Search Results for: Environmental health

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to approve the transfer of Euro 60 million from the general EU 2001 budget, (most of which is currently earmarked for fishery support), to help finance the UN’s Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released new ‘structural indicators,’ used to measure economic and social progress in the EU. The statistical tools are important in assessments helping to decide which European regions need grants and other Brussels assistance. In its latest set of indicators, the Commission has included a requirement to measure concerns about climate change, sustainable transport, public health threats and the management of natural resources, along with those on gender pay gaps, quality of work, science and technology doctorates and the location of communications industries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE THREAT of thefts of nuclear material in eastern Europe is declining, despite the recent upsurge in Islamic terrorism, the Milan-based United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, (UNICRI), has claimed, in a study on environmental crime.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has widened health research under the oncoming EU Sixth Framework Programme to include studies on traditional diseases, widening European Commission plans to limiting its life science work to genomics and biotechnology. By contrast, the parliament wants money spent on cancer, cardiovascular diseases, degenerative nervous system illnesses, (including CJD), diabetes, viral hepatitis C, allergies, rare diseases and ageing conditions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Council of Ministers has agreed proposals to further harmonise manufactured tobacco sold within the EU, albeit a watered-down package compared with that tabled by the European Commission earlier this year.

Ministers accepted that the fixed minimum amount of excise duty per 1,000 cigarettes would be Euro 60 from July 1, 2002, rising to Euro 64 from July 1, 2006.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU ministers have backed the initial stages of development of the GMES, (global monitoring for environment and security), project, where observation satellites will work alongside ground level sensors to collect environmental data. The idea is that it will help the EU form policies on climate change, sustainable development, scientific research and the management of natural disasters such as floods.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU health and consumer affairs commissioner David Byrne has called for a strategic rethink by the food industry regarding the safety, quality and cost of its products, so that the sector is not driven purely by the desire for low prices.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EURELECTRIC has welcomed the latest European Commission guidelines that encourage public utilities, as well as local and national public authorities, to use EU public procurement procedures to promote worthy – in this case social – policy goals.

The publication of advice follows a similar move by Brussels in the summer regarding the purchase by so-called public entities of environmentally friendly goods and services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INCREASING political pressure is being applied on eastern European governments to raise fuel prices, so as to improve their environmental performance and promote investment in energy efficient industries.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe recently addressed the issue, with its Committee on Sustainable Energy and the Committee on Environmental Policy agreeing to produce guidelines on price reform.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Commission report Wastes Spread on Land has called for special care to be taken with the disposal of abattoir blood, guts and bones in this way, to minimise environmental problems. The study was written because of the increasing demand to reuse and recycle waste, and concludes that with abbatoir waste, “it is imperative that land application is handled with great care.”…