Donie's news Ireland daily BLOG

Irish fuel prices increase for fourth month in a row?

    

Motorists in Ireland are paying more money to fill up their cars this summer as the price of fuel increases for the fourth month in a row.

The average price of a litre of petrol now costs 143.6c, 4.6c more than in April.

The average price of a litre of diesel has also risen – consumers are currently paying 133.1c per litre, 2.6c more than last month.

The increases were recorded by the AA’s national fuel price survey. According to the new figures, a motorist putting 30 litres of petrol in their car each week will now pay €43.08, which is €1.38 a week more than only a month ago.

Someone putting 30 litres of diesel in their vehicle each week will pay 78c more.

But despite the hike, fuel prices are still lower than they were this time last year. Last summer the average price of a litre of petrol was 154.3c, while a litre of diesel was 146.8c.

“Prices fell in the second half of last year but have been rising since February,” said Conor Faughan from the AA. “It was only a short reprieve. The recent rise looks set to continue with the weakening Euro making it even worse. It will be an expensive summer on the roads.”

Mr Faughan said the main reason for the country’s high fuel prices is due to the Government’s tax, including an extra 23c per litre in austerity-era tax increases added since 2008. “When you spend €1.48 on a litre of petrol, 92c of it is tax. A tax-free litre, even with recent price rises, only costs 51.8c.”

Meanwhile, the European Consumer Centre (ECC) advises people thinking of buying a car to be wary of scams.

“Car purchase scams remain a persistent problem for consumers. In 2014, such scams accounted for 14% of all car purchase queries to ECC Ireland,” it said and cautioned against paying any money by bank transfer or to an escrow or delivery service.

“Fraudsters may ask consumers to send payment by bank transfer or via money wiring services, only for the seller and vehicle to disappear once the money is sent. This is particularly commonplace in internet transactions. Consumers may also be asked to send payment to an intermediary, such as an escrow company, who will then deliver the car to them. Consumers are often told that they will not have to pay if they are not happy with the vehicle. Unfortunately, in many cases, the intermediary disappears once the money has been sent.”

Consumers who fall victim to a scam are urged report it to Gardaí as soon as possible.

Price of posting in Ireland set to increase shortly (Std. letter 68c to 70c)

   

Postage rates are to increase on July 1, An Post has announced.

The standard domestic letter rate for items up to 100g within Ireland will increase from 68c to 70c while the standard international letter rate up to 100g will increase from €1 to €1.05.

“Despite the increase, An Post’s rates will remain among the lowest in the EU 15 countries including Britain, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and well below the EU domestic average of 77c,” said a statement from An Post.

“A wide range of discount options continue to be available to businesses.

“The existing Meter rate for Standard Post letters will remain unchanged at €0.66 per item and a wide range of significant discount options continue for Ceadúnas licence and bulk-mail services.”

The company defended the increase, saying that it is necessary “to stem the unsustainable financial losses arising from the company’s Universal Service Obligation.

“Losses totalled €38m in 2014 – whereby customers in all areas of the country are provided with daily collection and delivery services for a uniform tariff.

“An Post continues to offer excellent value for money to Irish businesses of all sizes and to personal customers.”

Thumbs up for EU-US trade from Irish public in nationwide poll

   

More than three quarters (77%) of Irish people in a nationwide poll hold the view that Ireland should stay in the EU, even if the UK leaves it.

The poll was conducted following the newly elected UK government’s promise in the Queen’s speech at the opening of the new UK parliament to hold an ‘in/out’ referendum on the country’s membership of the union.

According to the Red C poll commissioned by independent, not-for profit organisation, European Movement Ireland, 86% of respondents believe Ireland should remain part of the EU, with 84% of adults here believing that Ireland has, on balance, benefitted from membership of the EU.

These figures are higher than those in a similar poll carried out in 2013.

In addition, around seven in 10 Irish adults support the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the EU and US.

The poll was conducted among a representative sample of over 1,000 people aged 18 and over from across the country.

How green tea could cut prostate cancer development in men

  

In a new study, scientists have revealed that a component found in green tea may help reduce development of prostate cancer in men facing high risk.

In a new study, scientists have revealed that a component found in green tea may help reduce development of prostate cancer in men facing high risk.

A team of researchers led by Nagi B. Kumar, Ph.D., R.D., F.A.D.A. at Moffitt Cancer Center assessed the safety and effectiveness of the active components in green tea called, “catechins” to prevent prostate cancer development in men who have premalignant lesions.

20 percent of green tea is consumed in Asian countries where prostate cancer death rates are among the lowest in the world and the risk of prostate cancer appears to be increased among Asian men who abandon their original dietary habits upon migrating to the U.S.

Laboratory studies have shown catechins inhibit cancer cell growth, motility and invasion, and stimulate cancer cell death. Green tea catechins also prevent and reduce tumor growth in animal models. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is the most abundant and potent catechin found in green tea responsible for these cancer prevention effects.

Shock rise in health insurance premiums for Irish people insured for 1st time  

  

One of the plans going up is the €425-a-year Starter Select, an entry-level plan introduced to capture new entrants ahead of the lifetime community rating changes

Health insurance premiums are to rise at Aviva – just weeks after thousands of people took out cover for the first time.

The insurer is to implement rises averaging 5.5% on 106 plans for those renewing or taking out cover from July, in a move that will see some policies costing between €200 and €470 more for families.

The rises come just weeks after an extra 74,000 people took out health insurance ahead of the introduction of late-entry penalties as part of lifetime community rating.

One of the plans going up is the €425-a-year Starter Select, an entry-level plan introduced to capture new entrants ahead of the lifetime community rating changes.

