Issue 106
, 2021
 Twenty companies are responsible for producing more than half of all the single-use plastic waste in the world, fuelling the climate crisis and creating an environmental catastrophe, new research reveals....Read Full Story
 India’s cyclone season is being made more intense by the rapidly heating Indian Ocean, scientists have warned.Last week India was battered by Cyclone Tauktae, an unusually strong cyclone in the Arabian Sea, resulting in widespread disruption. This week, another severe s...Read Full Story
 People around the world are exposed to toxic chemicals called PFAS. Found in fast food packaging, some drinking water, and even non-stick pans, these chemicals can build up in the body over time and cause health issues. For expectant and new mothers, these foreign toxin...Read Full Story
 A major study says by 2025 there's a 40% chance of at least one year being 1.5C hotter than the pre-industrial level.
That's the lower of two temperature limits set by the Paris Agreement on climate change.
The conclusion comes in a report published by the World M...Read Full Story
Issue 105
, 2021
 On the 51st anniversary of Earth Day, Google has come up with an animated video doodle highlighting the importance of planting seeds for a brighter and greener future.
Google described that their doodle showing a variety of trees being planted within natural habitats u...Read Full Story
 The European Union will ask India to join its push for a global treaty on plastic pollution, according to a draft statement prepared for a virtual summit on Saturday and seen by Reuters.
The draft statement, which must be signed off by EU ambassadors and needs New Delh...Read Full Story
 Although considered safe in the majority of cases, talc could pose health problems if inhaled or when applied on the perineal areas. Health Canada is therefore considering expanding restrictions on the use of talc in certain cosmetics, natural health products and over-t...Read Full Story
 Exposure to phthalates, a group of chemicals used to make plastics flexible and as lubricants in cosmetics, during pregnancy may not be good for the infants. Often called plasticizers, phthalates are also used in other consumer products, such as toys, detergents, lubric...Read Full Story
Issue 104
, 2021
 To start dealing with Australia’s mounting plastic crisis, the country’s federal government last week launched its first National Plastics Plan.
The plan will fight plastic on various fronts, such as banning plastic on beaches, ending polystyrene packaging for takeaway...Read Full Story
 In December 2020, a study found that Britons produce the second-largest amount of e-waste per person in Europe, yet the vast majority of it ends up in landfill despite the abundance of rare earth metals and other valuable materials such as gold that can be gleaned from ...Read Full Story
 When more than 180 nations agreed last year to place strict limits on exports of plastic waste from richer countries to poorer ones, the move was seen as a major victory in the fight against plastic pollution.
But new trade data for January, the first month that the ag...Read Full Story
 The United Nations has already warned that the current 53 million tonnes of e-waste generated every year will more than double by 2050 making it the fastest growing waste stream in the world....Read Full Story
 Environmental and reproductive epidemiologist Shanna Swan and journalist Stacey Colino have co-authored a book about the impact of chemicals on the human reproductive system. “Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reprodu...Read Full Story
Issue 102
, 2020
 The world continued to pay a very high price for extreme weather in 2020, according to a report from the charity Christian Aid. Against a backdrop of climate change, its study lists 10 events that saw thousands of lives lost and major insurance costs....Read Full Story
 According to the 2020 Adaptation Gap Report, released on Thursday by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), as temperatures rise and climate change impacts intensify, nations must urgently step up action to adapt to the new climate reality or face serious costs, damages a...Read Full Story
 A new research has indicated that itching often doesn't respond to antihistamines because the itch signals are being carried to the brain along a previously unrecognized pathway that current drugs don't target. New research from Washington University School of Medicine ...Read Full Story
 Looking for an excuse to turn your camera off during the next virtual meeting, besides Zoom fatigue? Tell the boss it's saving the planet.A new environmental study -- from Purdue University, Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- found turning ...Read Full Story
 Imerys SA is pressing ahead in an effort to get out from under lawsuits over its U.S. mining operation, Imerys Talc America Inc., over the protests of health-care company Johnson & Johnson .The Imerys talc-mining business, which supplied talc for Johnson?s Baby Powder, ...Read Full Story
Issue 101
, 2020
Johnson & Johnson has been ordered by a New York state judge to pay $120 million in damages to a Brooklyn woman and her husband, after she blamed her cancer on asbestos exposure from using the company's baby powder. Justice Gerald Lebovits of the state supreme court in ...Read Full Story
 Humanity is facing a new war, unprecedented in history, the secretary general of the UN has warned, which is in danger of destroying our future before we have fully understood the risk.The stark message from Antonio Guterres follows a year of global upheaval, with the c...Read Full Story
 Governments of the world are at a "critical juncture" for shaping the climate's future but are on course to produce too many fossil fuels in the decade ahead, a new report has found.To limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) -- which scienti...Read Full Story
 The United Nations earlier this month launched the Sanitation and Hygiene Fund to provide accelerated funding to countries with the heaviest burden of diseases stemming from lack of sanitation services and have the least ability to respond to them.It also aims to raise ...Read Full Story
 After a three-year delay, the US has become the first nation in the world to formally withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.President Trump announced the move in June 2017, but UN regulations meant that his decision only takes effect today, the day after the US elec...Read Full Story
 During the pandemic, the percentage of participants consuming wildlife was 17.8%.A new survey-based study, 'Attitudes Towards Wildlife Consumption Inside and Outside Hubei Province, China, Concerning the SARS and COVID-19 Outbreaks', aimed to find the wildlife consumpti...Read Full Story
Issue 100
, 2020
 In Alaska and other high, cold places around the world, new research shows that mountains are collapsing as the permafrost that holds them together melts, threatening tsunamis if they fall into the sea.Scientists are warning that populated areas and major tourist attrac...Read Full Story
 While this year will be memorable for many reasons, it is now more likely than not that 2020 will also be the warmest year for the Earth?s surface since reliable records began in the mid-1800s....Read Full Story
 Air pollution last year caused the premature death of nearly half a million babies in their first month of life, with most of the infants being in the developing world, data shows....Read Full Story
 Fires in Brazil's Amazon rainforest surged in October and the number of blazes is up 25% in the first 10 months of 2020, compared to a year ago, data from government space research agency Inpe showed on Sunday....Read Full Story
Today, the Council reached agreement on a partial general approach on the proposed European climate law. The aim of the proposal is to set in legislation the objective of a climate-neutral EU by 2050, which was endorsed by the European Council in December 2019....Read Full Story
Issue 99
, 2020
World leaders have pledged to clamp down on pollution, embrace sustainable economic systems and eliminate the dumping of plastic waste in oceans by the middle of the century as part of "meaningful action" to halt the destruction of nature on Earth.
Emmanuel Macron, A...Read Full Story
 Fires in Brazil's Amazon increased 13% in the first nine months of the year compared with a year ago, as the rainforest region experiences its worst rash of blazes in a decade, data from space research agency Inpe has shown.
Satellites in September recorded 32,017 ho...Read Full Story
Ecologists studying the prevalence of plastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems around the world are concerned after measuring the scale of human response needed to reduce future emissions and manage what's already floating around out there.
"Unless growth in plastic p...Read Full Story
The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on governments and health care leaders to address persistent threats to the health and safety of health workers and patients.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded all of us of the vital role health workers play to relieve...Read Full Story
 A new analysis published in the journal Science shows that the business-as-usual approach to tackling ocean plastic pollution isn?t working. Even worse, should we continue down the current trajectory, the amount of plastic waste entering the ocean is set to triple by 20...Read Full Story
Issue 98
, 2020
Eight million metric tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year. This equates to one garbage truck?s worth of plastic being dumped into our oceans every minute. The total weight is the equivalent of 90 aircraft carriers.
This is tragic for many reasons. Whales,...Read Full Story
The words ?plastic pollution? evoke images of discarded plastic bottles and bags, derelict fishing gear, and crushed cigarette butts set on a beautiful beach or floating underwater. In this imagery, the ebb and flow of plastic pollution is visible to the naked eye. But ...Read Full Story
 More than 900 city classrooms repeatedly tested positive for lead paint over the past five years ? amounting to what one expert calls a ?ticking time bomb? that?s waiting to poison kids.
A classroom at PS 188 The Island School in Manhattan?s Alphabet City neighborhood ...Read Full Story
 Australia has said once a vaccine for the novel Coronavirus becomes available, it will offer it free to all its citizens. Australia has entered into an agreement with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for securing access to the vaccine it is developing in collaboration...Read Full Story
 The rate at which humanity is consuming the Earth?s resources declined sharply this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to researchers.
Consequently, Earth Overshoot Day, the point at which human consumption exceeds the amount nature can regenerate in ...Read Full Story
 The disposal of plastics is a highly visible global problem ? from the highest mountains to the deepest ocean trenches, waste plastic seems inescapable. In natural conditions, plastics are nearly indestructible, and yet they are discarded worldwide on a large scale: the...Read Full Story
Issue 97
, 2020
 A detailed analysis of environmental research has revealed the greatest threat to the world: affluence.That?s one of the main conclusions of a team of scientists from Australia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, who have warned that tackling overconsumption has to bec...Read Full Story
A record-breaking heatwave in Siberia would have been almost impossible without human-caused climate change, a study has found.The Russian region's temperatures were more than 5C above average between January and June of this year....Read Full Story
Apple today unveiled its plan to become carbon neutral across its entire business, manufacturing supply chain, and product life cycle by 2030. The company is already carbon neutral today for its global corporate operations, and this new commitment means that by 2030, ev...Read Full Story
 Other parts of the world may be experiencing scorching summers but Singaporeans have been donning rainy-day gear.Rainfall and a particularly wet June have brought cooler weather.This is expected to persist throughout July, with the mercury dipping to 22 deg C on some da...Read Full Story
 In these times of COVID-19, one of the most common clich?s bandied about by op-ed writers and TV anchors is: ?Every crisis brings with it an opportunity?. The question is: Opportunity for whom or for what? In this case, the opportunity has been for an inanimate object a...Read Full Story
Issue 96
, 2020
 A widespread assumption suggests that once a person infected with novel coronavirus recovers, he/she would acquire the protective immunity against the disease, having developed necessary antibodies against the virus. But, how long will the antibodies last in an individu...Read Full Story
 Ad?lie penguins in Antarctica show a huge preference for the reduced sea-ice conditions caused by global warming, a new study has found. This observed behaviour makes this aquatic bird a rare, unexpected winner of climate change....Read Full Story
 Wearing a face mask has rightly become the new normal for many, as we try to protect ourselves and others from COVID-19. But the rise in single-use masks and disposable gloves around the world has also come with a huge environmental cost....Read Full Story
 There had to be a silver lining to the nearly universal lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the small benefits has been a temporarily lighter human footprint in many ecosystems.
Wildlife sightings are increasing, air quality is improving and carbon emissions are ...Read Full Story
?Nature is sending us a message,? the UN website warns.
