REHIS News

The independent review into the Buchanan and St Ambrose High School campus at Coatbridge has concluded that the schools are safe and that there is no link between the school campus and illness.

As part of the review, water, soil and air samples from the former landfill site were assessed, along with the integrity of the methane membrane, which was installed as a safety measure during construction of the campus.

The report finds:

An artificial "tongue" which can taste subtle differences between whiskies could help tackle the trade in counterfeit alcohol trade, scientists say. 

In a paper published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal Nanoscale, Scottish engineers describe how they built the tiny taster, which exploits the optical properties of gold and aluminium to test the differences between the spirits.

A practical guide to Asian hornets is now available.

Around 2004, the Asian or yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina nigrithorax) was accidentally imported into southern France from China, and it has spread through western European countries with astonishing speed. 

Since 2016 there have been incursions into the UK, including Scotland and these are becoming more frequent as the population on the continent increases in numbers.

A BBC documentary examines the events surrounding the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) meat scandal and asks if we are still living with the aftermath in the form of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), which has killed almost 200 people since 1996. 

Mad Cow Disease: The Great British Beef Scandal looks at how this still incurable and entirely manmade disease came to be a problem. The documentary also looks at how a series of poor decisions failed to stop the infected cattle getting into the food chain.

Scots are recycling more food waste than ever according to new reports published by Zero Waste Scotland.

A total of approximately 158,500 tonnes of household and commercial solid food waste was collected in 2017, compared with the 2013 figure of 111,500 tonnes.

The increase had prevented the equivalent of 41,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere - the same as taking more than 22,000 cars off the roads for a year or driving around the world 5829 times.

Water and environment testing will be carried out at St Ambrose and Buchanan high school campus in Coatbridge.

This is part of an independent review that is being conducted in relation to reported health and safety concerns at two Coatbridge schools after water supply contamination fears. The review team is looking at specific health and safety concerns as well as the history, construction and maintenance of the school campus.

The Scottish Government is considering a proposal to charge consumers 20 to 25p for single-use disposable cups, after an expert panel found it would encourage more use of reusable alternatives.

Ayrshire new potatoes are to be granted protected geographic indication (PGI) status by the EU at the end of the month, after a three- year campaign to be given the status. 

The potatoes, also known as Ayrshire Earlies, will be one of 15 listed PGIs in Scotland and includes Scotch whisky, Stornoway Black Pudding and Scottish salmon. 

Health boards in Scotland are to be given a share of £1.7 million to deliver new standards for weight management services for children and young people. 

The Scottish government funding is part of a plan to halve the number of overweight under-18s by 2030 and reduce diet-related health inequalities.

It is a reaction to growing inequality in the levels of obesity between children in the wealthiest and poorest areas of Scotland.

Local Authorities in Scotland have dealt with more than 60,000 complaints about pests in local authority housing in the last three years. 

The figures were obtained by the Liberal Democrats using Freedom of Information showed councils across Scotland reported the following number of complaints:

• 2016 – 22,236
• 2017 – 17,567
• 2018 – 21,365

Therefore, over the past three years a total of 61,168 complaints were received.