Central to the achievement of the Agenda for Sustainable Development is an adequate, equitably distributed and fully supported health workforce. Nurses are the largest occupational group and represent an indispensable force with which to combat inequities in access to health services and progress towards health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while …
INTERNATIONAL trade in unwanted hazardous chemicals and pesticides is now a serious global concern, especially in developing countries that lack resources to monitor their safe application, storage facilities, and adequate training for their applications. To deal with this, 61 countries have signed a new convention to prevent trade in hazardous …
THE MASSIVE cost of European Union's (EU) plan to reduce vehicular pollution from 2005 has infuriated car manufacturers and oilpersons, both traditionally rival industries. The car manufacturers say that the directive, forged in June, will force them to churn out a whopping us $60 billion. And the oilperson echo similar …
TWO young students have developed a computerised glove which can convert the deafmute alphabet into speech and another has invented a blind person's stick which can "hear" obstacles. As part of a special competition held by the Christoffel Mission for the Blind at Bensheim, Germany, young inventors exhibited their gadgets …
An accident at a steel mill in Spain has contaminated large parts of southern Europe with radioactivity, say environmentalists. The Spanish Nuclear Safety Council says scrap containing the readioctive metal caesium-137 was mistakenly fed into the smelter of a steel mill in Algeciras, near Gibraltar, at the end of May …
NEVER before have birth rates fallen so low and for so long in Europe as at present, except in times of plague, war and deep economic depression. There is not a single country in Europe where people are having enough children to replace themselves when they die. Recently, Italy became …
the Clinton administration, supporting the American toy-manufacturing giant Mattel Inc and several other toy companies, is lobbying against European efforts to ban controversial chemical compounds from teething rings and other toys for children. With the European Union (eu) nearing a decision on whether to prohibit the sale of toys made …
after months of debate, the European Parliament (ep) has finally allowed the patenting of genetically engineered organisms. While EuropaBio, the European Association of BioIndustries, Brussels, has welcomed the legislation, several environmental organisations, like Greenpeace, Gaia Foundation and European Campaign for Biotechnology Patents (ecobp), are up in arms. According to a …
women who smoke, have a 50 per cent higher risk of dying from heart attack than men who smoke, say researchers. The likely reason given is that tobacco smoke has an adverse effect on the female hormone, oestrogen. Researchers monitored nearly 11,500 women and 13,200 men for the study for …
this is where physics meets medicine. The science of particle beams may be quite beyond the limits of medical science, but the two might soon collaborate, with results that may surprise many doctors (of medicine, that is). Two new research programmes in Europe have begun exploring down-to-earth uses for two …
Vitamin B2 can ward off migraines, says a recent European study team. Researchers at the General Hospital of Luxembourg, Belgium, split 55 migraine patients into two groups. One took 400 milligrams of Vitamin B2 every day for four months, the other, a placebo. At the end of the trial, 59 …
Over 16 European nations and 12 international organisations recently joined hands and agreed to cooperate in an attempt to find ways of improving the welfare of laboratory animals, and primates in particular. Under the terms of a "declaration of intent' signed under the auspices of the Council of Europe, they …
Nineteen European nations signed a pact in France on January 12 approving a ban on human cloning. French officials said that the protocol was an annex to the Council of Europe's convention and also the first compulsory juridical instrument banning cloning of humans. The agreement was signed after the French …
Rice lands release up to 14 per cent of the world's methane emissions that cause global warming. Now, Philippine-based International Rice Research Institute (irri) is studying ways to reduce methane emissions. An irri researcher, Noel Nocon, has said that the research project is determining what rice land conditions induce methane …
a ban on fur imports from the us has been called off by the European Union (eu) after accepting an assurance from Washington to phase out steel-jawed leghold traps, used in catching animals, within six years. A majority of the eu ambassadors accepted the latest offer from the us which …
The European Union (EU) has begun an inspection of Karachi's fish harbour to decide whether to ban seafood exports from Pakistan. The fishing industry in Pakistan exports around US $150 million of seafood annually. Almost one-third goes to Europe and sold mostly in the UK and the Netherlands. The EU …
a wide ban on the sale of beef rib roasts, T-bone steaks and certain other on-the-bone cuts has been recommended by a European Union (eu) scientific committee because of the risk of the "mad cow' disease being transmitted. The committee has said that every country that has reported cases of …
in an attempt to reduce air pollution, the European Commission has laid down strict standards not only for pm 10s - particles with a diameter of less than 10 micrometres, but also for pm 2.5s which are less than 2.5 micrometres. It is felt that these rules will halve emissions …
results of a study published by National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, the most prestigious research agency of the us federal government, have confirmed that sperm counts have dropped enormously in the last 60 years in the us and Europe. This is much higher than the findings of any previous …
a number of European countries have refused to support an attempt by the European Commission to prohibit national import bans on genetically engineered maize by Novartis, the multinational agrochemical company. Maize imported by Novartis ge contains a bt toxin which is designed to ward off pests. "Wherever genetically-engineered organisms and …
EUROPEAN leaders after a recently held two-day summit at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg have pledged to ban human cloning as part of measures to prevent the abuse of technology. The Council promised to outlaw "any intervention to create a human being identical to another human being, whether living …
