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This research study aims to analyse and compare the policies adopted to enforce occupational health and safety regulations by the English and Italian enforcement institutions. The objectives of the study are to a) analyse and compare how English and Italian occupational health and safety enforcement (OHSE) officers perceive, interpret and appreciate discretionary enforcement practices, b) understand the extent to which resources affect English and Italian health and safety enforcement officers’ activities and the criminal justice system’s response to health and safety crimes, and c) understand how English and Italian OHSE officers perceive the attitude and responses of employers, government, judiciary and media towards their work and occupational health and safety crimes. The method used to conduct the research fieldwork seeks to explore the subject area through qualitative, semi-structured interviews with front-line enforcement officers, and data analysed with thematic Framework theory. The comparative nature of the work represents one of its main contributions to knowledge. The analysis shows that permitting discretionary practices, which is allowed but managed in England and prohibited in Italy, might empower enforcement officers excessively. Discretion helps officers and the agency to choose the best policy to achieve compliance, but also the best for their own interests. The analysis also shows that enforcement activities are affected by resources. However, while in England enforcement policies are more easily affected by resources, in Italy resources are more often decided according to the enforcement policies used. The Italian system places greater emphasis on the protections of workers’ civil rights. Lastly, the study discovers that the attitude of employers, government, the judiciary and media towards health and safety can have profound effects on the decisions taken by the enforcement officers and institutions. In particular, it emerges that inspectors are affected mostly by governmental and media influences.

The present study focuses on the development of high surface area nanostructures and their applications in the removal of gas-phase contaminants through both photocatalytic and adsorptive techniques. Particular importance was given to ensure the commercial viability of the developed technologies. Due to its industrial importance, the elimination of siloxanes from biogas was investigated with major interest. Through electrospinning techniques it was possible to synthesise a large number of nanostructures: TiO2, SiO2, WO3, and WO3 doped TiO2 nanofibres. These structures were further enhanced through templating techniques in order to make core/shell SiO2/TiO2 nanofibres, hollow TiO2 nanofibres, and porous TiO2 nanofibres. Additionally, the synthesis of SiO2 aerogel granules under ambient conditions was performed through a novel, commercially facile, technique. The created nanostructures were initially employed as adsorptive materials for the removal of gaseous siloxanes from static environments. The adsorption kinetics and total siloxane loadings of the created structures were compared to those of P25, commercial silica gel, and the industrial PpTek siloxane removal standard. Although the commercial adsorbents were shown to perform better than the created nanostructures, the nanostructure surface areas were seen to lead to enhanced adsorptive properties with respect to P25. TiO2 nanofibres, porous TiO2 nanofibres, WO3 doped TiO2 nanofibres, and P25 were further used to study the photodecomposition of siloxanes in a static environment. Through kinetic studies it was possible to establish that 1 mol% WO3 doped TiO2 nanofibres were an ideal candidate for the photodecomposition of gaseous siloxanes, with a decomposition rate 126.5 % larger than that of simple P25. P25 was coated on glass beads through a novel technique in order to photocatalytically degrade contaminants in gas flows. Through the decomposition of both siloxanes and VOCs it was possible to study the turnover numbers and conversion levels of the reactions. The poisoning of the catalysts was identified and countered through industrially viable recoating techniques. From these studies it was possible to develop a prototype reactor for the photodecomposition of siloxanes in biogas. Finally, the synthetic properties of the flow reactors were studied by carrying out the photoepoxidation of hexene over P25. These studies were further enhanced by reacting the partial photoepoxidation products of the reactor's exhaust in order to create rare and complex organic species.