USA: Giant Clean-Coal Power Plant Scrapped
At the end of January 2008, escalating construction costs that nearly doubled the price tag for building the world's cleanest coal-burning power plant prompted the US Energy Department to withdraw funding from the project.
A consortium of utility and coal companies had selected a site in Mattoon, Illinois, to build the so-called FutureGen plant, which would burn coal and sequester CO2 emissions underground. The Energy Department had agreed to bear 74% of the cost, originally estimated at US $900 million. However, cost overruns on the project raised that figure to US $1.8 billion, with no guarantee it would not run higher.
Instead, the Energy Department announced it would fund "multiple" projects with the aim of getting commercial-scale, integrated gasification combined cycle coal plants operating by 2015. The Department said that two sites in Texas and two in Illinois, including the Mattoon site, could be eligible to host the projects. The Department also said it would only fund the carbon-capture component of future projects, not the entire plant construction.
The 13-member FutureGen Alliance includes such US utilities and coal producers as American Electric Power Co. and Peabody Energy, along with international mining companies Anglo American, BHP Billiton and China's largest coal-based power company, China Huaneng Group.
International: Cosmetics Contribute to Coral Reef Death
A global decline in the population of any organism may have more than one contributory cause. The main factor in the worldwide bleaching and death of coral reef ecosystems has been attributed to climate change (increasing water acidity and higher temperatures), but a recent study suggests that personal care cosmetic sunscreens can damage reefs by aggravating viral infections in the symbiotic algae that provide corals with sustenance.
A paper published online by Roberto Danovaro et al entitled “Sunscreens Cause Coral Bleaching by Promoting Viral Infections”, Environmental Health Perspectives, doi:10.1289/ehp.10966 (2008) evaluates the potential impact of sunscreen ingredients on hard corals and their symbiotic algae. The researchers found that sunscreens cause the rapid and complete bleaching of hard corals, even at extremely low concentrations.
The adverse effect of sunscreens is due to four commonly used organic ingredients which function as ultraviolet filters and preservatives - benzophenone, a paraben preservative, cinnamate and a camphor derivative. These substances trigger rapid reproduction in dormant viruses in the algae upon which reef-building corals depend. The algae die off and the viruses are released to infect neighbouring coral growth.
The paper estimates that around 4,000 to 6,000 tonnes of sunscreen wash off recreational swimmers annually in oceans worldwide and up to 10% of coral reefs are threatened by sunscreen-induced bleaching. The research supports advice that snorkelers and divers avoid the use of sunscreen around coral reefs, instead relying on clothing for sun protection.
It is also worth noting that sunscreens have been in use for at least 50 years, but only now has the coral bleaching effect come to light.
Brazil: Amazon Rainforest Destruction Continues
Between August and December 2007, some 7,000 square kilometres of Amazon rainforest were felled and cleared. Action taken by the Brazilian Government to halt destruction has reduced the annual rate by one third, but high commodity prices and increased land use elsewhere in the country are driving ranchers and farmers deeper into the Amazon basin in search of cheap land.
On 1st February 2008, the Government announced emergency action banning logging and reducing farm credits in the 36 municipalities with the highest deforestation rate. It also proposed to ban farm products from illegally deforested areas. Property deeds would be registered to prevent land theft. However, it was the third time in four years that the Government had pledged to sort out property titles without taking enforcement action, and this time it has reduced the number of target municipalities.
The Government itself is promoting deforestation through large infrastructure and mining projects and roads, as well as settlements for landless peasants. A proposed hydroelectric plant on the Rio Madeira could attract 100,000 settlers to the region.
France: Pesticide Ban Hits Multinational Companies
A decision by the French Government to ban the sale of more than 1,500 pesticides from 1st February 2008 affects some of the world's biggest chemical producers, including US companies Dow Chemical and DuPont Co.; Bayer and BASF of Germany; and Syngenta of Switzerland.
The French plan to cut the use of toxic pesticides and herbicides by 50% over the next ten years. From a total of 53 products, the licences for 30 will be scrapped this year. The sale of existing stocks of the pesticides concerned was authorised until the end of April 2008 and farmers may use them until the end of the year.
Bayer responded by claiming it would be little affected as it had already withdrawn a product containing tolyfluanide from the French market. It has products containing carbendazime, but this substance was one of those which had been granted a delay.
Vietnam: Dioxin Legacy Action
In early February 2008, Vietnamese military technicians finished capping an area of a former US military airbase with concrete to stop dioxin or "agent orange" contaminating a lake. The measures taken in recent months at Danang in central Vietnam were temporary, but Danang airport is one of three "hot spots" identified as having dioxin levels hundreds of times higher than would be accepted elsewhere. The others are Phu Cat in south-central Binh Dinh province and Bien Hoa in southern Dong Nai province.
The new construction work will prevent rainwater from draining dioxin from the soil to a lake where people fish for food. It includes a system of channels, filters and sediment tanks, and a carbon filter for trapping dioxin.
The USA still maintains there is no proven link between the wartime spraying and more than three million Vietnamese people disabled by dioxin over three generations. Despite which, last year the US Congress appropriated US $3 million for clean-up and treatment of dioxin-related illnesses in Vietnam. In 2007, the USA donated US $400,000 towards the clean-up at Danang.
Germany: Nuclear Plant Fire
On 4th February 2008, a fire started in a ventilation system at the Kruemmel nuclear reactor, located about 20 km south-east of Hamburg on the River Elbe. The 24-year-old, 1,402-megawatt plant, which is operated jointly by the Swedish/German Vattanfall utility group and by E.ON of Germany, had been closed since June 2007 when a fire at a transformer substation caused a short circuit.
The latest fire was extinguished within an hour by the plant fire brigade. There was no release of radioactive substances. The cause of the fire had not been determined.
The Kruemmel reactor is adjacent to Brunsbuettel, another nuclear plant operated jointly by Vattanfall and E.ON, with 806 megawatts of capacity, which also remained shut since incidents last summer.
Germany is in the process of phasing out nuclear power by 2020 under plans agreed by a previous coalition government, although that is now being contested by the current coalition. The power utilities claim they need to prolong nuclear operations in order to meet carbon dioxide emissions targets. Kruemmel had been expected to reopen by mid-May 2008, and Brunsbuettel at the end of March.
International: Floating Pacific Rubbish Dump
The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is a swirling vortex of ocean currents comprising most of the northern Pacific Ocean. It is located between the equator and 50º N latitude and occupies an area of approximately 34 million km². The centre of the gyre (known as the horse latitudes) is a relatively stable water mass subject to little wind, and into which floating waste material is drawn by circular rotation.
It has been estimated that around 100 million tonnes of waste plastic is now circulating in the gyre, representing 2.5% of all plastic items made since 1950. The sources of the waste are marine craft and those industrialised countries bordering the Pacific. Research has demonstrated that the mass of plastic exceeds that of zooplankton (the dominant animal life in the upper waters) by a factor of six. Although the debris is subject to biodegradation, the ever increasing rate at which new material is being added has resulted in a vast floating rubbish dump greater in area than the continental United States.
Instead of biodegrading, the plastic now photodegrades, disintegrating into polymer fragments which cannot be recycled in the food chain, even though they are ingested by mistake by marine birds and animals. The particulate plastics also act as traps for toxic chemical effluents, such as hydrocarbons and DDT.
The gigantic rubbish patch represents a new artificial habitat, the impact of which upon the oceanic ecosystem is still unknown.
USA: Progress on Neurological Disease Outbreak
In the RRC Winter 2007-2008 International Newsletter [Item headed “USA: Rare Neurological Disease Hits Factory Workers”] we reported on the outbreak of an unidentified neurological disease among factory workers at Quality Pork Processors Inc. (QPP) in Austin, Minnesota. Most of QPP’s output goes to the adjacent plant of Hormel Foods, maker of Spam, bacon and other processed meats.
