New EU Directives on Tissues and Cells boost safety, but we can't stop there
by Dr Peter Liese, MEP, European People's Party Coordinator – Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
In Europe over 2000 establishments provide hospitals and clinicians with tissues and cells to help treat a great variety of medical conditions. These include leukemia, burn wounds, infertility, cardiac insufficiency and blindness. Continuous innovations in this rapidly growing sector allow for more and better treatments for the benefit of patients. Tissues and cells are also the starting material for many advanced therapy medicinal products.
The role of the European Union in this important sector is to ensure that patients can rely on high quality and safety standards applied throughout the EU. The ori
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This e-newsletter, published in 23 languages, complements the Commission's' public health website and appears every other week. As well as presenting the latest EU news and activities, there is an in-depth focus theme. Over 23,000 readers subscribe and previous editions are archived.
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This Opinion by the Commission's independent Scientific Committee on Newly Emerging Health Risks updates a previous opinion on the basis of new information and with input from the public consultation.
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The Declaration, signed at the 1st Eastern Partnership Ministerial Conference held 30–31 March in Riga, Latvia, is a step toward eradicating tuberculosis in Europe.
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The Commission held the first of three roundtable meetings with stakeholders in Brussels on 25 March, following the publication of 27,087 responses to its public consultation on criteria to identify endocrine disruptors. The next two meetings take place on 23-24 April 2015.
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Chaired by the Commission, the EU Health Policy Forum, which unites over 50 umbrella organisations representing European stakeholders in public health and healthcare, met in Brussels on 19 March to discuss adopting a new format.
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iCoach 2015 is available both online and as a mobile app in 23 languages. It is free and easily accessible and offers a special “challenger” function, so people can set personal, phase-specific goals.
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Reporting from across Europe
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Latvian Minister for Health Guntis Belēvičs wants to reduce the rate of tuberculosis from 38.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 20 cases per 100,000 inhabitants by 2015. Latvia has the third highest tuberculosis rate in the EU, behind Lithuania and Romania.
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EU Press Releases
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Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis joined forces with the WHO to highlight the importance of food safety on World Health Day, 7 April. This year's focus was on food safety, reminding us all that too often in Europe we take food safety for granted.
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Forthcoming events
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This 10th anniversary edition focuses on the need for renewed commitment to immunisation, which has saved more lives than any other public health intervention. Yet due to failure to immunise children, the number of measles cases in Europe soared by 348% from 2007 to 2013.
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Conference participants will look at the issue of how to practically leverage public and private financial instruments and maximise synergies in the area of active and healthy ageing.
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New publications
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A factsheet about this system for protecting consumer health is now available.
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This summary by the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks is available in four languages and comprehensively explains the recent Opinion concerning electromagnetic fields.
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In the next issue
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Alcohol
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