Latvia Health

Projects: Economics Education Culture EU News Health Kyiv Kharkiv Crimea Lviv region Vinnytska Oblast Transport Energy Human rights Religions Criminal Vacancy The official meeting and lunch of Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov and President of Latvia Andris Berzins took place on February 9. According to Information and Public Relations ... (more)

 The European Commission warned today that it will launch legal action in the coming days against 14 EU countries that still allow farmers to keep egg-laying hens in cramped, illegal cages. A European Union law adopted in 1999 banned the use of tiny cages and gave governments 13 years -- until January 1 this year -- to comply with rules requiring farmers to give hens more breathing space. But the EU's executive arm estimates 51 million hens are still confined. The 14 states facing infrigement proceedings -- a first legal step that can lead to fines -- are France, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Romania. "We are launching infringement procedures against all the member states that are non-compliant and these will start in a few days," EU Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner John Dalli told a news conference. The law says hens must be given at least 750 square centimetres of living space, if not a nest, a perch or free-range conditions. But some hens are still being kept in spaces no more than the size of a standard sheet of paper....

An EU survey has confirmed what anyone in Malta already knows - the Maltese are, ehm, fat. The European Health Interview Survey found that between 8% and 25% of adults are obese across the EU, with Malta topping the list for men and coming second for obese women.  Among the 19 Member States for which data is available, the proportion of obese people in the adult population varied in 2008/9 between 8.0% and 23.9% for women and between 7.6% and 24.7% for men. In the USA, the corresponding figure was 26.8% for women and 27.6% for men in 2009. For both women and men aged 18 years and over, the lowest shares of obesity in 2008/9 were observed in Romania (8.0% for women and 7.6% for men), Italy (9.3% and 11.3%), Bulgaria (11.3% and 11.6%) and France (12.7% and 11.7%). The highest proportions of obese women were recorded in the United Kingdom (23.9%), Malta (21.1%), Latvia (20.9%) and Estonia (20.5% in 2006/7), and of men in Malta (24.7%), the United Kingdom (22.1%), Hungary (21.4%) and the Czech Republic (18.4%). The proportion of obesity was higher for women in eight Member States, higher for men in ten and equal in one.The share...

Research clearly shows a dose-response relationship between alcohol and health issues such as cirrhosis of the liver. More recent research has shown linkages between greater drinking and greater problems such as interpersonal violence. A study of the impact that the larger, cultural context of drinking in several European countries may have on the relationship between drinking and harm has found that this relationship is stronger in the Baltic countries and Sweden than Italy.

Health organisations from Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania can register until 13 October 2011 to participate in a training on tobacco taxation.

Since an awful lot of people smoke in Puerto Rico, I decided this story belongs on Puerto Rico News - Topix -- Upfront Yankee IF YOU smoke, you will become a gruesome pariah with Dickensian teeth who abuses children and dies early and alone. Such is the message conveyed by graphic new cigarette labels, unveiled by America's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 21st. The FDA's warnings are the latest attempt by a government to nauseate and petrify its citizenry. The World Health Organisation reports that images that elicit strong emotions, such as fear, are the most effective anti-smoking labels. In 2001 Canada became the first country to introduce graphic warnings for cigarettes. Since then more than 30 countries have followed suit, from Brazil and Thailand to Iran and Latvia. If Australia's government gets its way, it will soon forbid cigarette makers from using logos at all. Packages would be a putrid green, with the company's name written in uniform text beneath a grisly image-one warning shows an eye prised open by wires. Compared with all this, America has been a laggard in the race to repulse. At the moment cigarette packages display a modest, printed warning. But this is about to change. In 2009 Congress ordered the FDA to create new labels. The agency presented 36 possible warnings in November and, after weeding through 1,700 comments, issued nine new warnings this week. They show, among other things, rotting teeth, a man with a hole in his throat, a dead body and a despairing child. Among the images that didn't make the cut was a corpse with a toe tag. Lorillard, Reynolds American and other cigarette makers have a lawsuit pending. The labels will not appear until September 2012; their efficacy may not be clear until much later. In Brazil and Thailand, which have large, graphic warning labels, a large share of smokers say that labels prompt them to consider quitting, according to America'sCentres for Disease Control and Prevention. But even the most disgusting image may become palatable over time, as seems to have been the case in Canada. Be appalled today, be back puffing tomorrow. Read on: For Big Tobacco, South-East Asia is the final frontier (Mar 31st) --- [Open above link.] Image credit: FDA/HHS

Before the start of the new tourism season, Latvia's State Tourism Development Agency has released two new booklets for tourists 'Day Trips in and around Riga,' and 'Health. Well-being. Harmony,' reports Nozare.lv. The booklets are available in English, German and Russian, whereas in Latvian, only the electronic versions are available.