The meat-packing house slaughters 1,900 pigs a day, working two meat-cutting shifts and one clean-up shift. Virtually everything is used, including ears, entrails and bone. The 12 workers affected by the illness, none of whom have recovered fully, all worked at or near a table where the severed heads of swine are processed. One of the steps in that part of the operation involves removing the pigs' brains with a compressed air hose forced into the skull through the foramen magnum (the hole where the spinal cord enters). The brains are then packed and sent to markets in Korea and China as food.
Epidemiological investigators suspect that the harvesting technique produces aerosols of brain matter, which are inhaled by the workers and prompting their immune systems to produce antibodies that attack the pig brain compounds. The operators wear hard hats, gloves, laboratory coats and safety glasses, but many workers have bare arms, and none wear masks or face shields to prevent swallowing or inhaling the mist of brain tissue. Because of the similarity between pig and human nerve tissue, the antibodies may also attack the body's own nervous tissue. If this hypothesis is correct, the disease resembles Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune condition that sometimes follows fairly benign infections; but in this case there appears to be no germ involved.
Subsequently, the US Centre for Disease Control and Infection (CDC) in Atlanta investigated around 25 other large-scale pig slaughterhouses in 13 states, seeking similar incidents. The CDC found cases at a slaughterhouse in Indiana, which also uses compressed air to empty pig skulls. That technique has been withdrawn from industrial use. Extensive laboratory studies are underway to shed light on the biological mechanisms of the illness.
The owner and manager of QPP pointed out that the pneumatic brain-harvesting technique had been in use since 1998, with the same method and the same 70-pound pressure air hose, and asked why the disease has appeared only now.
International: Manual Handling Training Does Not Work
A research paper by Kari-Pekka Martimo, Jos Verbeek, et al, published in the British Medical Journal, BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmj.39463.418380.BE, describes a study into the effect of providing workers with training and lifting equipment in order to prevent back pain in manual handling operations involving heavy lifting. The workers scrutinised in the study were lifting and moving hospital patients; participating in baggage handling; and postal workers.
The researchers reviewed randomised controlled trials and cohort studies with a concurrent control group; and interventions aimed to modify techniques for lifting and handling heavy objects or patients. They included measurements for back pain, and consequent disability or sick leave as the main outcome. They assessed the eligibility of the studies and their methodological quality. The data sets were summarised and compared analytically. The findings were that six of the randomised trials and five cohort studies met acceptable eligibility criteria; two randomised trials and all cohort studies were labelled as high quality.
However, the authors conclude from the eligible work that there is no evidence to support the use of advice or training in working techniques with or without lifting equipment for preventing back pain or consequent disability. These findings challenge the current widespread practice of advising workers on correct lifting techniques.
Australia: Hot Dry Rock Technology under Test
Hydrogeothermal power, where heat is extracted from groundwater circulating adjacent to hot magma at shallow depth, has been in practical use for some years in such places as Iceland. There are also areas where deep geothermal sources exist, but there is no water to carry the heat to the surface.
One locality lies under the outback in South Australia, where for several years the company Geodynamics has been trying to harness the heat source and create the world’s first commercial geothermal power plant using hot dry rock technology. The company completed its first well in 2003 and established a reservoir in the hot granite by injecting water under high pressure to fissure the rock. However, multiple problems delayed its first production well until late January this year, when the company announced that it had finished a well to a target depth of more than 4.2 kilometres and installed surface valve and pipework.
The next step is to draw hot water back to the surface for flow testing on the reservoir, and to confirm that the linked production and reservoir wells can produce hot geothermal fluid at the temperature and rate necessary to sustain a geothermal power plant. If enough steam is produced it will then move to closed circulation testing, including using the closed water loop to produce electricity from a one-megawatt pilot plant.
Geodynamics plans to design a 50-megawatt power plant this year and aims to reach commercial electricity generation by 2012 with a total 500-megawatt output by 2016, as a further nine 50-megawatt modules are added. The company proposes to drill a further three deep wells this year. Around nine successful wells will be required to support each 50-megawatt plant.
Japan: Biofuels from Rice
At a time when climatic change is having an adverse effect on production in some rice-growing areas, Japan has opened its first commercial plant to produce ethanol for cars from locally grown rice. The Japanese Government funded half the cost of the US $15 million project in Niigata, central Japan, one of three government-backed commercial production schemes. The plant will reach its full capacity of 1,000 kilolitres a year by March 2009.
The Niigata project is managed by the National Federation of Agriculture Co-operative Associations (Zen-Noh) and will use non-food rice planted in abandoned farmlands. Project stakeholders include Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Co. and Satake Corp., a food processing machinery maker based in Hiroshima.
Zen-Noh, which retails gasoline mainly for farmers, plans to sell gasoline directly blended with 3% rice-origin ethanol at its gas stations in Niigata.
USA: BP ARCO Pays for Environmental Clean-Up
Following prolonged litigation, the US Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency announced on 7th February 2008 that the BP-owned company Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) had agreed to pay US $187 million to finance the clean-up of the Clark Fork River, a well-known trout stream in Montana.
The settlement concerns a 200 km stretch of the Clark Fork and other areas of south-western Montana contaminated by decades of mining and other activity upstream. The state of Montana, a party to the settlement, will undertake the clean-up operation.
Nigeria: Shell Declares Force Majeure
Following sabotage and security challenges which prevented the company from progressing repair of three leaks on the Nembe Creek trunk line, Royal Dutch Shell announced that with effect from 7th February 2008 it had declared force majeure on Bonny Light Offtake programmes for the next two months. The company said it would not be able to honour all its export contracts from its southern Nigerian Bonny export terminal.
A force majeure allows companies to suspend contractual obligations, such as deliveries of oil and gas, following unforeseen events without incurring penalties.
In January, Shell declared a force majeure on exports from the Forcados terminal, also in the restive region, for the rest of the month and February because of sabotage to crude oil supply pipelines.
USA: Dust Explosion in Sugar Refinery
A sugar dust explosion and fire took place on 8th February 2008 at the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, north-west of Savannah, Georgia. The main blast took place in a silo where refined sugar is stored before being packaged. Early reports indicated that more than 50 workers were hospitalised, 13 of them with critical burns, and others were missing under a collapsed building. The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) deployed an investigation team to the site.
A recent study of dust explosions by the CSB identified 281 combustible dust incidents between 1980 and 2005, in which 119 workers were killed and 718 injured, with extensive damage to industrial facilities. A total of 24% of the explosions occurred in the food industry, including several at sugar plants.
Ireland: Government Support for Wind Farm Energy
On 9th February 2008, the Irish Government in Dublin announced a guaranteed price support mechanism for offshore wind power in a bid to boost the development of renewable energy. The offshore power produced will receive a support price of €1,403 (US $202.9) per megawatt hour. The move follows a similar initiative for onshore wind farm generation.
The Republic of Ireland imports nearly 90% of its fossil fuel needs and is therefore vulnerable to global supply disruptions. Nuclear power generation is banned and there is only limited potential for hydroelectricity.
The Government consider that without a support price they would not be able to attract any investment into Ireland. The national target is to obtain 33% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, compared with the present figure of 10% from onshore wind farm generation.
USA: Court Decision on Mercury Emissions
In early February 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had violated the US Clean Air Act in 2005 when it exempted coal-burning power plants from the strictest emission controls for mercury and other toxic substances, such as arsenic, lead and nickel. The EPA was instructed to rework its mercury rules for utilities.
The EPA’s own data indicate that around 50 tonnes of elemental mercury are emitted each year from 1,100 US coal-burning power plants, accounting for up to 25% of total Hg airborne emissions.
Some 14 states, including New York and California, had sued the EPA over the existing rules, along with environmental and public health groups. The court ruling means that major coal-burning utilities will have to install expensive mercury-reduction equipment at more of their power plants rather than rely on a fleet-wide trading programme. The ruling is likely to have an additional adverse effect on the building of new coal-fired power plants. The EPA will take several years to enact the new rules on mercury, leaving individual states to regulate emissions in the meantime.
However, the US power-generating utilities already seem to have started changing track. The USA has 104 nuclear reactors in operation, generating around 20% of total electricity. No new commercial US nuclear reactors have opened for ten years, but despite higher construction costs compared to coal plant, federal regulators received four licence applications for seven new nuclear power units in 2007, and expect to receive another 15 applications for 22 units this year.