?Today, it is estimated that, globally, about one billion cases of illness and millions of deaths occur every year from diseases caused by coronaviruses; and about 75 per cent of all emerging infectious diseases i...Read Full Story
Issue 94
, 2020
Jillian Semaan, food and environment director at the Earth Day network, said: “We had to completely change what we were doing to mark the ......Read Full Story
 Scientists say insects are vital and the losses worrying, with accelerating declines in Europe called ‘shocking’. More......Read Full Story
 We know that carbon emissions have sharply fallen during lockdown. But will all these changes actually be good for the environment in the ......Read Full Story
Coronavirus plastic waste polluting the environment. Single-use masks, gloves and bottles of sanitizer shielding us from the spread of COVID-19 ......Read Full Story
 Changing global and political landscapes have made the kind of broad and bipartisan agreements reached in the 1970s seem impossible....Read Full Story
 London has had dramatic improvements in its air quality since the coronavirus lockdown, with dangerous emissions at some of the capital’s busiest roads and junctions falling by almost 50%...Read Full Story
 With Covid-19, tourists everywhere have canceled their plans and the tourism industry has crashed to a halt....Read Full Story
Issue 85
, 2019
A total of 3,000 kilograms of solid waste has been collected from Mt. Everest sincewhen Nepal launched an ambitious clean-up campaign on April 14. The campaign is aimed at bringing back tonnes of trash from the world’s highest peak, which has lately turned into a “garba...Read Full Story
Indian Ocean is the world's biggest dumping ground for plastic waste, but where the trash ultimately ends up has remained a mystery, scientists say. According to researchers from the University of Western Australia (UWA), little research had been done to measure and tra...Read Full Story
The world’s recyclable plastic is being shipped to Asia where it is illegally dumped, buried or burned in the country with the lightest regulations, environmentalists warned on Tuesday calling for greater transparency in the global waste trade. A report by Global Allian...Read Full Story
In the basement of a building in Jounieh, north of Beirut, some end-of-life electronic devices are piled on the ground, while others are neatly packaged and placed on shelves. The basement is the nonprofit Ecoserv’s headquarters, where electronic waste treatment, a long...Read Full Story
Issue 83
, 2019
Would be mothers who are exposed to toxic chemicals during pregnancy could increase the risk of decreased lung functioning in their babies later, finds a new study published in The Lancet journal.Researchers from the Global Health Institute in Spain (ISGlobal) looked at...Read Full Story
Toxic smog in Bangkok, Thailand, has forced more than 400 schools to close to protect children from its harmful effects. The capital city is experiencing some of its worst-ever air pollution levels, caused by ultra-fine dust particles known as PM 2.5. Traffic exhaust, c...Read Full Story
India and China are leading the global greening effort, which is quite contrary to the general perception worldwide, a study based on NASA satellite data has said, observing that the world is a greener place than it was 20 years ago. “China and India account for one-thi...Read Full Story
City health officials are sounding the alarm about lead poisoning that comes not from peeling paint but everyday foods and cosmetics. The city Department of Health & Mental Hygiene announced a lead prevention awareness campaign—which will include flyers, trainings and o...Read Full Story
The study is preliminary, and the potential impact of climate change on congenital heart disease is far from clear, the researchers say. But earlier work has suggested that expectant mothers who are exposed to extreme heat in the spring or summer, particularly in early ...Read Full Story
A team of U.S. researchers has presented a new approach to plastic waste treatment. A paper published by the American Chemical Society showed how researchers from Indiana’s Purdue University extracted pure carbon from plastic waste and turned it into anode material for ...Read Full Story
Issue 81
, 2017
What will happen to electronics being thrown out? That was Peggy Grayson’s biggest concern as the cost to taxpayers has doubled not even 10 months into the year. Grayson, the recycling administrator for GLOW Region Solid Waste Management Committee, gave her department r...Read Full Story
MOSCOW: Lake Baikal is undergoing its gravest crisis in recent history, experts say, as the government bans the catching of a signature fish that has lived in the world's deepest lake for centuries but is now under threat.Holding one-fifth of the world's unfrozen fresh ...Read Full Story
Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) on Wednesday said over 400 industries monitored by it have reduced their CO2 emissions by 31 million tonnes (MT) - about 2 per cent of annual CO2 emissions - between 2012-15. "Over 400 industries reduced their emissions by 31 million to...Read Full Story
The amount of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere grew at record rate in 2016 to a level not seen for millions of years, the United Nations said on Monday. It said this has the potential to fuel a 20-metre rise in sea levels and add 3 degrees Celsius to temperatur...Read Full Story
Issue 80
, 2017
The most polluted schools in London are to be audited as part of the mayor’s drive to clean up toxic air across the capital. Earlier this year a Guardian investigation revealed that hundreds of thousands of children are being exposed to illegal levels of damaging air po...Read Full Story
The UN’s special reporter on hazardous substances and wastes has said that he is “deeply concerned” the merger between Dow Chemical and DuPont may erase any remaining possibility of the victims of the Bhopal disaster seeing an “effective remedy”, more than three decades...Read Full Story
A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday gave the directors general of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health services directorate and environmental protection agency a fortnight to separately give written recommendations on the proper disposal of wastes in major public and priva...Read Full Story
Issue 79
, 2017
UN agencies are starting to work together to track and help deal with a soaring amount of electronic wastes worldwide, the International Telecommunication Union (ITS) said. As technologies change at great speed, and as access to and use of electrical and electronic equi...Read Full Story
In a world full of digital and high-tech devices, UN agencies are starting to work together to track and help deal with a soaring amount of electronic wastes worldwide, the International Telecommunication Union (ITS) said on Wednesday. As technologies change at great sp...Read Full Story
Following the 181-day grace period, the government has enforced the Mandatory Toys Standard (MTS) law aimed at controlling children’s exposure to harmful chemicals and heavy metals present in toys. With the enactment, toys available in the market have to contain the amo...Read Full Story
Since the dawn of the first industrial revolution, humans have plundered the planet at an increasing rate. Decades of excessive consumption have created an enormous quantity of global waste, and we are rapidly running out of room in which to store it. Landfills across t...Read Full Story
Issue 78
, 2017
Children and teenagers exposed to high levels of traffic-related air pollution may be at an increased risk of a specific DNA damage called telomere shortening, a new study warns. Young people with asthma also have evidence of telomere shortening, a type of DNA damage ty...Read Full Story
An environmental disaster was in the making in Zanzibar, thanks God that it was discovered just in time though damage had already been done. The major concern remains what if this had not been discovered or continued for a long time? The referral hospital of Mnazi Mmoja...Read Full Story
Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has announced an e-waste management program in India. Called the “Mi India Product Take-Back & Recycling Program,” the initiative is aimed at recycling end-of-life electronic products and devices according to the new e-waste management regulati...Read Full Story
Issue 77
, 2017
Scientists have identified a soil fungus which uses enzymes to rapidly break down plastic materials, an advance that could help deal with waste problem that threatens our environment. Humans are producing ever greater amounts of plastic ? much of which ends up as garbag...Read Full Story
Ahead of the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention (SC COP-8) in Geneva, Switzerland, a new global survey has revealed that recycling plastics containing toxic flame retardant chemicals found in electronic waste results in contamina...Read Full Story
Courts had given the government until Monday 24 April to set out draft guidelines to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution. But late last week, ministers lodged an application to delay their release until after the general election. They argued that ...Read Full Story
Power plants in the EU will have to cut the amount of toxic pollutants such as nitrogen oxides they emit under new rules approved by member states and widely applauded by environmental groups. Friday’s decision imposes stricter limits on emissions of pollutants such as ...Read Full Story
Issue 76
, 2017
The union environment ministry recently expressed doubts about international reports that link air pollution with mortality and recommended exercising caution in interpreting these studies. But now the union health ministry along with the World Health Organisation (WHO)...Read Full Story
As the reports began landing on Wayne Nastri’s desk last fall showing alarmingly high levels of cancer-causing pollution had been unexpectedly detected in a working-class area of southeast Los Angeles County, a stark concern arose: This may not be an isolated problem. T...Read Full Story
Around 1,500 people visit an industrial waste treatment facility in central Japan each year to see up close how the operator can recycle more than 99 percent of the solid garbage it receives from a variety of manufacturers and municipalities. Nakadai Co., which covers t...Read Full Story
Two people have become critically ill after drinking toxic herbal tea from the same Chinatown herbalist in San Francisco. A man and a woman were treated in hospital after consuming tea leaves bought from Sun Wing Wo Trading Company, the city’s public health department ...Read Full Story
At Agbogbloshie dump, in Ghana's capital, Accra, children tear apart e-waste from Western nations with their hands, and burn circuit boards over open fires to melt out the precious metals. Broken or redundant computers are considered hazardous waste and are illegal to s...Read Full Story
Issue 75
, 2017
Chandrika Shenoy’s son, Mahesh, lies on the ground beside her on a mat, his limbs twitching as he moans, seemingly in distress. Following a supreme court ruling in January, the family are waiting to receive the 500,000 rupees (£5,973) the Kerala government has been orde...Read Full Story
On the evening of Thursday 16 February, residents in the south-east part of Bangalore noticed huge plumes of smoke rising into the sky. The smoke was coming from the middle of Bellandur Lake – the biggest lake in the city at a little over 890 acres. They realised the se...Read Full Story
A search of hundreds of beaches across the UK has found almost three-quarters of them are littered with tiny plastic pellets. The lentil-size pellets known as “nurdles” are used as a raw material by industry to make new plastic products. But searches of 279 shorelines f...Read Full Story
In February 2017, the rather specialised topic of persistent organic pollutants captured the attention of the global media. A study led by Dr Jamieson of Newcastle University, published in Nature, Economy and Evolution, was the focus of interest. It found staggering lev...Read Full Story
Issue 74
, 2017
Indian and British experts are joining hands on a project to help tackle health problems associated with air pollution in Delhi, which affect some 46 million people in and around the country’s capital city. With air pollution levels at times up to 30 times greater than ...Read Full Story
Scientists are creating a new silver catalyst to purify the air that can decompose toxic carbon monoxide and other harmful substances into harmless components, an advance that could help fight smog in cities like New Delhi and Beijing. This nanostructure catalyst may be...Read Full Story
Electronic waste is rising sharply across Asia as higher incomes allow hundreds of millions of people to buy smartphones and other gadgets, with serious consequences for human health and the environment, according to a United Nations (UN) study released on Sunday. So-ca...Read Full Story
Chinese authorities have announced a new environmental police squad to combat pollution in Beijing that will crackdown on activities like open-air barbecues, garbage incineration and biomass burning, even as the capital breathed easy today after reeling under week-long ...Read Full Story
Sea ice changes in the Arctic may delay the annual migration of some beluga whales in Alaska by up to a month, a new study has found. Researchers from University of Washington (UW) finds that as Arctic sea ice takes longer to freeze up each fall due to climate change, a...Read Full Story
When a thick, grey smog descended over Beijing and nearby cities last month, the overwhelming response it triggered among residents was a sense of deja vu. The worst air pollution to hit the capital in a year prompted the authorities to issue a five-day red alert for Be...Read Full Story
While President Trump will need legislative approval by Congress to accomplish parts of his economic policy agenda, he can also implement several critical initiatives on his sole authority as chief executive. Increasing the affordability of both U.S. and global energy i...Read Full Story
Issue 73
, 2016
Oakland Dec 29, 2016 : According to a recently published Reuters report, Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood is one of 3,000 U.S. communities with lead contamination worse than Flint, Michigan. But whereas Flint has been the subject of international media scrutiny, lead p...Read Full Story
Philippine, Dec 29, 2016 : A non-profit watch group on toxic chemicals has lauded the fast approaching deadline for the phase-out of lead-containing architectural, household and decorative (AHD) paints on December 31, 2016 as a “victory for children’s health.”“We are re...Read Full Story
Shanghai, Dec 26, 2016 : China has detained 11 people for dumping more than 2,900 tonnes of garbage into the Yangtze river in Jiangsu province, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Sunday.The garbage was dumped earlier this month after two firms entrusted to...Read Full Story
Beijing, Dec 22, 2016 : China Thursday launched a global carbon dioxide monitoring satellite to understand climate change, hours after it lifted nearly a week-long red alert for the worst smog that engulfed about 40 cities in the country. The 620-kg satellite TanSat wa...Read Full Story
Canada,Dec 9, 2016 : The federal government plans to announce a comprehensive ban on asbestos in Canada next week, CBC News has learned. The country currently allows imports of construction products and automotive parts that contain the toxic fibre, even though Canada n...Read Full Story
Issue 72
, 2016
Beijing , Nov 21, 2016 : Beijing will next year ban highly polluting old cars from being driven whenever air quality alerts are issued in the city or neighbouring regions, the city's environmental protection bureau said on Monday.China has adopted various measures over ...Read Full Story
Durban ,Nov 23, 2016 : Residents near the Shongweni landfill, west of Durban, say the complex emits suffocating and noxious gas. This gives them headaches, nose bleeds, itchy eyes, irritability, asthma and other chest conditions. One person said his five-year-old Jack R...Read Full Story
Washington , Nov 29, 2016 : The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday released a list of toxic chemicals that will be the first reviewed under a recently enacted law that gives regulators increased authority to ban substances shown to endanger human health. EPA’s m...Read Full Story
Morocco, Nov 14, 2016
The world is likely to cross 1.2° C of global warming above pre-industrial levels in 2016, coming dangerously close to breaching the 1.5° C warming levels advised as an ambitious target to stay safe from the worst impacts of climate change. In a p...Read Full Story
Issue 71
, 2016
The backyard recycling of lead-acid car batteries is the number one source of chemical pollution in the world’s poorer nations and leads to millions of years of healthy life being lost, according to a new report. The World’s Worst Pollution Problems, published by NGOs P...Read Full Story
At the intersection of two highways just outside downtown Detroit, a hulking relic of the city’s past looms over the skyline: the largest municipal trash incinerator in the US. It’s a facility that has raised concerns of nearby residents since its construction in the 19...Read Full Story
Issue 70
, 2016
Aged 70, Tuna has pains in her leg, waist and chest, but her income as a garlic picker put even the most basic medical provision beyond reach. Until her neighbour told her about a “free” medical clinic in the neighbourhood. The cost: 10,000 Indonesian rupiah (£0.59) a m...Read Full Story
The Whatcom County Disposal of Toxics program will hold a household hazardous waste collection day at the local transfer station this weekend, giving community members an opportunity to get rid of potentially dangerous substances in a safe way. The event will be held on...Read Full Story
This is the mantra preached by Veena Sahajwalla, a materials scientist at the University of New South Wales who wants to fundamentally change how we perceive our electronic waste: not as trash, but as treasure. Electronic waste, or “e-waste”, is full of valuable resourc...Read Full Story
According to research led by the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., household dust exposes people to numerous toxic chemicals that are associated with severe health problems. Researchers say that children are pa...Read Full Story
Despite being the largest public sector hospital in the city and among the few that have an incinerator, the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JMPC) at present doesn’t have a proper system to dispose of its medical waste, a major potential threat to the safety of its ...Read Full Story
The Narendra Modi government has shown interest in an eco-friendly mechanism to turn organic waste into ashes, which might be used as agricultural fertilisers under the Swachh Bharat Mission. The mechanism uses ‘Neosonic’ technology that does not require any fuel or ele...Read Full Story
Issue
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The world is producing ever more electrical and electronic waste. The quantity of dumped computers, telephones, televisions and appliances doubled between 2009 and 2014, to 42 million tonnes per year globally1, 2. Developed countries, especially in North America and Eur...Read Full Story
Thousands of litres of hazardous waste spilled at a Fonterra plant in Southland early this morning. Emergency services were called to the Edendale factory just after 2am when staff reported 5000-litre tanks of nitric acid and caustic alkali were overflowing. Fire Servic...Read Full Story
Consumers want manufacturers to release fewer mobile phone models and do more to help them recycle, according to a new study by Greenpeace. A survey of approximately 6,000 people across the US, Mexico, Russia, Germany, China and South Korea has found they have an averag...Read Full Story
Cosmetics companies must be banned from using plastic microbeads in scrubs, toothpaste and beauty products because of the marine pollution they are causing, say a group of MPs. Members of the environmental audit committee have called for a ban within 18 months after hea...Read Full Story
Scotland’s environment agency has warned the country’s industries and farmers that their waste and inefficiency is now the biggest threat to the environment, overtaking pollution.
