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BY EMMA JACKSON

MORE than a year after Canada announced new volatile organic compound (VOC) regulations for architectural coatings, the industry is settling into its new obligations, which formally came into force on September 9.

The regulations, part of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) and called the Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Concentration Limits for Architectural Coatings Regulations, set mandatory VOC limits for 53 categories of architectural coatings (including indoor coatings), covering all infrastructure coatings including traffic markings.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE KEY emerging technology of nanotechnology looks set to pose some tricky end-of-life questions for the packaging industry, with regulators considering legislation controlling how nano-materials are disposed of, recycled and reused.

What to do with a product and its packaging when it reaches the end of its working life attracts as much attention nowadays as its production and nanotechnology is already dramatically enhancing the recycling properties of everyday materials, and is already proving relevant to the packaging industry.…

BY DANIEL PRUZIN

BRITAIN’S biggest air traffic control company says it is on course to achieve its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 10% by 2020, and its CEO has claimed to Jane’s Airport Review this is a "win-win", explaining: "It’s not purely focused on the environment, it’s also a win for the airlines by reducing fuel burn."…

BY ALAN OSBORN, KARRYN MILLER, GAVIN BLAIR, KEITH NUTHALL

MOST drinks manufacturers would bridle at the accusation that they used anything unnatural to make their products: after all poisoning consumers is bad for business. But in the world of marketing, everything is relative, and some ingredients are so fresh and untainted with processing chemicals that they can, simply, be sold as being more ‘natural’ than standard inputs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THREE of the world’s major public financing institutions have started due diligence on the Nabucco gas pipeline project, work that could release billions of Euros into the troubled project. If they are happy, the European Investment Bank (EIB) could invest Euro EUR2 billion, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) EUR1.2 billion and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, EUR800 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CANCER Research UK has criticised European Commission draft guidance for non-investigational medicinal products (NIMPs) in clinical trial authorisation (CTA) submissions, claiming it could make some tests "unworkable".

The research group warns in formal consultation documents that the guidance "does not make appropriate allowances for trials in high morbidity diseases where patients will inherently be receiving a vast array of treatments (established and experimental), often over a considerable period of time…"

It warns that the guidance is too inflexible on this point: "Our concern is that if this document is implemented and strictly interpreted, cancer trials will become unworkable," said Cancer Research UK.…

BY BILL CORCORAN

ALTHOUGH Sub-Saharan Africa is considered one of the least developed parts of the world in terms of air traffic management (ATM) systems, experts at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have said the continent has made progress in recent years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CALL for creating specific nanomaterials register under the EU’s REACH chemical control system has come from the European Union’s (EU) current Belgian presidency. "Nanomaterials are increasingly present in consumer products and everyday items," noted Belgium environment minister Paul Magnette at a Brussels seminar on the EU’s nascent nanotechnology regulations.…

BY MAKKI MARSEILLES, PAUL COCHRANE

CYPRIOTS are Europe’s heaviest smokers, according to figures from European Union (EU) pollsters Eurobarometer. For those living in the internationally recognised predominantly Greek Republic of Cyprus (RoC) portion of the island, consumption of consumers aged 15 and above during 2009 averaged 21.7 cigarettes daily, and those in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 21.6.…

BY MARK ROWE

ION-EXCHANGE reactions and water-soluble polymers are among the new generation of "green" paints that are being introduced to protect the marine environment in Asia. The International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) international convention on the control of harmful anti-fouling systems on ships came into force in September 2008 and IMO is continuing to urge all its members to ratify this convention.…