and colleagues that has led to the establishment of over 107 internationally important sites of Marine Special Areas of Conservation and Marine Special Protection Areas. In 2009, all principal UK Conservation Organisations (e.g. Natural England, Joint Nature Conservancy Council, Scottish Natural Heritage) adopted, as mandatory, procedures on sonar methodologies for benthic habitat survey, developed by Bates et al. within their conservation guidelines. The sonar methods used are part of internationally adopted practice, for example on fisheries protection sites, while at the same time providing stunning visualisation widely used for public understanding of the sites.


Since the early successes of the multibeam programme for habitat evaluation, a parallel research stream was developed for its use in studies of environmental change resulting from climate fluctuations.In particular a programme of research was stimulated by ground-breaking work on marine terminating glaciers in the Arctic highlighted by a series of films made for Greenpeace and the UN Climate Change Conference. The study of rapidly retreating glaciers and areas of sea-ice melt in Greenland, habitats to some of our most threatened species, such as the polar bear has since been the focus of documentaries for the BBC including Frozen Planet and the award-winning 2012 BBC programme, Operation Iceberg. As the marine environment continues to be the focus of every intensifying exploitation, new methods of analysing habitats and their inhabitants are being developed. The latest sonar technology, 3D real-time methods is the focus for recent work on cetaceans such as Orca and is now being explored by other research centres around the world, for example in Woods Hole, USA.

Pacific Connections: Euro-American and Pacific knowledge exchange

The Min peoples of Papua New Guinea are renowned for their secret male initiation rituals. These knowledge-practices are a long-standing interpretative impasse known as the ‘Min Problem’ which has for over forty years defeated anthropologists. Dr Tony Crook, Director of the Centre for Pacific Studies (Department of Social Anthropology) found a solution to the ‘Min Problem’, which was the understanding of the meaning of knowledge itself. A key finding was that the Min peoples take the differentiation and incommensurability of “knowers” and what they know for granted, and work by accommodating diverse positions rather than attempting to homogenise them. In this way, they avoid offending and collapsing the relations through which knowledge is made effective (2009). Thus, for the Min peoples, 'knowledge' (kál) is a water-like substance in the skin (kal) that circulates between people, plants and food gardens (Anthropological Knowledge, Secrecy and Bolivip, Papua New Guinea: Exchanging Skin (British Academy/OUP)). Knowing this, the problem of conventional Euro-American encounters with Pacific lifeworlds was not simply a matter of cultural difference, but a completely different insight into knowledge exchange and understanding.

Prof. Christina Toren, of the Department of Social Anthropology, 

at a Pacific Connections event at the European Parliament.

Dr Crook has since trialled and developed a practical method, ‘Pacific Connections’, for knowledge-exchange that acknowledges the value of respecting and creating differentiation as the relational basis for meaningful dialogue with Pacific peoples. Dr Crook’s research has been presented at the Westminster and European Parliaments, and led to invitations to speak to UK Ministers, EU Commissioners and Pacific Ambassadors on Climate Change and Millennium Development Goals. Dr Crook is implementing a research-policy knowledge-exchange for the EU European External Action Service (EEAS) Pacific Division and the European Commission in order to enhance the effectiveness of the EU’s presence and support in the Pacific region.

Setting Penalties for Competition Policy

Most countries have competition authorities that enforce competition policy by identifying, stopping and penalising what are regarded as anti-competitive practices. The research of Professor David Ulph, of the School of Economics and Finance, and Professor Yannis Katsoulacos, Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) established for the first time the precise conditions under which, generally, an Effects-Based legal standard would be better than a Per Se legal standard in terms of (i) decision error costs and (ii) deterrence effects (2009). This and subsequent research led to their results that: (a) while legal uncertainty may sometimes be an argument for zero penalties, there were other circumstances under which it might lead to higher penalties; (b) timing factors imply that penalties should be lower than previous research suggested. These influenced the penalty policies of competition authorities in two countries: in the UK the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) – now superseded by the Competition & Markets Authority – and in France the Autorité de la Concurrence (AdC). For OFT the research contributed to the formulation of revisions to their published penalty guidelines, and specifically a proposed increase in baseline penalty from 10% to 30% of revenue. For AdC it helped shape the formulation of the penalty guidelines that they published for the first time.
The research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Changing the governance of the credit union sector in Ireland

Conceptual Impact 

Professor John Wilson’s (School of Management) research has increased understanding of how credit unions have developed in different countries. Such work is especially important in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008, as many countries seek to strengthen their retail financial sectors. The research has had wide-ranging impact internationally on the ways in which policy makers, regulators and practitioners view the sector. Specifically, as part of the Irish Commission on Credit Unions, Wilson’s work was taken up in reports which made a raft of recommendations that were later adopted to form the basis for new legislation (Credit Union and Co-operation with Overseas Regulators Act 2012). This new legislation in turn has affected the governance, regulation, stabilisation policy and structure of the credit union sector in Ireland.

