Author: Sarah Groom

The latest Radioactivity in Food and the Environment Report (RIFE 29) has been publishedand shows that levels and concentrations of man-made radioactivity measured in the environment during 2023 were well within international dose limits.

The annual RIFE report is a joint publication between all six agencies across the UK responsible for ensuring that doses from authorised releases of radioactivity remain within strict international limits. It brings together all results from SEPA, the Environment Agency, Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, Natural Resources Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

RIFE monitors radioactivity levels in food, water and the environment, assessing any potential impact on human health. The findings confirm that radiation doses to the public are well below harmful levels and largely originate from natural sources such as cosmic rays and radon. 

Monitoring confirms that the highest dose for a member of the public in Scotland was approximately 2% of the legal limit 0.021mSv. This compares to a UK average radiation exposure from all sources of 2.7mSv – of which 84% is due to natural background sources.

Radioactivity occurs naturally in the earth’s crust and it can be found in the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. Exposure to man-made radioactivity includes medical procedures and treatments, and discharges from nuclear and non-nuclear establishments. 

• The average individual dose from medical sources was about 16% of the dose from all sources of radiation.
• Occupational exposure contributed significantly less than 1% of the dose.
• Around 0.2% of the annual dose was from man-made sources – the majority from radionuclides released during historical testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere from the 1950s and 1960.
• Exposure to radionuclides routinely discharged by industry contributing less than 0.01% to the total dose.

Wood-burning stoves, bioenergy and peat heating will now be permitted in new homes and buildings following a review of the New Build Heat Standard commissioned by ministers earlier this year.

An amendment to regulations made today permits the installation of bioenergy and peat main heating systems – and any type of secondary heating systems – in new buildings from 1 January 2025, while maintaining the prohibition on mains gas and oil boilers as a main heating system.

Alasdair Allan, Acting Minister for Climate Action said:

“The New Build Heat Standard is crucial to help reduce emissions from new buildings, preventing the need for retrofit in the future and ensuring a cleaner and greener Scotland.

“Heat from our homes and buildings makes up almost a fifth of Scotland’s carbon emissions so we must tackle the most polluting forms of domestic heating to reach net zero.

“We have listened to concerns from rural and island communities about resilience in times of bad weather or power outages, as well as the wider use of bioenergy and peat for other reasons. These changes address these concerns whilst retaining the spirit of the original legislation, which aims to eradicate polluting gas and oil boilers from new homes and buildings.

“I would like to thank all of those who submitted evidence and views, particularly those from rural and island communities – their input has been vital in delivering his positive outcome.”

Luke Fraser, Vice Chair of the Scottish Islands Federation said:

‘The Scottish Islands Federation is delighted that the points raised by our members and others, as part of the review of the New Build Heat Standard, have been taken into account. We believe there is a need to help sustain and support the resilience of households in rural and island communities through the use of wood burning stoves and burning of peat, and the changes to the NBHS announced today have taken this on board.

“While we are in support of the need for climate action, progress must be made in tandem with developing and enhancing the resilience and sustainability of our communities, not at their expense. This change is a positive step in that direction.’

The Scottish Government consulted on proposals for the New Build Heat Standard in 2021 and again in 2022, and also carried out a series of impact assessments which have been updated as part of the review, as required.

Under the original regulations, which came into force in April this year, wood burning stoves were only permitted in new homes and buildings for emergency heating.

Ministers introduced a temporary direction in September 2024 which reverted the regulations to the pre-April 2024 situation in relation to bioenergy and peat systems in new homes only, pending the conclusion of this review. These interim provisions remain in place until 1 January.

The Scottish Health Survey 2023 results, published this month, provide information on the health, and factors relating to health, of adults and children in Scotland.

Almost a third of adults (32%) were living with obesity, the highest level recorded and an increase from 24% in 2003.

Over a fifth of younger adults were using e-cigarettes or vaping.  Twelve per cent of adults were current e-cigarette or vaping device users, an increase from 10% in 2022. The proportion was highest for adults aged 16-24 (22%).

Fourteen per cent of adults reported experiencing food insecurity, an increase from 9% in 2021 and the highest level since the time series began in 2017.

