Growing availability in Ireland of food products, in particular jelly sweets containing significant amounts of illicit narcotic drug THC.
Yesterday, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) urged the public, especially parents and guardians, to be extremely vigilant to the dangers of inadvertent consumption, particularly by children, of cannabis edibles; same products such as jelly sweets containing the psychoactive cannabis component known as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
There is growing availability in Ireland of food products, in particular jelly sweets that contain significant amounts of the illicit narcotic drug THC. The FSAI issues this warning in advance of the Halloween festivities next week where small children, teenagers and adults will be celebrating and where there is an increased risk of people, particularly children, unwittingly consuming these types of products that are intentionally packaged to resemble popular brands of jellies in order to avoid detection.
Cannabis edibles are illegal food products containing THC and come in many forms, but primarily jelly sweets. THC is a controlled substance in Ireland with a zero tolerance under the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1977. Furthermore, in food, THC is considered a contaminant, with no permitted threshold in EU or Irish food law.
The FSAI states that the high concentrations (up to 50mg/jelly) of THC in these illicit edible sweets can pose serious health risks, particularly to teenagers and children of all ages whose neurological, physical and physiological development could be impacted negatively.
Depending on the THC concentration, eating one of these jellies can mean ingesting a level of THC that is 5-10 times higher than that inhaled when smoking cannabis.
The real concern is that children are not aware of the dangers and if they manage to gain access to a bag of these jellies, they will rarely eat just one and therefore, overdosing is a very likely outcome. Unlike the almost immediate effects from smoking cannabis, there is at least a thirty-minute time delay from consumption of cannabis edibles, until the initial effects are felt. This poses a serious risk to those who have eaten these jellies who might mistakenly believe that they need to consume several jellies to feel an effect and then find they have overdosed when it is too late. Cannabis toxicity can cause cognitive and motor impairment and in the case of children this can be extreme, lasting up to 24 to 36 hours after consumption.
This call by the FSAI follows reports of the first cases of paediatric cannabis poisoning in Ireland with six children, all under the age of ten, hospitalised after accidentally consuming these illegal jelly sweets. In addition, there have also been reports of teenagers falling seriously ill, and in some cases requiring hospitalisation after having seizures and becoming unconscious from overdosing on these cannabis edibles.
Dr Pamela Byrne, (Chief Executive, FSAI) says the accidental consumption of edible cannabis products by children is extremely worrying.
TUS’s commitment to advancing gender equality in higher education and research was recognised at the national Athena SWAN awards showcase held earlier today (Wednesday, Oct 20).
The Athena SWAN Charter launched in Ireland in 2015 with a specific remit to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM). This charter has since been expanded to include arts, humanities, social sciences, business, and law (AHSSBL) and staff working in professional, managerial and support roles (PMSS). The framework also now recognises work undertaken to address gender equality more broadly, including consideration of the experience of transgender staff and students, as well as the underrepresentation of men in particular disciplines. The Athena SWAN bronze, silver and gold awards testify to institutions’ and departments’ success in advancing these goals.
The showcase saw 19 universities and institutions from across the country come together virtually to celebrate the sector’s progress in advancing gender equality more broadly and not just barriers to progression, that affect women.
Photo (Left to right)John McKenna,(VP of Strategic Planning, Institutional Performance and Equality and Diversity, TUS Midlands); Jackie Farrell, (EDI Officer, TUS Midlands); TUS President Prof. Vincent Cunnane, (TUS President); Marian Duggan, (Academic Affairs and Registrar and Vice President Equality and Diversity, TUS Midwest); Dr Carol Wrenn,(EDI Manager, TUS Midwest).
LIT was awarded the Athena SWAN bronze award by Advance HE under the expanded charter on its very first attempt in March 2020 – a superb achievement not common across the higher education sector; AIT was awarded the coveted accolade the following January.
To secure the bronze awards, AIT and LIT were charged with critically examining their gender equality practices and related challenges and developing comprehensive, evidence-based action plans for effecting culture change.
The resulting gender equality action plans, to be implemented over a four-year time frame, span areas such as career development, flexible working and recruitment practices, and organisational culture.
TUS, which counts equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) among its core values, will reapply to Advance HE in the coming months for an amalgamated Athena SWAN legacy award.
The technological university is also in the process of appointing and training Athena SWAN champions to help further embed the Athena SWAN principles of equality, inclusivity and fairness at a departmental and faculty level.
TUS President Professor Vincent Cunnane reaffirmed his commitment to the Athena SWAN Charter and said it is central to the technological university’s future success.
“Achieving the Athena SWAN bronze accolade is an important milestone in our journey to addressing equality in higher education and research. We fully recognise the value of EDI in helping us attract and retain the best educators and researchers and will continue to strive to create an inclusive, positive work and learning environment that embraces diversity.