Europe: Metal Producers Confused by REACH
The EU REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) Regulation is designed to protect people and the environment from potentially hazardous materials found in manufactured goods, including clothing and vehicles. The law covers all metals from high volume copper and aluminium to minor metals such as indium, used to make liquid crystal displays for screens, and selenium, used in glass-making, construction and agriculture. It does not cover gold.
The German company Norddeutsche Affinerie is the largest European copper smelter and has complained that the terms of REACH are unclear and industry does not understand which metals and in which form, in particular recycled metals or end of waste material, are covered under the new regulation.
Other large metal producers have claimed that it will not be economically viable to supply up to 7% of their product portfolio, resulting in lost sales and the additional cost of disposal of such materials as arsenic, which would have to be treated as hazardous waste.
Although this would present a business opportunity for smaller players, who would focus on the minor metals larger producers were getting rid of, it might create a monopoly situation for some metals as high sales volume is necessary to comply with the legislation.
Metals producers must pre-register substances falling under REACH by June 2008, and by 2010 technical dossiers describing their environmental impact must be ready for submission to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The rules apply to all companies handling metals and other substances such as chemicals, including importers, manufacturers and downstream users. If a party fails to register, it will have to stop marketing and producing the metal by December 2008.
China: Sulphuric Acid Spill Pollutes River
A road tanker truck carrying more than 30 tonnes of sulphuric acid crashed when it ran into the guardrail on a highway linking Anning and Chuxiong in Yunnan Province, spilling its load into a river and causing serious pollution. The incident occurred on 12th February 2008. No human casualties were reported, but up to 1,000 vehicles were stranded along a section of the highway.
The reports did not say whether the recent severe weather in China had contributed to the accident. Snow and ice in southern China caused considerable damage and at least 80 people were killed in numerous accidents.
International: Oil Exploration in Doubt
Jan-Peter Onstwedder, the former senior risk manager at BP, is reported to have said in an interview with Reuters that known oil, gas and coal reserves may contain 25% more carbon than mankind can emit and still avoid dangerous climate change. This raises questions on the value of new oil exploration and exploiting unconventional reserves such as tar sands.
Onstwedder calculated the potential carbon emissions from proven oil, gas and coal reserves at around 700 billion tonnes, compared with around 500 billion tonnes which represents the consensus safe limit that can be emitted this century in order to control global temperature increases within less dangerous bounds. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported last year that keeping long-term warming to 2.0C to 2.4C above pre-industrial levels means that mankind has to halve global carbon emissions by 2050. The European Union has warned that 2C warming is a threshold for dangerous climate change.
The figures are in line with independent academic calculations that mankind should emit no more than 400 billion tonnes of carbon this century to have at least a 50:50 chance of staying within 2C.
After applying US Government conversion factors, the BP annual energy review shows "locked in" carbon emissions of about 152 billion tonnes in proven oil reserves, 96 billion tonnes in natural gas fields and 455 billion tonnes in coal reserves, equivalent to 703 billion tonnes in total.
The only justifiable strategy for exploring for new reserves would be if carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology actually works on an industrial scale. The first such large-scale project, the FutureGen plant, was abandoned by the US Energy Department at the end of January 2008 because of cost overruns.
The release of Onstwedder’s comments coincided with a major oil industry gathering at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates' annual conference in Houston, Texas
Europe: Partial Ban on Dichloromethane Use
The European Commission (EC) announced on 14th February 2008 that the sale and use of paint removers containing dichloromethane (DCM) would be restricted. DCM or methylene chloride, CH2Cl2 , is a volatile chlorohydrocarbon solvent presenting an acute inhalation hazard. It is metabolised in the body to carbon monoxide, giving rise to neurotoxic poisoning. Prolonged skin contact can result in dissolving of fatty tissues, producing skin irritation or chemical burns. The substance is also a suspected carcinogen and teratogen. It is widely used as a paint stripper and a degreaser, and was once used in the food industry to decaffeinate coffee and to prepare extracts of hops and other flavourings. Other uses include plastic welding, as an aerosol spray propellant, as a blowing agent for polyurethane foams, and as a fumigant pesticide for stored strawberries and grains.
A significant number of accidents and deaths in the European Union in recent years have been linked to its use. It is available in paint strippers sold by Do-It-Yourself stores and is used in industry.
The EC stated that according to expert opinion, the substance may be used safely by professionals if adequate precautions are taken, and member states may permit its purchase and use by licensed professionals who have received appropriate training.
Member states and the European Parliament are expected to adopt the proposal formally by the end of this year.
USA: Rising Power Plant Costs Fail to Curb Demand
According to figures released on 14th February 2008 during the Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) annual conference in Houston, the Power Capital Costs Index (PCCI) established by CERA demonstrates that the cost of building a power plant in the USA has risen by 130% since 2000, and by 27% in the 12 months to October 2007 alone. The Index uses year 2000 costs to set a base of 100 points. Thus a $1 billion plant built in 2000 cost $2.31 billion to build in late 2007 with the same materials and specifications.
The PCCI is intended to track nuclear, coal, natural gas and wind power plant costs, which are expected to continue rising, although CERA did not say by how much. Since 2000, the costs for plants that emit more carbon dioxide have gone up the least. Nuclear power construction costs, mostly materials, labour and engineering, have gone up 185%, followed by wind power costs up 95%, natural gas plants up 90%, and coal-fired plants up 70%. Coal-fired plant does not require the special steel forgings essential for nuclear plant, nor does it require equipment in short supply, such as the turbines essential for wind power.
Even so, CERA expects that high industrial growth and rising demand for power will lead to between 80,000 and 110,000 megawatts in new US plant coming on line in the next five years.
Madagascar: Epidemic Disease Hits Cattle
Ehrlichia ruminantium is a tick-borne rickettsial pathogen that infects cattle, causing a fatal disease known as heartwater or cowdriosis. The disease is endemic in most of sub-Saharan Africa and on several islands in the Caribbean, where it is a serious constraint to animal production. The disease originated in Africa and was inadvertently shipped to the Caribbean by human agency in the 19th century.
In mid-February 2008, the Malagasy agriculture ministry announced that an unexpected and severe outbreak of heartwater had killed thousands of cattle. The first known appearance of the disease on the world’s fourth largest island was in 1989, and there have been only a few reported cases since. The disease is preventable by vaccination, but Madagascar has a very dispersed rural economy and only 300 veterinary surgeons among the population of roughly 20 million people.
The economic impact of the outbreak is likely to be considerable.
China: Safety Warning to Coal Miners
The Chinese State Administration of Work Safety issued a warning on 17th February 2008 following resumption of work after a prolonged period of freezing weather. Coal mines closed down by lack of electrical power and severe weather face a high risk of accidents when they begin operations. The hazards facing some 2,000 mines included methane gas accumulation, unstable power supplies and flooding on start-up.
The mines were under pressure to increase coal supply to snow-hit areas, where blizzards blocked transport links and broke power lines. Consumers were left without electricity, and deliveries of coal to power stations were disrupted.
The safety agency said that gas had built up in about 1,800 mines in the provinces of Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan because of power cuts, and another 600 mines had been flooded. Power supply to coal mines in disaster-hit provinces was not operating normally, leading to additional risks.
According to the state news agency Xinhua, direct economic losses from the snow and ice amounted to US $15.4 billion.
USA: Nuclear Waste Languishes as Costs Rise
The safe disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear power generation is a problem that still lacks a viable solution. In the USA the accumulated hot waste from more than 100 nuclear reactors still lies in temporary storage at 122 sites in 39 states, ten years after the federal government was supposed to start accepting it for burial.
The intended destination is the underground Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site in Nevada, which is running 20 years behind schedule. The site is not expected to open for at least another decade. The Yucca Mountain repository was under-financed by the US Congress, and the project was beset with legal and managerial problems. There are also questions as to whether the geology is suitable for storing waste for a million years with only very small radiation leakage beyond the site boundary. So far, the federal government has spent $11 billion on Yucca Mountain, and the project has dragged on for so long that some of the research data is stored on obsolete computers that must now be replaced.