Drinking at hazardous or harmful levels continued to decrease, from 34% of adults in 2003 to 20% in 2023.  The proportion of males that drank to hazardous or harmful levels was twice as high as for females (28% and 14% respectively).

Mental wellbeing and mental ill health returned to similar levels to those reported in 2021, following an increase in 2022.  Average Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing (WEMWBS) scores for adults increased to 48.9, up from 47.0 in 2022 and 48.6 in 2021.  The proportion of adults with a GHQ-12 score of 4 or more (21%), indicative of a possible psychiatric disorder, returned to a similar level to 2021 (22%) following an increase to 27% in 2022. 

Other key findings show that in 2023:

• One in ten adults (10%) reported feeling lonely ‘most’ or ‘all of the time’, similar to the level reported in 2022 (11%).  Adults aged 16-24 (19%) and those living in the most deprived areas (14%) were the most likely to report feeling like this in the past week.
• Adult prevalence of limiting long-term conditions was 38%, similar to 2022 (37%) and continuing the general upward trend. 
• Prevalence of any CVD (excluding diabetes or high blood pressure) remained at 15% of adults. 
• More than one in two adults (57%) reported having ever undertaken cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training and one in five adults (18%) had undertaken CPR training in the last two years.
• Fourteen per cent of adults reported being unpaid carers, similar to levels in recent years (14-16% since 2016).
• Eight per cent of adults and 2% of children reported currently having long COVID (compared to 5% of adults and 1% of children in 2021).
• Two per cent of adults reported that they had long COVID and it limited their ability to carry out day-to-day activities ‘a lot.’
• The proportion of adults reporting difficulties when visiting the dentist (34%) has increased since 2019 (20%) and 2021 (23%), returning to a similar level to 2009 (35%).
• The proportion of adults meeting the recommended levels of physical activity (63%) was not significantly lower than in 2022 (65%) and remained within the overall range recorded between 2012 and 2022 (62-69%).
• Around one in seven (15%) adults were current smokers, the same proportion as in 2022.
• Fourteen per cent of adults reported drug use during the last 12 months. Prevalence was highest for those aged 16-34 (26%-27%)

The Scottish Health Survey 2023 main report, including a summary of key results, is available on the Scottish Health Survey website.  

Key trends for Scotland and indicators for NHS health boards and local authorities are available via the Scottish Health Survey Dashboard.

During Scotland’s winters, when the mercury often plummets to well below zero, heating our workplaces to comfortable levels becomes essential. But it is also a big expense. For some organisations it can account for as much as half of total energy bills.

At this time of year, even the smallest inefficiencies will waste hard-earned profits, increase your carbon footprint, and impact you and your staff’s comfort and productivity.

What can you do?

There are lots of quick and easy checks you can do, and changes you can make, that will help you stay for warm less. And the good news is that Business Energy Scotland is providing free and impartial advice and access to funding to help make some of the bigger changes too. 

Business Energy Scotland’s range of guides, videos and case studies will help you keep your heating bills low and staff warm this winter.

Read more: https://businessenergyscotland.org/get-ready-for-winter/

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is one of the World Health Organization’s top ten global public health threats to humanity and occurs when bacteria changes over time and no longer respond to medications, making infections more difficult to treat. Without effective medications, many routine treatments, such as chemotherapy and hip replacements, become increasingly difficult and risk serious illness or death. 

The Scottish Government and NHS Scotland recognise the serious risk that AMR presents a serious risk and the importance of AMR as a cross-sector issue, and supports efforts to address AMR in human health and social care settings, animal health, and the environment, encouraging a One Health approach where possible. 

The Scottish Government is actively working in close collaboration with partner organisations and NHS Scotland to promote good antimicrobial stewardship, infection prevention and control and raise public awareness on this topic. 

World AMR Awareness Week, which will take place from November 18 – 24 2024, is a global effort to raise awareness of AMR and promote actions which we can all take to address the risk of AMR in the future. 

