Category: News Item

According to a new assessment published by the European Environment Agency (EEA), road traffic is by far the largest source of noise pollution in Europe, with an estimated 100 million Europeans affected by harmful levels.

The EEA briefing ‘Managing exposure to noise in Europe’ provides updated estimates of the numbers of people exposed to noise in Europe. It also provides an update on the measures being taken by EU member states in addressing noise issues.

Noise pollution remains a major environmental health problem in Europe, with the transport sector being a major cause. Road traffic noise is the dominant source affecting human exposure above the EU’s threshold of 55 decibels (dB) for daily exposure and 50 dB for night exposure. Around 100 million people are exposed to road traffic noise above 55 dB in the 33 member countries of the EEA. Of these, 32 million are exposed to very high noise levels (above 65 dB). Railways are the second largest source, with 19 million people exposed above 55 dB. Aircraft noise, close to major airports, is the third main source, with more than 4.1 million people exposed, followed by industrial noise within urban areas, with 1.0 million people exposed.

Noise from road traffic alone is the second most harmful environmental stressor in Europe, behind air pollution, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The harmful effects of noise arise mainly from the stress reaction it causes in the human body, which can also occur during sleep. These can potentially lead to premature death, cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, sleep disturbance, hypertension and, at the least, annoyance.

The European Union has taken action to address the problem through the 2002 Environmental Noise Directive (END). The EU legislation requires Member States to prepare noise maps that inform the development of action plans designed to prevent and reduce harmful exposure. The briefing also presents an updated summary of the different types of measures used by countries to reduce noise. These range from actions that control noise at source, such as introducing low noise road surfaces, quieter aircraft and railway stock, through to measures such as improving urban design to reduce traffic volumes and restricting housing developments in high noise areas.

The briefing is a follow-up to the EEA’s Noise in Europe 2014 report and its release coincides with the Noise in Europe conference held in Brussels on 24 April and International Noise Awareness Day on 26 April. The briefing is based on the latest data reported to the EEA by its member countries in accordance with the EU’s Environmental Noise Directive (END). Accompanying the briefing are updated country factsheets and a new web-viewer which shows updated data on noise pollution across Europe.

The Land Quality Expert Advisory Group (EAG) of Environmental Protection Scotland have launched their guidance publication “Introduction to land contamination and development management” which is now open for consultation until 29th June.

One of the obstacles in developing land affected by contamination is understanding how to meet the regulatory requirements. This publication aims to help the developer and assessor understand what is expected by the Scottish regulating authorities in assessing and addressing land contamination issues. The purpose of this consultation is to ensure the publication reflects a consistent approach from local authorities and provides the necessary clarification.

The Land Quality Expert Advisory Group would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Laura Toal, Sarah Hamill, Kirstie Ogilvie and Dr Iain McLellan for their contribution and diligence in producing this guidance publication.

Please email your consultation response, using the pro-form feedback form to admin@ep-scotland.org.uk

The Scottish Ministers are consulting to gather views on draft regulations for Private Water Supplies in order deliver the requirements of the Drinking Water Directive as amended (Directive (EU) 2015/1787) for larger private water supplies. These changes need to be transposed by 27 October 2017.

The Scottish Ministers propose to make the Water Intended for Human Consumption (Private Supplies) (Scotland) Regulations 2017. This would replace those provisions of the Private Water Supplies (Scotland) Regulations 2006 which apply to large private water supplies (“Type A” supplies) and freshly transpose the Drinking Water Directive as amended and other EU requirements for those supplies.

The Scottish Ministers also propose to update, and possibly replace, the 2006 Regulations in so far as they apply to small private water supplies (“Type B” supplies). It is envisaged that this will be done by means of a separate set of Regulations.

The consultation document is available through the Scottish Government consultation hub Citizen Space. Responses are welcomed to the consultation until 28 July.

The Scottish Government has confirmed that the avian influenza prevention zone covering Scotland was lifted on the 30th April.

The prevention zone required bird keepers in all areas of Scotland to put in placed enhanced biosecurity measures prior to letting their birds outside, in order to reduce the risk of disease.

The ban on shows and gatherings of poultry, waterfowl and game bird will remain in force until 15 May, when a new general license will come into force.

Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy Fergus Ewing said: “This will be welcome news for many keepers who have opted to keep their birds indoors to protect them from a seasonally increased risk from highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N8. This decision has been made following the recent veterinary risk assessment concluding that the risk of avian influenza incursion to poultry and captive birds in Scotland had decreased to low.

“This has been a testing time for all of us, and I would like to thank all bird keepers in Scotland for their co-operation and vigilance. Your positive and committed response has helped us reach this point.”

Scotland’s Chief Veterinary Officer Sheila Voas said: “It is a relief to see that the risk of HPAI H5N8 in Scotland has reduced, but this does not mean we should be complacent; the risk of avian influenza has not disappeared. It is essential that bird keepers maintain effective biosecurity year-round, not just when a prevention zone is in place. All bird keepers should consider maintaining excellent biosecurity practices like washing boots and equipment with approved disinfectant, implementing effective rodent control, minimizing unnecessary visitors and reducing their flock’s contact with wild birds.

“I would also strongly urge businesses to reassess their contingency plans, given the new perspective this season’s outbreaks of H5N8 provides. Practical advice about their specific arrangements should be sought from their private vets, in consultation with their local Animal Plant and Health Agency office.”

Source: Scottish Government, https://news.gov.scot/news/avian-influenza-7

On 29 April, North Lanarkshire Council Environmental Health announced that it, along with NHS Lanarkshire’s Department of Public Health and other agencies, was investigating nine confirmed and nine suspected cases of hepatitis A in North Lanarkshire.

All the patients, who were treated as Monklands Hospital, were "well and responding to treatment".

Initial investigations indicated that there could be a link to the JB Christie bakery in Airdrie and as a precaution, and in line with public health guidance, environmental health and public health staff were working with the bakery to carry out further investigations. As a precaution, the bakery owners had contacted the outlets it supplies asking them to withdraw their products from sale.

The bakery has since reopened following a "deep clean" and any fresh ingredients or foodstuffs disposed of.

Bakery owner Andrew Chisholm said: "Throughout this period of closure a team of environmental health officers were invited into the bakery to review all aspects, policies and working procedures and they were very satisfied with their findings and thanked us for our immediate reactions.

"The bakery employees have been very compliant with the requests from the health board to be fully screened and with almost immediate results stating that no employee was at any risk to the public to work within a food environment."

NHS Lanarkshire consultant Dr Josephine Pravinkumar praised the bakery for its co-operation.

Hepatitis A is a viral infection which leads to inflammation of the liver and can cause mild to severe illness. The infection will clear with time and there are no long term effects.

For further information on Hepatitis A visit Health Protection Scotland at: http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/giz/hepatitisa.aspx?subjectid=91

NHS Choices at: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Hepatitis-A/Pages/Introduction.aspx

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