Government & Policy Roundup

The European Commission has launched the world’s largest research network on prion diseases. With 52 labs in 20 countries, the network will bring together 90% of European research teams working on mad cow disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, scrapie, and other prion diseases. The network will receive $26 million over the next five years.

Atofina Chemicals and General Metals of Tacoma have agreed to spend about $30 million to clean up pollution of the Head of the Hylebos Waterway Superfund site in Tacoma, Wash. The settlement, announced by EPA and the Justice Department, is subject to a 30-day public comment period.

Cancer incidence and deaths rates continue to decline across the U.S., according to the “Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer” by NIH’s National Cancer Institute and other agencies. The data, through 2001, show improving survival rates in the most serious cancers in men, women, and children.