BU Research Blog

Bournemouth U’s Sascha Dov Bachmann (EBC) and Prof Joachim Sanden (Germany, Luneburg) presented a paper on National Security and Public Health at the IALS – SAS in London (http://events.sas.ac.uk/events/view/15689). Their topic “The Right to Liberty and Security, Public Health and Disease Control”uses the examples of the Escherichia coli (E. coli O157) outbreak in Surrey in August 2009 and the EHEC-O104:H4 outbreak 2011 in Germany by Fenugreek Sprouting seeds, to discusses potential human rights implications of food safety hazards across the food chain (see the European crisis management according to Art. 10 of EC regulation 178/2002 and the U.K. Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, the Public Health (Infectious Disease) Regulations 1988 and the Food Safety Act 1990). Both authors also touched upon potential legal vacuums and loopholes around public and civil safety and security when dealing with new health and environmental threats such as Avian or Swine influenza (flu), which can lead – especially if used as a potential means of bioterrorism – to a national health and security crisis and even mutate into an international pandemic. Consequently, any emergency responses by a state can also directly affect human rights.