In a marked shift in strategy, the regulator’s chief executive, Terry A’Hearn, will urge ...Read Full Story
Issue 68
, 2016
The country is expected to generate US$100m on the average annually, following the approval of the Hazardous and Electronic Waste Control and Management Bill, 2016, by Parliament; which will provide for the control, management and disposal of hazardous and electronic wa...Read Full Story
If there’s one thing industry, the Environmental Protection Agency, the state and the community can agree on, it’s that it’s time to start investigating the Horseshoe Bend Water Treatment Plant.Built from 2002 to 2003 in the former McQueen neighborhood on Montana Resour...Read Full Story
Issue 67
, 2016
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned aside the latest effort by a group of states led by Michigan to block Obama administration environmental regulations limiting power plant emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants. The justices opted not to hear the states' ...Read Full Story
Cities have a huge waste problem. Levels are expected to more than double (pdf) over the next 20 years in low and middle income countries as the population increases towards an estimated 8.6 billion by 2030. Ecube is one of a handful of startups trying to tackle the iss...Read Full Story
Issue 66
, 2015
The G77 group of more than 130 developing nations - including China and India - rejected a slimmed-down, draft agreement Monday that had been crafted for the five-day parlay in the former West German capital. "When you take out the issues of others, you disenfranchise t...Read Full Story
A ship carrying 25 tonnes of reprocessed nuclear waste sailed from France for Australia on Thursday despite protests from environmental campaigners concerned about "deficiencies" in the vessel. The BBC Shanghai left the northern French port of Cherbourg after approval f...Read Full Story
One of Europe's biggest glaciers, the Great Aletsch, coils 23km (14 miles) through the Swiss Alps - and yet this mighty river of ice could almost vanish in the lifetimes of people born today because of climate change. The glacier, 900 metres (2,950 feet) thick at one po...Read Full Story
Teflon, the chemical that coats nonstick pans, is making news again: On Wednesday, an Ohio jury awarded 59-year-old Carla Bartlett $1.6 million after deciding that chemical giant DuPont contaminated Ohio Valley drinking water and contributed to Bartlett's kidney cancer....Read Full Story
Issue 65
, 2015
The increasing overuse of chemical pesticides and fertilisers are posing more threats to farmers' health and agro product consumers, but authorities have never had an eye on the overwhelming consumption of the chemicals in agriculture. This would also exert more polluti...Read Full Story
Alpine glaciers in Italy have lost an estimated 40 per cent of their area over the last three decades, a recent report released by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has said. "The situation of glaciers on the Italian side of the Alps is very worrying," Xinhua news agency on Fri...Read Full Story
Tepco on Monday discharged into the ocean filtered groundwater taken from wells around the damaged reactor buildings at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in an effort to curb the buildup of toxic water. The project has been touted as one of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s ke...Read Full Story
Nearly 60 percent of seabird species like penguins, gulls and albatrosses have plastic in their gut and by 2050 this may rise to 99 percent, a new study says. The scientists estimate that 90 per cent of all seabirds alive today have eaten plastic of some kind. This incl...Read Full Story
NASA and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have launched a joint project to strengthen regional environmental monitoring in five countries in the lower Mekong region of Southeast Asia. Called SERVIR-Mekong, the project is housed at the Asian Disaster ...Read Full Story
Children exposed to insecticides at home may have a slightly increased risk of developing leukemia or lymphoma, a new review finds. The analysis, of 16 studies done since the 1990s, found that children exposed to indoor insecticides had an elevated risk of developing th...Read Full Story
Only a third of Europe's electronic waste is properly recycled, with vast numbers of cellphones, computers and televisions illegally traded or dumped, a study led by the United Nations and INTERPOL said on Sunday. Sweden and Norway were close to European targets of coll...Read Full Story
Issue 64
, 2015
Mismanagement of discarded electronics within Europe involves a volume 10 times that of e-waste shipped to foreign shores in undocumented exports, according to a comprehensive two-year investigation into the functioning of the used and waste electronics market. The Euro...Read Full Story
A survey has shown that 30% of people in the UK believe that more should be done to educate school children about recycling. Conducted by Direct365, the research highlighted that more needs to be done to inform future generations on how to minimise waste and promote eco...Read Full Story
Efficient recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) could be worth €3.7bn to the European economy by 2020, a new study has found. Researchers from the University of Sheffield found that recycling electronic waste was already worth €2.15bn in 2014 and...Read Full Story
Thousands of tonnes of contaminated water at China's Tianjin port — the site of two massive warehouse explosions on August 12, needs to be treated over fears that rain may exacerbate the problem. Pipeline and ground water at the blast site will be processed and drained...Read Full Story
Outdoor air pollution contributes to the deaths of an estimated 1.6 million people in China every year, or about 4,400 people a day, according to a newly released scientific paper. The paper maps the geographic sources of China's toxic air and concludes that much of the...Read Full Story
Australia plans to reduce carbon emissions by at least 26 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced Tuesday, but environmentalists said the target fell well short of what was needed to tackle global warming. Abbott said his conservative gov...Read Full Story
China, the world's top polluter, will build a comprehensive network involving drones, satellites and remote sensors to detect land, sea and air pollution by 2020. The network plan, approved in July, will lead the monitoring, share information among departments and regi...Read Full Story
Issue 63
, 2015
The stench of uncollected refuse in the streets of Beirut is a stark reminder of the crisis of government afflicting Lebanon, where politicians divided by local and regional conflicts have been unable to agree on where to dump the capital's rubbish. Mounting piles of ga...Read Full Story
A lorry fire that shut a motorway for 16 hours after it melted the road is believed to be responsible for killing more than 100 fish in nearby rivers, the Environment Agency has said. Tests are being carried out by environmental officers, with the agency saying the fire...Read Full Story
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled the Obama administration should have considered compliance cost when it decided to limit emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants mainly from coal-fired power plants, a setback for the government that leaves the lega...Read Full Story
A major pilot project by Europe's largest power network operator to integrate power from rooftop solar panels into the grid has shown that battery storage of renewable energy is not yet economically viable in Europe.The conclusion is a sobering one for proponents of sun...Read Full Story
Issue 62
, 2015
bid to become an environmentally friendly city includes plans to step up the processing and recycling of green waste like fallen leaves, mown grass and dead tree branches. Attaining recycling goals still faces some obstacles, like a shortage of available land for facili...Read Full Story
The threat to human health from climate change is so great that it could undermine the last fifty years of gains in development and global health, according to a major new Commission, published in The Lancet. However, the report provides comprehensive new evidence showi...Read Full Story
Improving air quality -- in clean and dirty places -- could potentially avoid millions of pollution-related deaths each year. That finding comes from a team of environmental engineering and public health researchers who developed a global model of how changes in outdoor...Read Full Story
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled the Obama administration should have considered compliance cost when it decided to limit emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants mainly from coal-fired power plants, a setback for the government that leaves the lega...Read Full Story
Sometime in the mid 1990s, probably unnoticed by anyone, a region of the Pacific that is home to more than a dozen nations experienced something known as a “climate expulsion”.That was the point in time when the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmos...Read Full Story
A major pilot project by Europe's largest power network operator to integrate power from rooftop solar panels into the grid has shown that battery storage of renewable energy is not yet economically viable in Europe.The conclusion is a sobering one for proponents of sun...Read Full Story
The modern world is experiencing a “sixth great extinction” of animal species even when the lowest estimates of extinction rates are considered, scientists have warned. The rate of extinction for species in the 20th century was up to 100 times higher than it would have ...Read Full Story
Issue 61
, 2015
This article originally appeared in Grist and is republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration."It's not easy being green" is a tired cliché, but it's still particularly true if you are a giant technology company. Even Apple, Facebook, and Google—the best o...Read Full Story
Are government officials doing enough to protect us from the potential long-term health effects of wearable devices and cellphones? Maybe not. A letter released today, signed by 195 scientists from 39 countries, calls on the United Nations, the World Health Organization...Read Full Story
The last several decades have brought a global explosion of electronics with a huge impact on quality of life and communications, as well as the world economy. But, like most big human-induced changes, there were unintended consequences, primarily in the form of the mou...Read Full Story
Polluters need to watch out for an eye in the sky as drones have helped China's ministry of environmental protection (MEP) detect factories flouting environmental laws in one of China's most polluted provinces. The ministry dispatched drones in March to Handan city in n...Read Full Story
Up to 90% of the world’s electronic waste, worth nearly $19bn (£12bn), is illegally traded or dumped each year, according to the UN Environment Programme (Unep). Computers and smart phones are among the ditched items contributing to this 41m tonne e-waste mountain, whic...Read Full Story
A lawsuit filed by residents of a Chinese town against a chemical plant that they say is responsible for high levels of lead in the blood of local children is shaping up as a test of the central government's resolve to tackle pollution. Of the more than 50 residents fro...Read Full Story
Issue 60
, 2015
A french fry supplier to the McDonald's restaurant chain in China has been issued Beijing's biggest-ever pollution fine for releasing dirty wastewater, state media reported. The official Xinhua News Agency said late Wednesday that Beijing environmental officials levied ...Read Full Story
Authorities in the Japanese capital have cordoned off a playground where high levels of radiation were detected this week, reviving concerns about nuclear contamination four years after the Fukushima disaster. Nuclear regulators measured elevated radiation levels on Thu...Read Full Story
A study has questioned plastic's non-hazardous ranking, as an estimated 150 million tonnes "disappears" from the global waste stream each year. Researchers outlined measures that can be used to shed light on the wider environmental impact of waste plastic. An estimated ...Read Full Story
A record amount of electrical and electronic waste was discarded around the world in 2014, with the biggest per-capita tallies in countries that pride themselves on environmental consciousness, a report said. Last year, 41.8m tonnes of so-called e-waste – mostly fridges...Read Full Story
Scientists have suggested a new way of safely disposing high-emission nuclear waste -- burying it deep down into the earth. The concept, called deep borehole disposal, has been developed primarily in England but is likely to see its first field trials in the United Stat...Read Full Story
Nuclear waste dumps can be imposed on local communities without their support under a new law rushed through in the final hours of parliament.Under the latest rules, the long search for a place to store Britain’s stockpile of 50 years’ worth of the most radioactive wast...Read Full Story
A survey found around one thousand tonnes of plastic floating on the surface, mainly fragments of bottles, bags and wrappings. The Mediterranean Sea's biological richness and economic importance means plastic pollution is particularly hazardous, say Spanish researchers....Read Full Story
European, Turkish and Chinese recyclers are set to benefit from strict new EU rules on breaking up old ships, but the practice of dismantling them on beaches in South Asia - at great human and environmental cost - will still be hard to stop. Of 1,026 ocean-going ships r...Read Full Story
Issue 59
, 2015
Beijing is closing its last major coal power station next year in an attempt to tackle air pollution which is costing the economy more than 10% of its GDP.
Bloomberg reported that the state-owned, 845-megawatt power plant will close in 2016. Last week, another two co...Read Full Story
A common pollutant in vehicle exhaust, power plant emissions and cigarette smoke can shrink white matter in fetal brains and cause developmental damage during the toddler years, a new study suggests. In 40 children examined by researchers, prenatal exposure to polycycli...Read Full Story
For the St. Lawrence College Green Team, just call these their Earth Hours.The final day of their e-waste drive Saturday coincides with Earth Hour 2015 (8:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m.), and earlier in the day there'll be plenty of opportunity to show support for the philosophies o...Read Full Story
The latest legal test of President Barack Obama's environmental agenda reaches the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday as the justices consider a challenge to a regulation intended to limit emissions of mercury and other hazardous pollutants mainly from coal-fired power pla...Read Full Story
Analysis of museum specimens shows high mercury levels in the endangered ivory gull. It could have implications for the bird's ability to reproduce and raise chicks, says a Canadian team. Mercury levels are going up in other Arctic birds, fish and mammals, due to atmosp...Read Full Story
Using discarded electronic boards, the University of the Basque Country's (UPV/EHU) researcher Andoni Salbidegoitia has, in collaboration with international researchers, developed a system for obtaining clean hydrogen that can be used as fuel. The researchers have alrea...Read Full Story
Exide Technologies will immediately begin shutting down its embattled battery recycling plant in Vernon after reaching an agreement, which federal officials announced Thursday, that allows the company to avoid facing criminal prosecution for decades of pollution. Under ...Read Full Story
The Government has allocated £600,000 to help develop Britain's first 'plasma facility' which will recover gold, silver and platinum from electronic waste. In the next five years, electronic goods containing £1bn of precious metals will be sold in the UK. That includes...Read Full Story
The European Union has approved new rules that clamps down on the use of flimsy plastic bags that are hazardous for the environment. The 28 member nations on Monday gave final approval to the rules that mean consumers may be obliged to use sturdier, re-usable bags or fa...Read Full Story
Issue 58
, 2015
Hollywood actor, activist and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will attend the annual 'Delhi Sustainable Development Summit' (DSDS) which is organized in the Capital from February 5 to 7 to brainstorm on ways and means to tackle climate change and reduce...Read Full Story
California’s public drinking water systems violated safety levels for contaminants more than 1,000 times during the 2012-2013 fiscal year says a report that cites high levels in some water systems of arsenic, nitrates and other pollutants. The report, ordered by the sta...Read Full Story
Scientists have for the first time quantified the amount of plastic waste being dumped into our oceans. About eight million tons of plastic waste wound up in the world's oceans in 2010 and researchers warn that the cumulative amount could increase more than 10-fold in t...Read Full Story
As many as 31 pesticides with a value running into billions of pounds could have been banned because of potential health risks, if a blocked EU paper on hormone-mimicking chemicals had been acted upon, the Guardian has learned. The science paper, seen by the Guardian, r...Read Full Story
The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday directed the provincial chief secretary to submit a report on the factual position regarding the provision of land for the installation of a plant to treat sewerage water before its disposal into the sea. A two-member bench, comprisin...Read Full Story
Issue 57
, 2015
Maybe you replaced old electronics over the holidays or you’re just sweeping out the old and ushering in the New Year. Either way, you’ll need to do something with your old devices. For everyone’s sake, including Mother Nature’s, try to get rid of your old technology th...Read Full Story
A leak at a nuclear power plant went undetected for weeks, allowing up to 2,000 gallons of oil to flow into Lake Michigan.Staff at the Cook Nuclear Plant in Bridgman, Michigan first began actively looking for the leak December 17 after discovering that the oil level had...Read Full Story
A first of its kind scientific analysis has found a big difference in air pollution across communities in England, with deprived and ethnic minority areas the worst affected.Air pollution levels are linked to many forms of ill health, including higher risk of respirator...Read Full Story
Two garbage incineration plants are being allowed to operate illegally by the government in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, it is alleged, forcing residents to move and sickening many of those left behind. The plants, in the city’s Guodingshan of Hanya...Read Full Story
Pesticide levels that exceeded national safety limits were found in a third of vegetable samples taken from Guangzhou markets in a new study by the environmental group Greenpeace. One sample of cowpeas, at a market in Tianhe district, was found to have levels of the ins...Read Full Story
Scientists have discovered high levels of two potentially hazardous contaminants, ammonium and iodide, in wastewater being discharged or spilled into streams and rivers from oil and gas operations. Levels of contamination were just as high in wastewater coming from conv...Read Full Story
India is likely to get help from Japan to improve the facility at Alang-Sosiya ship recycling yard as the Ship Recycling Industries Association (SRIA) of India on Tuesday agreed to the Japanese condition of adhering to the norms of Hong Kong Convention (HKC), 2009, on t...Read Full Story
Existing surface water resources especially the Baranai River flowing through the northern part of the city is being heavily polluted and contaminated with disposal of wastes and toxic chemicals, scientists and researchers here said. he crop fields surrounding the river...Read Full Story
Issue 56
, 2014
Nations with the biggest greenhouse gas emissions should be doing the most to fight climate change or the efforts of other countries will be cancelled out, Australia's foreign minister Julie Bishop said on Monday. As the United Nations holds climate talks in Peru, Bisho...Read Full Story
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has called on India, the world's third-largest emitter, to spell out its nationally determined commitment on reducing emissions by June, saying a "constructive" role played by it will make a universal climate agreement possible in Paris next year. A...Read Full Story
Opponents of California’s ban on disposal plastic bags say they have gathered enough signatures to force a statewide referendum on the policy. The petition, which was due Monday, could cause the state to delay the ban while voters consider whether to overturn the nation...Read Full Story
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued rules on Friday labeling coal ash, a byproduct of coal-based power production containing toxic materials such as arsenic and lead, as non-hazardous waste. The label means that states, and not the EPA, will be the primary e...Read Full Story
LIMA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Just a few years ago, waste recycler Genaro Jorge Durán Contreras and his colleagues were branded "nut cases" and drug addicts, picked up by police or chased away from their foraging for recyclables....Read Full Story
International negotiators at the Lima climate change talks have agreed on a plan to fight global warming that would for the first time commit all countries to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions....Read Full Story
Issue 55
, 2014
The world will have to completely phase out fossil fuels in electricity generation by the end of this century and reduce their use to 20% by 2050 if disastrous consequences of climate change are to be avoided, the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPC...Read Full Story
Guiyu (China) (AFP) - Mountains of discarded remote controls litter the warehouse floor. In a dimly-lit room, women on plastic stools pry open the devices, as if shucking oysters, to retrieve the circuitry inside. In a narrow alley a few blocks over, a father and son fr...Read Full Story
Australia said on Thursday that it will ban the dumping of dredging waste on most of the Great Barrier Reef as environmentalists called for the government to go further and commit to a total halt. Conservationists say that dumping waste in reef waters will hasten its de...Read Full Story
Setting stringent targets for emission cuts for the world, a UN body wants countries across the globe to collectively cut carbon emission to zero (achieve carbon neutrality) by 2070 and bring down emissions to net zero for all greenhouse gases, including methane, nitrou...Read Full Story
A groundbreaking agreement struck by the United States and China is putting the world's two worst polluters on a faster track to curbing the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming. With the clock ticking on a worldwide climate treaty, the two countries are seekin...Read Full Story
Issue 54
, 2014
Dear EarthTalk: We must really be swimming in electronic waste, what with all the iPhones and other devices that are so common. How is this all being dealt with?
