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.
INTELLIGENT ENERGY
KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed an expensive twin-track programme to secure the European Union’s energy supplies, diversifying production by promoting renewables and limiting demand by boosting energy saving initiatives.
It has asked EU ministers to spend Euro 215 million on its planned Intelligent Energy for Europe programme, which would span 2003 to 2006.…
UKRAINE
KEITH NUTHALL
TENDERS have been invited by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to set up a combined heat and power plant at Voznesensk tannery, in the Ukraine. It would be operated by the Ukrainian Energy Service Company and would command a total installed electric power of 1,9-2,2 MW, with two or more gas-fired piston engines equipped with a flue gas heat recovery system, producing hot water of up to 90?.…
IRRADIATION
BY ALAN OSBORN
INTERNATIONAL moves to remove the maximum permitted dose of irradiation for food could lead to a major world trade dispute, which could undermine European Union regulations, says the London-based Food Irradiation Campaign, (FIC).
A joint study by the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organisation has concluded that “no upper dose limit need be imposed” as irradiated foods are deemed “wholesome throughout the technologically useful dose range.”…
MANCHESTER HEALTH AND SAFETY CONFERENCE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
Delegates to the annual meeting of the Institution for Occupational Safety and Health in Manchester this week were told of “serious setbacks” in the struggle to make Britain’s workplaces less dangerous. “Not only has a plateau effect in national accident trends been noticed but in some sectors things have actually worsened,” said Mr David Eves, who was deputy director of the Health and Safety Executive between 1989 and 2002 and is now IOSH Hon vice president.…
ASIA RESIDUES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is to order tests on all imports of shrimps from Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar, (Burma),and poultry from Thailand to ensure antibiotic residues do not exceed EU health limits, following concerns raised by spot-checks on cargoes from these countries.…
FLOWER POWER
BY KEITH NUTHALL
POLLUTION specialists can visit a European Commission funded project this summer, which is exploring the viability of phytoremediation, where plants break down and remove heavy metals, especially lead, from polluted soil. The Phyles project, in La Spezia, northern Italy, is experimenting how effective sunflowers, maize and Indian mustard plants are in decomposing these pollutants.…
BIKE EMISSIONS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW European directive reducing pollutant emissions from new motorcycles by between 65-70 per cent within four years has been approved by a conciliation committee linking the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers. Reductions in carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions would be made in two steps; in 2003 and 2006.…
AIRPORT NOISE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers (transport) has approved the latest European Commission airport noise directive, accepting European Parliament technical amendments that would make the legislation tougher than originally proposed.
MEP’s had voted for changes time-limiting for 10 years an exemption allowing the noisiest aircraft registered in developing countries to continue operating in Europe, adding that these aeroplanes must be prevented from moving to new routes in the EU.…
FOOD POISONING
BY KEITH NUTHALL
REFORMS to European Union law that would force all Member States to adopt programmes to fight the food poisoning and food-born diseases will be made tougher still, if amendments proposed by a key European Parliament committee become law.…
TREATY POLICING
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Space Agency is to use its satellites to check the implementation of environmental treaties, monitoring forest growth under Kyoto, their shrinkage under the Convention to Combat Desertification and the survival of wetlands under the Ramsar Convention.…