Search Results for: Research

BY PHILIP FINE

THE US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could see its financial resources shrink under the recent Bush Administration annual draft budget. If Congress passes the proposal currently being discussed, total federal investments in environmental protection would decrease by US$1.9 billion (GBPounds 920 million) or nearly six per cent, claims pressure group Environmental Media Services (EMS).…

BY PHILIP FINE

AN ORGANISATION representing 50,000 environmental health professionals in the USA is calling for a moratorium on opening what it calls Concentrated Animal Feed Operations (CAFOs) – factory farms – alleging they spread disease.

The American Public Health Association (APHA) has cited a number of problems with ‘CAFOs’, including drinking water contamination from animal waste runoff, growing antibiotic resistance resulting from antibiotics routinely fed to animals, severe respiratory problems in factory farm workers and – crucially – illnesses among people living near CAFO operations.…

BY PHILIP FINE

WHILE genetic modification (GM) seems to have scored a public relations disaster in the area of food, many health advocates are putting support behind the emerging area of GM insects. Three of the most promising ongoing projects are investigating the development of mosquitoes incapable of transmitting malaria, which could be released into the wild, maybe replacing insects that can carry the disease.…

BY PHILIP FINE

SCIENTISTS at the US Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are trying to breed a more disease resistant honey bee by using recently created bee genomic data. One of the long-term goals of the project is to characterise the specific genes that are key in the honey bee immune response system, then use data from these genes to improve both bee breeding and management.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
STUDIES into the environmental conditions sparking asthma and allergies in Europe are to be carried out by an expert network (GA2LEN) funded by Euro 14.4 million in EU research grants. The initiative involves 650 researchers in 16 countries and will investigate national contrasts in allergy rates ranging between 32 per cent for British teenagers and 2.6 per cent for Albanian teens.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union research project has developed ways to exploit tomato waste as a source of sugars. The TOM project says around 4 million tonnes of tomato dregs are disposed of in Europe annually, with especially seeds, containing many nutrients.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
AUSTRALIAN researchers have developed what they say is a cheaper and safer way of cleaning up contaminated sites, by using tiny iron nano-particles. The particles remove chlorine atoms from polluting compounds, replacing them with hydrogen atoms, thus reducing toxicity and making them easier for natural microbes to break down.…

KEITH NUTHALL
GREEK and American researchers say they have developed a fuel-cell reactor which can produce hydrogen from ethanol. Scientists from the universities of Patras and Minnesota claim that the invention could be a major advance in creating viable hydrogen-based energy systems, because the technology could be used in small fuel cells generating 350 watt-hours of electricity.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
NEW research indicates that the Amish have an obesity rate of only 4 per cent despite a diet heavy in meat.

The study said the religious group that shuns technology, stays trim because of high levels of daily activity.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AMERICAN organisations representing retailers and apparel importers have released a study claiming that the impending January 2005 demise of the country’s clothing import quotas was a "well founded" proposition. The report was commissioned by the US Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the American Import Shippers Association, the National Retail Federation and the International Mass Retail Association.…