Search Results for: Research

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane
AUSTRALIAN scientists have devised a remote monitoring system to assess the impact of waste items such as toilet paper and condoms in sewage. The system, developed by the Coastal Cooperative Research Centre, Griffith University and Brisbane City Council, keeps continual watch on emergency release valves in the city’s sewage system.…

Keith Nuthall
AIRPORT security is to be a priority subject for studies funded by a proposed European Union research programme commanding Euro 65 million from 2004-6. An expert industry, government and academic group has been formed to advise the European Commission on how it should spend this money, which would also finance some military and general security research.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) is calling for a prioritised list of indoor pollutants for possible regulation, following the release of data showing that offices can be more polluted than the outdoors. Examining so-called ‘sick-building syndrome’, the JRC examined the effects of benzene, tobacco smoke and volatile organic compounds used in some paints, adhesive and varnishes; these ranged from sensory irritation to “behavioural, neurotoxic, hepatoxic, and genotoxic effects.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A SOLUTION to the problem of ink corrosion, one of the most serious and persistent of those facing museum and library curators charged with the preservation of old drawings and documents, may at last be in sight.

The InkCor project, backed by museums, research institutes and universities in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Slovenia, and largely funded by the European Union’s (EU) Fifth Framework Programme for research, is developing a treatment that will at the very least stabilise the present situation and slow down the corrosion.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EXTERNAL social, environmental and economic costs imposed by nuclear energy are comparatively low, according to European Commission research. Estimated at Euro (cents) per kilowatt hour, nuclear electricity’s costs are below wind energy, but roughly level with hydro, ranging from 0.03 in Portugal and 1 cent in France and Greece.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has this week (Mon22/10) launched the results of a programme of studies into the health problems caused by indoor pollutants. Releasing the reports at the opening of the 13th annual conference of the International Society of Exposure Analysis, at Stresa, Italy, the centre said its data revealed “insights into potential causes of acute indoor symptoms such as allergies, asthma, mucous irritation, headaches and tiredness.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is investing Euro 14 million to create an EU ‘CASCADE’ network of excellence investigating the presence and effect of harmful chemicals in common foodstuffs. It will include more than 20 universities, research institutes and businesses, all coordinated by Sweden’s Karolinska Institute.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AMERICAN cigarette sales dropped more than twice as much in the four US states that spend the most on tobacco control, including health publicity and education programmes, according to a new study published in the country’s Journal of Health Economics.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has called on European Union member countries – including Britain – to adopt an updated and common EU list of illnesses for which workers should be compensated if they contracted them at work.

In a formal ‘recommendation on the schedule of occupational diseases,’ Brussels calls on governments “to introduce as soon as possible” rules covering “compensation and preventative measures” for such medical conditions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FUTURE cooperation over the safe operation of Europe’s ageing complement of nuclear power stations has been discussed by a key meeting of specialists from existing European Union (EU) Member States and eastern European countries applying for membership or will join next May.…