In the early 1980s, the reactor owners were all required to sign contracts with the US Energy Department, the government promising to dispose of radioactive waste for a fee of 0.10 cents per kilowatt-hour. The contract was supposed to become effective in 1998. Since then, the utilities have filed 60 lawsuits for failure to adhere to the original commitment, thus incurring storage expenses for the utilities. The federal government has paid out $342 million to meet court orders and settlements, and the compensation is likely to rise over the next few years to more than $11 billion.
At present, an interim solution is to store wastes in steel casks, pumped full of inert gas to prevent corrosion, an arrangement that will keep the wastes isolated for decades at least. The costs of dry storage, such as engineering work or installation of a crane, are incurred only once. Each reactor creates on average around 20 tonnes of waste a year, which is equivalent to two new steel casks at roughly $1 million each.
China: Three Gorges Dam Nears Completion
As the giant Three Gorges hydroelectric dam project heads toward completion this year, the Corporation building the dam announced the construction of more environmental facilities in the dam area, including the new Yingzizui water plant, the Letianxi wastewater processing factory, a processing ground to handle algal blooms and silt in dammed water, and a breeding centre for protected fish species in the upper reaches of the river. Plans have also been made to deal with cave-ins, debris slides and other geological hazards along highways running through the area, and to reinforce reservoir banks with more trees.
The dam stands at 185 metres above sea level and holds 39 billion cubic metres of water. Construction began in 1994 with the aim of controlling periodic devastating floods on the Yangtze and at the same time generating clean energy. The cost of the project at 180 billion yuan is still two million yuan less than the economic losses incurred by a devastating flood in 1998. When finished, the project will have 31 generators, each with a capacity of 700,000 kilowatts.
The latest statistics presented at a work conference in February 2008 show that the dam has effectively relieved flood pressure and provided 3.4 billion cubic metres of water to the lower reaches in the lean water season last year. It handled 60 million tonnes of cargo last year, 10 million tonnes more than in 2006 and, together with Gezhouba dam, about 38 kilometres downstream, the dam has generated more than 77 billion kilowatt hours of electricity.
International: Air Pollution and PAHs
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are organic compounds abundant in crude oil and found at high levels in polluted city air from vehicle exhausts and the emissions from coal-burning plant. Some of the larger PAH molecules are known carcinogens, but the smaller types had been thought relatively harmless. People who live in cities breathe in an aerosol of particle toxin PAHs.
Research in the USA by John Incardona, a developmental biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, involved a study of zebra fish embryos (a small tropical fish with a heart similar in structure to a human). He found that smaller PAHs had dramatic effects on the developing heart, causing swelling and irregular heartbeats or arrhythmias. At the annual conference of the American Association for Advancement of Science held in Boston in mid-February 2008, he suggested that the high similarities between the human and zebra fish heart made it "most likely" the adult human heart would be similarly affected.
The stimulus for the research came in the aftermath of the “Exxon Valdez” oil spill disaster of 1989, when salmon and herring embryos caught up in the oil slick were found to have developed heart defects.
Previous studies have shown that air pollution can raise the risk of heart attacks and strokes, a statistical correlation that until now has been blamed mostly on fine sooty particles (PM10s) in exhaust fumes. Dr Incardona argues his analysis indicates that small PAH airborne contaminants are likely to be toxic to the human heart and should be considered prime suspects in the cardiovascular impacts of urban air.
Critics have commented that there is only a low incidence of spontaneous, unexplained heart disease and arrhythmia in urban adults, and extrapolating from zebra fish development to humans is a long step. However, the findings suggest that small PAHs have an important effect on developmental chemical interactions in the heart.
Japan: Photochemical Pollutants Hit a Record
The Japanese Environment Ministry announced on 20th February 2008 that 220 air pollution warnings were issued in 28 prefectures of the country in 2007. Complaints of health damage from air pollution caused by photochemical oxidants were reported for 1,910 people in 14 prefectures, a 20-year record high.
Photochemical oxidants are eye and respiratory irritants produced by reactions between nitrogen oxides, which are emitted from automobiles and manufacturing plants, and volatile organic compounds, the reactions being catalysed by sunlight.
Although photochemical pollution is worse in metropolitan areas, government data indicated that it is gradually spreading from large cities to rural areas. Last year, some rural districts had their first ever air pollution alerts.
Ministry officials suspect that air pollution from China is accelerating the level of photochemical pollution in Japan.
International: Tropical Countries Face Rising Infectious Diseases
In a Letter published in the journal Nature, reference Nature 451, 990-993 (21 February 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature06536, a team of researchers led by Kate E. Jones described their findings on global trends in emerging infectious diseases (EIDs).
EIDs are a significant burden on global economies and public health, and their emergence is thought to be driven largely by socio-economic, environmental and ecological factors. The team analysed these linkages based on a database of 335 previous EID incidents between 1940 and 2004, and found non-random global patterns. The team constructed a computer-generated global map of emerging disease hotspots (which include sub-Saharan Africa, India and China) to help predict and prevent future attacks.
EID events have risen significantly over time, with more new diseases (such as the HIV pandemic) emerging in the 1980s than in any other decade. Just over 60% of EID events are dominated by zoonoses (diseases that originate in animals and spread to humans), most of which (71.8%) originated in wildlife (such as Nipah virus, SARS, Ebola and West Nile virus). The researchers note that 54.3% of EID events are caused by bacteria or rickettsia, reflecting a large number of drug-resistant pathogens (such as extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis or XDR TB) in the database.
They confirm that EID origins are significantly correlated with socio-economic, environmental and ecological factors, and provide a basis for identifying regions where new EIDs are most likely to originate, referred to as “hotspots”. In terms of the greatest threat, there is a substantial risk of wildlife zoonoses and insect or mammal vector-borne EIDs originating at lower latitudes where reporting effort is low. Thus the research suggests that the most likely locations for future outbreaks are the Tropics, regions rich in wildlife and of high biodiversity, but under increasing human pressure. Since density of human population was the strongest predictor of where new infections would emerge, conservation efforts to reduce conflict between humans and animals in these regions could play a key role in limiting future disease outbreaks.
The writers conclude that global health funding to counter disease emergence is poorly allocated, since most of the scientific and surveillance effort is focused at present on developed countries from where the next important EID is least likely to originate.
UAE: Energy Shortfall Predicted by 2012
The estimated installed electricity production capacity of the UAE was around 19,220 megawatts in 2007, compared to 9,600 MW in 2001. However, the power generation capacity of existing facilities in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region is inadequate to cope with the present scale of economic development and, even allowing for a projected 24% growth in capacity currently under construction, a 35% energy shortfall over the next five years is predicted to have an impact on the UAE economy.
Water and power shortages of around 35% are expected in Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia by 2010, while the UAE and Bahrain will face similar problems by 2012 and 2013 respectively. Oil and gas production will be dwindling in this timeframe. The UAE has the capacity to generate an estimated 1,000 megawatts of electricity per year from wind energy, a source likely to figure prominently in future energy solutions.
USA: Texas University Fined for Biosecurity Breaches
In mid-February 2008, the US federal government fined Texas A&M University (TAMU) at College Station, Texas, $1 million for safety and security lapses in its bioweapons defence laboratories, the largest penalty yet imposed for violating rules on handling potential bioweapons. The university was not given permission to resume its biodefence research.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, ordered the closure of biodefence research in June 2007 after TAMU failed to report a brucellosis infection in a laboratory worker in 2006, and other problems. A subsequent CDC investigation found a dozen violations of the rules for working with pathogenic agents. The safety breaches included unapproved experiments, missing samples, and unauthorised work on pathogens.
The problems at TAMU highlighted broader safety concerns in American biodefence laboratories, which led to a Congressional hearing last autumn.
USA: Agent Orange Legal Claim Dismissed
On 22nd February 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York dismissed a class lawsuit brought on behalf of more than three million Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, the dioxin herbicide chemical warfare agent. The lawsuit, which had already been dismissed by a lower court, was brought against Dow Chemical Co., Monsanto Co. and nearly 30 other companies involved in the manufacture and supply of the substance. The lawsuit contended that Agent Orange caused ailments, including birth deformities, organ dysfunction and cancer. The US Government claims sovereign immunity and cannot be sued in the USA.
