Search Results for: Environmental health

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LETS face it. The reputation of the European Union for taking firm action against crime is not solid. Rather it is known for issuing waffley communiqués that say what needs to be done, without saying when or how.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A SURVEY conducted by the Food and Veterinary Office of the European Commission on pesticide residues has found that maximum safety limits were exceeded in 4.5 per cent of 45,000 samples of fruit, vegetable and cereals analysed in the year 2000.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it is spending Euro 20 million on research projects designed to unveil the real effects of endocrine disrupters on human health and the environment. Grants will be paid to 22 research teams from 10 European countries which will explore the effect of exposure from low doses and mixtures of disrupters on human beings, aquatic wildlife and laboratory animals, among other topics.…

BY MARK ROWE
FRENCH scientists may have found the first biological evidence that tobacco can make smokers less intelligent and more forgetful. Scientists at the Paris-based National Institute for Health and Medical Research found in tests on rats that the harmful nicotine in cigarettes destroys brain cells and impedes production of new ones.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
ROTHMANS, Benson & Hedges Inc. has filed a lawsuit against the Saskatchewan provincial government, arguing that the province’s recent Tobacco Control Act, which bans the display in shops of tobacco products, is unconstitutional under Canadian federal law.

The case filed in the prairie province’s Court of Queen’s Bench, claims that the legislation that came into effect on March 11, 2002, violates Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and federal tobacco legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MEXICO and the United States made pledges on several food industry issues during recent two-day talks. The countries have agreed to work together on sanitary policies, animal health, food safety, and research. US-Mexico agricultural trade has doubled since 1993 to US$13 billion in 2001.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organisation is advising countries experiencing a rise in resistance amongst malaria mosquitos to conventional medicines, such as chloroquine, to start promoting new combination treatment. These Artemisinin-Based Combination Therapies are derived in part from a Chinese herb, killing malaria parasites very fast, allowing patients to recover rapidly with few side effects.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), of the United Nations, is promoting the use of so-called International Chemical Safety Cards, which are designed to reduce the risk of industrial accidents in companies using chemicals. Each card summarises essential health and safety information on chemicals for their use at work.*More…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REPORT on the international conventions and European and national laws controlling the use of cannabis as a medicine, has been released by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. The paper offers a legal analysis of the options and limitations of using medicinal cannabis and its derivatives in the EU, as well as noting current practice.…

BY MARK ROWE
IT may have taken riots in Seattle and Genoa but the World Trade Organisation has finally come out all compassionate. The theory is simple. Most of the world’s poor are in developing nations. Many of those in greatest poverty are farmers.…