Search Results for: Environmental health

BY DEIRDRE MASON
THOUSANDS of tonnes of mildly radioactive steel could come onto the European market because of pressure on countries waiting to join the European Union to dismantle their decrepit Russian-built nuclear power stations. Aware of the need to assuage public distrust of even the lowest levels of radioactivity, the European Union’s Joint Research Centre is investigating the levels of radiation likely to be involved in this steel, taken from buildings that do not house the reactor itself.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INSURANCE companies are being unnecessarily exposed to risk through employment accident policies because of the estimated two million workers who die annually through job-related accidents or diseases, eighty per cent of which are preventable, the International Labour Organisation has claimed.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A STUDY on the environmental performance of Estonia’s two main electricity generators has concluded that significant investment will be required to enable them to attain the European Union standards that they must achieve when the Baltic country becomes a EU Member State.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
ALMOST three quarters of Britain’s firms carry out little or no investigation into workplace accidents according to a study whose results were revealed at a major safety conference today.

Dr David Embrey, managing director of consultancy firm Human Reliability Associates (HRA), told the RoSPA Safety and Health at Work Congress 2002 that the findings would fuel pressure for legislation requiring all organisations to carry out proper accident inquiries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN UNCHARACTERISTIC failure to be punctual is the reason why the German government lost a bid at the European Court of Justice to overturn last year’s European Union directive on tobacco manufacturing and labelling.

Berlin officials had until last October 11 to launch an appeal against the law, which had been published in the EU Official Journal on July 18.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE DECISION-MAKING of world food standards body Codex Alimentarius could be made simpler and more transparent, under a review by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation and World Health Organisation. They think, with the World Trade Organisation increasingly using Codex standards to adjudicate food trade disputes, governments and other parties should have more input into their establishment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A STUDY carried out by France’s Grenoble University shows that European consumers are unlikely to be concerned enough about potential health risks to avoid buying clearly labelled GM foods.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AUSTRALIAN officials have been overseeing the slaughter of 250,000 chickens on a large farm in Victoria, because of an outbreak of Newcastle disease. So far, reported the Office International des Epizooties, (zoonoses), health checks on surrounding farms within a 10 km radius had not revealed any signs that the disease has spread.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has extended a ban on the export of all live pigs, together with porcine semen, ova and embryos, to parts of France, Germany and Luxembourg following new outbreaks of classical swine fever. At the same time it has ordered a one-month extension of controls in Spain until 30 June.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHOLE oat products and foods containing psyllium will lower cholesterol levels and reduce heart disease, says the American Council on Science and Health in a new booklet studying health claims of functional foods. They disagreed that dark-green leafy vegetables containing lutein reduce risk of eyesight degeneration.…