Search Results for: japan

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A MUTUAL recognition agreement on good pharmaceutical manufacturing practice struck between Japan and the European Union (EU) will come into force on May 29, allowing certain medicines to be traded then sold without additional testing or certification. These include standard, homeopathic and vitamin treatments as listed in the agreement’s annexe, and the scope will be reviewed in the future.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPETITIVENESS report by the European Commission has claimed that environmental improvements made European Union (EU) industries in 2002 has not blunted their efficiency. The paper says that despite large reductions in greenhouse, acidifying, ozone-depleting, and ozone-precursor gases, EU manufacturing industry made strides in boosting productivity, compared with rivals in Japan and the USA.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) should pump public money into nanotechnology research to enable Europe to regain its former leading position in this growing and increasingly lucrative sector, the European Commission has said. A policy paper (communication) ‘Towards a European Strategy for Nanotechnology’, says the it should use its cross-border coordinating role to create EU ‘poles of excellence’ in the sector, combining researchers with industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CHINA will this year begin a trial of automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) technology at three airports in the west of the country, it has told an Asia-Pacific region ADS-B meeting staged by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NOBODY likes to be on a blacklist, especially one written by the American government. But every year, the US state department issues a comprehensive rogues gallery of countries involved in the narcotics trade and related criminal problems. One surprising entrant: the United States.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADA’S largest producer of chrysotile asbestos fibres, LAB Chrysotile, has announced it will indefinitely shut one of its two mines near Thetford Mines, Quebec, this November. The company has blamed the closure of its Black Lake mine, which will result in 450 job losses, on a high Canadian dollar in comparison to the US dollar and tough international competition.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will spend over Euro 2.2 million in three years promoting EU wine. Euro 1.22 million is shared by the Union interprofessionelle des Vins du Beaujolais and Deutsches Weininstitut pushing wine in Japan and Euro 440,000 goes to Portugal’s Commissao de Viticultura a Regiao dos Vinhos Verdes for USA, Canada and Switzerland campaigns, for instance.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
AUSTRALIAN researchers are experimenting with co-firing plastic waste with coal in the blast furnace iron-making process. If the trials are successful this technique will – said the Australian government – provide a way to dispose of large volumes of plastic waste, whilst benefiting the environment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD’S increasing reliance on cars is threatening efforts to combat climate change, according to a report published by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA). Although its report ‘Oil Crises and Climate Challenges’ found that oil consumption has been declining since 1973 in every other industrial and service sector, soaring transport demands meant overall levels have not declined.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
TO cater for Japan’s increasingly old and frail population, electronics giant Sanyo is marketing an automated human washing machine. The user sits in a chair that is rolled backward into place then the machine’s sides fold up like a clamshell, enclosing the bather, whose head sticks out of the top.…