Tax on sugary drinks would cut obesity says the Irish Heart Foundation
A 10% tax on sugar sweetened drinks could reduce the number of Irish people who would otherwise become overweight or obese by 14,000, the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF) has claimed.
The figures are based on a health impact assessment (HIA), which was commissioned by the Health Minister, Dr James Reilly, and was presented at the IHF’s Euroheart Seminar in Dublin.
Irish people currently consume an average of 83 litres of fizzy drinks per year, with teenage boys the biggest culprits.
According to IHF chief executive, Barry Dempsey, the findings of the HIA show that the government must get serious about tackling the problem of obesity. The foundation is calling on the government to introduce a tax on sugar sweetened drinks to help tackle the problem.
“Obesity is a major public health burden costing the state €1.1bn a year and it is putting children and adults at greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease, the number one cause of death here.
“Sugar sweetened drinks have little or no nutritional value and they are packed with calories. The introduction of a tax to drive down consumption of these beverages seems like a no-brainer to protect our children,” Mr Dempsey commented.
As part of the HIA, Dr Mike Rayner, director of the British Heart Foundation’s Health Promotion Research Group, was asked to model the effects of a 10% sugary drink tax on overweight and obesity.
He estimated that such a tax could lead to a 1.25% reduction in obesity – this is equivalent to 10,000 adults in Ireland. Including overweight as well, this equates to 14,000 people in total.
Dr Rayner said the greatest effects would be seen in younger people and those who regularly consume these kinds of drinks.
Meanwhile, according to the HIA’s main author, Dr Noelle Cotter, of the Institute of Public Health in Ireland, current figures estimate that as many as 15% of two-to-four year-olds in Ireland are already overweight, while 3% are obese.
She insisted that while obesity is a complex issue that requires many different approaches, the food environment is one area that can and must be targeted.
The IHF’s call comes just one day after new research from the US linked the consumption of sugary drinks to some 180,000 deaths worldwide. For more on that story, click here
Irish potato prices up by 187% in year up to January 2013
CSO index shows steep fall in value of calves and sheep
The Agricultural Output Price Index shows the cost of other crops such as cereals (+30.2 per cent) and vegetables (+2.4 per cent) also increased in the year long period.
In relation to livestock, the index shows that the price of pigs went up by 16.9 per cent and that cattle prices were largely static.
Calf (-30.5 per cent), sheep (- 16.2 per cent) and poultry (-6.5 per cent) values all declined sharply.
The price of feeding stuffs, seeds and energy increased by 21.1 per cent, 8.7 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively in the year long period, the CSO said.
On an annual basis, the output index increased by 4 per cent overall while the cost of inputs was up by 8.6 per cent.
Can we have your €1m bonus money back Mr Fingleton? Civil action on the cards
CIVIL ACTIONS HAVE BEEN LAUNCHED AGAINST FIVE FORMER DIRECTORS OF IRISH-NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY BY THE SPECIAL LIQUIDATORS OF THE IRISH BANK RESOLUTION CORPORATION.
It is understood that papers will be served on former managing director Michael Fingleton shortly.
KPMG, the special liquidator appointed to IBRC, is seeking the return of a €1m bonus paid to Sligo-born Mr Fingleton.
This bonus was paid to when Mr Fingleton stepped down from Irish Nationwide in 2009 for his performance in 2008.
During that year the bank posted losses of €234m and was guaranteed by the government along with the country’s other main financial institutions.
IBRC is also thought to be examining a number of loans.
Many of the decisions made by Mr Fingleton have been criticised in the years since he left Irish Nationwide.
Some of the lending practices of the former bank were highly unorthodox.
Another point of scrutiny is the existence of a special Irish Nationwide account called the ‘No. 3 account’, controlled solely by Mr Fingleton and just one other member of staff between 2002 and 2008.
This account was used to immediately disburse funds when required for ‘sensitive situations’. It could make payments without formal limits and was used for purposes including granting loans to politically sensitive figures or for the settlement of disputes.
The bank account was identified by forensic accountants from Ernst & Young who were employed by the State to examine the books.
IBRC, the bad bank comprised of Irish Nationwide and Anglo Irish Bank, was liquidated after a controversial midnight vote by the Dail in February.
GALWAY CONSULTANT TO MAKE OIREACHTAS PRESENTATION ON ARTASSIST DEVICE
A Galway consultant will speak with TDs and Senators in Government buildings today about restoring HSE funding for a potentially life-saving medical device.
Consultant endo vascular specialist at Galway University Hospitals Sherif Sultan will make a presentation on the ArtAssist home device.
The equipment which increases arterial blood flow to the leg is currently used by over 550 patients in Ireland.
It can be rented from a company for 90 days for 12 hundred euro, and could save a leg from amputation.
Galway Senator Trevor O’ Clochartaigh is facilitating the meeting at Leinster House this lunch time. (1:30)
He claims the decision to withold funding for the medical device from patients in Mayo, Galway and Roscommon is ‘short sighted’.
Speaking on Galway Talks, Consultant Sherif Sultan said using the device would actually save the HSE money in the long run
Ireland’s recycling of municipal waste triples in 10 years
EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY SAYS IRELAND INCREASED ITS RECYCLING RATE TO 36% AND WASTE GENERATED HAS DECLINED WITH RECESSION
Ireland has more than tripled its recycling rate for municipal waste over the past decade a performance equalled only by Britain, according to the Europe an Environment Agency.
In a report released yesterday, the agency says Austria, Germany and Belgium recycled the largest proportion of municipal waste in Europe in 2010. But many countries risk falling short of legally binding recycling targets.
“In a relatively short time, some countries have successfully encouraged a culture of recycling, with infrastructure, incentives and public awareness campaigns. But others are still lagging behind, wasting huge volumes of resources,” it says.