This year, World AMR Awareness Week will focus on five key messages: 

• Remember: antibiotics don’t work on viruses like the common cold or flu. 
• Only take antibiotics when prescribed by a healthcare professional or vet. 
• Always follow your prescriber’s advice with regards to the correct dose and complete the full course, even if you feel well. 
• Never share antibiotics with others. 
• Never dispose of unused medications in toilets, sinks, or bins. Return any unused medications to the pharmacy for safe and sustainable disposal. 

The Scottish Government and NHS Scotland have produced a toolkit to support this messaging. This toolkit provides resources, useful information, and support to encourage safe and sustainable use of antibiotics and can be used as a starting point to develop activities and local efforts to promote action against AMR, along with useful links where you can learn more about AMR and the threat it poses. 

Over the course of World AMR Awareness Week, NHS Boards and other partners are planning a range of local activities and social media messaging. We hope that you can engage with this urgent agenda and make use of the opportunities to take part in awareness-raising work throughout the week. By working together to promote this messaging and taking positive and proactive action to be mindful of the use of antimicrobials, we can minimise the threat of AMR and ensure that they remain effective in the future. 

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) have confirmed that all necessary food safety measures have been put in place and affected products removed from sale following an investigation into mustard products being contaminated with peanuts.

As a result, they have lifted their precautionary advice to people with a peanut allergy to avoid eating foods that contain or may contain mustard, mustard powder, mustard seeds or mustard flour both in the home and when eating out as these products are now safe to eat.

FSS and the FSA are assured that actions taken in response to the initial food safety concerns have been addressed, following extensive investigations by Leicester City Council, the enforcing Local Authority, and FGS Ingredients Limited, supported by FSS and the FSA, as well as checks on supply chains by retailers and manufacturers. In addition, FSS and the FSA are assured that there is no increased risk to consumers from other mustard products, that have not been supplied by FGS.

FSS and the FSA continue to advise food manufacturers and food businesses to review their food supply systems and remove any products that are affected by precautionary recalls from FGS Ingredients Limited. 

It is important that people with a peanut allergy should continue to avoid products that are listed in the allergy alert. Consumers and businesses are urged to check whether they still have any of the affected products listed and if so, they should follow the advice in the alerts.

Some mustard-based products will now have a precautionary allergen label (PAL) and consumers with a peanut allergy should check whether products they might have previously purchased carry these labels.

The consumer guidance can be found here: https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/consumers/food-crime/report-a-problem/mustard-products-containing-peanuts-incident

Annual General Meeting – Friday 22 November, 2pm

The Institute’s Annual General Meeting is being held in hybrid format, on Friday 22 November 2024 at 2pm. It will be held at the COSLA Conference Centre in Edinburgh and on MS Teams and is open to corporate members of the Institute.  Members should have received their papers by email (they are also available on the members section of the website) which includes the agenda and details of nominees who are up for election to the Institute’s Council. To register to attend please refer to the Institute’s website: Environmental Health Update & AGM – REHIS 

REHIS Environmental Health Update – Friday 22 November, 9.30am-1pm

The Environmental Health Update event is free to members and REHIS Course Presenters of Approved Training Centres and takes place in the morning of the AGM.  The event will include speakers on a broad range of Environmental Health topics.

This event is a hybrid event taking place in Edinburgh.  Booking form is available. Environmental Health Update & AGM – REHIS

REHIS Annual Environmental Public Health and Housing Update, 27 November 2024

This year’s Environmental Public Health & Housing Event will take place on 27 November with speakers covering a range of topics.  The event is online and the booking form will be available shortly.

Presenters include Dr Tim Everett speaking on the Effectiveness of Statutory Nuisance, Jim Wilson from Scottish Government speaking on Responsible Dog ownership, Neil Cunningham speaking on the Impact of Climate Change on Public Health, Food & Security and also Robin Mitchell speaking on Cryptosporidium and Swimming Pools.  We have one further speaker yet to confirm. The event will be free to student members.

REHIS Presenters Update Seminar – SAVE THE DATE – 12 March 2025

Save the date for the annual Presenters Seminar which is being held as an ‘in person’ event on Wednesday 12 March (all day) at the COSLA Conference Centre in Edinburgh. The programme and booking form will be available in due course

REHIS Journal – Call for Articles

We are on the lookout for articles for our Journal, if you have an area of work that you think might be of interest then please get in touch contact@ .  The deadline date for the next edition of the Journal is 22 November 2024.

