Search Results for: Environmental Health⊂mit=Search

BY MATTHEW BRACE

SCIENTISTS and insurance experts have used standard actuarial models to show that the making of nanomaterials presents fewer environmental risks than some common industrial processes such as oil refining. The finding is significant because while nanotechnology (exploiting the structure of matter at nanoscale – 1 billionth of a metre) is the talk of scientific and industrial communities, there are some serious health and safety concerns involving contamination with such particles.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

A new EU energy policy involving investment of some 1,000 billion euros in infrastructure and technologies is expected to be approved in broad outline by the EU heads of government at their summit in Brussels later this month though a major dispute over the cross-border take-over of key companies is still unsettled.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT is not always the case that an initiative tackling an mining environmental problem also directly improves the health and safety of miners, but this is true for a new World Bank project to remove methane from Chinese coal mines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN INTERNATIONAL research project aimed at boosting livestock quality without resorting to genetically modified technology will unveil its goals next week (March 2). A paper from the European Union-supported Sustainable Farm Animal Breeding and Reproduction (EFABAR) Technology Platform will be launched at the Salon de l’Agriculture, Paris.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NON-GOVERNMENTAL organisations have voiced disappointment over a refusal by the European Parliament to grant them the right to take public authorities to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) should they illegally conceal environmental information. The parliament rejected a proposed amendment mandating this right to a regulation writing into European Union (EU) law the UN Economic Commission for Europe Aarhus convention on environmental decision-making.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, is buying US$10 million equity in independent Argentina and Chile oil and gas producer GeoPark Holdings Limited. The money will strengthen its capital base, corporate governance, environmental and community development policies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s competition directorate general has said it will launch legal action against restrictive business practices and abuses of dominant positions in European Union (EU) gas markets. In a long awaited report, it promised to act against long-term downstream contracts and restricted access to capacity on gas pipelines, storage and inter-connectors between member states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CATALYTIC converters, hydrogen fuel cells and wind power are well known allies in the battle against global warming, but now British Antarctic Survey and University of Hull researchers have discovered a new and unlikely saviour: Antarctic krill. These tiny shrimp-like crustaceans are a crucial meal for whales, penguins and seals, but these British scientists think they may also help sustain the planet, transferring carbon into the ocean equalling the annual emissions of 35 million cars.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

CALIFORNIA has become the first US state to formally declare secondhand tobacco smoke a toxic air pollutant, aligning it with diesel exhaust, arsenic and benzene. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted unanimously to change tobacco’s smoke status based on a report that found a sharp increased risk of breast cancer in young women exposed to passive smoking.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INDUSTRIAL livestock production in developing countries often causes severe environmental damages, especially when meat and dairy factories are crowded together around cities or close to water sources, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned. A report ‘Livestock Policy Brief 02, Pollution from industrialized livestock production’ urges governments to promote more environmentally friendly dairy and meat production.…