If the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approves BioNTech/Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine next week, the first people in the Netherlands will receive the COVID-19 vaccine on Friday 8 January 2021.

If all goes well, the first people in the Netherlands will be vaccinated against COVID-19 in early January. The logistics operation aims to start vaccination in the week of 4 January 2021.

Every year about 1.5 million ticks bite someone in the Netherlands, especially between March and October. Most people will not get sick of that.

RIVM has investigated the so-called giant tick that was found in Odoorn in the province of Drenthe on 13 July. It is a Hyalomma marginatum female. 

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published a provisional health-based guidance value for perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).

One in 5 tick bites occurs in an urban area. Although most tick bites occur in the countryside, many people are bitten in urban areas as well.

RIVM expressed concerns on the effects of bisphenol a (BPA) on the immune system in a report issued in March 2016.

For the first time, a person in the Netherlands has fallen ill after a bite from a tick carrying the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBE virus).

More stringent European standards for safe exposure of workers and consumers to bisphenol A (BPA) were proposed in 2014 and 2015.

Chemicals made from vegetable or animal waste may be an alternative to the use of the substance Bisphenol A (BPA) in thermal paper. Thermal paper is widely used for cash register receipts.