Monday
20th Aug 2018
The number of Europeans with allergies has been growing extensively since the mid-1950s. Although some European countries have reached a peak, the overall number of citizens with allergic diseases continues to grow.
European Commission has taken six EU countries to court over failing to achieve EU air quality standards. But what about the other countries where air quality is equally bad - or worse?
A previously-unseen internal paper by the European Commission warned that a French ban of the bisphenol A chemical was "fully disproportionate". However, there was no consensus on starting an infringement procedure against France.
On World Asthma Day, EUobserver looks at an EU-funded project that aims to mitigate the newly-understood health effects of desert dust storms.
On World Asthma Day, European asthma patients are joining voices under the theme "Never too early, never too late" to ask for more research on the causes of asthma.
Due to pollution, the majority of European rivers, lakes and estuaries fall below the minimum environmental standards, a report by the European Environment Agency reveals.
Nordic countries are moving focus from saving energy to changing diets in order to achieve the UN's sustainable development goals.
The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment says that levels of carbon monoxide can be twenty times as high when using a different measurement system.
In Europe, more than a third of those killed each year by toxic particulate matter - associated with unlawful diesel emissions exceeding the EU limits - live in about 100 conurbations, mainly in Italy, France, Germany, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain.
Superbugs already kill 25,000 Europeans each year, despite hospitals fighting to stop the antibiotic resistant bacteria from spreading. This week the Nordic Council lobbied Brussels to wake up.
This week the world celebrates World Malaria Day, a time to take stock of progress to date, much of which has been made possible through investments by the EU, a world leader in development aid.
Years of heavy-duty and expensive lobbying, including of a European commissioner for health, has not opened the way for mouth tobacco sales in the EU. The EU court in Luxembourg last week refused to lift the ban.
The European Union is on course to spectacularly miss a self-imposed road safety target, with 25,300 people killed on EU roads in 2017.
The European Parliament's agriculture committee meets on Tuesday, with speculation that the EPP will vote against a report on the EU plant protein plan if it mentions switching away from animals to plant-based diets.
Bisphenol A is toxic for reproduction and a substance "of very high concern", but PlasticsEurope has filed a case at the EU court to overturn that listing.
Companies are required to check if their 'novel' food product is allowed. But breaking that EU rule is not as costly in some member states as in other EU countries.
Breast cancer is still the most frequent cause of cancer death for women in Europe - but life expectancy of patients in Romania or Poland are lower than the EU average, and screening programmes vary hugely.
The European Commission is considering rolling back medical research incentives, on the faulty assumption they are somehow driving higher drug prices. But not only is that premise flawed – the proposed fix will do nothing to benefit ordinary health consumers.
Most EU states forget to tell Brussels how they will punish misuse of the toxic metal, despite legally agreed deadlines having passed.
The World Health Organization has called upon policymakers in the EU to take forward a decisive action to clean up the air for the benefit of citizens.
The European Commission is putting in place a tracking mechanism but the devil will be in the detail in terms of involvement by big tobacco companies.
Anti-smuggling expert Luk Joossens says draft bill in European Parliament on a 'track-and-trace' system - due by May 2019 - will bring improvements, and that a veto 'would be the nuclear solution'.
As our leaders aim to get the EU back on track, they should remember that healthy populations are the basis for strong economic growth.
The decision to move the European Medicines Agency to Amsterdam still needs to be approved by the European Parliament, which was hardly involved in the process.
Social and geographical inequalities in Europeans' health are one of the main challenges for the EU, says health commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis. He calls on finance ministers to look at the consequences for their country's economies and competitiveness.
As of January 1, 2018 Denmark now permits the use of medical cannabis for patients suffering from various illnesses. But a stigma still lingers against the use of the plant-based drug as a medicine across Europe.
A five-year renewal of the herbicide glyphosate, used in Monsanto's Roundup, was officially adopted by the EU Commission on Tuesday despite public alarm.
Leading scientists and conservation groups have said the EU's plastics strategy must include 'serious regulation' given the potential impact of microplastic pollution on human health.
In recent years, proposals for bans and restrictions on voluntary terminations have risen in some EU member states - as well as bills proposing more 'conditions' before women are allowed to access abortions.
EU member states broke an 18-month deadlock over a controversial renewal of the weedkiller. But politicians and NGO continue to call for a ban.
EU health commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis is encouraging states to spend more to prevent diseases that weigh much on health systems.
War of words continue in the run-up to next week's final vote on whether to renew the licence for the herbicide glyphosate, a chemical in Monsanto's Roundup.
