Author: Peacock Carter

The first scheme in Scotland to use NASA technology to monitor vehicle emissions has been launched.

The Vehicle Emissions Partnership, which is made up of West Lothian, East Lothian, Midlothian and Falkirk councils, aims to reduce harmful vehicle emissions by educating drivers about the impact their cars have on of air pollution.

They have undertaken a pilot scheme using state-of the-art remote detection Emissions Detecting and Reporting (EDAR) technology in sites in Edinburgh, Broxburn in West Lothian and are assisting with set up in Coatbridge in North Lanarkshire.

EDAR uses satellite and laser technology to give a true picture of vehicle emissions, as well as recording license plate, speed, acceleration and temperature of the exhaust.

Information recorded during the pilot will be shared between the local authorities involved, and Scottish Government agencies such as Transport Scotland and SEPA. Funding for the pilot project has been provided by the Scottish Government.

Tom Burr from the Vehicle Emissions Partnership said: “We hope this EDAR pilot scheme will assess the benefits of the technology to help demonstrate to drivers the emissions emitted by their vehicles, and make them consider the impact of their actions on the environment.

“Vehicle emissions data will be collected for every car which passes under the EDAR equipment during the trial in Edinburgh, West Lothian and North Lanarkshire.

“This will provide a huge amount of raw data to help councils and agencies looking at areas such as fleet analysis, modelling and public awareness, helping inform plans to tackle the issues associated with vehicle emissions in the future.”

The EDAR system has been developed by ex-NASA scientist and EDAR inventor, Dr. Stewart Hager. His firm Hager Environmental and Atmospheric Technologies (HEAT) have already successfully used EDAR in America and England.

EDAR contains a multi-patented system of hardware and software, which allows for a multi spectral 3-dimensional image of the entire exhaust plume of a moving vehicle. The unmanned system collects data on various gases such as CO, CO2, NOx, HC and PM.

Specialist temporary installation of the EDAR equipment has been carried out by Lochwynd.

Bottles of gin have been recalled across Canada after a batch was found to contain nearly twice the amount of advertised alcohol.

Officials said the 1.14 litre bottles of Bombay Sapphire London Dry Gin should have had 40% alcohol content by volume when the actual figure was 77%.

They stated the problem had been traced back to the production line when one batch was bottled before correct dilution to achieve 40% alcohol content by volume. This resulted in the affected batch having alcohol content by volume of 77%.

Drinks giant Bacardi, which distributes Bombay Sapphire, said the affected batch was believed to have only been sold in Canada.

The recall was triggered by the company and The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the recalled gin should be thrown out or returned to the shop where it was bought.

This is the second time this year that Canada has had to recall a brand of liquor because the alcohol content was too high. In March, bottles of Georgian Bay vodka were pulled from the shelves after inspectors found a batch with an alcohol content of 81% instead of the advertised 40%.

A company manager has been warned he faces jail after a worker tripped over a broken pallet and fell into a moving sawblade, slicing off three of his fingers.

Dundee Sheriff Court heard the G&D Pallets saw room in Dundee was in an “appalling state” when Michael Rice was injured. The sheriff went onto describe this as “one of the worst management failures I’ve ever seen”.

Depute fiscal Shona McJannett told the court that the incident took place while Mr Rice was sawing wood at the company’s warehouse. Mr Rice was employed as a casual worker in 2010 and given “basic training”, he was then taken on again on a casual basis in 2011 and given no refresher training.

The prosecutor said: “At the time the premises were very busy and they were struggling for space in the saw room.

“There were pallets partially blocking one door, completely blocking the second door and stacked up throughout the room and around the saw.

Miss McJannett said Mr Rice was working alone in the saw room at the time of the incident. Mr Rice had turned and tripped over a broken pallet that was lying near the saw bench where he was working. As he fell, he held out his hands and his right hand came into contact with the running blade of the saw. The emergency stop button was damaged and didn’t work.

