REHIS News

Officials from REHIS and the Food Standards Agency Scotland met in Edinburgh last week as part of their ongoing liaison to update each other on developments within their respective organisations; to discuss professional education, training and qualifications and, to discuss provision of community training courses in food hygiene, occupational health and safety and food and health across Scotland. Pictured left to right: Graham Walker, Lorna Murray, Val Cameron, George Paterson, Andrew Jamieson, Jim Thomson and Tom Bell.

The annual REHIS Seminar took place on the 16th May 2007 in the Apex Hotel in Dundee and, as ever, this proved to be a popular event with 126 trainers attending. The Seminar provided an up-date on new food safety and health and safety legislation and developments in the areas of food and health and safety. The event was chaired by Martin Henry, REHIS Council member for Community Training. The early part of the morning concentrated on food safety legislation and enforcement issues with presentations from Ian McGruther, REHIS Training Adviser and Bob Drummond, Ch.EHO from Angus Council.

EHiDE Newsletter.An update from the Gang of Six!

The current Scottish Executive consultation on the Strategic Framework is open until 22nd June. The goal of the framework is the development of better systems to pursue environments consistent with and promoting human health and wellbeing and a Scotland of equal opportunity. The framework defines priorities in terms of health outcomes and identifies three target areas: asthma (e.g. air pollution, occupational health), cardiovascular disease (e.g. environmental stressors, safe environment for physical activity) and unintentional injury ( e.g.home safety, road safety).

Last week both the REHIS Food Update Course and the annual REHIS Trainers Seminar took place in the Apex Hotel in Dundee. These proved to be popular events with 49 delegates attending the Food Update Course and 126 attending the Trainers Seminar. The Food Update Course focussed on control of Food Incidents, whereas the Trainers Seminar provided an up-date on new food safety and health and safety legislation and developments in the areas of food and health and safety. Both events held workshop sessions in the afternoon which were very well received by the delegates.

The Council of REHIS has agreed to move the Annual Conference from its current slot in November to the springtime. As a result there will be no Annual Conference this year but a free training event for members will be held in the Menzies Belford Hotel, Edinburgh on the morning of Thursday 22 November. The 2007 Annual General Meeting will be held at the same venue on the afternoon of Thursday 22 November. Formal notice will be sent to all members later in the year.

The attached document has been produced to summarise the Environmental Health priorities of five of the main Scottish political parties: Scottish Conservatives; Scottish Green Party; Scottish Labour; Scottish Liberal Democrats; Scottish National Party. The environment, public health, climate change, local government provision, poor housing, traffic congestion and air quality all appear to be concerns for the parties. The stance of each party has been outlined in the document.

The Scottish Prison Service has made a huge financial investment at its HMP Edinburgh facility with the construction of a new production kitchen and a new training kitchen. Along with many other Scottish Prisons, HMP Edinburgh is an Approved Training Centre delivering REHIS courses on a regular basis for inmates and prison catering staff.

The REHIS Newsletter was launched on the website today and features short articles on news, initiatives, events and other activities which promote environmental and public health across Scotland. The newsletter, which will be produced on a monthly basis, will highlight the work of all public health professionals and their contribution to the improvement and protection of the health of the people of Scotland. Click on the News for Public Health Professionals portal on the REHIS home page to access the April 2007 edition of the newsletter.

This, the 26th Report of the Royal Commission published in March 2007, examines the environment within urban areas and the wider environmental impacts of towns and cities, and considers the relationship between the urban environment and human health and wellbeing. A summary of the findings of the Report follows.