Search Results for: Environmental health

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
BRITISH government backed scientists have launched a pioneering research project that could see natural plant fibres being used to manufacture car body shells. Biomat is a four-year project using various forms of flax and hemp fibre, as well as willow, and is being funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending US$5.4 million to the Maritime Port Authority of St Petersburg to fund the construction of a maritime navigation safety system in the main Russian sector of the Baltic Sea, where a future surge in tanker traffic is anticipated.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and MARK ROWE, in London, MONICA DOBIE and PHILIP FINE in Montreal, MATTHEW BRACE in Brisbane, and RICHARD HURST in Johannesburg

Introduction

Europe

Cuts to EU catch quotas

New sources of fish

Affect on fish producers

Wild alternatives to cod

Farmed cod

North America

USA – Healthier local stocks

USA – Demand up

USA – Fish imports

Canada – Farmed fish exports

Canada – GM issues

Australasia

Australia – New wild sources

Australia – Aquaculture

Australia – Wild fish innovation

Australia and New Zealand – sustainability

South Africa – Export increase and conservation

Japan – Local and regional supply

Japan – Maintaining quality

Japan – Non-Asian sources

Introduction

ONCE it was said, cod was so abundant that fishermen in some parts of the world boasted they could walk on the backs of the fish to find their catch.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ENVIRONMENT committee of the European Parliament wants a review of the safety levels of food additives used in confectionery to check whether they are safe for children. It backed a report by Swedish liberal MEP Marit Paulsen, which calling for a European Commission act within three years, because such additive levels are set with the health of adults in mind.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed a European Union (EU) ban of the plant protection product ingredient Aldicarb, which has been shown to be potentially lethal to small birds and possibly damaging to earthworms. It has asked ministers to approve a prohibition on the sale of pesticides containing Aldicarb within six months of a decision and an immediate block on any future approvals of other plant protection lines containing this chemical.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is to take action against the UK government at the European Court of Justice over the failure of south-east London’s Bromley Council to require an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) prior to granting planning permission in 1998 for a massive commercial development of Crystal Palace.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SPANISH government is seeking to head off a move at the European Parliament to persuade the European Commission that Spain’s ambitious national hydrological plan breaks European Union (EU) environmental legislation and so should not be eligible for funding from Brussels.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane, EDWARD PETERS, in Hong Kong, RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg, MARK ROWE, in London, SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA, in Columbo and MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal.
BRITAIN’S National Health Service (NHS) is exposed to an estimated annual fraud loss of pounds 2 billion each year.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
Flower importers will have to meet tougher requirements over health certification for certain species this year following amendments to the EU’s plant health regime agreed recently by the council of agriculture ministers.

The ministers amended the EU Directive 2000/29/EC, which deals with protective measures against the introduction and spread of organisms harmful to plants or plant products in the Union.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GERMAN government has called at the EU Council of Ministers for an EU-wide strategy to reduce the potential health risk from the production of acrylamide in certain categories of food, such as bread and chips.…