The American air force dumped around 70 million litres of the defoliant on Vietnamese forests between 1962 and 1971. Studies have shown that dioxin compounds are still present in so-called "hot spots" at levels hundreds of times higher than would be accepted elsewhere, but the US maintains there is no scientifically proven link between the wartime spraying and the claims of dioxin poisoning by the Vietnamese disabled over three generations.
In 1984, seven chemical companies, including Dow and Monsanto, agreed to settle out of court for $180 million with US military veterans who claimed Agent Orange had caused cancer and other health problems.
A further appeal by the claimants is likely to progress to the US Supreme Court.
China: Six Provinces Ordered to Cut Pollution
Under a plan approved last September, the Chinese State Council ordered Beijing and five surrounding provinces to cut industrial atmospheric pollution for two months from late July to ensure clean air for the forthcoming Olympic Games. The announcement was made on 22nd February 2008. The affected provinces are the Chinese capital and its neighbouring municipality Tianjin, as well as the provinces of Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Shandong. Power and steel plants are the worst offenders, and more than ten factories in Beijing and Hebei scheduled for closure over the next two years will now be shut down before June 2008. In other cases, emissions will be reduced using air-cleaning technology or short-time running.
Despite investing 120 billion yuan (US $16.80 billion) in environmental improvements over the past decade, pollution is the biggest concern for the Olympic organisers and athletes in the run-up to the August 2008 Games. Some endurance events may have to be rescheduled if air quality is poor.
Greece: Climate Degradation Predicted
On 22nd February 2008, during a speech delivered in Athens, the EU Environment Commissioner warned that because of climate change Greece will face droughts, higher temperatures and higher sea levels, and desertification that will damage agriculture and tourism.
He predicted that drought will intensify in Greece and desertification will speed up. Coastal areas such as Thessaloniki and Messolongi will most likely find themselves under water. The average annual temperature around the Mediterranean has increased by 1 degree Celsius, compared with a 0.74C rise globally. Average rainfall in Greece has fallen by around 30% since the mid-1970s. The month of January in 2007 was the driest in half a century, while last June was the hottest on record, according to meteorological data.
Climate change is also affecting the flora and fauna of the country, with migrating birds flying further north and with the appearance of non-native viruses and diseases. The incidence of forest fires will increase, releasing even more carbon pollutants to the atmosphere.
The Commissioner advised Greece to boost alternative energy production, increase investment in energy-saving measures and include climate change measures in every policy.
China: Hong Kong Confirms Increasing Dengue Fever
Dengue fever is a non-fatal but debilitating virus disease transmitted by a mosquito vector. It is manifested by a sudden onset of fever with influenza-like symptoms of muscle and joint pains and severe headache. The patient's skin develops bright red rashes on lower limbs and chest. Unlike malaria, it is widespread in urban areas of Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan, and has recently been imported to Hong Kong, apparently by human agency.
On 25th February 2008, the Hong Kong Department of Health Centre for Health Protection urged members of the public to guard against Dengue fever, which is not native to the area. In 2007 there were 58 reported cases, all classified as being contracted abroad, mostly in Thailand. So far in 2008 there have been seven such cases known to the authorities and confirmed by laboratory tests.
The cause for concern is that a few human cases developing much milder symptoms can be misdiagnosed or missed altogether, allowing infected travellers to inadvertently pass on Dengue fever in their home countries via previously uninfected local mosquitoes, or by blood products (e.g. transfusions).
Australia: Project to Build the World's Largest Solar Power Station
TRUenergy is the Australian subsidiary of CLP Holdings Ltd, the larger of the two power utilities based in Hong Kong. The company has agreed with Solar Systems of Melbourne to develop the world's largest solar power plant in northern Victoria, Australia. CLP has also entered into a ten-year agreement with Solar Systems to deploy photovoltaic technology in the Asia Pacific region, including China.
Work on the Victoria project will commence in 2009 with the construction of a pilot two-megawatt heliostat concentrated photovoltaic plant, using high performance solar cells originally developed to power satellites. Power generation is planned to begin in 2010 and to be operational at full capacity by 2013. The remaining stages of the development will increase capacity to produce 154 MW of electricity, enough to power 45,000 homes. The Australian and Victoria governments are also funding the project.
When completed, this new solar project will reduce Australian greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 400,000 tonnes per year. No information was made available on the environmental impact, energy costs, or volume of carbon emissions associated with the manufacture of the essential photovoltaic cells and associated equipment, nor with the construction of the plant.
China: Drought Hampers Olympic Preparations
The arid province of Beijing, which is hosting the next Olympic Games, draws its water supply from the neighbouring province of Hebei, where a severe drought situation exists. Water demand in Beijing during the Olympics is expected to rise by 30% above average to 2.75 million cubic metres a day, and Hebei is expected to supply an extra 300 million cubic metres. Some 309 km of new canals, channels and pipes have been constructed from Hebei to Beijing for the Olympics, drawing from four Hebei dams.
The entire country has experienced a very cold dry winter and Hebei reservoirs have not been replenished. Average precipitation across Hebei was 7 mm, which is 60% below the long-term average. Drought has affected 1.89 million head of livestock and left 2.43 million people without sufficient drinking water in Shandong, Heilongjiang and Hebei provinces, according to the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.
The state news agency Xinhua reported in late February 2008 that the number of Hebei citizens going short of drinking water was likely to rise to half a million by March, as 33,000 sq km of farmland from a total area of 190,000 sq km were drought-stricken. Aquifer water levels on the Hebei plains had fallen one to two metres since the same time last year.
The average August temperature in Beijing is 29.5C with a relative humidity of 69%, a heat index signifying a caution notice for athletes. Rainfall is likely to be high, which might reduce PM10 particles in the air. The authorities have spent 120 billion yuan ($16.8 billion) in smog reduction measures, and road traffic controls will be in temporary operation.
Algeria: Lethal Colonial Legacy
Between 1960 and 1966 the French military carried out 13 underground nuclear weapon tests in the Sahara. There are four known incidents in which radioactive gas leaked from the sites and affected the health of local people.
France maintains that a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose specialists toured the sites in 1999, found that there was no likelihood of radioactivity exposure in excess of international safety norms. However, the French Government announced in February 2008 that a new study would be carried out into the extent of residual contamination and the possible need for clean-up operations.
There is also an apparent problem with conventional munitions, as the Algerian press regularly report deaths and injuries of people who inadvertently step on independence-era landmines. The Algerian authorities had no maps of French minefields containing millions of landmines laid half a century ago, and they have only recently been supplied.
Indonesia: Mud Volcano Overwhelms More Land
The mudflow in Sidoarjo regency, near the city of Surabaya, was triggered in May 2006 by human agency and has so far displaced some 15,000 people. The Government has tried several schemes to halt the flow of hot mud, including dropping giant concrete balls into the fissure, but nearly two years later the mud continues to spurt out at the rate of 148,000 cubic metres a day.
In February 2008, the Public Works Ministry said that there were now three more villages, with a population of around 10,000, in the danger area that have to be relocated. The Ministry proposes to accelerate the channelling of mud to the Porong river, which passes through those areas.
The Indonesian authorities have been forced to set aside an additional 700 billion rupiah (US $77 million) to compensate thousands more people whose homes are threatened. The Government has also said that it will fund the rerouting of a gas pipeline, railways, electricity networks and roads, affected by the mud.
China: Pollution Turns Rivers Red
In the last week of February 2008, the Xinglong, Tianguan and Dongjing rivers, three tributaries of the Han river, which is a branch of the Yangtze, were contaminated by pollution that stained their waters red. Drinking water supplies to about 200,000 people in Hubei province were affected.
It was thought initially to be the result of a chemical spill, but later the Hubei Provincial Environmental Bureau confirmed that an algal bloom was to blame. Such blooms are a common natural feature of slow flowing or stagnant waterways, but they require a moderate ambient temperature and an excess of nutrients to trigger explosive algal growth (eutrophication).