New research exploring the effects of the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) in Glasgow has found that while traffic flow has remained largely unchanged since the Zone was enforced, air quality has improved. 

The study, undertaken by researchers from the Universities of Glasgow, Auckland and University College Dublin, gathered hourly data from traffic sensors and air quality monitors in the city’s busy Hope Street and High Street within the LEZ to produce figures for the daily average NO2 (Nitrogen Dioxide). Meteorological data, provided by the UK Met Office, factored in the wind effect on NO2 dispersal. 

The study found a statistically significant reduction in traffic flow on High Street during weekdays, resulting in notable decreases in normalised NO2 levels of between 25%-27%. A 35% drop of NO2 on weekends was also observed. 

In contrast, traffic patterns on Hope Street remained stable, yet statistically significant decreases in NO2 levels of between 9-13% on weekdays were still observed, suggesting the establishment of the LEZ discourages high emission vehicles in the city centre and helps improve air quality. 

Co-author of the paper, Qunshan Zhao, Professor in Urban Analytics in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow, said: 

“These early results indicate that while traffic reductions and the decrease of the high emission vehicles in some parts of the city may be contributing to improved air quality, other factors may also play a role. The findings highlight the need for continued monitoring to better understand the LEZ’s long-term impact on both traffic and pollution levels across Glasgow. Paired traffic sensors and air quality sensors can be set up to help further understand the relationships between traffic flows and air quality variations.” 

In common with other large UK cities, Glasgow has high traffic volumes from both private vehicles and Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs). In 2021 alone, the city had nearly 240,000 licensed vehicles, according to the Department for Transport Statistics. The resulting congestion led to elevated emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulates from vehicle-related activities such as tailpipe emissions, brake wear, tyre wear, and road abrasion. 

Responding to growing concerns about traffic-related air pollution, Glasgow City Council introduced a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) in the city centre on 1 June 2023 with the aim of reducing pollution by restricting access to vehicles that do not meet strict emissions standards. 

There are currently Clean Air Zones and Low Emission Zones in the following UK cities: London, Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford, Bath, Bradford, Portsmouth, Newcastle, Sheffield, Southampton, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Food Standards Agency (FSA), in collaboration with Food Standards Scotland (FSS), have been awarded £1.6 million in funding to launch a programme for cell-cultivated products (CCPs) to make sure they are safe for consumers to eat before they are approved for sale.

CCPs are new foods made without using traditional farming methods such as rearing livestock or growing plants and grains. Using science and technology, cells from plants or animals are grown in a controlled environment to make a food product.  

The UK is one of the largest potential markets for CCPs in Europe but currently, there aren’t any approved for human consumption here. This is because CCPs are new, complex and unlike anything previously available in the UK.

The funding is being awarded from Government’s Engineering Biology Sandbox Fund (EBSF) to launch an innovative sandbox programme for cell-cultivated products (CCPs). 

For the two-year sandbox program, FSA and FSS will recruit a new team for the purpose of gathering scientific evidence on cell-cultured foods and the technology used for their production. The information gathered will be used to inform evidence-based recommendations and address questions before any cell-based foods are allowed to enter the UK market, and will help FSA/FSS guide industry on how to safely produce these foods and demonstrate the safety of the foods.

The sandbox program will also facilitate pre-application support to cell-based food manufacturers and answer their questions on labeling and other considerations. It will enable FSA/FSS to process cell-based food applications more quickly and better support businesses. The program will also aid the development of approaches that can be applied to other innovative foods.

Two councils in England seized imported American cereal, candy, crisps, and drinks during operations.

More than 600 items on sale at an Oxford Street candy shop, including American cereal, crisps, and fizzy drinks have been sent to the incinerator after being seized by Westminster City Council’s Environmental Health team.

Meanwhile, In a different operation, trading standards officers at Staffordshire County Council seized illegal foods and drinks from a shop in Leek in October.

