Search Results for: Research

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN food industry has been asked to supply information to an official inquiry aimed at discovering products most prone to contain the carcinogen furan. This was said by the US Food and Drug Administration in May to be present in some foodstuffs exposed to high temperatures, claims that are being investigated by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A STUDY into the European Union’s (EU) proposed REACH system has been roundly criticised by members of the European Parliament committee that ordered it. Consultants Arthur D. Little’s report claimed REACH could cause “a 2.9% loss in GDP and a 24.7% loss in (chemical and related industry) production”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INCOMING European energy Commissioner has called on member governments of the European Union (EU) to install pricing policies that encourage the use of renewable energy to help boost Europe’s green energy capacity. In answers to a European Parliament questionnaire ahead of his assuming office in November, Hungary’s Lázló Kovács indicated that he would cement rather than unravel the Commission’s commitment to promoting renewables.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INCOMING European Union (EU) Commissioner for research Janez Potocnik has declared he would be prepared to build an ITER-scale fusion reactor at Cadarache, France, if there is no international agreement on where to build the prototype. In answers to a European Parliament questionnaire, he said the EU “could consider launching the construction of the ITER at Cadarache…with those of its partners willing to be involved”, although only at the “very last resort”.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CHILDREN living near petrol stations and car repair garages have a significantly higher rate of leukaemia, according to a study published in the UK journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The French National Institute of Health and Medical Research paper on 565 children suggested exposure to benzene caused the cancers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has its critics, heaven knows, but the renewable energy industry is rarely among them. Brussels likes green electricity production and is prepared to fund it. This is important as the EU has large budgets, as every Eurosceptic likes to point out.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CHILDREN who live near petrol stations and car repair garages have a dramatically higher rate of leukaemia, according to a new study. The research, published in the UK journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, indicates that exposure to the chemical benzene, present in petrol fumes and used in the manufacture of paints, plastics and pesticides may cause the childhood cancer.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD’S oceans are acidifying by absorbing an unprecedented amount of carbon dioxide, maybe threatening the long-term survival of many marine species, especially calcifying organisms including corals and shellfish. This conclusion came in research released to a UNESCO/ International Council for Science meeting.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
WINE production waste – or pomace – the seeds, skin and stems of crushed grapes, could be commercially developed as a natural inhibitor against several types of bacteria, a new study has claimed. Research by Turkish academics published in the UK-based Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, showed pomace has high concentrations of antioxidants which, mixed with methanol in concentrations ranging from 0.5% to 20%, prevented the growth of 14 types of bacteria including E-coli, salmonella, staphylococcus aureus and enterobacter aerogenes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FEEDING an enzyme called phytase to pigs and combining aluminum chloride with their manure, reduces phosphorus pollution in pigmeat production run-off water by as much as 70% according to a study by the USA Agricultural Research Service. Adding aluminium chloride alone reduces phosphorus by 53%, whilst phytase reduced it further because it helps pigs digest phosphorous.…