Search Results for: Environmental Health⊂mit=Search

BY JULIAN RYALL

THE GOVERNMENT and private sector in Japan are amongst the strongest supporters of environment-friendly technologies and initiatives, and this include the civil aviation industry. In January 2009, a Japan Airlines (JAL) Boeing 747-400 was one of the first in the world to carry out a successful test flight using a biofuel made primarily out of non-food energy crop camelina – yet the country lags behind in the development of biofuels and, consequently, discussions on the large-scale introduction of green fuels and what that will mean for Japan’s airports.…

BY FLORENCE LABEDAYS

Michele Norsa is a discreet amicable man who does not seek personal publicity in his role as Chief Executive Officer of Italian luxury clothing company Salvatore Ferragamo. Impeccably-dressed at all times – pin-striped suit, pale blue shirt and red tie, when we met – as one would expect an Italian fashion executive to be, he has ease and approachability.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

Chewing tobacco plastic pouches banned as environmental hazard in India

India’s EUR 2.92 billion chewing tobacco industry is under severe threat after the country’s Supreme Court banned the use of its popular packaging pouches due to complaints about their environmental hazards, such as lack of biodegradability and recyclability.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SYSTEMIC advantages given to biofuels in the European Union (EU) through tax breaks and subsidies could take a knock this year, with the European Commission examining their indirect contribution to greenhouse gas production.

Brussels already takes account of their direct effect, through production and use emissions, and land use changes on fields used to grow feedstocks: only biofuels with a proven 35% emissions advantage over fossil fuels qualify for environment-linked tax breaks and handouts, under the EU’s renewable energy directive.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

Driven by consumer preference and regulation, the replacement of solvent based coatings with water-based ones has been a slow but steady process, beginning in earnest at the turn of the century in the USA, followed by Britain and Europe.…

BY DANIEL PRUZIN

THE GLOBAL airline industry is spearheading a push for an overhaul of airport screening procedures which would use passenger profiling as a way to speed people through airport security checks, the head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said.…

BY ALYSHAH HASHAM

AS negotiators at the recent United Nations climate change conference in Cancun wrapped up their work, one problem concentrating minds enough to secure a partial deal was the spread of disease on the coat-tails of global warming. Infectious diseases are spreading to regions where they were previously absent, driven by warmer temperatures and changing rainfall patterns.…

BY MARK ROWE

NANOTECHNOLOGY is playing an increasing part in the European Union’s (EU) ambitious binding EU-wide target to source 20% of energy needs from renewables, including biomass, hydro, wind and solar power, by 2020. The principle applied in other industries – that materials, elements and components exhibit different, often highly energy-efficient properties at the nanoscale – has sparked widespread interest within the energy field.…

BY KATHERINE DUNN

WELL-MEANING environmental health campaigners can kill innocent victims through unintended consequences of their positions. Whether it is opposing the use of malaria killing insecticide DDT or opposing the use of vaccines, such campaigns open environmentalists to criticism because they are opposing the use of proven disease control methods.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN INTERNATIONAL database that offers plastics companies detailed information on polymers and polymer additives has been upgraded to allow researches into certain properties or effects, such as physical chemical properties, environmental behaviour, ecotoxicity and toxicity. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development’s (OECD) eChemPortal has until now largely restricted users to base data searches on chemical names.…