— Mary Shufelt, New Bern, N.C....Read Full Story
Electronic waste is the dirty secret of technology that no one wants to talk about. Ghana is the home to this secret which is having a detrimental effect on its citizens. They are ready to let the cat out of the bag
Globally, an estimated 50 million tons of e-waste is ...Read Full Story
A NEWPORT artist has been working with schoolchildren to create an electronic waste-themed display to be shown at the Riverfront Centre next year.
Marion Webber, who works under her maiden name Marion Cheung, visited Bassaleg School this week to work with Year 10 pupi...Read Full Story
South Korea is coping with increasing amounts of garbage from electronic devices, also called “e-waste.” To prevent tons of old computers, smartphones and appliances from ending up in landfills, leaking toxic chemicals, some local governments are launching specialized e...Read Full Story
Everybody consumes electronic items, so everybody generates electronic waste. Electronic waste — also known as e-waste or the waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) — can be hazardous for the environment if the materials present are not managed appropriatel...Read Full Story
The town of Agbogbloshie in the west African country of Ghana has been called a digital dumping ground. Millions of tons of discarded electronics wind up there annually, so people can try to recover anything of value. It’s therefore one of the most polluted places in th...Read Full Story
Oak Lawn’s electronic waste recycling program has several changes that took effect on Saturday. Jack Lopez, with the public works department, and those who volunteer to assist with the program and the collection site, wants to make sure residents and nearby communities ...Read Full Story
Public Comment On Chemical Waste Management Expansion Begins Today –
The public will have a little longer to voice their opinions about a proposal for a new hazardous waste landfill in Niagara County.
The public comment period for Chemical Waste Management's expansi...Read Full Story
Issue 53
, 2014
Electronic Recyclers International (ERI), the nation’s leading recycler of electronics and e-waste, participated today in a special event at Best Buy headquarters commemorating the retailer’s announcement that it has now recycled one billion pounds of electronic and lar...Read Full Story
According to Rubber Manufacturer’s Association, there are 450 million scrap tires generated annually in the United States (over one per person per year). With an average weight of 22.5 pounds, this represents over 6 billion pounds of predominantly hydrocarbon based mate...Read Full Story
Authorities are testing water from the San Pedro River in southern Arizona that may be contaminated with toxic waste that traveled north after a massive copper mine spill in Mexico this summer.
Mexican officials on Monday issued a binational alert that contaminated wat...Read Full Story
Each month, several hundred containers of e-waste from consuming countries in the West arrive in Agbogbloshie, a former fishing village in Accra, Ghana, which has become one of the world's largest e-waste dumps, causing pollution and irreparable environmental damage....Read Full Story
Dell is stepping up its stewardship of electronic-waste (e-waste) management in Africa, Asia and Latin America through an alliance with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization....Read Full Story
Issue 52
, 2014
Japan's government lobbied hard for a global pact that limits mercury use and to name the resulting treaty after Minamata, the site of a homegrown industrial disaster from the 1950s when the toxic metal poured into a river, poisoning thousands. But a year after the Mina...Read Full Story
The amount of mercury near the surface of many of the world’s oceans has tripled as the result of our polluting activities, a new study has found, with potentially damaging implications for marine life as the result of the accumulation of the toxic metal. Mercury is acc...Read Full Story
Abandoned landfill sites throughout the UK routinely leach polluting chemicals into rivers, say scientists.
At Port Meadow alone, on the outskirts of Oxford, they estimate 27.5 tonnes of ammonium a year find their way from landfill into the River Thames. The researcher...Read Full Story
Unplanned use of pesticides and herbicides in crops is one of the key reasons for presence of higher level of lead in blood among pregnant women in rural Bangladesh, a study revealed.
Experts suggested adapting integrated pest management (IPM) method to reduce use of p...Read Full Story
Kenya ,In an industrial area outside Kenya's capital city, workers in hard hats and white masks take shiny new power drills to computer parts. This assembly line is not assembling, though. It is dismantling some of the estimated 50 million metric tons of hazardous elect...Read Full Story
Caldwell firm MeltPoint Environmental is preparing for the commercial launch of a product founder Chad May says can help make hospitals more sustainable....Read Full Story
Staples Advantage launched a technology recycling service for businesses to recycle old electronics. The first of its kind in the industry, the program, offered in partnership with Electronic Recyclers International, Inc. (ERI) allows businesses of all sizes to recycle ...Read Full Story
The unregulated burning of waste globally is pumping far more pollution into the atmosphere than shown by official records, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado....Read Full Story
Attorney Christopher P. McCormack of law firm Pullman & Comley explains the implications of a major new law enacted in the 2014 session of the Connecticut General Assembly for solid waste management....Read Full Story
Following the deadly Ebola outbreak in Africa, PyroPure’s Peter Selkirk explains why the UK should treat the development of on-site medical waste disposal technology as a priority....Read Full Story
Getting a foothold on the property ladder can be a challenge at the best of times, and the prospects for many of us have been battered further by the global recession....Read Full Story
United States: US president Barack Obama's signing of the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act has been hailed as 'a victory not only for recyclers, but consumers and the environment' by the US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI)....Read Full Story
Across the UK, more than one million tonnes of e-waste is discarded every year. Much of it still contains personal and corporate data. The Stone Group’s Martin Ruston offers guidance on ensuring those assets properly and securely disposed....Read Full Story
Issue 51
, 2014
Today, hazardous waste compliance is no longer just an issue for the industrial or manufacturing industries. It’s become an area of significant concern for retailers as well. When it comes to managing hazardous waste, retailers are in a precarious balance of complexity ...Read Full Story
The European Commission has released a new Legislative Proposal putting forward ambitious recycling targets for 2030. The Proposal is accompanied by a Communication ‘Towards a Circular Economy’ setting out how to establish a common EU framework to promote the move to ze...Read Full Story
The EPA’s definition of waste treatment can be confusing and potentially costly, so it is important that hazardous waste generators be clear as to what activities might be considered as treatment of hazardous waste, according to Pollution Engineering....Read Full Story
There were four fatal injuries to workers in the waste and recycling industry between April 2013 and March 2014, according to figures released by the Health & Safety Executive.
While only provisional, this latest fatality figure is significantly lower than the 10 wor...Read Full Story
Charges of contempt brought by the Environment Agency against Kent RDF firm Waste4Fuel and its current and former directors have been dismissed by the High Court in London.
Details for the decision last Tuesday (July 1) have not yet been provided by the Judge, who ha...Read Full Story
Sustainable and efficient construction is possible if companies set their sights on just a few areas – reducing carbon emissions, managing water usage and waste, using green building materials and being mindful of biodiversity, according to a document released by the Gr...Read Full Story
The U.S. could power 14 million homes and heat a further 10 million if it moved from landfill to waste to energy, according to a new study published by the American Chemistry Council (ACC)....Read Full Story
The UK recycling market is seeing a significant decrease in the volume of cathode ray tubes (CRT) display units entering the waste stream, according to the Electrical Waste Recycling Group, which launched the first automated flat panel display recycling unit in December...Read Full Story
When you replace a PC, tablet, mobile or any kind of electronic device, do you ever wonder what happens to your old equipment?
A new study finds that about 25 percent of all e-waste discarded by developed countries ends up in seven developing nations, posing severe hea...Read Full Story
Despite knowing full well the dangers of mercury, millions of small-scale gold miners across the globe continue to use the metal to separate gold from ore - usually because they have little other choice....Read Full Story
The Bangladesh Paints Manufacturers Association (BPMA) and NGO, the Eco-Social Development Organization (ESDO), want the government to introduce a mandatory 50ppm on lead in paint by 2015, a more stringent requirement than the internationally used 90ppm....Read Full Story
More than 100 tonnes of highly toxic waste will have to remain at Botany after the French government vetoed plans by chemical giant Orica to ship it from Sydney to France for incineration....Read Full Story
The city of Portsmouth has taped off an area around a Union Street house warning people about lead paint chips lying on the ground....Read Full Story
Issue 50
, 2014
As the developing world continues to develop, standards of living and access to technology increases. Unfortunately, as personal computers, laptops and mobile phones become increasingly common so the problem of recycling and disposal of such devices when they become tec...Read Full Story
These days, it is easy to walk into a store and buy the latest television, computer or smart phone. But have you ever wondered what happens to the old ones you throw out?
Well, they get added to the growing mountain of electronic waste or e-waste.
Most of it ends u...Read Full Story
Substantial improvements in freshwater quality by 2015 have been a declared objective of the EU member states, manifesting itself by the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. A recent study shows that this target is unlikely to be met due to the high levels of ...Read Full Story
Nanoparticles are becoming ubiquitous in food packaging, personal care products and are even being added to food directly. But the health and environmental effects of these tiny additives have remained largely unknown. A new study now suggests that nanomaterials in food...Read Full Story
From miles away great plumes of black acrid smoke mark the site of Sodom and Gomorrah, a sprawling dump on the outskirts of the Ghanaian capital Accra. As one edges closer to the world’s fastest-growing e-waste dumping site at Agbogbloshie, it is the smell that hits har...Read Full Story
California has the strictest e-waste laws in the nation, but a KPIX5 investigation discovered the strict laws have led to dumping our electronic junk in someone else’s back yard, causing serious damage.
A mountain in the Arizona desert that’s not on any map was discove...Read Full Story
News reports feed us a steady stream of stories on scary, invisible hazards lurking in our homes, presumably ready strike us down at any second, but how much of it is really cause for alarm? Which hidden dangers are serious and which aren’t? And what should you do to pr...Read Full Story
A successful event promoting a safe school environment that will prevent and reduce childhood lead and mercury exposure was recently held in the Philippines. The event, organized by IPEN Participating Organization EcoWaste Coalition, the European Union and the Philippin...Read Full Story
Issue 49
, 2014
UNESCO on Thursday condemned a decision to allow the dumping of dredge waste in Great Barrier Reef waters and recommended the Australian marine park be considered for inclusion on the World Heritage in Danger list.