The court was told surgeons were only able to reattach one of Mr Rice’s fingers, leaving him permanently disfigured and impaired.

Alexander Mackay, company manager of G&D Pallets, admitted a charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act committed in December 2011. He will be sentenced on 2 May.

VIBES – Scottish Environment Business Awards 2017 launch

Businesses in Scotland of all sizes and sectors are urged to enter the accredited environmental awards scheme VIBES – Scottish Environment Business Awards.

The VIBES Awards recognise businesses which have shown commitment, action and achievement in their aims to improve their environmental performance, enhance the competitiveness of their business and support wider goals of sustainable development.

The 2017 nine categories are:

• Innovation • Management (250+ employees)

• Management (<250 employees)

• Environmental Product or Service

• Hydro Nation

• Transport

• Circular Economy

• Green Teams

• Best Micro Business.

Entering for VIBES is free and simple. Businesses are offered support throughout the process to ensure things run smoothly. The application process for VIBES 2017 will launch on 12th of April with a series of free launch events throughout April and May, and closes on 26th May at 5pm.

The events are being held across Scotland to help businesses learn about the VIBES Application process and also see presentations from previous winners. Sign up now via Eventbrite.

The upcoming dates are:

• 18 April – Glasgow 5pm to 7 pm – Jacobs (95 Bothwell Street, Glasgow, G2 7HX)

• 19 April – Ayr 4pm to 6pm – Albion Environmental (Damside, Ayr KA8 8ER)

• 20 April – Scottish Borders 3pm to 5pm – Emtelle (Haughhead, Hawick TD9 8LF)

• 20 April – Perthshire 4pm to 6pm – Comrie Croft (Braincroft, Crieff PH7 4JZ)

• 25 April – Stirling 4pm to 6pm – Stirling University Innovation Park (Stirling FK9 4NF)

• 27 April – Fort William 11am to 1pm – The Lime Tree (The Old Manse, Achintore Road, Fort William PH33 6RQ)

• 27 April – Inverness 4pm to 6pm – Highlands and Islands Enterprise (An Lòchran, Inverness Campus, Inverness IV2 5NB)

• 4 May – Aberdeen 4pm to 6 pm – at Scarf (1 Cotton Street Aberdeen, AB11 5EE)

Resource Efficient Scotland provides lots of free support to help businesses use less energy, water and materials-saving money.

One of the quickest ways for any business to become resource efficient is to simply motivate staff to use less. That is why Resource Efficient Scotland has designed a great range of posters, stickers, thermometers and other communication materials to help businesses encourage their staff to become more resource efficient.

These materials are now available to order free from the Resource Efficient Scotland website, while stocks last. There is a pack for offices, shops and one for hospitality businesses.

Resource Efficient Scotland

Resource Efficient Scotland is a programme from Zero Waste Scotland, funded by the Scottish Government and the European Regional Development Fund.

They provide free, specialist advice, access to funding and suppliers, and in-person on-site support to help Scottish SMEs become more resource efficient.

Their website can be found here.

Established in 2006, the Scottish Public Health Network (ScotPHN) continues to deliver its major remit to undertake projects of national priority, eliminate unnecessary duplication in public health effort within NHS Boards, and facilitate leadership, engagement and communication throughout the public health community in Scotland.

Throughout its existence, ScotPHN has been committed to its own continued development to remain fit for purpose. Most recently, this has included the completion of work responding to the outcome and recommendations of its external review undertaken in 2013. This has included updating the network’s governance arrangements with a new Executive and an Advisory Board. It has also led to work that has helped increase resources from NHS Boards, especially from the Specialist Registrars Group.

This brief summary highlights some of ScotPHN’s work since 2014.

Building on the guidance produced by ScotPHN in 2013 on mitigating the impact of welfare reform, Kate Burton, NHS Lothian has continued to lead a programme of work on behalf of Scottish Government for the last 4 years. This has influenced work on fuel poverty undertaken by ScotPHN and NHS Health Scotland (2016).

