REHIS News

Scottish Water is using earthworms and water fleas to treat waste water as part of an international study which aims to protect and improve resources across the world.

The EU funded project is currently being trialled in 11 different countries including Scotland, measuring the effectiveness of earthworms, water fleas and microalgae as a potential method to treat waste water.

Plastic. It’s a hot topic right now. Kick-started in the mainstream media by the BBC’s Blue Planet 2, hardly a week goes by now without another headline image showing our oceans and beaches being overrun with plastic debris.

It’s never good to see resources being wasted – let alone something that can be widely recycled. It’s worse when you see the damage that our waste can cause to ecosystems and wildlife. But there’s good news. This focus on plastic is having an impact. 

I was delighted to celebrate my 43rd year in Environmental Health as a delegate at the Southern Centre two-day Private Water Supplies - Undertaking and Reporting Risk Assessments training event in Stirling on 31 October and 1 November. 

The annual food update, hosted by Martin Keeley, was held on Wednesday 18 September at the Holiday Inn, Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh and was a great success.

The REHIS annual health and safety update, hosted by Lisa McCann, was held on Tuesday 17 September in Edinburgh, offering an ideal opportunity for professionals to increase their knowledge on current topical health and safety at work matters and was a very well received event.

Applications are invited for approximately 70 vacancies in the Public Health training programme across England, Scotland and Wales.

Consultants in Public Health serve the population, whether they are working for a rural community, a large city or the entire national population. The principles remain the same: prevention of ill health, promotion of healthy life styles and provision of good health care services.  

EHOs are part of the core public health workforce in Scotland and as such are eligible to apply for Public Health Specialist Training posts. 

An initial news article was published by REHIS in March 2019 regarding preparing for Brexit with an environmental overview. This news article aims to provide an update. 

A Brexit deal has been agreed but needs to be ratified. The UK could still leave the EU with no deal on 31 October if the UK and EU do not approve and sign the withdrawal agreement. 

A clear majority of Scots want to see tighter controls on the use and sale of fireworks.

A YouGov survey commissioned by the Scottish Government and involving a representative sample of the Scottish population, showed 71% of adults supported tighter controls on the sale of fireworks to the public, with over half backing a ban.     

And out of more than 16,000 respondents to a Scottish Government consultation on the issue: 

·       94% want to see tighter controls on the sale of fireworks

A consultation on the introduction of a legally enforceable no-smoking area around hospital buildings has launched.

Although the introduction of no-smoking areas, fines and penalties for smoking or permitting others to smoke outside hospital buildings are now in law, the size and placing of no-smoking areas and the wording of signs has still to be set out in legislation. The consultation provides an opportunity for those affected to provide their views on the details of these aspects so that legislation can be made on these.

The consultation seeks views on:

Scotland’s Chief Statistician has announced the publication of a report on emissions of air pollutants in 2017.

The main findings are: