Search Results for: Environmental health

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GENERAL sale to the public of special paints, printing inks, varnishes and adhesives containing 43 dangerous chemicals is to be banned from April 2003, if a proposal from the European Commission is accepted by the EU Council of Ministers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU health and consumer affairs Commissioner David Byrne has thrown a lyrical punch at Japan Tobacco International, which has taken the European Commission to the European Court of Justice over its restrictions on “light” and “low tar” descriptors.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE CO-GENERATION of electricity from waste oil is being promoted in the European Union through excise duty exemptions, which have been erected in the face of official EU environmental policy, a new European Commission report says.

Its “Critical Review of Existing Studies and Life Cycle Analysis on the Regeneration and Incineration of Waste Oils” points out that Council Directive 75/439/EC on Waste Oils tries to make Member States prioritise regeneration over burning.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has issued formal guidelines to its (mostly rich and often European) member governments to use their financial muscle when striking contracts for electricity supplies and power projects generally, to impose conditions that favour environmental good practice.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GLOBAL Forum on Food Safety Regulators has been staged in Morocco by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation and the World Health Organisation, reflecting concern about recent food safety disasters, such as BSE.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ITALY is being taken to the European Court of Justice by the European Commission for insisting that special sports foods be authorised for sale by its national health authorities, even if they are legally sold elsewhere in the EU.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A STRING of cases have been launched by the European Commission against Member States of the European Union to try and force them to comply with EU water legislation; under existing rules, failure to abide by the court’s rulings can see national governments being hit with huge daily recurring fines of up to Euro 100,000.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
RESEARCHERS in Alberta, Canada, have discovered a way to simultaneously sanitise two environmental hazards common to all oil producing regions that are also home to extensive beef industries: cattle excrement and hydrocarbon contaminated earth.

By mixing the two pollutants together they cancelled each other out.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has announced that it intends to apply the same strict state aid rules for the European Union steel industry that have applied in the past under the regulations of the European Coal and Steel Community, which expires on July 23.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the payment of Euro 50 million in grants over six years to help the South African government strengthen its primary health care, in particular in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The first Euro 25 million for the 2002-2004 will be allocated to the South Africa’s Department of Health, the remainder will be paid in 2004, subject to positive external review.…