Overall, 35 per cent of municipal waste was recycled in Europe in 2010 – up from 23 per cent in 2001. However, it said many countries “will find it extremely difficult to meet EU-mandated targets to recycle 50 per cent of household waste by 2020”.
They would need to make “extraordinary efforts”, the report says. For example, Bulgaria and Romania would have to increase recycling by more than 4 percentage points per year – something no country managed to do between 2001 and 2010.
Britain increased its recycling rate from 12 to 39 per cent between 2001 and 2010, while Ireland raised recycling rates from 11 to 36 per cent over the same period. Slovenia, Poland and Hungary have also “dramatically improved” recycling rates.
Recycling rates are highest in Austria (63 per cent), Germany (62 per cent), Belgium (58 per cent) and the Netherlands and Switzerland (51 per cent each). Ireland, Poland and Norway did most to reduce the proportion of municipal waste going to landfill.
The share of waste in Ireland going to landfills “reduced significantly” from 77 per cent in 2001 to 53 per cent in 2010, and this enabled the State to meet its EU landfill directive target by a “reasonable margin” – thanks largely to the recession as a “key driver”.
Sharp increases in the landfill levy also had an impact. But the report warns that landfill reduction targets for this year “are at risk of not being met without considerable policy effort”; this was “partially undermined” by lack of regulation of waste collection.
Scientists look into giant squid’s DNA gene pool
Scientists announced they had peeked into the DNA of the giant squid, seeking to demystify a deep-sea creature that has haunted sailors’ dreams for centuries.
Scientists on Wednesday announced they had peeked into the DNA of the giant squid, seeking to demystify a deep-sea creature that has haunted sailors’ dreams for centuries.
But their findings published on Wednesday threw up some tantalising questions in turn.
They include the likelihood that there is just one species of giant squid, and not a constellation of species as some experts have thought.
And, far from being a rarity, the giant squid could inhabit the deep ocean in large numbers, its pre-larval offspring riding warm currents to disperse globally, the exception being the polar regions.
Evidence “strongly suggests that the family Architeuthis consists of a single species of giant squid, namely Architeuthis dux,” the biologists reported in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
“If so, this species is cosmopolitan and likely has a substantial population size.”
As long as a bus, with beachball-sized eyes that help it spot prey in the dark, the giant squid is one of the largest invertebrates, or animals with no backbone.
The beast has been detected at depths of 900 metres, proof of an ability to thrive at pressures that would crush a navy submarine.
The elusive squid was first observed in its natural habitat just nine years ago.
Until then, its existence was inferred from remains found in sperm whales’ stomachs, carcasses found floating on the ocean or washed up on beaches or from rare individuals snared by deep-sea trawlers.
The tentacled giant’s taxonomy has long been in dispute.
As many as 21 nominal species have been reported since a Danish biologist, Japetus Steenstrup, described Architeuthis dux in 1857.
The claims were often based exclusively on where they were found or on incomplete remains such as beaks, suckers or arms regurgitated by sperm whales.
For this study, researchers examined mitochondrial DNA – a genetic marker handed down along the maternal line – from 43 giant squid taken in waters from Australia, Spain, Florida, New Zealand and Japan.
They were astonished to find that there was only a tiny diversity in the DNA signature.
“The data strongly suggest that globally only a single species of Architeuthis exists,” says the study.
It suggests that giant squid are “highly migratory,” with offspring dispersed on global currents called thermohalines.
The species may well have experienced a population surge, perhaps due to a rapid decline in the number of predator whales due to overfishing or climate change.
Legends about the squid include the Kraken, a ship-sinking leviathan that first featured in Scandinavian legends centuries ago.
A giant squid also featured in Jules Verne’s 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, in which it attacks a submarine and devours a crew member.
But fact is often confused with fiction, say the authors of the study.
“ While claims have been made of individuals measuring up to 50 metres in total length, a more realistic estimate is a maximum total length of 18m for females, with males reaching slightly smaller sizes.”
Many things about the squid remain to be elucidated, including how long it lives and how it is able to catch its prey – fish but also smaller squid, including its own kind – at depths where light barely penetrates.
Some scientists have concluded Architeuthis must be a sluggish, ambush predator while others believe it is an active, powerful hunter
Under the skin multiple blood substances testing device developed
The device sits under the skin and takes multiple readings
Scientists say they have developed a tiny blood-testing device that sits under the skin and gives instant results via a mobile phone.
The Swiss team say the wireless prototype – half an inch (14mm) long – can simultaneously check for up to five different substances in the blood.
The data is sent to the doctor using radiowaves and Bluetooth technology.
The device’s developers hope it will be available to patients within four years.
It is designed to be inserted, using a needle, into the interstitial tissue just beneath the skin of the abdomen, legs or arms. And it could remain there for months before needing to be replaced or removed.
Micro-monitoring
Other researchers have been working on similar implantable monitoring devices, but Prof Giovanni de Micheli and lead scientist Sandro Carrara say their under-the-skin test is unique because it can measure many different markers at the same time.
They say it will be particularly useful for monitoring chronic conditions such as high cholesterol and diabetes as well as tracking the impact of drug treatments such as chemotherapy.
Prof De Micheli, of Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, said: “It will allow direct and continuous monitoring based on a patient’s individual tolerance, and not on age and weight charts or weekly blood tests.”
The implant measures 14mm by 2mm
So far, the researchers have tested their device in the lab and on animals and say it can reliably detect both cholesterol and glucose in blood as well as some other common substances doctors look for.
They hope to begin testing the device on intensive care patients – patients who require a great deal of close monitoring, including repeated blood tests.
The research results will be published and presented at the Design, Automation, and Test in Europe (Date) electronics conference.