 

Instrumental Impact 

The non-academic reach of Wilson’s research is demonstrated by commissioned reports for the Scottish and Irish Governments and invited talks at the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Washington and at Westminster Briefing Events in London (amongst others). The clearest and most significant impact of this research has been its influence on the credit union sector in Ireland where credit unions are central to the financial services sector (with 70% of the adult population members of credit unions). In 2011, following an IMF and EU bailout, the Irish government established the Credit Union Commission to investigate and make recommendations about their future role and operation. Due to his previous research on credit unions, Wilson was one of two academics appointed by the Irish government to the Credit Union Commission. His previous research and expertise were integral to the production of a report (2012) that formed the basis for legislative change. This led to structural change in the industry. The Minister for Finance for the Irish Government asserted that ‘the work of the Commission will inform Government policy on credit unions for the foreseeable future’; and the head of credit union policy at the Central Bank of Ireland noted that ‘the Commission considered and discussed many issues in relation to credit unions and these discussions were informed by John Wilson’s knowledge of, and research on, credit union movements around the world’. Wilson fed the results of his research into the Commission’s deliberations, and many of his findings and insights were subsequently reflected in the Commission’s interim and final reports:

• Interim Report of the Commission on Credit Unions. Dublin: Ministry of Finance, April 2012.  
• Final Report of the Commission on Credit Unions. Dublin: Ministry of Finance, April 2012.  

 

Capacity Building Impact 

The final report contained over 60 recommendations, which covered corporate governance, prudential regulation, stabilisation policy and sector re-structuring via the establishment of a credit union restructuring board.

The CEO of the Irish League of Credit Unions concluded that ‘Professor Wilson’s interventions went a long way to ensuring that the recommendations, and by extension the legislative provisions based on those recommendations, benefited from his suggestions regarding the workability of various options based on his experience of other jurisdictions’.

The Commission’s recommendations were endorsed by the Irish Ministry of Finance and approved by the troika of the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission. They were used directly to inform legislation in the shape of the Credit Union and Co-operation with Overseas Regulators Act 2012. The Commission’s report and its underpinning research have also received widespread media coverage in Ireland. In short, Wilson’s research informed much of the Commission’s deliberations and recommendations, which were subsequently adopted by the Irish Government and ratified in parliament via the production of new legislation. This new legislation in turn has been instrumental in affecting the corporate governance, prudential regulation, stabilisation policy and structure of the credit union sector in Ireland (much of which is contained in a new Credit Union Handbook published by the Central Bank of Ireland in September 2013). The Credit Union Restructuring Board in Ireland is currently engaged in facilitating the restructuring of the sector.

The influence of research in policy and practice

The rationale behind the Research Unit for Research Utilisation (RURU), established in 2001, is the belief that the ways in which research is combined with other forms of evidence and knowledge is likely to have important impacts on the nature, distribution, effectiveness, efficiency and quality of public services. RURU, comprising Professor Sandra Nutley, Professor Huw Davies and colleagues in the School of Management, has focused on increasing understanding of research use in public policy and practice settings, and has helped to transform thinking from ideas of one-way ‘knowledge transfer’ towards more situated and interactive models, which aim to influence organisational as well as individual behaviour.

The book, ‘USING EVIDENCE: How research can inform public services' (2007), and other publications and interactions have influenced and encouraged more effective research policy, better public policy making and improved public service delivery. Those influenced include research funding bodies and government departments in the UK, Australia, Canada, USA and Scandinavia. The result has included more effective research and evaluation investment and redesigned knowledge sharing activities. Using evidence and a subsequent paper, What counts as good evidence?, was picked up by UK Cabinet Office advisors on the operation of the What Works centres, which have been established to guide decision-making on £200 billion of public spending.