“Through the enactment of our progressive policies and by embedding Athena SWAN at the heart of every faculty, department and unit, we will dispel stereotypes, eliminate bias and enhance progression to senior positions, among many other things. Crucially, we will demonstrate measurable impact, which will, ultimately, make us a stronger, more vibrant and productive organisation – one that is poised to lead Ireland’s post-pandemic recovery and drive positive change across the Midlands and Midwest.”
Vice President of Academic Affairs and Registrar and Vice President Equality and Diversity at TUS Midwest Ms Marian Duggan added, “The achievement of the Athena SWAN bronze award has been a collective effort, with input from staff right across the university. It was the first time that a consultative process had taken place on key issues such as organisational culture, work life balance and support for transgender staff and students.
“I would like to thank all staff involved in the preparation of the award applications, especially our hard-working Self-Assessment Teams, but the work doesn’t stop here, and I acknowledge the continued support of staff across the TUS community in implementing our action plan”
Vice President of Strategic Planning, Institutional Performance and Equality and Diversity at TUS Midlands Mr John McKenna emphasised the Athena SWAN Charter’s role in accelerating the achievement of gender equality in higher education and said he looked forward to TUS’s individual departments eventually achieving their own awards:
“The Athena SWAN Charter is held in high esteem across the Irish higher education sector as it represents an important step-change in our approach to gender equality. We are extremely proud of our bronze awards, but it is only the beginning of our journey toward addressing our equality challenges by implementing our action plan and embedding best practice throughout the university.”
The one-hour virtual awards showcase was also attended by the Minister of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Mr Simon Harris TD, who commended the award recipients, who between them achieved 59 awards across four assessment rounds, bringing the total number of Athena SWAN awards in Ireland to 87.
Offering his congratulations, Minister Harris said, “The hard work and dedication required to meet the criteria for an Athena SWAN bronze award is an absolute testament to the quality of staff in higher education and your determination to progress equality, diversity and inclusion.”
On October 4th last we published that the River Suir walkway here in Thurles would be closed to all pedestrians; starting from the “Swinging Gates” at the junction of Thomond Road and Emmet Street, through to the junction of Slievenamon Road and Clongour Road. We gleaned this information from the Tipperary Co. Council’s own website.
Up to today, Sunday October 10th, the walkway has remained open with thankfully no re-surfacing work undertaken. A social media publication from Councillors Mr Seamus Hanafin (Fianna Fáil) and a live radio communication from Mr Jim Ryan (Non Party), each seeking to enhance future election profiles, had seriously angered those volunteers who for years had kept this area clean and litter free. Latter volunteers had not in any way been consulted about this resurfacing work and felt that the funding acquired should have been better spent on the river itself, now an embarrassing, foul-smelling eyesore, rather than spent on widening the existing walkway with 3meters wide tarmac strips.
The video slide-show, hereunder, further acknowledges and fully recognizes the reality of the public’s desire for a change in how funding was being spent.
No drawings or details have been provided by council officials for this work, with those responsible claiming that this work to resurface the existing path, does not require design drawings. However, a Habitats Directive Assessment Screening Report they claim, has been carried out for the proposed advance works and the local fisheries representative has been consulted.
Most people believe that this threatened upgrade is really to provide a cycling path along the river bank, at the expense of leisurely pedestrian traffic and much badly needed seating areas.
Regrettably, no volunteers have turned up recently to clean this River Walk area, further clarifying remarks made by Thurles.Info that Thurles County Councillors and their officials have deliberately and slowly killed off all local voluntarism. The result is litter everywhere in the form of bottles, cans, condoms, rotting fish half eaten by feral cats and takeaway boxes; mainly strewn about due to the total absence of appropriate litter bins; which we have continuously highlighted as required for this area.
Here in Thurles town the River Suir exists, running parallel on the west side by the river walk and on the east side by the Thurles town park. Here exists a huge amenity, in both a ‘Blue Way’ and a ‘Green Way’. Blue spaces/ways are areas such as the river Suir, while both banks provide Green ways, and a number of health benefits.
With this in mind, we learn this week, from the Institute for Global Health, that a lack of green spaces has caused nearly 43,000 premature deaths in nearly 900 European cities. Scientists, with the Institute, confirm that urban parks help to improve air quality, filtering out toxic pollutants that kill scores of people every year.
Researchers state green spaces offer no-cost spaces for people to exercise, helping drive down obesity rates and improve heart and lung health, while improving social interaction.
Same other benefits of green spaces include reduced stress and improved sleep, with other associated studies claiming reduced cognitive decline in the elderly.
