Nitrous oxide will become a controlled substance under the Opium Act in the Netherlands to curb the growing use of the chemical compound more commonly known as laughing gas. The substance will be added to the "List II" classification under the law, alongside drugs like hashish, diazepam, lorazepam and butabarbital, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport said in a statement.
Health
Dec 4 '19 10:20
Gay men must be able to donate blood if they have safe sex, according to the VVD, D66 and GroenLinks. The parties want blood bank Sanquin to lift the restrictions on gay men donating blood if they live a monogamous life. They asked Minister Bruno Bruins for Medical Care to investigate whether this is possible, the Telegraaf reports.
Currently blood bank Sanquin does not take blood from men who have had sex with a man in the past four months. This is because men who have sex with multiple male partners are at higher risk of being infected with HIV or hepatitis, for example.
Dec 3 '19 08:14
The position of people with disabilities in the Netherlands is deteriorating. Over the past three years, it has become more difficult for people with disabilities to fully participate in society, according to a report commissioned by the UN Convention Alliance, a collaboration of five organizations that advocate for people with disabilities, which will be handed to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva on Tuesday, Trouw reports.
Dec 1 '19 08:00
The murder of 12-year-ld Bekiro by his father in Arnhem in December last year could not have been prevented, the municipality of Arnhem and municipal mental health institution Pro Persona said after independent investigation into the event, Omroep Gelderland reports.
Nov 28 '19 15:10
Supplementary MRI screening can result in breast cancer being detected earlier in women with extremely dense breast tissue, according to a large-scale study in the Netherlands published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday.
Nov 28 '19 09:18
A new invention from blood bank Sanquin means that the abolition of animal testing is one step closer. Sanquin developed a new test to see if medicines cause fever which uses donor blood instead of the current method of using rabbits. Currently 400 thousand rabbits die through this testing per year worldwide, including around 500 in the Netherlands, RTL Nieuws reports.
Nov 27 '19 15:20
Two children and adult were rushed to a hospital in The Hague with carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday evening. The fire department believes a faulty geyser was behind the leak.
The fire department responded to the home on Linnaeusstraat at around 10:00 p.m. after the carbon monoxide detector in the home went off, a spokesperson said to RTL Nieuws. At the scene they found two children and an adult. All three were taken to hospital.
Nov 27 '19 08:03
Both men and women in the Netherlands have grown heavier and slightly taller since 1981, according to Statistics Netherlands' health survey. Between 1981 and 2018, men on average grew 3.8 centimeters taller and 9 kilograms heavier, while women grew 1.5 centimeters taller and 7 kilograms heavier.
That means that men are now an average of 2.3 kilograms heavier per centimeter of body height, and women 4.7 kilograms. According to the stats office, women became "fairly considerably" heavier in the periods 1990 to 2000 and 2010 to 2019, while their height hardly changed.
Nov 25 '19 07:32
The Ministry of Justice and Security launched a campaign to prompt victims of sexual violence to seek help. 22 percent of women and 6 percent of men in the Netherlands have been forced to perform sexual acts at least once, but many victims don't dare to talk about it, NOS reports.
Nov 23 '19 09:00
The Erasmus MC teamed up with PostNL, ANWB and blood bank Sanquin to launch an experiment with delivering medication and blood directly from the lab ot the hospital or from the hospital to the patient's home by drone. The idea is that drone deliveries will be much faster, as they can avoid traffic jams.
"The goal is to see if we can get medicines to people faster", spokesperson David Drexhage of Erasmus MC in Rotterdam said to RTL Nieuws. "An whether that is safe." The experiment started on Thursday and is expected to last three years.
Nov 21 '19 07:30
Half of girls and a fifth of boys in the Netherlands face some form of punishable physical sexual violence in their youth, according to estimates by Herman Bolhaar, the National Rapporteur on Human Trafficking and Sexual Violence Against Children. The Netherlands' approach to tackling this crime is too fragmented, resulting in children falling through the cracks. This must be improved, he said in the biennial victim monitor, NOS and RTL Nieuws report.
