Japan to begin carbon footprint labeling scheme

Japan is to take carbon footprint labels on food packaging and other products in an ambitious scheme to influence companies and consumers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

The labels, to show on dozens of items including food , drink, detergents and electrical appliances from next mechanism, will go further than similar labels already in use elsewhere.

They will provide detailed break of each product's carbon footprint in a government-approved calculation and labeling system.

The labels will illustrate how much carbon dioxide is emitted during the manufacture, sharing and clearance of each product, the ministry said. The Japanese campaign is loosely modeled on a British pilot scheme involving Tesco and several other firms, though that scheme has yet to gain official approval.

Furthermore, the trade ministry's told the Guardian: "We believe our labeling will provide more detailed information, to allow consumers to make the best possible choice."

Officials decided to sketch up a uniform method of labeling carbon emissions to alleviate fears among some firms that their competitors may use in-house calculations to produce the lowest possible emissions data.

To support the scheme, the ministry has released details about the carbon footprint left by a packet of crisps. A single bag produces 75 grams of carbon dioxide, 44% of which comes from growing potatoes, with another 30% produced during the production stage. The packaging accounts for an additional 15%, while the delivery and disposal of the bag contains account for 9% and 2%, respectively.

Shoppers will be informed how much CO2 is produced by the machinery used to plant barley and hops, during production and transportation, and also in recycling process.

Although the labeling scheme is intended, few firms want to be seen to be covering behind competitors in the rush to corner the growing market in eco-friendly products.

The government decides to put carbon-capture technology - the storage of CO2 produced by power plants and factories - in place by 2020.

In a recent survey almost 80% of shoppers are willing to spend no more than an extra 2,000 yen (£10) a month on energy-saving vehicles and other eco-friendly products.

Why Menu Labeling is important?

Where to Buy Blank Labels

Blank labels can be printed directly from your home or office. They are commonly existing as inkjet labels or laser printer labels. Some distinctive uses for blank labels include creating mailing labels and labeling supplementary items.

There are two main choices while purchasing blank labels. You can buy blank labels from an office supply store and directly from the manufacturer. The advantages and disadvantages of each way are listed below.

Buying labels directly from the producer is generally much less expensive and can save you everywhere from 35% to 75%. The manufacturers also regularly have more sizes and styles of labels.

Even though office supply stores are usually more expensive, they offer numerous advantages. For example, you do not have to pay for shipping costs. Also, it is typically much easier to return labels to a store if you have any problems.

Manufacturer Direct Advantages

• Much less expensive
• More choices

Office Supply Store Advantages

• No shipping cost
• Easier to return

Necessary should know the benefits of Food Labeling

• Reading a food label and follow the instructions is the most effective way of decisive what foods to buy when trying to be more healthy or lose weight. It contains the quantity of sodium, saturated fat, total fat, fiber, and cholesterol amount in each serving.

• Serving Size is definitely the most important part of the food labeling. There is a need to know how much fat, protein, fiber, etc. should contain in each serving size. This is generally calculate in ounces. Having a kitchen scale is a best way to measure out the size of serving. Make sure you pay attention to the serving size. For example, Suppose if a bag contain potato chips, it is divided into 12 servings through each serving having 3 grams of fat. If you eat the whole bag you'll be intake 36 grams of fat at once.

• Measure Daily value of nutrients. The daily value is find out by the percentage of nutrient intake based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet.

• This can be a tedious routine to do but ultimately it will become easier. You will also notice the reimbursement when after watching what you eat you start to lose weight.

What Must be Labeled and Why is it Required in Chemical labeling?

The OSHA Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) specially mandates that all containers of dangerous materials be labeled with an proper warning. While this warning does not have to consist of all of the information enclosed on the Material Safety Data Sheet, it does have to communicate critical information to the user.