Green spaces have also been found to reduce some the negative health impacts of urban living, acting as a filter to both noise and air pollution, latter which are thought to reduce life expectancy by increasing blood pressure.
The academic team claim that these benefits are also good for mental wellbeing and stress levels. The data behind this research is so strong that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends every home should be within at least 300m of a green space area containing at least half a hectare in size.
Researchers at a United States University [University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)], found that children residing within that state who grew up within a third of a mile of a park or green space were at a lower risk of becoming obese by the age of 18, and were less at-risk from chronic health problems in their later years. They found that regardless of a families wealth, those that lived close to a park or green space or blue space, were less distressed.
One of the studies examined found that nearly 30% more teenagers were inclined to spend an hour or more doing some form of physical activity, five days a week, when they lived near parks and green spaces.
Scientific analysis claim that over 40,000 people in Europe die early, every year, because they do not live in areas with enough green space provided.
During the Covid-19 pandemic of the last 20 or so months, many households became first-time ‘paw-parents’, buying puppies or rescuing dogs held in shelters. These new ‘paw-parents’ did so in the knowledge that a pet could be the cure to keeping family members from tearing each other’s hair out, as they cocooned together, with more time to spare, corralled at home.
Now, according to the Irish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA), same owners of these pets are extremely worried by the noise soon to be generated by illegal fireworks, the use of which becomes an increasing problem in the weeks before, during and after the Halloween period.
In the past, here in Co. Tipperary, thankfully for a short time only, fireworks were fashionable to entertain guests at weddings. Hotels, newly married couples, Insurance companies and professional licenced fireworks operators soon found themselves in legal wrangles, particularly by members of the farming community, when frightened mares lost their foals and terrorised cattle lost their calves or bursting through wire fences, ended up having to be put down, because of broken limbs.
Fireworks, valued at some €1,000 seized by Clonmel Gardaí.
Recently the Minister for Justice, Ms Heather Humphreys, launched a fireworks awareness campaign at the Dublin Fire Brigade Training Centre in association with members of An Garda Síochána, Dublin Fire Brigade and the ISPCA. The Minister warned that people who sell or light fireworks this Halloween face fines of up to €10,000 and or up to five years in prison.
Legislation came into effect in 2006, which make it an offence to possess fireworks with intent to sell or supply without a licence; light unlicensed fireworks, or throw or direct a lit firework at any person or property.
Gardaí attached to Clonmel Garda Station in South Tipperary, carried out a search under warrant in the Oldbridge area of Clonmel on September 27th last. During the course of this search, a large amount of fireworks, valued at some €1,000, were seized.
Gardaí are now reminding the public that such items are illegal and dangerous. Gardaí are continuing to target the sale and supply of fireworks and to address such anti-social behaviour in communities; same part of “Operation Tombola“.
Fireworks include items which burn and explode to produce noise or a visual effect for entertainment. Sparklers, bangers, fountains and rockets are all categorised as fireworks.
Most fireworks here in the Irish Republic can only be bought and used by professional, licenced operators. They require a licence to import them into Ireland and the way they are stored and used is strictly regulated by our laws on explosives.
Let’s all work together to have a safe and fun Halloween this year!
The latest text scams being sent to mobile phones and via fake email messages are making claims that they represent An Post, the Irish postal service, and involves customs payment for a package.
Those receiving these texts are being asked to pay import duty/tax and an advance fee for a parcel to be processed through the Irish postal service.
A link can be found at the bottom of the text usually using ‘anpost.ie.shipping-updates.co’ where unsuspecting customers, foolish enough to upload same are being asked to enter their personal information.
An Post are now warning their customers:- “We are aware of fraudsters sending fake emails and texts to customers pretending to be from An Post. We are asking customers to remain vigilant and be ‘scam aware’. “An Post will never send urgent requests or threats, use shortened links, [for example Bit.ly], or send messages that contain any links when contacting you about the payment of Customs Charges.”
If you want to find out where your personal data was acquired, chances are it was hacked in an incident where data was unintentionally exposed to the public, by e.g. ADOBE, Audi, Facebook, Dropbox, epik, LinkedIn, Myspace, eatigo etc, etc.. Compromised data obtained from these hacked sites include:- Email addresses, Names, Phone numbers, Physical addresses, Purchases and more.
You can checkout who may have unintentionally exposed your personal information by CLICKING HERE, or entering into your search panel the phrase “Have I Been Pwned”. Enter just your email address or your phone number, before scrolling down the page to discover who exposed your data.
Collection #1 remains the name of a set of email addresses and passwords that appeared on the ‘dark web’ possibly in January 2019. This database contains over 773 million unique email addresses and 21 million unique passwords, resulting in more than 2.7 billion email/password pairs.
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