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Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 17:56:56 +0100
To: info@natural-law.ca
From: Richard Wolfson <rwolfson@concentric.net>
Subject: GENews
EU urged to act on resistance to antibiotics
BRUSSELS, Sept 10 (Reuters) - A European Union consultative body called on
Thursday for action across the 15-nation bloc to prevent humans and animals
becoming resistant to antibiotics.
In a report entitled "Resistance to antibiotics: a public health threat,"
the Economic and Social Committee (Ecosoc) urged EU governments to curb
excessive use of human and animal antibiotics by halting all
over-the-counter sales.
The report said the EU needed a centralised system to monitor how
antibiotics were used in the bloc's member countries and track indications
of resistance to certain products.
The EU, which allows goods and people to cirtes, should also set up a centr
alised body for authorising the use of antibiotics in human and veterinary
medicine, it said.
Ecosoc recommended that EU governments issue guidelines on the use of
antibiotics and on ways to minimise the spread of resistant bacteria in
hospitals.
The committee also called for further research into the reasons for
antibiotics losing their effectiveness and how resistant bacteria were
transmitted from one species to another.
Public concern over antibiotic resistance has increased recently following
a decision by EU governments to authorise a genetically modified strain of
maize produced by Swiss drugs company Novartis. The crop carries an
antibiotic resistance gene as a marker.
Groups opposed to gene crops have voiced fears that the use of the marker
gene will lead to livestock or people who eat the crop becoming resistant
to the penicillin class of antibiotics.
Austria and Luxembourg have slapped national ba have been told by the EU's
executive Commission that their action breaches EU law.
_________________________________________________________
Richard Wolfson, PhD
Consumer Right to Know Campaign,
for Mandatory Labelling and Long-term
Testing of all Genetically Engineered Foods,
500 Wilbrod Street
Ottawa, ON Canada K1N 6N2
tel. 613-565-8517 fax. 613-565-1596
email: rwolfson@concentric.net
Our website, http://www.natural-law.ca/genetic/geindex.html
contains more information on genetic engineering as well as
previous genetic engineering news items
Subscription fee to genetic engineering news is $35 for 12 months
See website for details.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
--Dan in Sunny Puerto Rico--
dan.worley@mindless.com
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