Search Results for: Environmental Health⊂mit=Search

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has hailed as a success two pilot projects involving large European Union (EU) companies making detailed commitments to reduce the environmental impact of their products. Finland mobile phone giant Nokia and French retailer Carrefour have led consortia of like-minded companies to reduce resources consumed and waste generated by mobiles and wooden garden furniture they make and sell.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EXPORTERS of meat and bone meal waste shipping cargoes from the European Union (EU) to non-EU power incinerators do not have to make special declarations to environmental authorities, a European Court of Justice advocate general has recommended.

Juliane Kokott has said this is the case even if the animal waste was contaminated by BSE: "…contamination by risk material, if… incinerated, does not lead to any apparent increased risk to the environment."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has unveiled European Commission plans to next year launch comprehensive legislation boosting effective carbon capture and storage.

The laws would remove legal barriers impeding research and development into this environmental technology and would also lay down rules on liability, for instance, if stored CO2 leached into the environment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has published an inventory of potential European Union (EU) pollution from non-industrial sources – such as cars, aeroplanes, ships and household appliances – as a first step towards creating a comprehensive detailed emissions database. Brussels wants to help environmental policy-makers develop better targeted proposals, which have been stymied in the past by non-industrial pollution estimates, which are notoriosly tough to measure accurately because they come from a huge number of sources.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

BEIRUT: The month long war waged by Israel against Hizbullah has caused considerable damage to Lebanon’s environment.

The coastline is marred by an oil spill, the air has been polluted by burning fuel oil, destroyed factories, forest fires and dust kicked up from bombings, and there is the possibility that depleted uranium (DU) and phosphorous bombs were used by the Israeli military.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A KEY European Union (EU) scientific committee has advised that EU guidelines on assessing the risk of new chemical substances be overhauled once the REACH chemical control system has been approved. The EU’s ‘scientific committee on health and environmental risks’ has criticised the existing technical guidance for the administration of EU directive 93/67/EEC on ‘new notified substances of new and existing substances’, calling for "some substantial changes".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EXPORTERS of meat and bone meal waste shipping cargoes from the European Union (EU) to non-EU power incinerators do not have to make special declarations to environmental authorities, a European Court of Justice advocate general has recommended.

Juliane Kokott has said this is the case even if the animal waste was contaminated by BSE: "…contamination by risk material, if… incinerated, does not lead to any apparent increased risk to the environment."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DELAYED timetable for introducing the new Euro 5 fuel consumption and emissions standard for many European Union (EU) vehicles, including cars, minibuses, vans, SUVs and light trucks, has been tabled by the European Parliament’s environment committee. Normally a keen supporter of robust environmental legislation, the committee has accused the EU’s executive authority – the European Commission – of wanting to rush into mandating Euro 5 by proposing the standard be in force by mid-2008.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has underlined her willingness to be flexible over the final shape of the EU’s proposed wine reforms, as long as their core liberalisation proposals are preserved.

In a speech to the agriculture committee of the European Parliament, she stressed that additional money would be transferred to EU rural development budgets and earmarked for wine producing regions, to help cushion restructuring blows.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) is trying to harmonise rules behind ecolabels, so businesses can be confident ecolabelled supplies were produced in an environment-friendly way. ISO is concerned about the proliferation of ecolabels worldwide using different rules, which "have not always communicated verifiable and accurate information about their products."…