Search Results for: Environmental health

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT is rare that an international organisation report on a scandal involving crime, corruption, war and environmental degradation names and shames high profile companies, but that is what is contained within the latest United Nations (UN) Security Council report on the Congo.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has developed plans to lend South West Water (SWW) owner the Pennon Group plc up to Euro 60 million to help finance the utility’s 2000-2005 capital expenditure programme for non-environmental schemes. The money would be injected into a string of improvement projects for both water supply and disposal, which are designed to re-balance “supply and demand” and boost “enhanced customer service standards.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHEN the New Year is upon us, pessimists tend to herald the approach of apocalypse, gloomy tidings and battening down the hatches. And in a year that may see war in the Middle East, the naysayers may say more in 2003 than usual.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL agreement has been signed to develop a new combination anti-malaria drug. Called pyronaridine-artesunate, it will be jointly developed by the Tropical Diseases Research Programme, the Medicines for Malaria Venture and South Korea’s Shin Poong Pharmaceuticals. It could be registered by early 2006.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WATER privatisation has certainly had its critics, but it has a new supporter in the shape of the European Commission. It has publicly backed the growing privatisation of Europe’s water utilities, with its internal market commissioner praising British government moves to inject competition into its national sector.…

BY PHILIP FINE

A TASK-FORCE established in the US state of Florida is discussing the possibility of placing a limit on the money paid out in malpractice lawsuits because of concerns that the resulting awards are bleeding the local health insurance industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN EXPERT United Nations committee has adopted a new global labelling and classification system for chemicals, designed to prevent the mismanagement of hazardous and dangerous substances. The system agreed by the UN Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals uses universally understandable pictogram-based labels.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane, Australia
A NUCLEAR probe developed in Australia for minerals exploration and mining has the potential to reduce rates of acid rain and other environmental pollution, its developers claim.

The device, designed by Australia’s chief science authority CSIRO, can detect the concentrations of sulphur in coal seams and mine waste rock underground, allowing miners to choose those with lower levels and leave the higher sulphur coals embedded.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the acquisition by Germany’s mining and technology group RAG of German speciality chemicals company Degussa AG, so long as RAG sells its Italian, Spanish and German plants making naphtalene sulfonate, an important concrete input.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GOOD practice guidelines of how to reduce a company’s exposure to HIV/AIDS in the workplace have been released by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank. Its note provides companies with advice on designing and implementing HIV/AIDS prevention and care programmes for employees.…