Search Results for: Environmental health

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PHARMACEUTICAL industry has been urged to embrace differential pricing policies in the developed and developing worlds, as a means of earning enough money to cover research costs, (in richer countries), whilst keeping drugs affordable in poorer countries.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal, Canada
THE GREAT Lakes of Canada and the United States, in particular Lake Erie, suffered the highest levels of pollution in the sixties and seventies, attracting global attention and concern to urgently clean the waters that at their peak pollution levels actually caught fire.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU Council of Ministers has approved a European public health programme for the years 2001-2006, which is likely to lead to further efforts by Brussels to dissuade people from smoking. Ministers agreed that Euro 280 million should be spent on the plan, which will include the creation of a comprehensive data bank on habits affecting health, such as smoking.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A TOP level EU delegation will fly to Tokyo next week, (July 9), in a desperate bid to salvage the Kyoto Protocol from being wrecked by the intransigence of the Bush administration in Washington. Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom, and ministers from Belgium and Sweden, (representing the current and next EU presidencies), planned their mission after reports emerged from a summit meeting between Bush and Japan’s PM Junichiro Koizumi, that Tokyo would abandon the global warming treaty, if the US refused to sign.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MEMBER States of the European Union now have a legal duty to hold full-scale environmental impact assessments of proposed projects in a number of specific sectors, including transport and waste management, when they call in planning applications from local authorities.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SPECIAL care should be taken to make sure that GM cotton fibres do not pose a health risk when used in medical products, the European Union’s Scientific Steering Committee, which advises the European Commission on legislation, has said.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
MINING companies will have to check their guidelines regarding employees’ safety from exposure to mechanical vibrations from heavy pit equipment because of a proposed European Union directive.

The EU Council of Ministers, (general affairs), last week gave the proposal its formal approval.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MEMBER States of the European Union have come under political pressure from Brussels to outlaw the designing and marketing of alcoholic drinks, such as alcopops, to children and adolescents, as part of a move against under-age drinking.

The EU Council of Ministers (health) has adopted a Recommendation, (formal non-binding guidelines), which calls on national governments to “ensure” that the drinks industry does not produce alcoholic beverages specifically “targeted, designed or promoted to appeal” to young people.…

BY MIKE FOX
MAPLE syrup producers in Quebec are still using the banned chemical

paraformaldehyde, a practice which neighbouring Vermont fears could undermine the pure image of the product. The disinfectant helps increase production significantly.

A survey of 50 producers by Health Canada revealed 21 using the chemical.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RESEARCHERS in developing countries are to be offered US$ 17 million in grants for work on tobacco control policies, via a new programme co-sponsored by the US National Institutes for Health and the World Health Organisation. Their International Tobacco Health Research and Capacity Building Programme will, over the next five years, support research on tobacco consumption and related health risks in developing countries and fund studies about how tobacco use impacts on low and middle-income countries..…