The decision in January to allow three million cubi...Read Full Story
Despite active research into the use of biological solutions for recycling, these are still rarely employed in metal recovery chains. But the Finland-based VTT Technical Research Centre now claims to have developed a biological filter made of mushroom mycelium mats whic...Read Full Story
Documents show Natural England believes spraying will not eradicate oak processionary moth and could harm butterflies
Oak processionary moth caterpillars destroy oak trees and can cause sore throats and rashes in humans. Photograph: Christine Tilbury/PA
Woodland will...Read Full Story
A protest in eastern China over a plan to build a waste incinerator turned violent, with state media reporting that at least 10 demonstrators and 29 police officers were injured in clashes. Demonstrators on Saturday overturned 30 vehicles, set two police cars on fire an...Read Full Story
Every day women expose themselves to around 168 different chemicals hidden in products like deodorants, shampoos and cosmetics, which are spread with gay abandon over every inch of skin.
These chemicals don't just stay on our face - the average woman ingests 0.057 mg o...Read Full Story
Human health has always been a priority for everyone, but nowadays environment is also considered as one of the most relevant concerns of the day. In fact it is also concerned, primarily with the health of living beings. Human life and environment are affected by a numb...Read Full Story
There are hidden health dangers lurking in your kitchen—and it’s not the germy sponges or moldy foods. It’s the toxic cookware in your cabinet.
Certain kinds of kitchenware could be discharging toxic fumes and chemicals into your food. Over time these foreign substance...Read Full Story
The International Technology Group factory for e-waste recycling was inaugurated on Monday in the industrial area of 6 October city, the first of its kind in Egypt, according to an official statement from Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT).
Th...Read Full Story
A Criminal investigation has begun into allegations that AltX-listed waste management firm Interwaste imported and illegally dumped more than 100 tonnes a month of hazardous waste from Mozambique and possibly Japan.
The scandal may see Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio...Read Full Story
She bends down and picks up, with her blood- red nails, what looks like a clump of soil. Mariette Liefferink, chief executive of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, taps the edge of her car key against the lump. “Clang, clang, clang.” It sounds like she’s hitt...Read Full Story
Businesses across the country now have access to the world's first guidance document which outlines how to design effective food waste prevention programmes based on proven experiences across the globe. We're delighted to see this Guidance Version 1.0 being published to...Read Full Story
There is a significant increase in electronic waste (e-waste) in Sri Lanka during the past one and half decades due to the increase of the use of hi-tech products, Environment and Renewable Energy Minister Susil Premajayantha said. Addressing the inauguration of the Ele...Read Full Story
Thirteen per cent of household water tests conducted in Toronto over the past six years showed unsafe levels of lead.
Colin McConnell / Toronto Star Order this photo
Mark Haan and his wife Mariela and 10-year-old son Michael live in an East York home with lead water ...Read Full Story
Issue 48
, 2014
Bright yellows, reds, blues and greens coat a day care center's walls, fence, slide and swing. More colorful paints peel from tables inside a kindergarten classroom....Read Full Story
- A report published by World Health Organization on EDCs provides information on activities being carried out in the area of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in Denmark and France, as well as Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United States of America. It presen...Read Full Story
Better links between designers, manufacturers and recyclers are needed to stem the tide of electronic junk...Read Full Story
You think you're doing "everything right" or "eating healthy," but you might be hurting your efforts to get and stay well by not paying attention to the harmful effects of the everyday items you use at home....Read Full Story
DHAKA Bangladesh needs to tighten regulation over its booming ship-breaking industry and bring it in line with international laws and environment standards, says a new study....Read Full Story
TENNESSEE AND PENNSYLVANIA -- The burning of coal at power plants produces a byproduct known as fly ash. Many times the waste isn't properly stored and that can pose serious health concerns....Read Full Story
How one material is addressing a host of issues related to its additives
It’s hard to think of a material that has been criticised more for its use of hazardous substances than PVC. Because of its role as a major consumer of chlorine, the polymer has been a key target ...Read Full Story
A Green Paper released by the Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP) Initiative on 14 Jan. 2014, author Sabaa Kahn explores the distinction between waste and non-waste as defined by the international Basel Convention. The author elaborates on currently disputed aspects of t...Read Full Story
Blacksmith Institute published a study on “Estimation of human health risk from exposure to methylmercury via fish consumption in Ghana”.
Fish advisories have been established by some nations to protect the public from the potentially harmful health effects linked to e...Read Full Story
Issue 47
, 2014
A new investigative report titled ‘A Little Story about the monster in your closet’ (published by Greenpeace) has found a broad range of hazardous chemicals in children’s clothing and footwear across a number of major clothing brands, including fast fashion, sportswear...Read Full Story
A new report on heavy metals in toys from ESDO (Bangladesh) titled “Toxic Toys” finds that 97% of toys tested were significantly above European Union and United States standards for lead, cadmium, bro-mine and chromium. Plastic toys most frequently contained toxic metal...Read Full Story
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has carried out reviews of the neonicotinoid pesticides thiamethoxam, imidacloprid and clothianidin in order to assess the possible risks posed by these systemic insecticides to bees. The use of neonicotinoid insecticides as see...Read Full Story
CISITU, Indonesia — In the remote mountains of West Java, workers like 15-year-old David Mario Chandra are an integral part of Indonesia’s gold industry.A workshop next to his family’s house in Cisitu, in Banten Province, contains machinery that turns gold ore into usab...Read Full Story
In a bid to reduce pollution and protect public health, China has decided to impose harsh punishment on those who will fail to handle the medical waste properly.
Companies or government units that illegally collect, store, transport, and handle medical waste will have ...Read Full Story
MANILA - The group EcoWaste Coalition is urging the Philippine government to ban the use of Bisphenol A (BPA) in producing baby feeding bottles, sippy cups and other food and beverage containers for kids under the age of three....Read Full Story
The e-waste dump Agbogbloshie exemplifies the downside of globalization: It's the bitter end of a supply chain where children, instead of going to school, wander barefoot gathering bits of salvaged metal for pennies....Read Full Story
In the first strong legislative response to the dumping crisis in the southern region of Campania, President Giorgio Napolitano signed an emergency law on Thursday to tackle environmental crimes and the damage produced by the illegal dumping or burning of waste. Under t...Read Full Story
Scientists suspect that, along with genetic factors, toxins and pollutants may increase the risk of developing this debilitating disorder...Read Full Story
A searchable website that allows the public to see which cosmetic products have been reported to contain toxic chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm is now online....Read Full Story
Issue 46
, 2013
Blacksmith Institute and Green Cross Switzerland have published the 2013 report of the world's worst polluted places, titled ‘The Top Ten Toxic Threats: Cleanup, Progress, and Ongoing Challenges’. The report presents a new list of the top ten polluted places and provide...Read Full Story
In an endeavor to provide improved information about the quantitative and qualitative dimensions associated with escalating global the e-waste problem, StEP has come out with a StEP E-Waste World Map which graphically portrays the E waste problem. This first-of-a-kind...Read Full Story
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), together with the International POPs Elimination Network (IPEN), has released a study titled ‘Lead in Decorative Enamel Paints: National paint testing results,' analyzing the lead content of decorative paints from nine countries.
...Read Full Story
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) published a report titled ‘Mercury -Time to act’ a report which directly addresses the governments involved in development of the global treaty on mercury. It presents updates from the UNEP Global Mercury Assessment 2013 in short and ...Read Full Story
The management of healthcare waste requires increased attention and diligence to avoid the substantial disease burden associated with poor practice, including exposure to infectious agents and toxic substances, said experts at a seminar here at the University of Health ...Read Full Story
Malaysia, which generates almost a million tonnes of potentially toxic electronic waste, needs a national policy on its disposal urgently before it can impact the environment.
According to Eric Ku, cofounder and COO of iTrain Malaysia Sdn Bhd, the increased use of po...Read Full Story
Areas known to have a high incidence of fracking with a history of drilling spills have higher levels of endocrine-disrupting chemicals that might harm the hormonal system, a new study revealed.
Why fracking is controversial
Fracking, or hydrolic fracturing, is ...Read Full Story
They are on our person, in our homes and in our workplaces, many of them harbouring heavy metals and toxic materials which are dangerous to people and the environment unless they are properly recycled.Yet the soaring international demand for electric and electronic prod...Read Full Story
Kids’ products with Disney, Marvel, Nickolodeon characters contain chemicals linked to cancer, hormone disruption, and other serious health problems
Oakland, CA – Independent testing commissioned by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) and 15 other organizations...Read Full Story
The e-waste dump Agbogbloshie exemplifies the downside of globalization: It's the bitter end of a supply chain where children, instead of going to school, wander barefoot gathering bits of salvaged metal for pennies.
Black, poisonous smoke darkens the sky above Agbog...Read Full Story
Ingestion of microplastics by lugworms could have impact on ocean ecosystems due to their importance to food chainTiny bits of plastic rubbish ingested by marine worms is significantly harming their health and will have wider impact on ocean ecosystems, scientists have ...Read Full Story
As climate negotiators, experts, and activists assembled in Warsaw, Poland, hoping to lay the groundwork for a global climate agreement in 2015, newly released data revealed continued growth in emissions of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and other major greenhouse gas...Read Full Story
London Mining, a British mineral company, is trying to attract Chinese and other international investors to build a £1.5bn iron ore mine just outside the Arctic Circle in Greenland.
The move comes as BP and Shell join others exploring for oil and gas in the pristine wa...Read Full Story
Issue 45
, 2013
As an issue spanning geo-political, developmental and environmental concerns, e-waste is a recurrent theme in the environmental agenda of countries, the ICT industry media and a strong focus for international organizations. It’s an issue that evokes concerns of exploi...Read Full Story
•50,000 tons of obsolete pesticides litter the African landscape
•Obsolete stockpiles cause cancer, allergies, reproductive disorders, damage to the nervous system and disruption to the immune system
•The Africa Stockpiles Programme removed 3,310 tons of obsolet...Read Full Story
African countries demand tougher laws to end influx of electronic waste amid renewed concerns over toxic components.
African countries have demanded action to stem the import of electronic waste, including old computers and mobile telephones from Europe, where string...Read Full Story
When it comes to paints used on local houses and walls, most people consider its colors, quality and durability of the paint, but aren’t concerned about its negative impact on human health. Many paints contain lead which is a neurotoxin; a poison that acts on the nerv...Read Full Story
Hospitals in the Kingdom pump out 127 tons of biomedical waste annually, local media reported.There is also a 1.13-kg production rate of biomedical waste per bed per day and an average of 0.08 kg produced per visit at medical centers, Abdullah Asiri, director of infecti...Read Full Story
Aug. 25, 2013 — Mercury -- a common industrial toxin -- is carried through the atmosphere before settling on the ocean and entering the marine food web....Read Full Story
The ongoing slaughter of Africa’s elephants is at record levels. The situation has gotten out of hand in many countries, especially those lacking the resources to fight the increase in demand for ivory from the Far East.Poachers lace the discarded elephant carcass wi...Read Full Story
Akash Ali is a 9-year-old laborer who works at a warehouse on Rawalpindi’s College Road. He suffers from asthma, but he seems unaware of the health and environmental hazards attached to his job....Read Full Story
Issue 44
, 2013
Gold, copper, platinum and palladium are all precious metals Australians are throwing away by sending old televisions, telephones and computers overseas....Read Full Story
A new Green Paper titled “E-waste in China: A country report†published by the Solving the E-waste Problem (StEP) Initiative explores and offers key insights into the scale and dynamics of the e-waste problem in China. This report has been developed under the framew...Read Full Story
China: The electronic wastebasket of the world...Read Full Story
New law in Sri Lanka requires reduction in lead content in paints, which is harmful to humans.
The dangers of lead poisoning from paint have been well documented.
But many countries still allow lead-based paint to be manufactured. It is often used in offices and hom...Read Full Story
Plastic shopping bags, a staple of the U.S. retail experience for a half-century, may be going the way of lead paint and other banned products.
Los Angeles, the second most-populous U.S. city, yesterday became the largest American metropolis to curb use of the ubiquito...Read Full Story
Roughly 80 percent of all the packaged foods sold within the United States contain chemicals outlawed in other parts of the world, Britain’s Daily Mail reports....Read Full Story
At least 360 liters of radioactive water have leaked from a desalination unit at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, TEPCO has revealed. Earlier, elevated levels of cancer-causing radioactive isotope were discovered in the plant’s groundwater....Read Full Story
New studies attempt to quantify just how harmful the rampant exposure to lead and other chemicals is in the developing world
Living near a toxic waste site can be a recipe for poor health. And scientists know that the problem adds a level of much-needed detail about ...Read Full Story
Malaysia declared a state of emergency in two parts of the southern state of Johor on Sunday as smoke from land-clearing fires in Indonesia pushed air pollution above the level considered hazardous....Read Full Story
None of the companies operating in Canada's tar sands have met a commitment to clean up the vast and expanding sprawl of toxic wasteponds, an official report has found.
The report, from Alberta's Energy Resources Conservation Board, further challenges the Canadian gove...Read Full Story
Issue 43
, 2013
The document provides a practical and useful assessment of the current state of knowledge of the economic costs of inaction on the sound management of chemicals. It makes available early research findings and the evidence needed to support the argument for enhanced poli...Read Full Story
Rice is known to "bioaccumulate" elements from irrigation water - but the findings surprised rice researchers...Read Full Story
Every year, Americans toss out as much as 4.5 million tons of old mobile phones, laptops, televisions, Xboxes and other electronic gadgets.