Marine Mammal Conservation: from policy change to bycatch reduction

The research undertaken from 1996 to 2013 by researchers of the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) of the School of Biology focused on the accurate measurement of marine mammal populations and distributions in UK and EU waters. As a result of evidence that the research provided to government:

• effective conservation of marine mammals has been put in place in UK, EU and international waters
• UK and EU policy objectives have been defined for marine mammal conservation 
• UK obligations to EU legislation are being delivered
• marine mammal bycatch has been reduced by over 90% in key fisheries 

Marine mammals spend most of their lives under water and are typically highly mobile and difficult to study. This has necessitated the development within SMRU of new data collection technologies and statistical analysis methodologies to ensure that estimates of population abundance and mortality rates are robust. New techniques include:

• “sparse data sampling” from boats or aircraft, to give robust estimates of marine mammal population density and distribution 
• new telemetry technology which allow individual animals to be tagged and their behaviour and movements to be logged and recovered via satellite or mobile phone 

In 2011, SMRU was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for excellence in applied research promoting best practice in the health and governance of the ocean environment.

Harbour seal decline 
SMRU scientists have accurately quantified the decline in populations of harbour seals in UK waters in the period 2000-07 [research article: DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2007.00311.x], demonstrating that populations were dropping significantly in diverse locations from Shetland to the Wash, but were stable or increasing in the Hebrides. SMRU’s research has been instrumental in the development of policy on marine mammal conservation at an EU level, such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) (2010) which, together with the EU Habitats Directive (1992), places legal obligations on Member States to assess and report on the conservation status of their marine mammal populations. The large majority of the information on cetacean distribution and abundance used by the UK to report under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive was generated by SMRU-led surveys. Other EU countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean have also made extensive use of this information.

Rogue seals in the Moray Firth 
In the Moray Firth seals had been shot due to the perception that they that they impacted on salmon stocks, and thus the local economy. Research in the period 2005-08, using photo sampling of seals combined with analysis of their diets, suggested that only a small number of rogue seals specialising in river feeding were responsible. Research showed that targeting individual seals in rivers is a more effective management option [research article: DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-1795.2011.00469.x]. This resulted in the Moray Firth Seal Management Plan (MFSMP), which saw a dramatic reduction (~60%) in seal shooting in the area. This led to the development, successful drafting and progression to legislation of the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, which introduced a new system for licensing the removal and disturbance of seals and for placing protective measures on seals when that is deemed necessary.

Quantifying and assessing the importance of marine mammal bycatch 

In 2006, a global analysis by SMRU scientists and collaborators highlighted the bycatch of marine mammals in fisheries as the main threat to their conservation status [research article: DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00338.x]. Under the EU Habitats Directive, MSFD, Council regulation 812/2004, the UK is required to reduce marine mammal bycatch to levels that are sustainable. To address these obligations, SMRU has implemented an observer scheme on UK fishing boats to quantify bycatch. SMRU has identified and helped to implement specific acoustic deterrent devices (Pingers) that have been effective in reducing cetacean bycatch by over 90% from over 400 animals in 2004/5 to just a handful in 2010-12 in the pair-trawl bass fishery in the English Channel. SMRU research has also shown that acoustic deterrent devices, known as a ‘pingers’, deployed in the Cornish Offshore Gillnet fishery in the period 2009-12 can reduce porpoise bycatch by over 90%. Since July 2013, the UK Marine Management Organisation is enforcing the use of ‘pingers’ in certain areas.

The Head of Science at the International Whaling Commission has said, “the work of SMRU on matters related to cetacean conservation and management has been of immeasurable value to our work and to cetacean conservation. The theoretical and practical developments that have arisen from SMRU scientists represent a remarkable degree of innovation from a single group. The impact on the conservation and management has been profound.”

Blueprint for enhanced longitudinal studies

Longitudinal studies, mostly based on surveys relying on re-interviewing of individuals, have a long history in the UK. The Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS), developed by a team of researchers, including Professor Allan Findlay of the Department of Geography and Sustainable Development, and medical researchers form Edinburgh and Glasgow, is a pioneering study, which combines census, civil registration, health and education data (administrative data)while maintaining anonymity within the data system. The collected records allow the comparing of individuals’ changing circumstances over time while retaining safeguards to protect personal information in a substantially more effective and cost-effective manner.
The system is used by the National Records of Scotland’s (NRS) statistical infrastructure for the production of new statistical series and by local, national government and NHS officials for policy analysis and has become a model in Scotland and other parts of the UK, which allows the linkage, holding, and analysis of personal data within appropriately strict legal and ethical constraints.

The research led to the launching in 2006 of the Longitudinal Studies Centre Scotland, which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.