REHIS News

Several events took place on June 20 across Scotland to celebrate Clean Air Day.

Clean Air Day is the UK’s largest air pollution campaign which takes place on 20 June every year and is coordinated by Environmental Protection Scotland in Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government.

The day, is supported by several organisations including Cleaner Air for Scotland (CAFS) strategy, Cycling Scotland, Energy Saving Trust Scotland, Greener Scotland, Health Protection Scotland, Scottish Transport Emissions Partnership, Sustrans and Transport Scotland.

The volume of alcohol sold per adult in Scotland in 2018 has fallen to its lowest level since records began in 1994.

The first expert analysis of data, just over a year since Scotland became the first country in the world to introduce minimum unit pricing, shows a 3% fall in alcohol sales per adult in Scotland from the previous year.

The Scottish Government estimates that if trends continue its minimum unit pricing (MUP) strategy will save 392 lives over its first five years.

A multi-agency investigation is being carried out into cases of listeria infection in nine seriously ill hospital patients in England, five of whom have sadly died.  No infections have been found in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

On 14 June, Public Health England (PHE) announced the number of deaths related to pre-packed sandwiches and salads at hospitals had risen from three to five. It also announced the number of confirmed cases had risen from six to nine.

The UK government is consulting on plans to introduce mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid in the UK help prevent neural tube defects in foetuses.

The launch of the 12-week consultation follows years of campaigns urging the Government to make the fortification of flour mandatory.

New regulations on school meals will be introduced in Scotland as part of an effort to tackle childhood obesity.

The regulations include setting a maximum limit on the amount of red processed meat that can be consumed over the course of the school week.

Scotland will become the first part of the UK to set such a limit when the change is brought in.

Food waste from Scottish homes even worse for climate change than plastic waste, Zero Waste Scotland warns as it urges everyone to play their part through its new Food Waste Reduction Action Plan.

The agency issued the warning as it began work to implement its new Food Waste Reduction Action Plan, launched with the Scottish Government with the aim of reducing food waste across Scotland by a third by 2025.

A £30 million project to improve services, and ensure high quality drinking water to more than 54,000 people in parts of Bearsden, Milngavie, Clydebank and Strathblane, will be carried out for Scottish Water by its partners Caledonia Water Alliance (CWA). It is expected this work will take around two years to complete. 

The project will change the source of the water supply from the ageing Burncrooks Water Treatment Works (WTW) in West Stirlingshire to the state-of-the-art Milngavie WTW in East Dunbartonshire.

Health Protection Scotland (HPS) published the following gastrointestinal surveillance reports for 2018: 

Hepatitis A 

In 2018, there were 34 cases of Hepatitis A reported to HPS. This is lower than that reported in 2017 when 153 cases were reported. However, these reports in 2017 included 91 cases associated with a foodborne outbreak of Hepatitis A focused in NHS Lanarkshire.​

Hepatitis E 

On the Sunday 5 May roads in the centre of Edinburgh were closed to traffic for the first time as the city joined the Open Streets movement to reduce air pollution.

It is the first city in the UK to join the Open Streets movement, a movement which has seen cities around the world temporarily close some streets to all but pedestrians and non-motorised vehicles on a regular basis.

New guidelines have been published for acrylamide in food by Food Standards Scotland in partnership with SFELC Food Safety and Food Standards Sub Committees. 

The guidelines are intended to help authorised officers with the implementation and interpretation of Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/2158.