Some is recycled; some is repaired and refurbished for reuse; and some is thrown into landfills or incinerators. Almost none of i...Read Full Story
In early 2012 once-in-a-century floods submerged swaths of Great Britain and Ireland, causing some $1.52 billion in damages. Then in June record-high temperatures in Russia sparked wildfires that consumed 74 million acres of pristine Siberian taiga. Months after that, H...Read Full Story
Medical waste from a hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, is being illegally sold off to rubbish collectors and ending up in a range of plastic products....Read Full Story
Parkinson's disease is a brain disorder that is caused by the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that controls for movement and other neurological functions. As a result, people lose control of their motor functions, leading to shakin...Read Full Story
The European Union became a pioneer in tackling climate change by starting the first major cap-and-trade system designed to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by putting a price on them. But analysts are increasingly worried that technical mistakes, Europe’s prolonged re...Read Full Story
TEHRAN (FNA)- Plastic additives known as phthalates are odorless, colorless and just about everywhere: They turn up in flooring, plastic cups, beach balls, plastic wrap, intravenous tubing and -- according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the bodies of ...Read Full Story
The phthalate chemicals used in packaging are banned in some countries and have been blamed for many ailments. So should you ban them from the house?...Read Full Story
Issue 42
, 2013
In a remote region of northern Nigeria the signs of a lead poisoning crisis caused by small-scale gold mining are still visible especially among children, despite a four-year clean-up project...Read Full Story
A fresh suspected leak of radioactive water has been detected at Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, its operator says....Read Full Story
WASHINGTON — Most of the biggest challenges facing the Environmental Protection Agency — climate change, major new regulations on power plant emissions, biofuels production and enforcement of clean air and water laws — were virtually absent from Thursday’s confi...Read Full Story
Spending about 100 hours each month in the air, flight attendants are bombarded with pesticides, radiation, ozone and any illnesses passengers carry on board. Now new research shows that they also fly along with some of the highest levels ever measured for some flame re...Read Full Story
It will rise from trash," says the smiling young man sporting a white safety helmet, as he points to the bustling construction site behind him, near the raging sea....Read Full Story
Hong Kong is blessed with numerous sandy beaches that may rival those of island resorts. Sadly, some of our beaches are polluted with rubbish washed up from the sea or dumped by irresponsible visitors. Recently, a beach accessible to tens of thousands of residents in Di...Read Full Story
A recent study reveals high level of ‘indoor mercury pollution’ in the air inside dental hospitals of the twin cities....Read Full Story
Kathmandu, March 20: Two years ago, Indrajeet Mandan, 49, who worked as a painter, suddenly passed out while painting the walls of a house at Bouddha, Kathmandu. His friends immediately rushed him to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH)....Read Full Story
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is being sued by several environmental groups and beekeepers over the continued use of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. They accuse the EPA of failing to protect pollinators from these products, and are demanding ...Read Full Story
An analysis of imported brands found surprising levels of the metal.
Reporting at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, a group of researchers lead by Tsanangurayi Tongesayi, an associate professor of chemistry at Monmouth University in New Jersey announ...Read Full Story
PARIS — The European Commission will enact a two-year ban on a class of pesticides thought to be harming global bee populations, the European Union’s health commissioner said Monday...Read Full Story
Technology fans across the world could not wait to get their hands on Apple's new iPhone 5 as soon as it was released; even though the new device required a whole new set of chords, and connectors. What many Apple enthusiasts did not think about was the amount of electr...Read Full Story
TENNESSEE AND PENNSYLVANIA -- The burning of coal at power plants produces a byproduct known as fly ash. Many times the waste isn't properly stored and that can pose serious health concerns....Read Full Story
The report provides an overview of the environmental challenges of metals and the potential contribution of recycling to mitigate them. It elaborates on how the complex environmental footprints of metals and inadequate final waste treatment are cause for concern at the...Read Full Story
Reaching for the 2020 Goal
The need for better information and sound management to minimize chemical risks
The report discusses the ongoing challenge of chemicals management, and highlights emerging threats, health and environmental impacts, the risks of chemical mixt...Read Full Story
Issue
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The report presents sources of mercury emissions to air and water. It presents estimates of anthropogenic emissions to air from various sources based on data from 2010 and estimates for releases to aquatic environment...Read Full Story
Even though the Indian government has proposed a law to regulate e-waste trade, destitute children still face hazards picking apart old computers.
THE GIST
- E-waste workers in India suffer from breathing problems, such as asthma and bronchitis.
- Many workers are ch...Read Full Story
The rising level of noise in urban areas may be preventing some species of songbirds from setting up home in developed areas, a study has concluded.
Canadian researchers found that noisy surroundings masked the lower frequencies of bird songs, affecting the way some sp...Read Full Story
As go the elephants, so go the trees. That’s the message of a new study published in the May 2013 issue of Forest Ecology and Management that found more than a dozen elephant-dependent tree species suffered catastrophic population declines in new plant growths after f...Read Full Story
Most of the local paint manufacturers are going to phase out leaded paint by July this year. They demanded to stop the import and sale of lead pigment in Bangladesh.
They were speaking at a roundtable meeting on lead free paint organised by Environment and Social Deve...Read Full Story
On July 12, 2011, a New York City man sat down at a Manhattan restaurant and made what seemed like a healthy dinner choice: grouper.
The man was physically fit and just the day before had gone for a two-mile swim.
But hours after his meal, he could barely walk....Read Full Story
BRUSSELS -- A new report is calling for the European Commission to take tougher action over the use of endocrine disruptors.
The report, headed by Sweden member of parliament Ã…sa Westlund, says that the feared effects of endocrine disruptors are "so serious" that th...Read Full Story
Investigations by The Globe newspaper have uncovered at the 37 Military Hospital near the Flagstaff House in Accra a massive medical waste scandal, the type of which has led to health authorities losing their jobs in other countries, with others serving severe jail term...Read Full Story
Issue
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New plans to protect elephants, rhinos and other species will be discussed at a critical meeting that begins in Bangkok on Sunday.
Delegates will review the convention on the international trade in endangered species (CITES)....Read Full Story
POOR countries have long been a popular destination for the rich world’s toxic trash. In 1987 an Italian importer sparked international outrage by dumping 8,000 leaky barrels in the Nigerian village of Koko. On January 9th Nigeria fined importers $1m for trying to bri...Read Full Story
PUZHAI, China — Chinese investors have anointed it “white gold.†Carvers and collectors prefer the term “organic gemstone.†Smugglers, however, use a gruesomely straightforward name for the recently harvested African elephant tusks that find their way to this ...Read Full Story
Associated Press= SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Homeowners on the hunt for sparkling solar panels are lured by ads filled with images of pristine landscapes and bright sunshine, and words about the technology's benefits for the environment — and the wallet....Read Full Story
An assessment of the state of the science of endocrine disruptors prepared by a group of experts for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and WHO....Read Full Story
Issue 38
, 2013
Bees, the most important pollinators of crops, are in trouble. All over the world, their populations are decreasing and scientists and farmers want to know why. In some cases, such as the widely reported colony collapses in North America in 2006, it is probably down to ...Read Full Story
Electronics recycling company Executive Recycling and two of its top executives have been convicted of multiple federal counts of mail and wire fraud and illegally exporting hazardous material....Read Full Story
More than 140 nations have adopted the first legally-binding international treaty aimed at reducing mercury emissions, UN officials have said.
The UN Environment Programme said the treaty was adopted after all-night negotiations that capped a week of talks in Geneva, S...Read Full Story
POOR countries have long been a popular destination for the rich world’s toxic trash. In 1987 an Italian importer sparked international outrage by dumping 8,000 leaky barrels in the Nigerian village of Koko. On January 9th Nigeria fined importers $1m for trying to bri...Read Full Story
A machine which incinerates hazardous medical waste is set to make the disposal process more environmentally friendly, according to a report on Thursday.
The Cape Argus reports that the Newster medical waste steriliser, which is imported by a Cape Town company, groun...Read Full Story
KATHMANDU, Jan 26: More than three-fourths of the hospitals in the country do not practice safe disposal of health-care waste, states a report issued on Friday.
According to a report published here by the NGO Center for Public Health and Environmental Developmental (...Read Full Story
Earth's conventional food and water supply is quickly becoming its own huge "cancer." Persistent organic pollutants, POPs for short, are "brewing and breeding" the ultimate destruction of organic life on planet earth, as they bio-accumulate in the environment AND in hum...Read Full Story
Issue 39
, 2013
Electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) is currently the largest growing waste stream. It is hazardous, complex and expensive to treat in an environmentally sound manner, and there is a general lack of legislation or enforcement surrounding it....Read Full Story
At first it seemed preposterous. The hypothesis was so exotic that I laughed. The rise and fall of violent crime during the second half of the 20th century and first years of the 21st were caused, it proposed, not by changes in policing or imprisonment, single parenthoo...Read Full Story
The amount of fresh water consumed for world energy production is on track to double within the next 25 years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects.
And even though fracking—high-pressure hydraulic fracturing of underground rock formations for natural gas...Read Full Story
Man-made chemicals in everyday products are likely to be at least the partial cause of a global surge in birth deformities, hormonal cancers and psychiatric diseases, a U.N.-sponsored research team reported on Tuesday.
These substances, dubbed EDCs, could also be lin...Read Full Story
Issue 38
, 2012
UNITED NATIONS: India's 1600-km long Western Ghats mountain chain, which has forests older than the Himalaya mountains, has been added to list of world heritage sites by the United Nations....Read Full Story
Rising above Ghazipur, a scruffy suburb in the east of Delhi, sit two gigantic structures. One is a monstrous heap of the city's rubbish that towers over nearby apartment blocks. The second is a new wasteprocessing plant, where the first trials are billed to start next ...Read Full Story
A proposal to declare a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic Ocean has been defeated at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) annual meeting.Latin American countries argued that declaring a sanctuary would help whale conservation and whale-watching....Read Full Story
A RECENT study questioned the use of some everyday chemicals. So should we be worried? Fiona Baker presents both sides of the debate.
Yet another report has linked some everyday chemicals with increases in cancers, diabetes, obesity, falling male fertility and a numb...Read Full Story
Children whose mothers were exposed to a common household chemical while pregnant were found to have an increased risk of developing eczema.
The chemical – called butylbenzyl phthalate (BBzP) – is typically used in vinyl flooring, artificial leather and other hou...Read Full Story
Issue 37
, 2012
PARIS: France said it plans to ban a pesticide made by Swiss group Syngenta, which is used to treat rapeseed, after scientists suggested it could pose a danger to bees....Read Full Story
Little has been done to protect marine life since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, conservation scientists conclude.On pledges to protect key habitat and restrict the size of fishing fleets, they say progress has been "pitiful"....Read Full Story
Diesel fumes cause lung cancer, the Organization declared Tuesday, and experts said they were more carcinogenic than secondhand cigarette smoke....Read Full Story
Predator plants may cut back on flies if they can access key nutrients elsewhere, according to research....Read Full Story
SYDNEY — Australia plans to create the world’s largest network of marine reserves, encompassing a 3.1 million square kilometer patchwork of coastal waters, the government announced Thursday. The move is aimed at balancing protection for the country’s delicate reef...Read Full Story
Climate conference's chief negotiator says notions of developing v developed world, or a north-south divide, are outdated....Read Full Story
A new report by World Bank titled ‘What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management’ estimates that today these amounts have increased to about 3 billion residents generating 1.2 kg per person per day (1.3 billion tonnes per year). By 2025 this will likely in...Read Full Story
Issue 36
, 2012
Scientists are observing with increasing alarm that some very common hormone-mimicking chemicals can have grotesque effects....Read Full Story
Chemicals found in household products may be contributing to rising incidence of cancer, reduced fertility and obesity, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has warned.