Algal blooms in winter are unusual, and in this case the source of the nutrients was the indirect cause of water contamination. Tests had shown the river water to contain elevated levels of ammonia, nitrogen and permanganate, the last a chemical used in metal cleaning, tanning and bleaching. The most likely source of the nitrogen algal nutrients was factory waste and sewage.
International: Carbon Dioxide Causes Air Pollution Deaths
Carbon dioxide itself has not so far been identified as the cause of a significant number of deaths, but a recent study by Mark Jacobson at Stanford University in California, “On the causal link between carbon dioxide and air pollution mortality”, reference Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2007GL031101, has suggested that the number of deaths from air pollution associated with elevated levels of carbon dioxide linked to global warming is twice the level previously assumed.
An increase in CO2 raises the ambient temperature and water vapour content of the atmosphere, which in turn accelerates ozone production and traps airborne soot particulates. Increased ozone causes respiratory illnesses and particulates trigger cardiovascular disease.
Jacobson computer-modelled the effect of CO2 levels on air pollution and estimated the impact on population health. He found that for every 1C rise in temperature in the US there are 1,000 additional air-pollution-related deaths. Extrapolating globally, he estimated that CO2-related air pollution is causing 21,600 extra deaths per year on average.
He concludes that with CO2 emissions accelerating, the problem will get worse.
Brazil: Petrobras Helicopter Crash Kills Five
Petrobras reported that on 26th February 2008, a Super Puma L2 helicopter, owned and operated by a subsidiary of CHC Helicopter Corporation, had to make an emergency landing in rough seas near platform P-18 in the Marlim field, some 120 km offshore from Brazil. It remained floating for several hours before sinking in 300 metres of water. Of the 20 people onboard the helicopter, 15 were rescued alive at sea. The bodies of the missing oil workers were found later. The search and rescue operation involved 13 vessels, some equipped with submarine robots, one Brazilian Air Force jet and three helicopters. A Brazilian Navy vessel was also involved in the search.
Two other Super Puma L2s under contract by Petrobras were grounded until inspections could be carried out.
In 2002, StatoilHydro grounded half of their helicopter fleet for inspection after a pendulum weight in the rotor head created substantial damage to a main rotor blade. All of the helicopters grounded by StatoilHydro were Super Puma L2 helicopters. The helicopter involved in the Petrobras incident was built by Eurocopter in 2002.
USA: Loss of Wind Causes Power Grid Emergency
Texas generates more electricity from wind power than any other state, and the number of wind farms is expected to increase as new transmission lines are built to transfer power from the western half of the state to more populated areas in the north.
However, Nature is not that accommodating and on 26th February 2008, winds fell during a spell of cold weather from the equivalent of more than 1,700 megawatts production to 300 MW. The sudden drop in wind frequency triggered an electricity supply emergency that forced the Texas grid operator, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), to cut service to customers.
ERCOT went directly to the second stage of an emergency plan, curtailing power to interruptible customers (i.e. large industrial consumers) to reduce 1,100 megawatts of demand within ten minutes. At the time of the emergency, ERCOT demand increased from 31,200 MW to a peak of 35,612 MW, about half the total generating capacity in the region.
European Union: Only Two Countries Meet CO2 Emissions Deadline
28th February 2008 was the deadline for all EU member states to allocate EU Allowances (EUAs) to more than 10,000 European energy-intensive installations in 2008, the first year of the second trading cycle of the EU emissions trading scheme from 2008-12.
In a statement issued on 29th February, the EU Executive Commission said that only Austria and Denmark had met the deadline to allocate industrial permits to emit carbon dioxide. This will delay a 2008 carbon spot market.
The EU’s carbon trading scheme is its key strategy to fight climate change, and sets an overall cap on permits issued to industry to emit CO2, although it allows companies to trade EUAs among themselves. Each member state has an EUA quota, but most affected companies would not have received them by the official deadline and will not have enough permits to match their 2008 emissions until early next year.
Thirteen countries submitted the necessary information to the Commission regarding allocation. Five received Commission approval to issue, but only two had issued EUAs. Of the other three countries, Britain and the Czech Republic said they would not allocate EUAs, while the status of Finland was unknown.
The UK said that it would not issue EUAs until the European Commission announced when its emissions trading scheme would link with a separate carbon trading scheme under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, which the Commission has previously said may not happen before 2009.
A spot market for immediate physical EUA delivery already exists, especially in eastern Europe according to market participants, and that market is now effectively frozen.
UAE: Environmental Threats to Coastal Development
A study by the Dubai Municipality Environment Department was presented in late February 2008 at the PIANC-COPEDEC VII conference on coastal and port engineering. It deals with waterfront development, particularly along Dubai creek, and finds that construction waste is among the major threats to the marine environment.
The report states that development contributes to an increasing influx of organic matter, nutrients, heavy metals and petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants, which ultimately settle at the bottom of Dubai creek.
The UAE coastline could be damaged by construction activity unless a strict environmental management plan is implemented for the protection of the marine environment.
Yemen: Water Scarcity Becomes a Crisis
In early March 2008, the Yemen Water and Environment Ministry described the collapse of national water resources in the country as being so severe that it cannot be reversed, only delayed at best. The situation has been created by the geography and climate of Yemen, coupled with uncontrolled population growth and a very low capacity for managing resources. Yemen relies on groundwater and 19 of a total 21 aquifers cannot recharge fast enough to keep pace with demand and population growth. The present population of 22.4 million is expanding by more than 3% a year.
Although most Yemenis still live in the countryside, an accelerating drift to the cities has overwhelmed urban utilities. The population of the capital Sanaa has grown to more than two million people from around 60,000 in the 1940s. The water basin of Amran, a province just north of Sanaa, was described as very close to collapse. The deepest wells in Sanaa are now 1,000 metres and water levels are falling between six and 20 metres a year. The Saada basin to the north is soon expected to follow the same pattern. The Taiz basin in the south collapsed nearly ten years ago and people now rely on rainfall rather than groundwater.
Some 90% of water usage is to irrigate crops of the narcotic plant qat and the area under cultivation is increasing by 10% to 15% a year. Efforts to make irrigation more efficient are thwarted by a government diesel fuel subsidy that disguises the true cost of water and encourages qat farmers to pump more. Thus the farmers have no incentive to invest in modern irrigation techniques.
The Government is unable to enforce water drilling and irrigation laws on major consumers, such as tribal chiefs, military officers and the rich. In consequence, 99% of water drilling is unlicensed.
It is foreseeable that the urban population may have to migrate from the arid highland cities to the Tihama coastal plain, which has more water potential and where desalination might be more economic.
Italy: Four Workers Die in Confined Space Incident
On 3rd March 2008, four workers were killed by hydrogen sulphide fumes near the southern Italian city of Bari. One worker was cleaning the inside of a road tanker when he was overcome. Three of his companions entered the tank to attempt a rescue, but also inhaled fumes and died of asphyxiation. A fifth worker who survived was reported to be in a critical condition.
This pattern of multiple deaths while attempting a confined space rescue without essential equipment is still extremely common. Health and safety legislation is weak in Italy, and despite a very high number of workplace deaths the Government has only recently introduced draft legislation aimed at tightening safety conditions.
China: Natural Gas Output to Double by 2018
PetroChina, the listed arm of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the leading Chinese natural gas producer, announced on 4th March 2008 that China's natural gas output would at least double from the present volume in the coming decade to reach 150 billion to 200 billion cubic metres. Over the past two years the company has reported an annual output rise of 10 billion cubic metres per year, and the same growth rate is expected to continue.
Recent discoveries of new gas fields include Jidong Nanpu Oil Field in Bohai Bay, which contains 1.18 billion tons of oil and gas reserves; and the CNPC Longgang gas field in the south-western Sichuan province, which is believed to contain at least 700 billion cubic metres of estimated reserves.
