Search Results for: Environmental Health⊂mit=Search

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE HEADS of government of the European Union (EU) have backed a USA-Russia global nuclear non-proliferation initiative, making detailed pledges.

These came in a communiqué issued following the June 19-20 EU summit in Brussels. It said the EU and its member states agreed Moscow and Washington’s Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism "corresponds with [EU] strategy…"

As a result, EU member governments made promises to tighten up nuclear material security including:

*Improving accounting, control and physical protection systems for nuclear and other radioactive materials and substances and enhancing the security of civilian nuclear facilities;

*Boosting their capacity to detect nuclear and other radioactive materials and substances to prevent illicit trafficking;

*Increasing their capability to search for, confiscate, and control unlawfully held nuclear or other radioactive materials and devices; and

*Ensuring their national laws "provide for…appropriate criminal and, if applicable, civil liability for terrorists and those who facilitate acts of nuclear terrorism".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Observatory on Nanotechnologies is to be created, charged with predicting and detecting the potential environmental health problems caused by the increasing use of nanoparticles in consumer products, including dyed clothing. Coordinated by the Institute of Nanotechnology in Glasgow, Scotland, the new European body will receive Euro 4 million from the European Union’s (EU) Seventh Framework Programme research budget, and will involve 17 EU organisations with relevant expertise.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PUBLIC transport fleet buyers may have to insist upon environmental conditions for any vehicle purchase tender, following a debate at the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers. It reached a "general approach" on a proposed directive on promoting clean and energy road vehicles that would require such concerns to be written into tendering requirements.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Observatory on Nanotechnologies is to be created, charged with predicting and detecting the potential environmental health problems caused by the increasing use of nanoparticles in consumer products and their packaging. Coordinated by the Institute of Nanotechnology in Glasgow, Scotland, the new European body will receive Euro 4 million from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme research budget, and will involve 17 EU organisations with relevant expertise.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE GREEN group of the European Parliament is pushing for the establishment of a separate European Union (EU) treaty that would commit EU institutions to promoting the development of renewable energies.

The MEPs have been inspired by the success of another separate EU treaty – albeit one they are not fond of – the Euratom treaty, which guarantees separate budgets to assist the operation of nuclear power plants.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A REPORT from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has revealed that almost a half of OECD member countries (including many in Europe) have potentially dangerous nutrient and pesticide concentrations in drinking water sources.

Tests carried out in recent years (NOTE: CALLED MID-2000’S IN THE REPORT) on surface water and groundwater monitoring sites in agricultural areas show these pollutants often "exceed national drinking water recommended limits" said a new OECD report on the environmental impact of farming.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON in London

PROPOSED new European Union (EU) legislation making a range of safety systems in new cars, trucks and other heavy vehicles mandatory from 2012 has had a largely positive response from the automotive industry, but proposals about cutting down tire noise have been less welcome.…

BY PHILIPPA JONES, in Paris

"FISHING is much more than fish," said former US president Herbert Hoover. "It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers." This may have been the case in the 1930s and may remain so for weekend anglers, who forget about the week’s stresses sitting quietly by the side of a lake.…

BY MARK ROWE

YOU are a young, thrusting oil company, sitting on vast reserves and anticipating an even more lucrative future. You’re looking to make a statement about your position in the world. What do you do? In the case of Gazprom Neft, you build a new mini-city.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Commission officials are considering whether to propose banning wood preservative coating creosote within the European Union because of environmental health concerns. This follows a public consultation ending June 30. "Any decision to restrict its use or withdraw it from the market would have considerable economic and practical consequences", said a Commission note.…