Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has censured the Irish government for committing what it calls “general and persistent breaches of the (European Union) waste directive”. Judges said Dublin’s failure to introduce an effective permit system for waste handlers had sparked uncontrolled dumping, to which it sometimes turned a blind eye.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
SCIENTISTS from the USA’s Agricultural Research Service have found that altering a cows diet can make their dung smell sweeter. They discovered that feeding cattle high-moisture corn instead of the traditional dry-rolled corn significantly reduced the odours that can spark complaints from residential areas near livestock farms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EURO 4.72 million fine should make anyone mend their ways; anyone, it seems, bar the Greek government, which is facing possible further legal action for not cleaning-up the illegal waste dump causing the original punishment. This was at the mouth of the beautiful River Kouroupitos, Crete, and was only closed after Athens paid many Euro 20,000 daily penalties for ignoring a European Court of Justice (ECJ) closure order in 2000.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has rejected a request from the British government to increase the amount of CO2 emitted within the UK under the European Union’s emissions trading scheme. Brussels initially approved a national allocation plan of 736 million tonnes of CO2 for 2005-2007, but London later asked permission to increase this to 756 million tonnes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) could have to reform its directive on market approvals for food supplements (2002/46/EC). A formal opinion from a European Court of Justice (ECJ) advocate general has claimed the law breaks EU treaty commitments on fair trade by failing to supply effective guidelines for adding new supplements to an approved supplements list for pan-EU sales.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Environment Agency has hailed a global agreement of statistical benchmarks guiding governments pursuing sustainable energy policies. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN department of economic and social affairs, the International Energy Agency and EU statistical agency Eurostat have developed 30 indicators, on measuring greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, for instance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
HOME-BASED domestic cooks should arm themselves with enough environmental health knowledge to prevent their kitchens from becoming a breeding ground for botulism, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has warned. In a detailed paper on dealing with the anaerobic spore-forming bacteria clostridium, it advised both families and food businesses to assess their hygiene practices to ensure they minimise risks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PUBLIC consultation of national health specialists has been launched, with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) asking how they check dangers posed by jointly genotoxic and carcinogenic compounds in foods. Methods vary across Europe, sometimes producing contrasting advice on dealing with these materials.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
DIESEL particle pollution levels inside school buses may be worse than in surrounding roadway air according to University of California researchers, in the USA. They analysed diesel pollution in six Los Angeles buses aged from 1975 to current models.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THAT poor environmental standards harm people’s health is the raison d’etre of environmental health officers committed to improving living conditions across the board. And that the world’s environment is becoming ever dirtier and polluted is a universal assumption: but by how much?…