Chinese natural gas output reached 69.31 billion cubic metres in 2007, representing a 23.1% annual increase. Gas does have a lower carbon equivalent than coal, but there will still be a proportional increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
International: Safety and Health in Hotels and Catering
The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work has a webpage devoted to occupational health and safety resources covering the hotel, restaurant and catering sector at:
http://osha.europa.eu/sector/horeca/
Around eight million people are employed in this sector in Europe, which generates an annual turnover in excess of €400 million. It includes restaurants and bars, camping sites, youth hostels and canteens. Most are small businesses employing less than ten people, with women making up a little over half of the workforce. Employment tends to be temporary, with irregular hours, low pay and few career prospects. There is a high proportion of young people working in the sector.
The Agency describe the negative characteristics of the sector as:
- Heavy workloads.
- Prolonged standing and static postures.
- Contact with (sometimes difficult) customers.
- High levels of evening and weekend working, which disrupt an employee's work-life balance.
- High levels of stress.
- Monotonous work.
- Harassment and even violence from customers, colleagues and employers.
- Discrimination against women and people from other countries.
Middle East and North Africa: Oil Flaring Wastes $10 Billion Every Year
According to the Global Gas Flaring Reduction (GGFR) unit of the World Bank, Middle Eastern and North African countries are flaring natural gas worth as much as $10 billion every year. At a gas industry conference held in Qatar in early March 2008, they urged Gulf oil producers to join a programme to reduce such emissions, which amount to between 150 billion and 170 billion cubic metres of flared gas, adding around 400 million tonnes of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere annually. Each cubic metre of gas flared is a waste of resources that also releases two kilogrammes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The Middle East and North Africa contribute about a third of the global flaring total, second only to Russia. The Gulf Arab countries have yet to join the GGFR group.
Except for Qatar, almost all the Gulf Arab countries face a gas crisis. The GGFR argue that flared gas could be used for reinjection or feedstock in the petrochemicals sector or desalination.
International: Diesel Fumes Affect the Brain
A Dutch research paper published in March 2008 in the online journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology by Bjoern Cruts et al suggests that even a short exposure to diesel fumes can affect the human brain. The study found that a one-hour exposure to inhaling diesel engine exhaust induces a stress response in brain activity. Previous studies have shown that when very small soot particles (nanoparticles) of polluted air are inhaled they can penetrate to the brain. The present research demonstrates that inhalation actually alters brain activity.
The team subjected ten volunteers to a one-hour exposure in a room filled with either clean air or exhaust from a diesel engine. The subjects were wired up to an electroencephalograph (EEG), a machine that records the electrical signals of the brain, and their brain waves were monitored during the exposure period and for one hour after they left the room. The researchers found that after 30 minutes the diesel exhaust began to affect brain activity. The EEG data suggested that the brain displayed a stress response, indicative of changed information processing in the brain cortex, which continued to increase even after the subjects had left the exposure chamber.
The concentration of diesel exhaust that the subjects breathed was set to the highest level that people might encounter on a busy road or in a garage.
Oxidative stress is one consequence of particles being deposited in tissue and has also been implicated in degenerative brain diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. It is possible that the long-term effects of exposure to traffic nanoparticles may interfere with normal brain function and information processing.
The reference is Bjoern Cruts, et al, 2008, “Exposure to diesel exhaust induces changes in EEG in human volunteers”, Particle and Fibre Toxicology, accessible online at:
http://www.particleandfibretoxicology.com
International: Radiation Exposure and Heart Disease Risk
A review study on the health of 65,000 UK nuclear industry workers was carried out by Dave McGeoghegan and colleagues and published in March 2008 in the International Journal of Epidemiology, reference DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyn018. The paper is entitled “The non-cancer mortality experience of male workers at British Nuclear Fuels plc, 1946–2005”.
The study revealed an increased risk of circulatory disease in those who were employed in high-exposure jobs at a time when the exposure limits were less strict than now. The probability of such workers reaching the age of 70 was 2% less than for those exposed to lower radiation doses. The increased risk of circulatory disease was higher than that for cancer.
Excess mortality from circulatory problems has also been recorded in nuclear bomb survivors and in cancer patients who received radiotherapy.
International: Chinese Greenhouse Gas Emissions Negate Kyoto
China is deemed a developing country by the United Nations and as such is not required to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. In a paper by Maximilian Auffhammer and Richard Carson, published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, reference DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2007.10.002, the authors conclude that within two years, Chinese emissions of greenhouse gases will have outstripped the combined reductions achieved globally by all the countries that have signed up to the Kyoto Protocol.
On the basis of data provided by the Chinese Government, the researchers at the University of California calculated that greenhouse gas emissions by China will be at least 600 million metric tonnes greater in 2010 than they were in 2000; and estimated CO2 emissions will rise by 11% per year between now and 2010.
The US Energy Information Administration estimates that the CO2 emissions that will have been achieved by signatories to the Kyoto Protocol by 2010 will be 115.90 million metric tonnes.
USA: Bioethanol Target Unattainable
The diversion of food grain and bean crops to bioethanol production as an instrument of government policy was described recently by the United Nations as a crime against humanity.
The energy law passed in 2007 by the United States Congress requires the production of 36 billion gallons of biofuels a year by 2022. However, official forecasts presented in March 2008 to the Senate Energy Committee by the US Energy Information Administration predict that only 32.5 billion gallons of the renewable fuels standard will be met by the target date.
The production shortfall will arise not from grain but from a smaller volume of ethanol made from cellulosic sources, such as wood chips, switchgrass and other agricultural and forest waste.
Sweden: Forestry Industry Phases Out Toxic Pesticides
The pine weevil Hylobius abietis is a destructive forest pest in Sweden. It is controlled by the application of toxic pesticides that present a risk to the workers who use them. In March 2008, agreement was reached between trade unions, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, and the Forest Stewardship Council (which represents commercial forestry interests) that the use of such dangerous chemical substances will be phased out, both to protect the health of workers and on environmental grounds.
Of the four poisonous pesticides currently in use, one will be discontinued by the end of this year and the remaining three will be phased out before 2011.
Russia: Siberian Pulp Mill Investigated by State Prosecutor
Lake Baikal lies around 5,000 kilometres east of Moscow and is the largest body of freshwater in the world. It contains 23,000 cubic kilometres of water and is also the deepest and oldest lake on the planet. Baikal is a unique environment harbouring 1,500 species of animals and plants, including freshwater seals, and is surrounded by virgin forest and nature reserves. In 2006, President Vladimir Putin ordered a giant new oil pipeline under construction to be routed away from Lake Baikal to avoid risk to the lake.
In the 1960s Soviet era, a pulp mill was built on the southern shore of the lake, which holds one fifth of the world's total surface freshwater. Today the plant is controlled by LPK Continental Management, part of the Basic Element industrial group, which is part owned by Oleg Deripaska. The state retains a 49% ownership share.
On 13th March 2008, the Russian Prosecutor-General said in a statement that an inquiry had been opened into the activities of the pulp mill after a state environmental investigation found it had polluted the lake waters. The enterprise had been carrying out the illegal discharge of industrial waste with levels of pollutants higher than permitted levels, in addition to using water from Baikal without official permission. The Prosecutor-General ordered the local Irkutsk region prosecutor to probe the legality of the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Combine's operations.
Continental Management said the plant had a new closed water loop system ready that would stop waste from flowing into the lake, but it could not be started up until the local town of Baikalsk dealt with its own waste, because the mill currently treats town discharges and the system would not be able to cope with the additional volume. The company argued that if the plant were shut down, all the waste from the local town would discharge untreated directly into the lake.
A few weeks later, the Natural Resources Ministry ordered the local government to end its dependence on the paper plant for its waste treatment and build a waste processor of its own by mid-August 2008. The paper plant would then be given another month to improve its own waste treatment system.
USA: Dive Support Vessel Explodes in Gulf of Mexico
On 12th March 2008, an explosion took place onboard the 50-metre motor vessel “Jillian Morrison”, approximately 25 kilometres south of Marsh Island, Louisiana. The dive support vessel is owned by Chet Morrison Contractors of Houma. The US Coast Guard launched two HH65-C Dolphin rescue helicopters from Air Station New Orleans and one from Coast Guard Air Station Houston.
