Search Results for: Environmental Health⊂mit=Search

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s controversially delayed plan for conserving energy across a broad range of economic sectors throughout the 25 European Union (EU) member countries is to be announced next week, putting to rest fears that it could have been seriously weakened or even dropped entirely in the face of criticism from business.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has announced spending and spending plans worth Euro 230 million to three major water utility projects. The bank has signed a deal to lend Euro 100 million to Cyprus’ Sewerage Board of Limassol-Amathus (SBLA), and is supplying a first tranche of Euro 70 million immediately, to enable its southern coast area to comply with the EU urban wastewater directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has been authorised by the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers to negotiate a comprehensive energy agreement with Switzerland, which would see the landlocked country participating in liberalised EU electricity markets. A memorandum from the council confirmed that the Swiss would have to sign onto EU electricity market rules, including those on trading power and allowing the purchase by EU operators of Switzerland generators.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Ottawa

THE CANADIAN Museum of Nature has reopened its key west wing having reached the halfway mark of an extensive and costly renovation project, scheduled to finish in 2010. The now completed wing underwent comprehensive renovations, including the building of new fossil and mammal galleries and a temporary exhibition space.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONCERNS that using nanotechnologies in food and other consumer products could be hampered by the same public mistrust that has stymied the development of genetically modified foodstuffs are being tackled by a European Union (EU) research project. The ‘Nanologue’ programme has created a so-called ‘nanometer’, am online tool, which a European Commission note says is designed to help "researchers and product developers identify areas which could raise ethical, environmental or societal concerns among future consumers."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project has been launched to establish common rules measuring damage caused to consumers by food-borne illnesses, to iron out inconsistencies in assessments between EU countries. Part of the EU’s Med-Vet-Net initiative, scientists will focus on two common infections: salmonella and campylobacter.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has told the Czech government it should improve radioactivity-monitoring systems installed around its Temelín nuclear power plant. Although it confirms with Euratom regulations, Brussels’ radiation department of its energy directorate general said Czech regulator SONS (state office for nuclear safety) should ensure there is full traceability for the transport of environmental samples from Temelín to government laboratories.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INNOVATIVE recycling projects are to prosper from European Union (EU) grants under the Euro 66 million EU LIFE-Environment programme this coming year, the European Commission has announced. Although they are not based in the UK, these recycling projects will develop new technology and systems that can be applied freely in Britain.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

IT’S COMMONLY acknowledged that, whatever its merits, the globalisation of world trade and commerce brings with it vastly enhanced opportunities for money laundering. As the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) points out, in an online report explaining its work, the world-wide spread of inter-connected financial markets greatly extends the range of countries where anti-money laundering (AML) controls are absent or embryonic and enforcement is weak "and unfortunately, many countries particularly those classified as emerging markets, fall into this category."…

BY ALAN OSBORN

The European Commission has ordered the 25 EU member states to step up controls at borders following a disclosure that illegal genetically modified rice from China has found its way into the French, German and UK markets. Brussels said that traders who brought in the rice were "not doing enough" to check the food and were violating EU laws aimed at keeping out illegal GMOs.…