Search Results for: Environmental Health⊂mit=Search

BY MARK ROWE, KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, GAVIN BLAIR and PAUL COCHRANE

EARTHQUAKES are not good news for nuclear power plants. In safety terms they are a serious risk, and they are usually a public relations disaster, even if no serious damage is done to a plant misfortunate enough to be in a quake.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FORMAL negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Russia over renewing the 1997 partnership and cooperation agreement between them are under way at last: formal talks started in Brussels on July 4, following a successful EU-Russia summit at the Siberian oil town of Khanty-Mansiysk..…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Medicines Agency (EMEA) has released a guideline on scientific requirements for the environmental risk assessment of gene therapy medicinal products – http://emea.europa.eu/pdfs/human/genetherapy/12549106enfin.pdf;

*It has recommended measures to manage contamination of heparin-containing medicines – http://emea.europa.eu/humandocs/PDFs/EPAR/heparin/27772208en.pdf;

*EMEA has also published a guideline on manufacturing human cell-based medicinal products – http://emea.europa.eu/pdfs/human/cpwp/41086906enfin.pdf;…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend up to Euro 400 million to France’s Société d’Enrichissement du Tricastin (SET) to improve its uranium enrichment plant. This investment would supply almost a third of the Euro 1,227.5 million required for Areva-controlled SET’s Georges Besse-II (GB II) programme.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) environmental health legislation may need comprehensive reform to take account of nanotechnologies, a European Commission policy paper has warned. Its publication comes as the Commission has launched a public consultation with organisations and companies potentially handling or regulating the use of nanotechnologies, with Brussels looking for evidence that tiny nanoparticles may cause breaches of existing EU environmental health and safety legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LOCAL authorities maybe forced in future to consider the pollution and energy efficiency of transport services they buy or hire when issuing public procurement tenders for contracts or purchases. A proposed reform of European Union (EU) procurement rules is now being considered by the European Parliament, which would make the comparison of environmental performance just as important as the financial cost of a service or vehicle within compulsory competitive tendering procedures.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BRITISH government is being taken to the European Court of Justice by the European Commission for allegedly failing to comply with the European Union’s environmental liability directive. The UK is one of nine member states – also including Ireland – accused of not writing the law’s principles on polluters paying for damages caused by their actions into their national statute books.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FRESH market authorisations for European Union (EU) sales will be needed by food manufacturers changing the particle size of an additive in future under a newly approved assessment system. This has been written into four EU regulations on additives, flavourings and enzymes, which have been approved by the European Parliament following talks with the EU Council of Ministers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has authorised the payment of national government subsidies to hauliers wanting to improve the environmental performance of their vehicles beyond standards required by European Union (EU) law.

In such cases, under new state aid rules issued by the Commission (on Monday July 7), governments could fund between 35% and 55% of the cost of these additional improvements.…

BY MARK ROWE

EUROPEAN car manufacturers could face new requirements in future to subscribe to a continent-wide eco-labeling scheme. Across the European Union (EU), several products are already subject to ratings on their environmental sustainability and are required to meet benchmarks for good environmental performance, the sustainable production and consumption of products, and the sustainable provision and use of services.…