Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IF there is one undeniable fact about global warming, then it is that the last significant heating of the Earth’s surface had nothing to do with traffic jams, aerosols and power stations, because…well…they did not exist.

Think back to the time of woolly mammoths, sabre toothed tigers and Neanderthals, and consider why their snowy frigid homelands in northern Europe became the green, pleasant and temperate lands that we know and love.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Scientific Steering Committee has approved two new rapid BSE post-mortem tests that will widen the choice of checks available to environmental health authorities seeking to control the disease. The European Commission said that they were “comparable to already approved tests…(and)… should help to create more competition in the field.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW international water college has been founded in the Netherlands, with the particular aim of developing new techniques and technologies to secure future water supplies in arid areas. The UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, is a joint venture between the UN scientific body and the Dutch government, which had run a purely national water institute on the college’s site.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COMMON European Union maximum noise levels are to be introduced for recreational boats, after agreement was struck on the final shape of a directive by the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. Importantly, both sides agreed to loosen rules by allowing maximum sound pressure levels to exceed previously discussed limits for twin-engine and multiple-engine units of all engine types.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TOUGH restrictions may be imposed on the use of nitrates as a preservative in food, even where such regulations are challenged by the European Commission as breaking EU freedom of trade legislation, the European Court of Justice has ruled.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The European Parliament’s environment committee has voted to recommend the continued withholding of some 2.18 million euros (about pounds 1.4 million) from the budget of the new European Food Safety Agency in spite of a complaint by the EFSA executive director that the agency’s work is being severely restricted by lack of funds.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The European Commission has approved the part of the UK’s Waste Resources Action Programme designed to promote waste recycling which applies to small and medium sized enterprises located in assisted areas. But it said it “has doubts” whether other aspects, covering investments by private companies in recycling facilities outside assisted areas, could be approved.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in Nottingham
INTRODUCTION

REPETITIVE Strain Injury (RSI) is still by and large an unacknowledged problem for many employers. The complaint is formally defined as “work-related upper limb disorders” and its most common symptoms are pain, fatigue and weakness, most often associated these days with sitting a long time in front of a computer screen.…

BY FRITZ BRETT
UK insurance consumers will benefit from a new 7-year regulation adopted by the European Commission providing for a block exemption authorising certain types of co-operation agreements between companies, say industry officials. The regulation, drawn up after intensive consultations with the industry, including the Association of British Insurers, covers agreements that include the establishment of non-binding standard policy conditions, the exchange of statistical information for the calculation of risks and the creation of insurance pools.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WITH international financial institutions being firmly in the mainstream of the world financial system, they can no more ignore the presence of money-laundering than they can that of poverty or hunger. We are talking here of global aid and development agencies like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the regional development banks.…