Food-borne diseases are an important cause of morbidity and mortality, and a significant impediment to socioeconomic development worldwide, but the full extent and burden of unsafe food is unknown. Precise information on the burden of food-borne diseases can adequately inform policy-makers, allowing them to allocate appropriate resources for food safety control and intervention efforts. In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed food safety as an increasingly important public health issue, hence governments all over the world are intensifying their efforts to improve food safety. A study conducted by WHO to estimate the global burden of food-borne diseases revealed that the most frequent cause of food-borne illnesses were diarrheal disease agents, particularly norovirus and campylobacter spp. Food-borne diarrheal disease agents caused 230,000 deaths, particularly non-typhoidal salmonella enterica that causes diarrheal and invasive diseases. Other major causes of food-borne deaths were salmonella enterica, salmonella typhi, taenia solium, hepatitis A virus and aflatoxin. Forty percent of the food-borne disease burden was amongst children under five years of age (WHO, 2015). To prevent food-borne illness, it is necessary to understand how food becomes unsafe and what proactive measures can be taken to ensure food safety. In this context, FAO commissioned Al Markaz for Development and Marketing Consultancies (Al Markaz) to conduct this study to identify Palestinian households’ knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) on food safety and KAP gaps as well as to develop a proper educational program for households. This report presents the main findings of the study, based on a survey of a representative sample of household consumers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS).

The existing truck accident and travel data are not adequate for determining the trends in truck safety or for guiding actions that could reduce accident losses. Therefore the Transportation Research Board, with support from the Federal Highway Administration, the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association, the Highway Users Federation, and the Trucking Research Institute of the American Trucking Associations, undertook this study to recommend improvements in the data systems used to monitor truck safety and to develop programs to reduce accident losses.

This program is being carried out to provide a technological basis for the incorporation of the highest degree of public and personnel protection, consistent with economic and military requirements, in all the varied applications of reactors and other nuclear devices in the over-all program of the Division.