Search Results for: Research

BY MONICA DOBIE
A QUEBEC Superior Court judge, in Canada, has given the green light for two class action lawsuits to be launched against Canadian tobacco manufacturers, Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans Benson & Hedges and JTI MacDonald, all of whom could be liable for significant damages.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) health and consumer protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou has been angered by the continued use by European food processors of the carcinogen Sudan 1, despite controls being introduced 18 months ago. Brussels’ emergency decision of June 2003 insisted on the testing of food ingredients for the dye to prevent its use in processing and also told member states to test products already on the market.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
AMERICAN scientists from the USA’s Agricultural Research Service have mapped the entire genetic code of honey bees, which will help breeders rear bees with enhanced honey production skills and increased disease resistance. Bee diseases cost US$5 million annually in crop-pollination losses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organisation wants international cooperation on testing potential vaccines for HIV/AIDS because of concerns the current boom in research could exhaust available clinical trial capacity. It called for sharing trials amongst a number of sites, each responsible for testing vaccines on a particular strain of the disease.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a Euro 72 million public health campaign designed especially to stop young people taking up smoking. ‘HELP: For a Life Without Tobacco’ will last until 2008 and involves direct actions by the Commission and paid-for advertising on television, posters and at cinemas.…

BY LIZ HALL
SPAIN’S paint and coating industry has every right to be self-congratulatory at present: the widespread investment and business improvements of recent years have paid off with the sector securing a well-earned place alongside its counterparts elsewhere in the developed world.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ALTHOUGH the south Asian Tsunami meant 2004 was a terrible year for deaths caused by natural disasters, personal damage caused by such events was actually less than in 2003, the United Nations has reported. Its Brussels-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) said that more than 320,000 people perished last year in 366 natural disasters, with the Tsunami killing at least 300,000.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has developed technology to process chicken feathers into a plastic-like material that can be moulded just like any other plastic, with properties similar to polyethylene and polypropylene. The federal agency says this makes the feather-derived plastic a unique material for packaging or other applications where high strength and biodegradability are desired.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is pushing for European Union (EU) member governments to use more electronic identifiers for cattle and calves. In a detailed paper, it has suggested an optional system where one of the two eartags currently used is replaced by an electronic bolus or other transponder as an integral part of identification.…

BY LUCY JONES, in Dallas, Texas

THERE is another side to the loss of life and devastation wreaked in the USA by hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Wilma and Dennis last year, a market reaction that has brought unsought benefits to the US paint and coatings industry.…