Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A ROAD map on regulatory cooperation agreed by the European Union (EU) and the United States at this weekend’s summit in Dublin includes a deal to work together on developing trans-Atlantic communications technology standards, which would mesh with both parties’ regulations.…

BY MARK ROWE
IT is understandable to see how the cosmetics industries in the European Union’s (EU) newest members might view the recent expansion of the EU club with mixed feelings. On the one hand, new markets have opened up: if their products are good enough to sell at home, they can now sell them from the Baltic to the Atlantic.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
The European Commissioner for transport and energy, Loyola de Palacio, has been given a special “Climate Killer Award” by a coalition of environmental NGOs including Friends of the Earth and the Climate Action Network. Mrs de Palacio was given the award, said the group, “in recognition of her repeated efforts to destabilise EU support for the Kyoto Protocol and related policies”.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A report by the World Wide Fund says that some chemical substances found in consumer goods like television sets, furniture, fish and meat prevent children’s brains from developing properly. The WWF report ‘Compromising our Children’, also claims that laws required to phase out the potentially most dangerous substances are still not in place.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
The European Commission has launched a 6-year action plan to reduce diseases caused by pollution. Plan calls for initiatives “to better understand the environment-health link and establish how environmental exposure leads to epidemiological effects.” Focus of policy will be on research activities like asthma/allergy, neuro-developmental disorders, cancers and endocrine disrupting effects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EURO 192 million will be spent on food quality and safety research this year under the European Union’s (EU) Sixth Framework Programme for research, says the European Commission. Projects tackle issues including traceability (including in GM products), contaminants in food, diseases affecting livestock animals, food allergies, obesity and nutrition (especially for babies).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN scientists have extracted a 740,000-year-old ice core from the Antarctic and think by analysing its contents they will predict how the world’s climate will respond to today’s unprecedented levels of carbon dioxide. Initial tests show that these are higher than they have been for 440,000 years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has defended a pro-biotechnology stance in its recent State of Food and Agriculture report, roundly criticised by environmentalists. It says they would be needed to cope with a projected world population increase from six to nine billion by 2050, requiring a 60 per cent more food.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WIDELY publicised new European Union (EU) constitution could restrict Britain’s freedom to legislate on environmental matters, assuming it is ratified. The EU already passes green laws on many issues, such as pollution emissions, water quality and fuel contamination – and the constitution would allow member states to continue passing their own environmental legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FRENCH Agency for Health and Environmental Safety (AFSSE) has blamed fossil fuel consumption in road transport for killing up to 10,000 people per year in France. Its critical report says that between six and 11 per cent of all lung cancer cases in the country are caused by such emissions, (up to 1,713 deaths annually).…