REHIS News

Public Health England (PHE) has announced that a UK resident has sadly died after becoming infected with rabies following a cat bite during a visit to Morocco.

They said that while there was no risk to the wider public, as a precautionary measure, health workers and close contacts of the person who died were being assessed and offered vaccination when necessary.

The Scottish Government has launched a campaign highlighting the pitfalls of buying illegally bred puppies.

Buy a Puppy Safely campaign will focus on raising awareness of the tactics used by illegal breeders to deceive buyers.

Research shows that Scots are more likely to buy an illegally-bred puppy than they might think, with only 24% of Scots buying from an approved breeder and 1 in 4 considering using an online or website to buy a puppy.

The owner and manager of a takeaway, have been jailed for manslaughter after a teenage girl died when the meal she ordered carried peanuts.

Mohammed Abdul Kuddus and Harun Rashid, who ran Royal Spice in Lancashire, who were found guilty in October, have been jailed for two years and three years respectively at Manchester Crown Court.

Pret a Manger’s allergy labelling was inadequate, the coroner in the case of a girl who died after eating a baguette from the food chain has said.

Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, died after eating a Pret a Manger artichoke and olive tapenade baguette bought from Heathrow Airport in 2016. She had severe allergies to many foods including sesame, which had been baked into a baguette, the ingredients had not been listed on the packaging. She collapsed during a flight from Heathrow to Nice, despite her father administering two EpiPen injections.

On 10 October 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) published ‘Environmental noise guidelines for the European region’. The guidelines have been developed, based on the growing understanding of these health impacts of exposure to environmental noise.

Scotland’s Drinking Water Quality Regulator (DWQR) has published a report on the quality of water found in private water supplies. The report finds that many of these supplies comply with drinking water standards but a significant number need to make further improvements.

Around 3.6 per cent of the Scottish population receive their water from a private water supply rather than from Scottish Water. In 2017 local authorities reported to DWQR that there were 22,269 registered PWS in Scotland, 2,494 Type A and 19,775 Type B.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA), Food Standards Scotland (FSS), Public Health England (PHE) and Health Protection Scotland (HPS) are reminding people to take care when handling raw meat and to cook it properly.

This comes following a rise in cases of a particular strain of Salmonella typhimurium linked to lamb and mutton. The first increase in cases of this particular strain was seen July 2017. Prior to that, only two cases of this strain had been detected in England.

A case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) has been confirmed on a farm in Aberdeenshire.

The case was identified as a result of strict control measures are in place, as all animals over four years of age that die on farm are routinely tested for BSE under a comprehensive surveillance system.

In addition to the measures that are in place for fallen stock and animal feed, there is a strict control regime to protect consumers.  This includes the removal of specified risk material such as the spinal column, brain and skull from carcasses.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has published Official Statistics’ which provide detail of Household Waste collected for all 32 of Scotland’s Local Authorities during 2017,along with additional commentary for the whole of Scotland.

The Statistics’ reveal for the first time, in 2017 that there was more Scottish waste recycled (1.12 million tonnes) than landfilled (1.11 million tonnes).

About 8% of meat tested in Scotland in 2017 was found to contain the DNA of an animal not listed on the labelling, after being tested by local councils.  This was revealed following a freedom of information request by the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme to Food Standards Scotland (FSS).

Information collected by FSS showed that of the 631 dishes examined last year, 48 were found to have been “contaminated” with the meat of an animal not listed on the label or menu description.