EEA warned that phthalates, found in pesticides bisphenol A and other polychlorinated biphenyls (PC...Read Full Story
NEW DELHI: Six countries, including Russia and China, have sought India's help to replicate Project Tiger, one of the most successful conservation programmes running in the country to protect the big cats from extinction....Read Full Story
Issue 35
, 2012
Rising demand for rare earth minerals could outstrip demand, according to new research from scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....Read Full Story
CEA, Environmental Defense Fund, CRT glass, unwanted CRT monitors, Consumer Electronics Association, Environmental Defense Fund, crowd-sourced initiative, solutions for obsolete items...Read Full Story
In response to unstable supplies, the government of Japan is drafting a bill aimed at increasing recycling of rare earth metals....Read Full Story
Fog blankets the coast of central California each summer, hydrating the region’s majestic redwood trees and chilling beachgoers. New research out of the University of California, Santa Cruz shows that the moist air also carries methylmercury, an especially toxic form ...Read Full Story
Small doses can have big health effects. That is a main finding of a new report, three years in the making, published Wednesday by a team of 12 scientists who study hormone-altering chemicals. Dozens of substances that can mimic or block hormones are found in the enviro...Read Full Story
Women in at least seven states may have been unwittingly slathering poison on their faces by using mercury-tainted cosmetics, the Food and Drug Administration warned Tuesday....Read Full Story
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, - Bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana now are showing signs of severe ill health after coming in contact with oily waters from the BP oil spill nearly two years ago, warn NOAA marine mammal biologists and their local, state and federa...Read Full Story
CAMERON, Ariz. — In the summer of 2010, a Navajo cattle rancher named Larry Gordy stumbled upon an abandoned uranium mine in the middle of his grazing land and figured he had better call in the feds. Engineers from the Environmental Protection Agency arrived a few mon...Read Full Story
Issue 34
, 2012
Over the last decade, the technological development has revolutionized the world. Electrical and electronic products have become ubiquitous in modern day life. The technological boom has, however, brought with it a new problem – the problem of e-waste that barely exis...Read Full Story
The 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, an annual event that showcases the latest gadgets, concluded last week in Las Vegas and while the show did highlight green innovations in electronics, the issue of electronics recycling was more barely mentioned....Read Full Story
Shanghai: Environmental accidents are on the rise in China, mainly due to chemicals industry-related traffic and industrial mishaps, and the costs of such damage to the economy are rising....Read Full Story
After nearly of year of negotiations, the European Union now has a new directive governing the management of waste electrical and electronic equipment....Read Full Story
Issue 33
, 2011
Do Indian paint companies continue to produce and market their toxics leaded paints to the neighboring countries, even as they phase it out in India? This latest report by Toxics Link shows exactly this. Its a collaborative effort by Toxics Link, India, CEPHED, Nepal an...Read Full Story
Issue 32
, 2011
 This report estimated the usage of Mercury (Hg) containing thermometers and sphygmomanometer in urban (government and private) and rural healthcare (community Health Centre, Primary Health Centre and Sub-centre) settings in India taking into account the “Indian Public H...Read Full Story
 E-Waste collection, transportation, processing and recycling is dominated by the informal sector. In addition, there are serious issues regarding leakages of toxins into the environment and workers' safety and health. This book talks about the issues on E-waste manageme...Read Full Story
Issue 31
, 2011
Global warming may be making pesticide residues, heavy metals and household chemicals more dangerous to fish, wildlife and, ultimately, humans, scientists warn....Read Full Story
You hear a lot about politicians trying to spin a story, but it is not just our political leaders who are adept at the dark arts spin - journalists are pretty good at it too....Read Full Story
London began spraying its roads with a dust suppressant on Friday to tackle its high air pollution levels....Read Full Story
A simple reactor that mimics plants by turning sunlight into fuel has been demonstrated in the laboratory, boosting hopes for a large-scale renewable source of liquid fuel....Read Full Story
Issue 30
, 2010
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has now approved the first crop genetically modified for increased consumer appeal, promising to spark a new battle between biotech rivals DuPont and Monsanto over control of the genetically modified (GM) soybean market....Read Full Story
Framed by banana and eucalyptus trees, the caramel-colored Mekong River rolls through this lush corner of Yunnan Province in southwestern China with an unerring rhythm that is reassuring in its seeming timelessness....Read Full Story
International efforts to protect the ozone layer—the shield that protects life on Earth from harmful levels of ultraviolet rays-are a success and have stopped additional ozone losses...Read Full Story
Brazil will auction large swaths of the Amazon forest to be managed by private timber companies and cooperatives to help reduce demand for illegal logging, a top official told Reuters on Monday....Read Full Story
A former U.N. special envoy on climate change said he doesn't expect any major progress by key nations to draw up a new climate pact at a meeting next month in Mexico because opinions are still too divided....Read Full Story
The Yemen Ministry of Oil and Minerals signed MOU with Kuwait Energy Company, one of the fastest growing independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in the Middle East...Read Full Story
Issue 29
, 2010
 Each year, thousands of acres of crops are planted throughout Africa, Asia and Australia only to be laid to waste by a parasitic plant called Striga, also known as witchweed....Read Full Story
 Critiques industry’s reported reticence in sharing its profits with project-affected people....Read Full Story
 An Oregon State University research program has returned to Collier Glacier for the first time in almost 20 years and found that the glacier has decreased more than 20 percent from its size in the late 1980s....Read Full Story
 One mention of E. coli conjures images of sickness and food poisoning, but the malevolent bacteria may also be the key to the future of renewable energy....Read Full Story
Issue 28
, 2010
China, the biggest smelter of copper, may shut plants that violate environmental rules, as the government tightens regulations after a series of industrial accidents led to waste spilling into rivers and seas....Read Full Story
India's steel ministry said it expects South Korean steelmaker POSCO's proposed plant in the eastern state of Orissa to receive environmental clearance within a month, even though land acquisitions for the project have been halted after objections from the federal envir...Read Full Story
More than four million Pakistanis have been made homeless by nearly three weeks of floods, the United Nations said, making the critical task of securing greater amounts of aid more urgent....Read Full Story
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed on Wednesday that Moscow and Dushanbe work to improve joint responses to natural disasters, such as the wildfires in Russia and January's quakes in Tajikistan....Read Full Story
Issue 27
, 2010
 Colombia's gold bonanza has a dark side, U.N. experts said on Tuesday: mercury poisoning spreading from miners to the population of a northwest state where they use mercury to extract the precious metal, U.N. experts said on Tuesday....Read Full Story
 A five-million USD project to clean up hotspots of dioxin contamination in Vietnam was signed in Hanoi on June 28 by representatives from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)....Read Full Story
 The USA and Poland have signed a joint declaration for cooperation in the field of nuclear energy. The signing of the agreement followed a US nuclear trade mission to Warsaw....Read Full Story
 The world relies on a range of services nature provides -- water filtration by forests, pollination by bees and a supply of wild plant genes for new food crops or medicines....Read Full Story
Issue 26
, 2010
 While the Deepwater Horizon oil gusher continues to mire the Gulf of Mexico, another threat could be growing below the oil slicked surface. This is the "Dead Zone". Currently the most well known dead zone is about 8,500 square miles in size and lies in the Gulf of Mexic...Read Full Story
 United Parcel Service this week is rolling out 200 new hybrid gas-electric delivery trucks in eight U.S. cities. Over the course of a year, the 200 new hybrid trucks are expected to reduce fuel consumption by roughly 176,000 gallons and cutting CO2 gases by nearly 1,800...Read Full Story
 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking action to end all uses of the insecticide endosulfan in the United States. Endosulfan, which is used on vegetables, fruits, and cotton, can pose unacceptable neurological and reproductive risks to farm workers and...Read Full Story
 With all the hoopla going around for and against wind farms going up all over the US, including here on the Great Lakes and off of Nantucket Sound, many experts feel it is important to weigh in with a little fact checking on "not-in-my-backyard" (NIMBY) claims....Read Full Story
 India’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rose by 58 per cent between 1994 and 2007 with the energy sector contributing over half of the emissions, a new government report said. India’s emissions are up from 1.2 billion tons in 1994 to 1.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide eq...Read Full Story
Issue 25
, 2010
 Cape Wind, the first offshore wind farm in the US to win regulatory approval, has found a buyer for half of the electricity it will generate, when completed.
Investor-owned energy company National Grid announced a power purchase agreement with Cape Wind Associates, t...Read Full Story
 The relationship between vegetation and environment can be initially random then, over time, environmental effects such as moisture and soil conditions began to play more of a role. Such "deterministic" processes, as opposed to happenstance, are just now being observed ...Read Full Story
 There is a body of evidence linking general environmental exposures to cancer. A report was released today by the President's Cancer Panel which finds that the true burden of environmentally induced cancer is underestimated. The Panel's report, "Reducing Environmental C...Read Full Story
 Back in the 1920s and 1930s, the Barents Sea was teeming with cod. That was before its waters substantially cooled off in the decades to follow. Now, with ocean temperatures higher once again, fishermen are seeing more fish....Read Full Story
One of the world's biggest oil-trading companies is facing a record legal bill of more than £100m over the dumping of toxic waste in Ivory Coast....Read Full Story
Issue 24
, 2010
 Coffee starts the days of many people. With some stomach irritation can prevent proper enjoyment of the brew. Scientists have reported recently the discovery of several substances that may be among the culprits responsible for brewing up heartburn and stomach pain in ev...Read Full Story
 The world's first zero-carbon city is being built in Abu Dhabi and is designed to be not only free of cars and skyscrapers but also powered by the sun.
The oil-rich United Arab Emirates is the last place you would expect to learn lessons on low-carbon living, but the...Read Full Story
 Aquaculture industry urged to look at location and management techniques to reduce the environmental impact of rapidly expanding sector
Bigger fish farms do not necessarily have a greater impact on their surrounding marine ecosystems, according to an analysis of Scot...Read Full Story
 Increasing access to energy is critical to ensuring socioeconomic development in the world's poorest countries.
An estimated 1.5 billion people in developing countries have no access to electricity, with more than 80 per cent of these living in sub-Saharan Africa or ...Read Full Story
 The story of how a group of dissatisfied residents pulled together, got funding, and created a blooming community garden where the work, and the rewards, are shared.
Not far from the 2012 Olympic Village in Stratford, another local regeneration project, albeit on a ...Read Full Story
 Prakasam, Andhra Pradesh (Women's Feature Service) - Common salt, an essential part of everyone's daily health requirement, causes uncommonly harsh travails for those who manufacture it....Read Full Story
 Ten students from the Chingari centre have now joined regular school with special permission to sit for examinations separately and the most recent piece of good news is that two of the children have been selected to participate in the Special Olympics Bharat....Read Full Story
Issue 23
, 2010
 Plague has been identified as a disease of concern to human, wildlife and domestic animal populations within the United States. When one thinks of plague one thinks of the Black Plague in Europe in the Dark Ages that was spread by rodents. However, plague also affects w...Read Full Story
 Whether life exists elsewhere in our universe is a long standing mystery. But for some scientists, there’s another interesting question: could there be life in a universe significantly different from our own?Recently physicists at MIT have shown that in theory, alternat...Read Full Story
 Malaria researchers in Benin say they may have found a replacement for DDT in areas where mosquitoes are resistant to common insecticides.Indoor residual spraying (IRS) of insecticides is a major part of malaria control. But worries over toxicity and environmental persi...Read Full Story
 An iceberg the size of Luxembourg has broken off from a glacier in Antarctica after being rammed by another giant iceberg, scientists said on Friday, in an event that could affect ocean circulation patterns.The 2,500 sq km (965 sq mile) iceberg broke off earlier this mo...Read Full Story
 In April 2008, EPA promulgated regulations governing renovations in target housing (i.e., any housing constructed prior to 1978) and child-occupied facilities. The rule was designed to ensure that owners and occupants of target housing and child-occupied facilities rece...Read Full Story
 Scientists have genetically engineered a mosquito to release a sea-cucumber protein into its gut which impairs the development of malaria parasites, according to research out today (21 December) in PLoS Pathogens. Researchers say this development is a step towards devel...Read Full Story
 Why are some wells contaminated and some are not?
All wells are not equally vulnerable to contamination because of differences in three factors: the general aquifer chemistry, groundwater age, and paths within aquifer systems that allow water and contaminants to reac...Read Full Story
Issue 22
, 2010
 President Barack Obama urged world leaders to break the deadlock at climate change talks in Copenhagen, although many nations accused the United States of lacking ambition.In a move that could boost Obama's position when world leaders join the U.N. talks next week, thre...Read Full Story
 The poster child for sustainable fish farming—the tilapia—is actually a problematic invasive species for the native fish of the islands of Fiji, according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups.Scientists suspect that tilapia introduced to ...Read Full Story
 A key deadline for countries to submit emission reduction goals to the United Nations as part of the recently negotiated Copenhagen Accord passed last Sunday. The U.N. received commitments from 55 nations, but 139 countries remain unsupportive of the political statement...Read Full Story
 A Malthusian catastrophe was originally foreseen to be a forced return to subsistence level conditions once population growth had outpaced agricultural production. The catastrophe is that in doing so many people will starve....Read Full Story
 Republican politicians and conservative activists are launching a ballot campaign to suspend California's landmark global-warming law, in what they hope will serve as a showcase for a national backlash against climate regulations.
Supporters say they have "solid comm...Read Full Story
 How different species can evolve the same colors and pattern has always puzzled biologists. Now, scientists at Cambridge University have found "hot spots" in the butterflies’ genes that might one of the most extraordinary examples of mimicry in the natural world. A gene...Read Full Story
 Wind and solar technology made up over half of Europe’s new electricity generating capacity in 2009, as the number of new coal and nuclear facilities fell....Read Full Story
 U.S. farmers grew record-large corn and soy crops in 2009 but production in 2010 could be even bigger, aided by an El Nino weather pattern that is typically a boon to the Midwest but less so for growers in Australia and southeast Asia, a forecaster said on Thursday....Read Full Story
Issue 21
, 2010
 Brazil's President introduced national legislation that will guide efforts to reduce projected emissions by 36.1 to 38.9 percent by 2020. This legislation comes on the heels of the COP-15 climate change conference held in Copenhagen earlier this month, and demonstrates ...Read Full Story
 Considering it is unlikely that global carbon emissions will start dropping anytime soon, researchers are beginning to look at other methods to combat climate change. One of these is to hook polluting power plants up to massive carbon sinks where instead of the carbon g...Read Full Story
 Outdone by an tower extending over 800 meters in Dubai, the world's former tallest building, Taipei 101, wants to become the highest green structure by completing a checklist of clean energy standards....Read Full Story
 Earth's various ecosystems, with all their plants and animals, will need to shift about a quarter-mile per year on average to keep pace with global climate change.How well particular species can survive rising worldwide temperatures attributed to excess levels of heat-t...Read Full Story
 Sea water under an East Antarctic ice shelf showed no sign of higher temperatures despite fears of a thaw linked to global warming that could bring higher world ocean levels, first tests showed on Monday.
Sensors lowered through three holes drilled in the Fimbul Ice ...Read Full Story
 The US Geological Survey reports that earthquake related deaths numbered 1783 worldwide, a big decrease from 2008 when more than 88,000 died, with more than 87,000 of the deaths occurring in the Eastern Sichuan, China earthquake in May 2008.
In 2009, the worst earthq...Read Full Story
 Bangladesh relies heavily on groundwater for the irrigation of dry-season rice. However, the groundwater used for irrigation often contains high concentrations of arsenic, potentially jeopardizing the future of rice production in the country. In seasonally flooded field...Read Full Story
 In every US climate policy negotiation thus far, a major sticking point has been the issue of economic competitiveness. If the US independently imposes a price on carbon — through a cap-and-trade system or a carbon tax, for example — domestic industries automatically fa...Read Full Story
 In an editorial published in the December's issue of E-Scrap News, authored by Good Point Recycling and American Retroworks owner and CEO, Robin Ingenthron, called the Basal Action Network (BAN) "false and damaging to our integrity." In his Talking Points piece, Ingent...Read Full Story
 Global PC shipments were up 2.3 percent in the third quarter of 2009 ,after three consecutive quarters of losses. The findings are outlined in the latest report from IDC, and attribute the rise to a strengthening consumer market and back-to-school shopping. Notebooks an...Read Full Story
 As part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s commitment to strengthen and reform chemical management, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a series of actions on four chemicals raising serious health or environmental concerns, including phthalates....Read Full Story
 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week issued new regulations to manage the shipping of hazardous waste between the U.S. and the other 29 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations. The newly-issued final rule "aligns EPA's hazardou...Read Full Story
Issue 20
, 2009
 The survey by Clean Air Watch volunteers is the first comprehensive snapshot of smog in the United States in 2009. It found that the national health standard for smog, technically ozone, was breached more than 2,600 times through August 31 at monitoring stations in 37 s...Read Full Story
 State and Federal agencies have begun poisoning a nearly 6-mile stretch of the Chicago
Sanitary Ship Canal to kill off invasive Asian carp while maintenance is performed on an electrical barrier intended to keep the fish out of Lake Michigan. The Lake’s ecosystem is al...Read Full Story
 Industrial carbon dioxide emissions have increased dramatically since the 1950s, and oceans have until recently been able to absorb the greater amounts of emissions. Sometime after 2000, however, the rise in emissions and the oceans' carbon uptake decoupled. Oceans cont...Read Full Story
according to the U.S. EPA and researchers from Baylor University, fish all over the country are literally stuffed to the gills with medicine. The findings are part of a pilot study testing for pharmaceuticals and personal care products in our nation’s waterways. The res...Read Full Story
 The British Met Office plans to re-examine 160 years of temperature data after admitting that public confidence in the science on man-made global warming has been shattered by leaked e-mails.