ScotPHN has undertaken projects which have reinvigorated the health and homelessness (2015) and housing (2017) agendas and helped create important strategic and operational relationships; NHS Health Scotland has instigated work programmes for homelessness and housing.

On behalf of Scottish Government ScotPHN reviewed and made recommendations on the future of the Child Healthy Weight Programme (2014) and reviewed the Obesity Route Map (2015).

Also on behalf of Scottish Government ScotPHN undertook a process of engagement as part of the Public Health Review (2015). In 2016, it undertook developmental work on the Shared Services Portfolio – Public Health Programme (2016) on behalf of NHS Chief Executive’s Shared Services Programme.

ScotPHN has produced literature reviews and / or guidance on skin cancer, palliative and end of life care, adverse childhood events, and gambling related harm.

Current projects include:·

• developing advice on injury primary prevention to help inform national development of major trauma services;

• creating guidance to support population health input to the national chronic pain, building on work being undertaken by NHS Lanarkshire; and

• supporting the pilot to develop an ecological model of palliative and end of life care in Renfrewshire which has been developed in response to the ScotPHN work on palliative and end of life care.

This work will identify national learning which can be shared across the health and social care integration authorities in Scotland.

Projects in development include a needs assessment of ophthalmology services, establishing the public health input to addressing loneliness and social isolation, and developing the national component of a needs assessment of gender services being undertaken in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde.

In its role to support leadership in Scotland, ScotPHN has continued to support the Scottish Directors of Public Health, the Health Promotion Managers, Consultants in Dental Public Health and those working in Pharmaceutical Public Health. More recently, it has established various special interest groups on behalf of the SDsPH. These include groups looking at violence prevention, public mental health, and obesity.

ScotPHN has also supported national public health networks: Scottish Health and Inequalities Impact Assessment Network; Scottish Managed Sustainable Health Network; Health Economics Network for Scotland. These have led to: updated guidance on health impact assessment (HIA) and the national HIA on rural development (SHIIAN); developing the public health support for embedding sustainability onto the work of the NHS in Scotland (SMaSH); and developing resources and support for strengthening health economic capacity and use across health care systems (HENS).

Further information on the work of all these networks, groups and all ScotPHN’s projects and the work we do can be found on the ScotPHN website

Protecting Scotland’s environment for life, work and travel

The Environmental Health Manifesto for Scotland explains what Environmental Health is, its importance to the continued protection of Scotland’s public health both now and in the future and describes how Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) and the wider environmental health workforce can help policy makers achieve their objectives. It also sets out four challenges facing the profession and the wider Scottish public.

The Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS) firmly believes that there are four key challenges that will act to protect and improve Scotland’s environmental health.

The Institute will work with all stakeholders to face these challenges and to improve and protect public health in Scotland

Click on the link for more information and a copy of the manifesto – The Environmental Health Manifesto for Scotland

From 1 April, under the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016, new rules apply to the sale and purchase of tobacco and nicotine vapour products – known as NVPs or e-cigarettes.

These legislative changes mean that:

• it is illegal to sell NVPs to anyone under 18;
• it is illegal to buy NVPs for someone under 18;
• all retailers selling tobacco or NVPs will need to be registered;
• stores will need to have an age verification policy for sales of tobacco and NVPs;
• an unauthorised person under 18 will not be able to sell these products.

In addition, the Act has proposed a number of restrictions around advertising NVPs and a ban on NVP vending machines, which will be introduced later this year.

On the 22 March, South Lanarkshire Council, announced that they are working in collaboration with Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), to begin temporarily lowering the water levels at the loch at James Hamilton Heritage Park in order to control blue green algae.

Reducing the depth of the loch by no more than 600mm will allow work to be carried out to control the blue green algae at the Park.

The lowering of the water will be for only a few weeks and will then be allowed to refill naturally.

