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International outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 infection has fostered the Italian government to impose the FFP2 protective facial masks in closed environments, including bar, restaurants and, more in general, in the food sector. Protective facial masks are rocketing, both in mass and in costs, in the food sector imposing efforts in fostering reuse strategies and in the achievement of sustainable development goals. The scope of the present paper is to depict possible strategies in manufacturing and reuse strategies that can reduce the carbon footprint (CF) of such devices.

To implement circular economy strategies in the protective facial masks supply chain, it was considered significant to move towards a study of the environmental impact of such devices, and therefore a CF study has been performed on an FFP2 facial mask used in the food sector. Different materials besides the mostly used polypropylene (PP) (polyethylene (PE), polycarbonate (PC), poly (lactic acid) (PLA), cotton, polyurethane (PUR), polystyrene (PS) and nylon 6,6) and different sanitisation alternatives as reuse strategies (both laboratory and homemade static oven, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation) readily implemented have been modelled to calculate the CF of a single use of an FFP2 mask.

The production of textiles in PP, followed by disposal was the main contributor to CF of the single-use FFP2 mask, followed by packaging and transportations. PP and PE were the least impacting, PC, cotton and Nylon 6-6 of the same weight results the worst. PLA has an impact greater than PP and PE obtained from crude oil, followed by PUR and PS. Static laboratory oven obtained an 80.4% reduction of CF with respect to single use PP-made FFP2 mask, whereas homemade oven obtained a similar 82.2% reduction; UV cabinet is the best option, showing an 89.9% reduction.

The key strategies to reduce the environmental impacts of the masks (research for new materials and reuse with sanitisation) should ensure both the retention of filtering capacities and the sanitary sterility of the reused ones. Future developments should include evaluations of textile recycling impacts, using new materials and the evaluation of the life cycle costs of the reused masks.

This paper intends to provide to stakeholders (producers, consumers and policy makers) the tools to choose the best option for producing and reuse environmentally friendly protective facial masks to be used in the food sector, by using both different materials and easily implemented reuse strategies.

The reduction of the CF of protective facial masks in the food sector surely will have relevant positive effects on climate change contributing to reach the goals of reducing CO₂ emissions. The food sector may promote sustainable practices and attract a niche piece of clients particularly sensible to such themes.

The paper has two major novelties. The first one is the assessment of the CF of a single use of an FFP2 mask made with different materials of the non-woven filtering layers; as the major contribution to the CF of FFP2 masks is related to the non-woven textiles manufacturing, the authors test some other different materials, including PLA. The second is the assessment of the CF of one single use of a sanitised FFP2 mask, using different sanitation technologies as those allowed in bars or restaurants.

Persons with intellectual disability and/or low-functioning autism spectrum didorder are with high support need (ID/ASD-HSN) are among the people who are most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic. The specific vulnerability and the protective factors for persons with ID/LF-ASD attending residential and rehabilitative facilities have however received little attention. This paper aims to describe how two facilities located in the Italian COVID-19 red zone faced the risks associated with the spread of the pandemic and the results they have achieved so far.

Interventions to contrast the spread of the pandemic and preserve clients’ health conditions have been systematically monitored and recorded since the very beginning of the pandemic.

26/138 clients had to undergo clinical screening and laboratory tests for COVID-like symptomatology, but only one resulted affected by COVID-19 and survived. Considering that Lombardy had 89,595 cases and 16,262 deaths (January–May 2020), one COVID-19 case/138 clients is a good result. Temporarily limiting physical contacts with friends/family in favor of reducing the burden of risk and adopting a system of prevention/safety strategies directed for persons with ID/LF-ASD attending and their caregivers have been useful measures.

Structured or semi-structured interviews (using professional caregivers as informant) to confirm behavioral and emotional changes in the clients could not be carried out because of lack of time and resources (which were captured by the management of the pandemic) and could be the next goal for our residential facilities to implement the management of epidemic acute phases in a research-oriented view.

This study is a service evaluation report about facing COVID-19 pandemic. Only few such studies are present in medical literature about ID/ASD.

A direct correlation exists between waste disposal, disease spread and public health. This article systematically reviewed healthcare waste and its implication for public health. This review identified and described the associations and impact of waste disposal on public health.

This paper systematically reviewed the literature on waste disposal and its implications for public health by searching Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA), PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and ScienceDirect databases. Of a total of 1,583 studies, 59 articles were selected and reviewed.

The review revealed the spread of infectious diseases and environmental degradation as the most typical implications of improper waste disposal to public health. The impact of waste includes infectious diseases such as cholera, Hepatitis B, respiratory problems, food and metal poisoning, skin infections, and bacteremia, and environmental degradation such as land, water, and air pollution, flooding, drainage obstruction, climate change, and harm to marine and wildlife.

Infectious diseases such as cholera, hepatitis B, respiratory problems, food and metal poisoning, skin infections, bacteremia and environmental degradation such as land, water, and air pollution, flooding, drainage obstruction, climate change, and harm to marine and wildlife are some of the public impacts of improper waste disposal.

Healthcare industry waste is a significant waste that can harm the environment and public health if not properly collected, stored, treated, managed and disposed of. There is a need for knowledge and skills applicable to proper healthcare waste disposal and management. Policies must be developed to implement appropriate waste management to prevent public health threats.

This study investigated how organizations can maintain their supply chain (SC) resilience in situations where high-impact shocks cannot be absorbed and what capabilities are needed. The article is an empirical exploration of a socio-ecological view of resilience in the SC context.

The case under study in this article is that of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and MSF's reconfiguration of its supply management processes in response to the supply shocks during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In total, 503 internal documents and ERP extractions from six databases from late 2019 to September 2020, 43 semi-structured interviews and a 3-round policy Delphi process were used to investigate this phenomenon.

The authors' results show that throughout the pandemic, MSF adapted its procurement and supply processes to cope with supply shortages at both the international and local levels of the SC. This was possible due to the organization's capacity to use its exploitation and exploration capabilities of the organization at the same time.

This research is based on the single in-depth case study of a medical aid organization. Further research should investigate this phenomenon in commercial companies with similar or different organizational structures.

This study constitutes a first attempt to empirically demonstrate that the four phases of the adaptive cycle put forth in the panarchy theory constitute a suitable representation of the reconfigurations that SCs follow in response to a high-impact shock. The study also adds to the growing body of knowledge on resilience by including ambidexterity as a mechanism to achieve resilience.