With regard to the other specific issues raised in the question tabled, I would like to start with the Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks, which refers to a study conducted by the Joint Research Centre to analyse the methodology used in laboratories to identify traces of heavy metals such as lead in toys.

(6) The Commission's Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) adopted on 28-29 September 2005 an opinion which concluded that there are "major gaps in the knowledge necessary for risk assessment. These include nanoparticle characterisation, the detection and measurement of nanoparticles, the dose-response, fate, and persistence of nanoparticles in humans and in the environment, and all aspects of toxicology and environmental toxicology related to nanoparticles"; furthermore, the SCENIHR opinion concludes that "existing toxicological and eco-toxicological methods may not be sufficient to address all of ...[+++] the issues arising in relation to nanoparticles".

(2d) The Commission's Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) adopted on 28-29 September 2005 an opinion which concluded that there are ‘major gaps in the knowledge necessary for risk assessment. These include nanoparticle characterisation, the detection and measurement of nanoparticles, the dose-response, fate, and persistence of nanoparticles in humans and in the environment, and all aspects of toxicology and environmental toxicology related to nanoparticles’; furthermore draws attention to the conclusion of SCENIHR that ‘existing toxicological and eco-toxicological methods may not be sufficient to ...[+++] address all of the issues arising in relation to nanoparticles’;

In its April 2004 report, The BSE Crisis – Lessons for the future, the Committee recommended to enhance the harmonization of sanitary and phytosanitary standards with Canada’s NAFTA partners and set up a permanent NAFTA agricultural secretariat with the mandate to use these standards and generate reports including recommendations for actions by NAFTA partners to regulate the trade flow when a sanitary or phytosanitary issue occurs.

To this end, the committee calls for the establishment of a new, permanent NAFTA agricultural secretariat, with the mandate to apply harmonized standards and recommend actions by NAFTA partners to regulate the trade flow when a sanitary or phytosanitary issue occurs.

A package worth ECU 4.2 million will enable the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations Children's Fund and non-governmental organisations from France, Belgium and the United Kingdom to carry out a coordinated programme. The package will include food aid, shelter for those displaced, emergency medical aid including an anti-cholera campaign, and the provision of clean drinking water and sanitation facilities.