Search Results for: Environmental Health

BY MATTHEW BRACE
AUSTRALIAN firm Dynamic Automation Systems (DAS) has invented an autonomous navigation system called MINEGEM? (which it has dubbed the “smart loader”), allowing operators to control machines remotely from the surface.

Using an autopilot system the operator can control several machines at once, ordering them to pick up materials, carry them to a dump point and return to the draw point.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
EUROPEAN Union (EU) beef producers will be able to retain most of their existing production-linked subsidies in spite of a major reform of the Common Agricultural Policy agreed by farm ministers of the 15 member countries early today (Thursday).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE is giving Euro 40 million to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to help it fund Russia’s cleansing of the radioactive contamination in the Barents Sea caused by its aging decommissioned nuclear fleet. The money will be channelled through the nuclear-related budgets of the EBRD-managed Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP) Support Fund.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ESTABLISHMENT of a European Union Advisory Committee on Safety, Hygiene and Health Protection at Work has been approved by the EU Council of Ministers; it will help the European Commission prepare health and safety initiatives and boost cooperation between national health and safety administrations, trade unions and employers’ organisations.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE US government wants to limit pharmaceutical manufacturers to a one-month window in which to challenge a generic patent. Washington says multiple, consecutive patent challenges have been costing American billions of dollars in drugs costs. The Bush administration estimates that its planned regulatory changes will save consumers an estimated US$35 billion over 10 years.…

BY MARK ROWE
THAILAND is promoting the use of natural gas-powered taxis to improve its environmental record. Purchasers will be offered cheap loans and technical and logistical support for using clean-burning natural gas.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE OFFICE International des Épizooties, the world animal health organisation, has declared northern Argentina (north of the 42° parallel) free from foot and mouth disease (FMD), albeit with the help of vaccination, backdated to July 7…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union proposals to make polluting companies legally liable for the environmental damage has taken a large step towards becoming law, with EU Member States approving the idea in principle, the European Parliament having already given its assent.…

BY PHILIP FINE

EMISSIONS trading programmes can achieve environmental goals faster and more economical than other alternative ecological policies, says report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Pew Center on Global Climate Change. The US group says that a well-designed and implemented cap-and-trade system ensures that environmental goals are met, regardless of where gases are emitted

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Free Trade Area (EFTA) Court has thrown out a bid by two environmental groups to stop the Norwegian government offering tax privileges to natural gas exploration companies working in the inhospitable Snøhvit field, off the far north coast of Norway.…