In the Westminster City Council raid, several of the chocolate bars were not labelled in English, in addition, Trading Standards teams also uncovered illicit Lucky Charms Cereal, KitKats, Lion Bars and a variety of bottled drinks including Mirinda and Fanta all containing banned ingredients. The 676 items, valued at £2852.75, were confiscated in a raid from 6^th September and will now be incinerated.

It is the latest raid on the same premises which was previously found to be selling Swedish Fish and Hot Tamales sweets, which are banned in the UK due to the impact their additive ingredients can have on children. In the last three months alone, 2,374 non-compliant products were destroyed from this premises.

Following the seizure, council staff attended Westminster Magistrates Court on Monday 1^st October where it the destruction of good was ordered and £3110.25 was awarded.  The business is also required to pay for the destruction.

In Staffordshire, more than 750 items of Imported American candy and drinks containing unauthorised substances were seized along with 4 kg of illicit Tobacco,  5,240 Cigarettes and 88 illegal Vapes.

Products confiscated included Mountain Dew, Dubble Bubble, Jolly Rancher gummies and hard candy, all containing ingredients unauthorised in the UK, such as mineral oil, bleached flour or colourants.  Many of the soft drinks seized contain EDTA, known to be linked to kidney failure.

 Do you know about house construction? Are you an architect, EHO, building/quantity surveyor or suchlike?  We are currently looking to add to our team of housing surveyors to join the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) team.  

The SHCS is part of the largest national survey in Scotland. It provides national estimates on the condition and energy efficiency of homes in Scotland as well as Fuel Poverty. It is commissioned by the Scottish Government and is currently carried out by Ipsos, an independent research organisation. 

Our team conduct internal and external inspections of residential properties across Scotland, collecting data on property characteristics, construction, amenities, energy efficiency, and disrepair.  

The role is part-time and flexible. We provide full training and competitive pay. We are looking for applicants with a well-developed level of technical building knowledge and who hold the minimum of an ONC/HNC (or equivalent) in a related field and have a full UK driving license.   

For further info and an application form or for an informal chat about the role, please email the survey director, Murray Petrie at murraypetrie46@gmail.com

 We are particularly keen to grow the team who can undertake surveys in Edinburgh, Aberdeen & Aberdeenshire, Stirling, Perth and Kinross, Angus, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Fife, Midlothian and West Dunbartonshire.

A review of the Food Law Rating System in Scotland that combined food hygiene and food standards inspections has been published.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) commissioned IFF Research to conduct an evaluation of the Food Law Rating System (FLRS).

Most local authorities and stakeholders agree with the thinking behind the FLRS and believe it to be a logical thing to do. 

However, they identified that the increased frequency of visits under the FLRS compared to the previous system was presenting a more significant issue. A widely expressed view was that the resource intensity of the FLRS was far in excess of what was anticipated when the system was designed.

The increased resource intensity has been a major challenge for local authorities in implementing the FLRS. It comes against a backdrop of existing staff shortages in the sector, backlogs of work created by the Covid-19 pandemic and challenging conditions for food businesses creating more work for officers.

The impact of the FLRS demanding more resource than is available is that it is not currently working as intended – backlogs are building up and few are confident that they will be able to keep up with the frequency of visits outlined by the performance ladder. Many feared that because of this there could be a reduction in compliance levels among medium-risk businesses and those who are currently broadly compliant, due to a lack of scrutiny.

It is clear, in these circumstances, that a review of the inspection frequencies outlined in the performance ladder is needed – and some would also like to see amendments made to the bandings used to categorise certain types of businesses. In addition, looking at how FHIS and FLRS might fit together was felt to be worthwhile.

The FLRS was introduced in Scotland as part of the Interventions Food Law Code of Practice (Scotland) 2019. The FLRS combines the rating systems for food hygiene and food standards by which food businesses and food producers are assessed into one regime based upon a new Food Business Performance Model.

This evaluation set out to understand if the FLRS has achieved what it was designed to deliver and to uncover lessons learned, with a view to informing future development of the food law enforcement delivery model.

Qualitative interviews took place with authorised food officers in all 32 Scottish local authorities and 8 stakeholders (including current and former FSS staff as well as representatives of industry and professional bodies).