Nov 19 '19 17:00
For the first time in Dutch history, there will be a nationwide strike among hospital workers on Thursday. They are striking for higher salaries and better working conditions.
Nov 19 '19 07:54
A 13-year-old girl from the Netherlands sustained severe burns when she dropped her phone, which was charging, in the bath, professionals from Amsterdam UMC and the Red Cross Hospital in Beverwijk wrote in the Journal of Medical Case Reports.
Nov 18 '19 09:55
The number of young doctors in the Netherlands struggling with burnout symptoms increased significantly over the past two years, according to a quickscan study by care providers' organization VvAA. Currently 20 percent of doctors under the age of 35 have burnout symptoms, compared to 13 percent two years ago, the Volkskrant reports.
At 20 percent with burnout symptoms, young doctors score far worse than the national average of 15 percent and their older colleagues at 11 percent.
Nov 12 '19 17:00
The Netherlands must improve its care for children and adolescents with eating disorder, according to advice from K-EET, a group of pediatricians and psychiatrists, to Minster Hugo de Jonge of Public Health. The group wants a structural improvement in care for anorexia patients in particular, NOS reports.
Nov 12 '19 14:30
The government and municipalities need to put much more effort into constructing or converting playgrounds that are also accessible for children with disabilities, according to the D66 and various organizations. Despite the government saying two years ago that many more such playgrounds must be built, it is unclear whether any progress is being made on this front, RTL Nieuws reports.
Nov 12 '19 12:00
The European Union's policy on air quality led to much cleaner air in the Netherlands, according to a study by public health institute RIVM. Without the European measures implemented since the 1970s, air pollution in the country would be much higher and the average life expectancy in the Netherlands would be about six years lower, the RIVM said.
Nov 12 '19 10:20
The number of new HIV diagnoses in the Netherlands decreased from 941 in 2015 to 664 last year, according to the latest figures from HIV monitoring foundation SHM. Two thirds of new HIV infections were diagnosed in men who have sex with other men. While most of these men were diagnosed at an early stage, a third was still only diagnosed after the virus already affected their immune system.
Nov 12 '19 08:22
Health insurers CZ and VGZ are lowering the premium for their basic health insurance next year, by nearly 4 euros and 1 euro respectively, RTL Nieuws and NOS report. Basic insurance at Menzis will be one euro more expensive, the company said in an email to customers.
Nov 9 '19 10:15
Nine percent of girls and young women between the ages of 12 and 25 in the Netherlands sometimes can't afford to buy tampons or sanitary pads.
Nov 8 '19 10:20
The Dutch cabinet is considering a reversal of its policy of decentralizing youth care services following a harshly critical report from the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate. The report, produced with the Ministry of Justice and Security, said that staffing levels in the sector are far too low making it difficult or impossible for families to get help in dealing with either complex issues, or a multitude of issues.
Nov 7 '19 08:30
Internationally, the Netherlands has a relatively low percentage of smokers, according to figures from the OECD publication Health at a glance 2019 that Statistics Netherlands released on Thursday. The percentage of daily smokers in the Netherlands fell from 23 percent in 2007 to 17 percent in 2017, just under the 18 percent average in OECD countries.
Nov 6 '19 08:40
Many houses in the Netherlands still have lead water pipes and that can be dangerous for pregnant women and children up to the age of 7, the Health Council warned in advice to Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuzien of Infrastructure and Water Management. According to the Health Council, more must be done to remove these dangerous pipes, and until they're gone, children and pregnant women in affected homes should switch to bottled water, RTL Nieuws reports.
Nov 6 '19 08:12
People who regularly visit a hospital in the Netherlands spend enormous amounts on parking alone. Some lose more than a thousand euros a year in driving to and parking at the hospital. On average, one day of parking at a hospital in the Netherlands costs 8.93 euros. Amsterdam is most expensive - at the OLVG in Amsterdam Oost, parking costs 48 euros per day, AD reports based on its own research.