The Hazardous Materials Identification Guide (HMIG) or Hazardous Materials Information System (HMIS) was developing as a tool to fulfill with the HCS and has employees who should handle dangerous chemicals in the workplace as the proposed audience. HMIS includes hazard appraisal, a rating system for sharp and constant health, flammability and physical hazards. These labels provide at-a-glance of information on the risk and the suitable personal protective equipment (PPE). HMIS was developed by the National Paint and Coatings Association (NPCA).

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is a kind of fire protection danger warning system designed to provide quick, clear information to emergency situation responders on materials under conditions of fire, chemical spill, or other emergency situations. Like HMIS, it includes labels and a numerical ranking system, but the fundamental purpose of the label information is different. Therefore, the numbers allocated in the NFPA system imagine that a fire is present. No such assumption grasps in the HMIG/HMIS system. For this reason, the numbers that are allocated to the flammability, health, and reactivity hazards may differ between the NFPA and HMIG systems, even for the same exact chemical.

The following are some examples of chemical labeling schemes used recently. At a minimum level, all chemical containers must include:

1. Name or characteristics of the Chemical,
2. Proper Hazard Warnings, (e.g., corrosive, poison, flammable, oxidizer, explosive)
3. NFPA 704 or Hazardous Materials Information System (HMIS) placards, etc.

General Claims for Labeling

Every pesticide must have labeling which is accepted by EPA before the pesticide can be sold or distributed. It is defined as a pesticide is misbranded if its labeling bears any statement, design or graphic representation which is false or misleading. EPA’s regulation, provides examples of statements that are considered to be misbranded such as:

• A false or misleading statement concerning the composition of the product.

• A false or misleading statement concerning the effectiveness of the product as a pesticide or device (EPA may review and approve or disapprove non-pesticidal claims appearing on a pesticide label).

• A misleading statement about the value of the product for purposes other than as a pesticide or device.

• A false or misleading comparison with other pesticides or devices.

• Any statement directly or indirectly implying that the pesticide or device is recommended or endorsed by an agency of the Federal Government.

• The name of a pesticide which contains two or more principal active ingredients if the name suggests one or more but not all such principal active ingredients even though the names of the other ingredients are stated elsewhere in the labeling.

• A true statement used in such a way to give a false or misleading impression to the purchaser.

• Label disclaimers or warranty statements which negate or detract from labeling statements required under FIFRA and EPA’s regulations.

• Safety claims of the pesticide, or its ingredients, including statements such as “trusted,” "safe," "nonpoisonous," "noninjurious," "harmless" or "nontoxic to humans and pets" with or without such a qualifying phrase as "when used as directed.”

• Non-numerical and/or comparative statements on the safety of the product, including but not limited to:

• "Contains all natural ingredients"
• "Among the least toxic chemicals known"
• "Pollution approved"

Relaxation Labeling Techniques

Relaxation labeling techniques can be applied to many areas of computer vision.

Relaxation techniques have been applied to many other areas of computation in general, particularly to the solution of concurrent nonlinear equations.

The basic principles behind relaxation labeling methods are discuss various applications.

The basic elements of the relaxation labeling method are a set of features belonging to an object and a set of labels.

In the framework of vision, these features are usually points, edges and surfaces.

Normally, the labeling scheme used are probabilistic for each feature, weights or probabilities are assigned to each label in the set giving to the particular label is the correct one for that feature.

Probabilistic approaches are subsequently used to maximize (or minimize) the probabilities by iterative adjustment, taking into account the probabilities associated with neighboring features.

Relaxation strategies do not necessarily guarantee convergence, then we should not arrive at a final labeling solution with a unique label having probability one for each another.

The labeling process starts with an initial, and perhaps randomly, obligation of probabilities for each label

The basic algorithm then transforms these probabilities into to a new set according to some relaxation schedule.

This process is repeated until the labeling method converges or stabilizes.

Applications:

Relaxation technique, predating computer vision work, it has been used as the basis of iterative solutions of systems of equations, solving layout problems, breaking codes and many other applications. In computer vision it has been applied to:

Region based Segmentation

Edge point detection

Curved boundary extraction

Matching stereo pairs

Handwriting interpretation etc.,