Search Results for: Environmental Health⊂mit=Search

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN EU-funded research consortium is producing biodegradable plastics from whey separated from milk curd during cheese-making. WHEYPOL is synthesising the polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) generated from whey. *http://ica.cordis.lu/search/index.cfm?fuseaction=proj.simpledocument&PJ_RCN=5316860&CFID=83049&CFTOKEN=71957927…

KEITH NUTHALL
GERMANY has moved away from an aggressive approach towards cutting industrial greenhouse gas pollution, watering down planned commitments within a national allocation plan under the European Union’s (EU) emission trading scheme. Brokered by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the new agreement earmarks 503 million tonnes of carbon dioxide credits annually to its industry (including power generators) between 2005 and 2007, a minor reduction (0.4 per cent) to current emissions (505 million tonnes).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Heath Organisation has released a report detailing new developments in neuroscience research regarding craving, compulsive use, tolerance and dependence related to psychoactive substances, such as nicotine. The paper discusses how genes interact with environmental factors to sustain psychoactive substance-using behaviours, suggesting novel diagnostic tools and behavioural and pharmacological treatments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE DISASTERS caused by the tailings pond disasters at Baia Mare, Romania, and Aznalcóllar, Spain, have generated a major rethink in Brussels about the suitability of regulating potentially toxic mining waste under general European Union (EU) waste and landfill legislation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has weakened a draft obligation on European Union (EU) governments to spend money raised from harmonised road charging systems on maintaining roads. In amendments to the proposed directive on the topic, MEPs deleted an insistence that “revenue from fees must be used for maintenance of the road infrastructure and for the benefit of the transport sector.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend Spanish utility Enagás SA up to Euro 450 million to reinforce and extend the country’s gas transmission network and reserve facilities. These improvements would cover most of the country and are included in the 2002-2011 Spanish National Energy Plan.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN chemical industry is systematically over-estimating the costs of the European Union’s (EU) proposed environmental control system REACH, a paper commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has claimed. The report ‘Cry Wolf’, written by the International Chemical Secretariat, includes five case studies of previous environmental conventions or legislation, such as the Montreal Protocol and the EU’s auto-oil programme.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE US Environmental Protection Agency is studying health risks associated with chemical vapours released when microwave popcorn is popped, after the flavouring diacetyl was linked to a rare lung disease in some factory workers.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
AUSTRALIAN researchers are experimenting with co-firing plastic waste with coal in the blast furnace iron-making process. If the trials are successful this technique will – said the Australian government – provide a way to dispose of large volumes of plastic waste, whilst benefiting the environment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) electricity federation Eurelectric has warned against the use of centralised planning and price caps in any future move to improve the EU’s security of energy supplies. A new report says “though price caps may be viewed in some quarters as an effective political instrument, such intervention is in fact potentially destructive to the competitive market and a means of discouraging investments.”…