The new analysis of the data will take three years, meaning that the Met Of...Read Full Story
 Proximity to a wind power project does not generally hurt property values, according to a new report that seeks to settle a long-standing concern with the technology.
The study, released yesterday by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, assessed nearly 7,500 single...Read Full Story
 Popular thinking about how to improve food systems for the better often misses the point, according to the results of a three-year global study of salmon production systems. Rather than pushing for organic or land-based production, or worrying about simple metrics such ...Read Full Story
 Companies need to move towards using greener chemicals because the principal drivers demanding such change -- science, regulation, and business-to-business environmentally preferable purchasing programs -- are surging and will intensify....Read Full Story
 Las Vegas has far from a clean reputation, but in Forbes' list of America's Most Toxic Cities, Las Vegas is named the least toxic of 40 major metropolitan areas.Forbes ranked the cities based on the number of Superfund sites in the principal city, number of facilities t...Read Full Story
Toxics Link organised International Conference on Heavy Metals and E-waste on October 26 and 27 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. A detailed report by Toxics Alert....Read Full Story
Issue 19
, 2009
 Fewer U.S. citizens consider climate change to be a "serious threat" compared to two years ago, even as scientific evidence demonstrates that the problem has become increasingly severe, according to a recent nationwide public opinion poll....Read Full Story
 NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
is introducing a new Web site that will provide a centralized resource for information on these near-Earth objects - those asteroids and comets that can approach Earth. The "Asteroid Watch" site also contains links for the interested pu...Read Full Story
 Europe attempted to reassert its international leadership in the fight against global warming offering to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 95% by 2050 and by 30% by 2020 if a climate change pact is sealed in Copenhagen in six weeks' time....Read Full Story
 Old, "multiyear" ice -- the glue that holds the polar ice cap together and forms the Arctic's defense against encroaching warming -- is slowly disintegrating, a process that is plain to see from the air....Read Full Story
 Since rivers and ponds in Bangladesh were contaminated with bacteria, Bangladeshis switched to wells. But soon after, in the early ‘80s, researchers realized those wells were harming Bangladeshis with a new poison—arsenic....Read Full Story
 For several years now scientists and conservation groups have called on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to reduce the amount of catch it allows its 48 member nations to net each year and thereby allow bluefin populations to re...Read Full Story
 The illicit trade in ivory, which has been increasing in volume since 2004, moved sharply upward in 2009, according to the latest analysis of seizure data in the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS)....Read Full Story
 On November 11, former Vice President Al Gore delivered a keynote speech to builders, architects, contractors and other professionals involved in the green building industry at Chase Field in Phoenix. The speech marked the kick off of the US Green Building Council’s (US...Read Full Story
Issue 18
, 2009
 Earlier this year, the National Park Service announced a controversial plan to ban lead ammunition and fishing tackle in the parks....Read Full Story
 One can drive across the country on algae--and a 700-pound battery pack--or so proved the crew behind the documentary Fuel Embarking on September 8 and pulling into New York City today, just in time for the film's premiere, the Algaeus covered 3,750 miles.
The algae ca...Read Full Story
 Latest on the list of extinction are the frogs. A report published in ENN states that unusual varieties of frogs are rapidly disappearing from rainforests in Central America....Read Full Story
 Driving in a relatively fuel efficient car (25-30 miles per gallon) usually generates fewer greenhouse gas emissions than flying....Read Full Story
 Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words, particularly when the picture is used to illustrate science....Read Full Story
 Converting the rubbish that fills the world’s landfills into biofuel may be the answer to both the growing energy crisis and to tackling carbon emissions...Read Full Story
 The researchers analyzed data from dozens of studies to determine how planting new biofuel crops can influence the carbon content of the soil....Read Full Story
 The conference at Oxford University is the first to consider the global consequences of climate change beyond 2 degrees Celsius, and is jointly sponsored by University’s Environmental Change Institute, the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the Met Office Ha...Read Full Story
Experts from the Met Office, the University of Exeter and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, have found that projections of increasing ozone near the Earth's surface could lead to significant reductions in regional plant production and crop yields....Read Full Story
Issue 17
, 2009
 People want to save the planet but are unwilling to make radical lifestyle changes like giving up air travel or red meat to reduce the effects of climate change, a straw poll by Reuters showed....Read Full Story
 After Hurricane Katrina flattened New Orleans exactly four years ago, on Aug. 29, 2005, the city emerged as an inadvertent symbol of global warming, the first American victim of climate change. More than 200,000 homes were destroyed during the Category 5 hurricane.But s...Read Full Story
 Fifty-five million years ago, the world was a much warmer place. The poles were ice-free year-round. Palm trees grew in Alaska....Read Full Story
Earth's oceans are vast reservoirs of carbon dioxide (CO2) with the potential to control the pace of global warming....Read Full Story
 Interestingly, the Arctic had been cooling for nearly two millennia before reversing course in the last century due to increase greenhouse gases to the earth's atmosphere....Read Full Story
Just a few hundred years ago, the world's rivers and lakes were full of fish. In fact freshwater fish were so plentiful that they were used to feed farm animals regularly.But the new study suggests that freshwater species have declined despite efforts at marine conserva...Read Full Story
 A recent study shows that golf courses can play an important role for conservation in cities and other impacted areas, but that doesn't mean courses harbor as much wildlife as natural settings....Read Full Story
 Illegal on-line sales of endangered species have raised serious concerns amongst the species preservation lobbies , agencies and civil societies worldwide....Read Full Story
Issue 16
, 2009
The United States and China have agreed to a research partnership on energy efficient buildings and communities....Read Full Story
Aluminum as a substitute for glass bottles has been inching its way into the consumer experience in the last few years, most notably in the US in the form of beer bottles...Read Full Story
Chinese demand for the pangolin, a scale-covered anteater, is forcing the endangered animals closer to extinction, wildlife organizations announced this week....Read Full Story
The world will remain heavily dependent on fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal for the rest of this century...Read Full Story
According to an essay published in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs, reducing emissions of black carbon soot and ground-level ozone would quickly make a considerable dent in the climate change problem and would also contribute to public health and protect ...Read Full Story
Issue 15
, 2009
 According to a team of Swedish and German scientists, the challenge of meeting future water needs, under the impact of climate change and rapidly growing human demands for water, may be less bleak than widely portrayed....Read Full Story
 China has recently allocated 23 billion yuan for energy-saving, anti-pollution, ecological, and environment protection projects....Read Full Story
 Three Iowa State researchers contributed their expertise in modeling North America's climate to a study to be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres....Read Full Story
 The ability of plants to tell the time, a mechanism common to all living beings, enables them to survive, grow and reproduce. An international team has studied this circadian clock from a molecular viewpoint and has found an ecological implication: it makes climate chan...Read Full Story
 The rain band near the equator that determines the supply of freshwater to nearly a billion people throughout the tropics and subtropics has been creeping north for more than 300 years, probably because of a warmer world, according to research published in the July issu...Read Full Story
 New research, which reconstructs the extent of ice in the sea between Greenland and Svalbard from the 13th century to the present indicates that there has never been so little sea ice as there is now....Read Full Story
A new edition of "North American Agroforestry: An Integrated Science and Practice," published by the American Society of Agronomy adds to the excitement and builds upon the science. Agroforestry can create greater economic value, enhance biodiversity, and improve soil, ...Read Full Story
 U.S.can no longer afford the dangers that their dependence on petroleum poses for their national , economic or environmental security. So alternate sources are to be tapped. Biofuel seems to be that light at the end of the proverbial tunnel....Read Full Story
Issue 14
, 2009
Innovative ideas abound the Green Green world and economy, it seems.
To start with Jet fuels derived from algae, camelina and jatropha -- plants that pack an energy punch, are not eaten as food and do not displace food crops -- could be approved and replacing petrole...Read Full Story
Green-collar workers from energy-efficiency consultants to wastewater plant operators constitute a tiny but fast-growing segment of the U.S. economy, according to a study published today by the Pew Charitable Trusts....Read Full Story
It took only 40 years for the Caribbean's spectacular branched corals to be flattened. Research reveals that the corals have been replaced by shorter rival species — and points to climate change as at least partly to blame, as per reports on ENN...Read Full Story
According to Nigeria's Minister of Environment, Mr. John Odey, as published in a recent report,his country loses over 350,000 hectares of land every year to deforestation and other impacts of climate change.The nation's natural forests had decreased from 25.7% to 16%, a...Read Full Story
Human rights can be a "compass" to guide research and policy development for climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, according to a report.The International Council on Human Rights Policy (ICHRP) says climate change will threaten — directly or indirectly — ...Read Full Story
Minorities and indigenous people frequently bear the brunt of the ravages of climate change but also often come last on the aid list because they are on the margins of society....Read Full Story
A Purdue University study shows that introducing a new hybrid of the American chestnut tree would reduce the amount of carbon in the Earth's atmosphere....Read Full Story
Hollywood star Julia Roberts immortalised her in a film that was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Writing in a Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen ,finally ...Read Full Story
Issue 13
, 2009
We all know thatas a process carbon neutral involves “calculating your total climate-damaging carbon emissions, reducing them where possible, and then balancing your remaining emissions, often by purchasing a carbon offset.”However, carbon neutrality , it seems, has bee...Read Full Story
Vauban ,a town in Germany,is on its way to become the poster child for the so-called smart planning movement, which is really just about planning new living communities that look a lot like old living communities. In a report published in ENN, smart planning entails all...Read Full Story
Experts from the state-run Energy Research Institute told the China Daily the nation's emissions of carbon dioxide could reach 5.5 billion tonnes in 2010 and 8.8 billion tonnes in 2035....Read Full Story
Issue 12
, 2009
It was close to midnight and I wasn’t being able to sleep. See, I’ve had this irritating allergy for about seven years now. My eyes swell up and get all puffy and raw, and the skin around the eyes itches in a strange way from the inside. A helpful and well-meaning skin ...Read Full Story
The largest single use of ethanol is as a motor fuel and fuel additive. The largest national fuel ethanol industries exist in Brazil (gasoline sold in Brazil contains at least 25% ethanol and anhydrous ethanol is also used as fuel in more than 90% of new cars sold in th...Read Full Story
In this edition's People and Places we pay tribute to Gerald ('Gerry') Malcolm Durrell, OBE (January 7, 1925 – January 30, 1995)....Read Full Story
In the 21st century the main threat is failing states.Failing states are of international concern because they are a source of terrorists, drugs, weapons and refugees, threatening political stability everywhere....Read Full Story
A recent report published in ENN states that although Earth is intrinsically a flammable planet due to its cover of carbon-rich vegetation, seasonally dry climates, atmospheric oxygen, widespread lightning and volcano ignitions, the global scope of fire has been reveale...Read Full Story
Could the emergence of spring provide clues to climate change? Some researchers think so .In a project aptly named Project BudBurst they try to find out the nature and the degree of this impact....Read Full Story
Issue 11
, 2009
 14-year-old Julekha is very hard working and diligent. She comes from Bangladesh and has a family of 8 siblings and adoring parents. She loves to paint and likes bright colours. Like any other child of her age she loves to dress up and wear pretty trinkets! Her charm is...Read Full Story
 Do you know scientists and environmentalists often turn themselves into Sherlock Holmes?
Why?
Well ,the reason , to borrow words from the great detective, is really very elementary...Read Full Story
 Having a good memory would not only help you remember all your algebra formulae well. If new studies published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science are to be believed it is sharp long-term memory that aids migratory birds to return to the same wintering...Read Full Story
 Majority of food waste generated throughout the world ends up in landfill. Food waste decomposing there generates methane.For developed countries this is estimated to be 25 % to 40 %. In USA it is almost 50 %....Read Full Story
 Biogas or renewable natural gas is the name given to the mixture of methane and carbon dioxide gases that is formed whenever organic materials decompose in the absence of air, a process known as anaerobic digestion.When this happens in nature the gases escape into atmos...Read Full Story
 Holi which marks the harvest of Rabi cropand the arrival of springwas traditionally celebrated using natural coloured extracts from seasonal herbs. However, gradually these herbs were replaced by synthetic dyes ,some of which are toxic.This is because of the presence of...Read Full Story
Issue 10
, 2009
 Paints add colours to our lives.However, what we overlook is the potential environmental and health effects these colorful paints can have....Read Full Story
 The privatisation of the healthcare sector has witnessed a much greater effort to keep hospital environments clean and germ-free. This is largely done through the use of pesticides and chemical disinfectants....Read Full Story
 Yet in another attempt to create awareness amongst the young masses, Environment and Health Public Lecture was held in School of Environment Studies (SES), Delhi University (DU), on 28th Jan ’09, the topic of discussion being “Hazardous Waste”. The panelists included Dr...Read Full Story
 HAQ’s Third Status Report on India’s children comes at a time when the country is trying to build the image of an emerging economic power, even while contending with a deepening global economic slowdown, preparing to host the Commonwealth Games 2010,grappling with the c...Read Full Story
Issue 9
, 2009
 The Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India, has declared the year 2008-09 as ‘Food Safety and Quality Year’.Previously in 2006 the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 was introduced to give more importance to the safety standards.However this has not...Read Full Story
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