Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
CARBON MARKET
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A WORLD Bank report has claimed the world’s new carbon trading market has grown to reach a critical mass, with not even halfway through 2004, more than 64 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent being traded. This is almost three quarters of the 78 million tons traded in all of 2003.…
PCB MEETING
BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL meeting on ridding the world of PCBs has been staged in Geneva, Switzerland, linking aid donor governments with commercial firms with clean-up expertise and technologies. Coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme, the meeting aimed to help fulfil the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which targets PCBs for elimination.…
SERBIA CLEAN UP
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE URGENCY of the need to create a hazardous waste disposal facility in Serbia – able to deal with the most toxic substances – has been underlined by the dumping of 24 barrels of carcinogenic liquid near Belgrade.…
EU TOXIC COMMITTEE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) scientific committee on toxicity, ecotoxicity and the environment has called for improvements in assessments of whether organic chemicals used in toys present a risk to children. Looking at EU studies, the committee says that studies should better ensure sampling is representative, if toys are made from more than one factory and – maybe – country.…
CODEX MEETING
BY KEITH NUTHALL
WORLD food standards body Codex Alimentarius has approved an international code of practice on animal feeding, aimed at preventing environmental health problems caused by additive use (especially anti-biotics). The Codex’s Commission also expanded its food health and hygiene regulations, which will tighten rules on production and distribution when implemented in member countries, which include Britain.…
EU/US REGULATORY COOPERATION
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A ROAD map on regulatory cooperation agreed by the European Union (EU) and the United States includes a deal to work together on nutritional labelling, according to documents released by Washington. The agreement sanctions cooperation between the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Commission’s directorate general for health and consumer affairs.…
BATHING WATER
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved in principle updating Europe’s bathing water tests considering technical progress since the system’s 1976 establishment. The new checks focus on intestinal enterococci and escherischia e-coli. Also tests will be staged only every two years for beaches with consistently good records and three years at “excellent” beaches, instead of annually.…
GM GUIDELINES - EFSA
BY KEITH NUTHALL
GENERAL guidance for GMO risk assessors and commercial product market approval applicants, issued for consultation by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), should help create formal rules on such studies, a meeting staged in Brussels has heard. Other participants wanted more detailed guidance, such as testing whole food or derivatives, or on field trials.…
FROG FUNGUS
BY MONICA DOBIE
AMERICAN scientists believe that a fungus is to blame for the accelerated decline and, in some cases, extinction of frogs and toads in north and central America and Australia James P. Collins, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at Arizona State University told the Los Angeles Times that 32 strains of the emerging pathogen called batrachochytrium dendrobatidis have been linked to three-fourths of frogs species in decline in Costa Rica and Panama.…
BATHING WATER REPORT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) beaches are getting cleaner, says the latest European Commission report: in 2003, 98.6 per cent of coastal bathing waters complied with the EU bathing water directive. Britain also improved – with 98.4 per cent of seawater beaches meeting EU mandatory requirements, (97.8 per cent in 2002).…