Aviva had already increased premiums in January.

Experts had been expecting few, if any, rises this year. This view was reinforced when both VHI and Laya cut the cost of a number of plans and froze premium ratings on others.

New immunotherapy drug outperforms chemotherapy for a form of lung cancer

    

Philip Prichard, of Memphis, has seen his renal cell cancer virtually wiped out by the immunotherapy drug nivolumab.

A new drug that unleashes the body’s immune system on cancer cells performed better than a traditional chemotherapy agent in fighting an advanced form of lung cancer, researchers reported Friday. The new drug was also less toxic to patients.

Nivolumab, one of three government-approved drugs that stimulate the immune system to take on foreign invaders, improved outcomes for 19.2% of patients with non-squamous cell non-small cell lung cancer, compared with 12.4% of people who were treated with docetaxel. Patients also survived longer — a median of 12.2 months vs. 9.4 months for those on chemotherapy, and saw a 27% smaller chance of death while on the drug.

Patients whose tumors released a specific kind of protein did even better in the study of 582 people, surviving 17.2 months, vs. 5.6 months for the chemotherapy group.

“There is no doubt that immunotherapy has come to stay in lung cancer,” said Luis Paz-Ares of the Hospital Universitario Virgen Del Rocio in Sevilla, Spain, who led the research.

Immunotherapy works by removing the brakes or “checkpoints” that keep killer T-cells from recognizing and attacking cancer. In the past few years, it has quickly become the fourth, and perhaps most promising, avenue of cancer treatment, alongside surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

[He had months to live before immunotherapy made his tumors disappear.]

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths world-wide and 1.8 million people will be diagnosed with it this year, Paz-Ares said. The Food and Drug Administration approved nivolumab earlier this year for use against squamous cell non-small cell lung cancer, but this group of people is considerably larger. Paz-Ares said he expects FDA approval to use the drug on these patients soon.

Two other immunotherapy drugs are government-approved for treatment of melanoma, a lethal form of skin cancer, as is nivolumab.

Only 7 percent of the nivolumab patients suffered side effects from the medication, a smaller proportion than the 20 percent who took docetaxel. And they suffered a much smaller number of serious side effects.

The new research was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, where 35,000 people in the field are gathered.

In a second study presented Friday, researchers from Johns Hopkins University and elsewhere showed that genetic testing can be used to predict whether the cancers in a small percentage of people will respond to immunotherapy. The test could be valuable in determining how to use the highly expensive checkpoint inhibitor drugs, which can cost $10,000 a dose or more.

Many of the cancers examined in the study had been considered poorly responsive to immunotherapy. They included colorectal, endometrial, stomach and small bowel cancers.

But the team led by Dung T. Le, a medical oncologist at the school’s Kimmel Cancer Center, showed that tumors with genetic defects that make them poor at repairing errors as DNA is synthesized mutate hundreds and perhaps thousands of times. Those mutations express a protein that can tell doctors whether the tumor will be a good candidate for immunotherapy.

Le said at a media briefing that her study is the first “to use genetics to guide immunotherapy.” The small, early stage study involved 41 patients who were treated with pembrolizumab, one of the drugs the FDA has approved for treatment of melanoma.

Overall, Le said, the “mismatch repair deficiency” used to guide the therapy is present in just 4 to 5% of many cancer types. But in some, it may be found in as many as 40% of tumors. The tests cost just a few hundred dollars and in some cases may be conducted anyway, so they would not add extra costs to a patient’s care, she said.

Great Barrier Reef Is Not ‘in Danger’ but Needs Care,

U.N. Experts Say

    

Despite threats to the Great Barrier Reef from climate change and human activity, United Nations conservation experts stopped short of recommending on Friday that the reef, a World Heritage site, be classified as “in danger.”

Even so, the overall outlook for the reef remains poor, and Australiashould improve its management of it, the World Heritage Center and the International Union for Conservation of Nature said in their report. The document cited climate change, water pollution and the impact of coastal development as major threats.

In particular, scientists and conservationists have sharply criticized plans to expand the Abbot Point coal-loading port in Queensland, which would involve the dumping of dredge spoils in waters near the reef, which includes 1,050 islands and stretches along almost the entire eastern coast of Queensland.

The experts’ recommendation, published in Paris, now goes to a vote by the World Heritage Committee, which includes representatives of 21 countries and is scheduled to meet next month in Bonn, Germany.

Greg Hunt, the Australian environment minister, said on Friday that the government was committed to a 35-year plan to restore the reef to good health, a fact noted in the recommendation.

“We have listened intently and responded directly to the concerns from the Australian community, the World Heritage Committee and their technical advisers,” Mr. Hunt said in a statement. He said the national government and the state of Queensland should invest about $1.5 billion in the reef over the next decade.

But conservationists have criticized the government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott for supporting the expansion of the port and the Galilee Basin coal mines that use it.

Under pressure from environmentalists, Mr. Hunt has said the government will permanently ban the dumping of dredge spoils from new port projects in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. But the ban would not cover dredging to maintain the depth of existing shipping channels and ports, which could still dump more than a million tons of sludge a year in reef waters, according to Jon C. Day, who was a director at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority from 1998 to 2014.

WWF-Australia, an environmental advocacy group, said in a statement that the United Nations was placing Australia on probation. “The draft decision acknowledges progress, but keeps the pressure on the Australian government to turn their commitments into real actions and results, or find themselves having to explain to the World Heritage Committee in 2017 why they’ve failed to meet their commitments,” the statement said. The group said the government had not allocated enough money to the reef protection plan.