It is anticipated there will be no disruption to either wildlife or to water activities.

Members of the public who notice a drop in water level should not be alarmed.

This year's BNF Healthy Eating Week will run from 12 to 16 June 2017.

The Week is open to all UK schools, universities and organisations wishing to take part.

Registration only takes a few minutes and is a great way to show your support for, and raise the profile of, healthy, active lifestyles. It also means you will be the first to hear about our exciting plans for BNF Healthy Eating Week 2017 and have access to some fantastic, exclusive resources to help you plan activities for your Week.

The aim of BNF Healthy Eating Week is to promote: – healthy eating and drinking; – being active; – food provenance; – and cooking.

All registration details provided will be kept confidential and only used to send you information relating to BNF Healthy Eating Week.

Last year, BNF Healthy Eating Week had 6,842 registrations from the education sector (reaching over 3.1 million young people) and 80 registrations from workplaces!

Register for BNF Healthy Eating Week 2017 here.

Health Protection Scotland (HPS) has published the E. coli O157 outbreak report on behalf of the Incident Management Team (IMT) which was established to investigate the national outbreak in summer 2016.

The report confirms that a total of 26 cases of the same strain of E. coli O157 were identified in the outbreak between July and mid-September 2016. This comprised of 24 primary cases and two secondary cases. 17 of the cases required admission to hospital and a three year old child died

The report has been produced by the multi-agency Incident Management Team including Health Protection Scotland, Food Standards Scotland, South Lanarkshire Council, Reference Laboratories, Health Protection teams from seven NHS Boards and Environmental Health teams from a further from 11 Local Authorities.

It details epidemiological, microbiological, food and environmental investigations and concludes the source of the outbreak was consumption of unpasteurised cow’s milk cheese, Dunsyre Blue. Of 24 primary cases 15 are known to have consumed Dunsyre Blue cheese within eight days before the onset of their symptoms. The epidemiological evidence is also supported by deficiencies in the procedures for monitoring and control of pathogenic E.coli at the food business. The report concludes that: "Potentially pathogenic E. coli were able to enter and survive the cheese production process at the food business. Positive results were obtained for cheese produced over a period of four months, indicating a systematic potential for Escherichia coli (STEC) to enter the process and contaminate final products."

This shows that the Incident Management Team’s decisions were informed by substantial epidemiological evidence as well as the wide range of sample failures showing potentially pathogenic E.coli and the fact that the food safety management system had to be amended to enable the company to recommence cheese production. Errington Cheese Ltd has disputed that Dunsyre Blue cheese was the cause of the outbreak, but this report now puts all the evidence pointing to this conclusion in the public domain.

The report can be accessed here.

Data published in February 2017 by Health Protection Scotland, showed a decline of 15.5% in the number of laboratory reports of human cases of campylobacter in Scotland in 2016, compared to the previous year. This is the consecutive year in which there has been a decline in reports of Campylobacter. Furthermore, in 2016 there were no general outbreaks of campylobacter reported.

In addition, information published by FSA indicate that this downward trend extends across the UK, with figures from clinical surveillance bodies showing a 17% reduction in the number of reported campylobacter cases in the UK in 2016. Results based on modelling undertaken by the FSA have estimated that these figures equate to 100,000 fewer cases of campylobacter across the UK as a whole. This has a positive impact on the burden to the economy, with fewer days off work and reduced NHS costs.

Levels of campylobacter; in chicken continue to decline, which is demonstrated in the first set of results from the FSA’s third year survey of campylobacter on fresh shop-bought whole chickens.

The results for the first five months of the third retail survey, from August to December 2016, show:

• Overall, 7% of chickens tested positive for campylobacter within the highest band of contamination

• Among the nine retailers with the highest market share, 5% of chickens tested positive for campylobacter within the highest band of contamination

• The percentage of chickens that tested positive for the presence of campylobacter at any level is 56%, down from 66% in 2015 and 78% in 2014