REHIS News

The World Health Organisation (WHO) have published a Questions and Answers article on their website regarding the risks of E-cigarettes.

Globally, there are 1.1 billion adult smokers, 60% of them want or intend to quit. Much has been written and said about the potential of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) such as e-cigarettes to help tobacco users quit. While the evidence is still inconclusive, e-cigarettes are often used along with one or more tobacco products. 

In late December 2019, the People’s Republic of China reported an outbreak of pneumonia due to unknown cause in Wuhan City, Hubei Province.

New research by Unchecked.uk and the Times has found that nearly one in five food samples in England, Wales and Scotland contains at least one undeclared allergen. 

Out of 6,602 food samples tested for allergens by Local Authorities in 2016, 2017 and 2018, 1,213 were found to contain traces of allergenic substances. In each case there was no indication of the allergen’s presence in the food product. 

Analysis of off-trade alcohol sales over the full year following the introduction of Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) has shown that the volume of pure alcohol sold per adult in Scotland fell by 3.6%, according to a NHS Health Scotland report.

Free training - enhance your CV, save your business money and improve environmental performance

Is your workplace as green as it could be? Do you want to help your colleagues save energy, reduce waste and recycle better? 

You can learn how to grow a greener, more profitable business at one of Resource Efficient Scotland’s Green Champions training events this March. 

West Lothian Council’s Environmental Health team was recognised as being the best performing Environmental Health team in the UK at the 2019 Association of Public Service Excellence (APSE) awards, held recently.

The team were also finalists in the most improved service category of the awards. These awards are made by APSE as part of the annual benchmarking information submitted by local authorities throughout the UK.

Scotland is to be part of an initiative aimed at improving the detection and treatment of tick-borne diseases.

NHS Highland health board has agreed to become involved in the EU NorthTick research project hopes to develop new tests to make diagnosis of diseases easier and also develop more targeted antibiotics.

NHS Highland is one of ten partners from seven European countries collaborating to develop tools to meet the challenges of tick-borne diseases.

A new taskforce dedicated to tackling serious and organised waste crime, has been launched.

The Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) will for the first time bring together law enforcement agencies including Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), environmental regulators, HMRC and the National Crime Agency in the war against waste crime.

This year, Glasgow will hold the UN Climate change summit drawing global attention to Scotland. But what are Scottish cities doing to tackle climate change and become green? 

Glasgow 

Glasgow was the first Scottish city to introduce a low-emission zone.

More improvements have been made in the past year, such as two new camera-controlled bus gates either side of Central Station.

One of the council's latest plans is to limit vehicles around George Square as part of multi-million project that could ultimately ban parking in the area entirely.

Response has been provided to a consultation on Good practice guidance on public health action in response to detecting elevated levels of lead in drinking water. Consultation was received directly from the Scottish Health Protection Network – Environmental Public Health Group. This guidance provides best practice advice for NHS board Health Protection Teams responding to a report of an elevated level of lead in drinking water.