Search Results for: Environmental Health⊂mit=Search

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FRENCH and German governments have struck agreement over the proposed compulsory 120g/km target for automobiles within the European Union, (EU), with Paris giving ground to Berlin in some key areas.

Germany has opposed the European Commission-proposed average emissions cap saying the burden on technological changes would fall unfairly on its own iconic auto industry, producing – as it does – high quality, powerful cars with comparatively intense CO2 emissions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has warned that British beaches became dirtier in 2007, with a major increase in the number of bathing water sites failing to meet European Union (EU) hygiene standard. These numbered 20 last year, up from just two in 2006, and 10 in 2005.…

BY MARK ROWE

IN the past 18 months, the rush toward biofuels as the new green alternative to fossil fuels has of course come to something of a juddering halt. Concerns over just how green they are, and the implications of growing crops for energy rather than food, have led to the UN, major energy companies, scientists and environmental organisations looking beyond the first generation of biofuels.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London; LUCY JONES, in Dallas; JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo; and KEITH NUTHALL

GIVEN the spate of oil tanker accidents in recent years involving substantial pollution of seas and coastlines around the world, it is no surprise that international organisations have weighed in with regulatory controls and guidelines on shipping standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ENVIRONMENTAL health experts from across the European Union (EU) have been asked to consider whether they want to serve on a reserve list of independent specialists who could be called upon to help European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) inquiries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Observatory on Nanotechnologies will be created, predicting and detecting the potential environmental health problems caused by using nanoparticles in consumer products, including paints and coatings. Coordinated by the Institute of Nanotechnology in Glasgow, the new body will receive Euro 4 million from the European Commission, and involve 17 EU organisations with relevant expertise.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, in Lilongwe, Malawi

A NEW initiative to improve the health, wealth and environment of Africans is being driven by the Kyoto Protocol’s international trades in carbon credits. This allows wealthy developed countries to scale back their emission reductions, if they can invest in slashing greenhouse gas pollution abroad.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE FEEDING of fishmeal to dairy or meat livestock calves is safe in environmental health terms, the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers has ruled. The decision follows a long debate over concerns that fish used to make the meal could have been fed meat from slaughtered cows, potentially contaminated with BSE.…

BY MARK ROWE

ONE of the first responses to concerns about climate change involved the search to sequester carbon, a component of the major greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. Increasingly, efforts are focussing on how to deal with another greenhouse gas, methane.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament will consider proposals to bring forward to January 2010 proposed public procurement reforms telling local and national regional governments to consider environmental issues when buying transport services or vehicles. Amendments have been tabled by the parliament’s environment committee that would introduce these changes two years earlier than a European Commission-proposed deadline.…