Search Results for: Research

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) network of research institutions investigating the safety and health effects of phytoestrogens has been created by the European Commission; called Phytohealth, it will especially check whether phytoestrogens prevent cancer. The compounds are found in plant foods, such as beans, cabbage, flax seed, rye, berries, grains and soya products, (including soya milk, tofu and miso).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WESTERN European countries – including Britain – are facing an increasing risk of vehicles colliding with large wild animals, two independent European studies have suggested. Researchers from the UFZ Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, and Madrid University concluded more animals are straying onto roads, because habitat loss forces them to migrate for food and mates.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE CANADIAN government has proposed substantial changes to its current tough labelling requirements for tobacco products in an effort to reach more smokers. The new health warnings will include messages with both a health warning and a related benefit associated with quitting.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NECESSARY research that will allow France to maintain its nuclear power capacity should be carried out with Europe’s new liberalised electricity market in mind, the International Energy Authority has warned. In an assessment of French energy policy, it noted France’s “substantial government R&D in this field and the marketing and construction of French nuclear plants abroad…will help in keeping the nuclear option open.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A STRATEGIC research programme promoting nano-electronics, funded from public and private sources, is to be established by the European Commission and specialist European Union (EU) companies. A European Nano-electronics Initiative Advisory Council (ENIAC) will be formed to draw up the plan, being chaired by STMicroelectronics CEO Pasquale Pistorio.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked the vehicle leasing and management sectors whether it would like the existing patchwork of national passenger car taxation laws to be reformed and replaced with a more harmonised system.

Brussels is particularly keen to discover in wide consultation whether there would be support for replacing registration taxes with charges based on CO2 emissions, which would help the European Union (EU) meet its Kyoto Protocol global warming commitments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has called for detailed studies into whether farmed and wild deer used for venison carry scrapie or an unknown TSE strain, similar to BSE. In the meantime, it has suggested it “might be prudent” to ban the sale of deer “tissues such as central nervous system (CNS) and lymphoid tissues” from sale to food processors or consumers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is spending Euro 15 million on uniting EU experts on food safety, animal and human health. The new EU Network of Excellence MED-VET-NET will fight zoonoses in a virtual institute combining “European veterinary, medical and food science”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project designed to examine the effect on human health of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in food, is now up and running. The CASCADE (chemicals as contaminants in the food chain) network hopes to use its discoveries to increase public awareness of the problem and “promote better decision making among both consumers and policy makers regarding food” said a European Commission note.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC) has called for technological advances in road transport systems to better manage a growth in traffic that will be sustained until and beyond 2020. In a detailed paper, it cites forecasts predicting an increase by 2010 from 1998 of 26% in vehicle kilometres for the old 15-member European Union (EU) and 24% for passenger kilometres.…