The aircrews evacuated six injured crew members to local hospitals. A Coast Guard patrol boat and helicopters continued to search for one crew member reported to be missing overboard.
The incident is under investigation.
International: Cathodic Protection of Offshore Pipelines
The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway has published a report on a review study by The Welding Institute (TWI) dealing with the technology status, experiences and challenges associated with old and new solutions for cathodic protection of subsea pipelines. The report provides an overview of relevant standards for the design of cathodic protection for subsea pipelines, pointing out challenges and variations in key design parameters in the various standards that might affect the robustness of the different cathodic protection solutions.
Until recently, standards and codes for design of cathodic protection have been considered conservative. This conservatism has been reduced in the latest and most recently revised standards, e.g. in the form of lower disintegration values for polymer coatings.
To maintain the same level of safety, the coating must be of a high quality and also, particularly on field joints, be applied in accordance with qualified procedures and routines so that no damage occurs during installation or operation.
Ireland: Emerald Isle Likely to Turn Brown
A report published in March 2008 by the Irish American Climate Project entitled Changing Shades of Green considers the impact of global climate change on the lush Irish landscape. Using data from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the study concludes that although the impact of climate change on Ireland will be far less than in North Africa, changes in rainfall patterns could have profound effects on its society and culture.
By 2050, winter rainfall could increase by more than 12% and summer rainfall could decrease by more than 12%. Increasing seasonal storm intensity will also impact upon rainfall changes:
- Heavier winter rains may lead to serious erosion and more frequent bog bursts (a hazardous type of mudslide on hill slopes that is at present a rare event).
- Pastures might become saturated until late spring, making it impossible for livestock to graze and increasing production costs as animal feed would be required.
- Reduced summer rains would damage inland fisheries for salmon and sea trout.
- An essential staple of Irish agriculture is the potato, which might cease to be a commercial crop under the stress of prolonged summer drought.
- The drying out of grasses in summer and autumn will turn hillsides brown and increase fire risk.
Kenya: Village Poisoned by Nitric Acid Leak
On 16th March 2008, a Mombasa magistrates’ court ordered the arrest of the Ugandan director of the Southern Enterprise Transport Company after he failed to appear in court to answer charges filed by Mombasa Municipal Council that his company had failed to observe environment management regulations by dumping toxic chemicals.
Hundreds of people were reported to have become ill after breathing fumes from a consignment of nitric acid that was dumped at the village of Kipevu by a truck driver who noticed liquid leaking from containers in his load.
Nitric acid is used in the mining and processing of cobalt. It was imported by the Ugandan-based Kasese Cobalt Company Limited, which has denied responsibility for the safety of containers in transit. The Kenyan National Environment Management Authority claimed that the transport company had not reported the leaking containers until after they were dumped.
International: New Guidance on Shipyard Ergonomics
The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published online a new guidance document that could help employers and their employees in the shipyard industry prevent musculoskeletal injuries. It provides practical recommendations for employers to reduce the number and severity of workplace injuries in their facilities, and also helps employers to identify, evaluate and control hazards by using the best practices found to be successful in shipyards.
The document can be downloaded in PDF format from:
http://www.osha.gov/dsg/guidance/shipyard-guidelines.html
International: UN Warns of Global Water Crisis
In a warning delivered before World Water Day 2008 (20th March 2008), the United Nations predicted that one third of the total human population will be unable to find safe drinking water by 2025. At present more than two million people die every year in developing countries from diseases associated with unsanitary water.
The interlocking causes of record water use are human population growth, migration to cities, and the ever-increasing size of cities. Many metropolitan areas are depleting non-renewable underground water sources at alarming rates. Examples include Beijing, Mexico City, Jakarta and Bangkok.
The lack of resource management is an aggravating factor, shown in the form of contamination by pathogens (inadequate sewerage treatment) and chemical pollution (uncontrolled industrial development), which have transformed many primary sources of water in the developing world into toxic repositories of disease.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change commented that rising sea levels associated with global climate change are already forcing salt water into aquifers beneath megadeltas that are home to tens of millions of people, and changing weather patterns are set to intensify droughts in large swathes of Africa, southern Europe and Asia.
Water scarcity in coming decades may be the cause of wholesale population migration or war, unless new ways to supply clean water are found.
USA: Gold Mine Closed for Airborne Mercury Pollution
In mid-March 2008, the state government ordered the closure of a major gold mine in north-eastern Nevada. The Jerritt Canyon Mine is owned by Queenstake Resources, a subsidiary of British Columbia-based Yukon-Nevada Gold Corp. Its expected 2008 production was 120,000 ounces of gold.
The mine processing plant had contaminated waterways with mercury and rendered brown trout a hazard to health if eaten. The company is not allowed to resume ore roasting operations until the state authorities are satisfied that the equipment has been upgraded and effective emission-control equipment is in place. The company had failed to comply with two previous state orders.
Mines in northern Nevada use ore roasters to superheat gold-bearing ore to several thousand degrees. The ore contains mercury and during processing it is converted from its normal liquid state into airborne vapour, which can be dispersed by winds far from the point of origin. Through a complex natural process, inorganic mercury is converted into organic methyl mercury, a more toxic form.
Testing by the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection of numerous bodies of water downwind through Nevada and Idaho had shown that freshwater fish contain high levels of mercury in their flesh. In southern Idaho, fish tested from the Salmon Falls Creek Reservoir revealed the highest known levels of mercury in the state.
The Jerritt Canyon Mine is just one of about 25 large gold mines operating in northern Nevada. Over a 20-year span its known mercury emissions have been in excess of 10,000 pounds (4.6 tonnes) per year. By comparison, the average-size coal-fired power plant emits only 125 pounds (57 kg) of mercury per year.
USA: Revised Ozone Standard Causes Controversy
Most countries have an air quality standard for ozone, which is a primary component of smog. On 13th March 2008, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reduced the current regulatory limit on ground-level ozone concentrations (first set in 1997) from a maximum of 84 parts per billion (ppb) to 75 ppb.
A scientific advisory panel to the EPA had recommended a range of 60 to 70 ppb, but their advice was ignored as the Agency had been subjected to pressure by the White House. Washington officials had urged the EPA not to set a secondary “welfare” standard at a lower level to protect against other environmental problems, including potential damage to crops and other vegetation.
The EPA decision angered both sides, as it set the primary and secondary standards at the same level. Even so, the air quality in an estimated 345 municipalities and counties could be in violation when the new standard comes into effect in 2010.
International: Wheat Fungus Threatens Asian Crops
In 1999, a new type of wind-borne black stem wheat rust, a lethal fungus called Puccinia graminis, was discovered in Uganda and was given the name of Ug99. Virtually none of the commercial wheat now grown worldwide has any resistance to it. The crop pest subsequently spread to Kenya and Ethiopia as wind-blown spores. In 2007, it was detected in wheat fields in Yemen and was pronounced by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to be a more virulent strain than the original one found in east Africa. It was predicted that the new strain of Ug99 would migrate from Yemen towards other areas in the Middle East over a period of five years or so.
On 5th March 2008, however, the FAO warned in a statement that western Iran was threatened by the fungus when it was reported in areas of the Broujerd and Hamedan regions, confirmed by laboratory tests at the Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organisation (AREEO) of the Iranian Ministry of Jihad - Agriculture.
The fungus is now poised to threaten countries further east, such as Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. All these countries are major wheat producers, and around 80% of the wheat varieties planted in Asia and Africa are susceptible to the fungus. They face the potential threat of famine, as wheat rust epidemics cause considerable yield losses.
The spread of Ug99 may be slowed by disease surveillance, emergency measures such as spraying fungicide, or banning farmers from planting wheat in the prevailing wind pathways carrying the spores, but the only effective remedy will be to create new wheat varieties resistant to the fungus. Work is proceeding, but the seed will not be available in commercial quantities for several years.
In mid-March 2008, a joint meeting was held at the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Aleppo, Syria, to consider strategies to combat the rapid spread of the disease. It was organised by the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), a partnership between ICARDA, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), the FAO and Cornell University. The BGRI was established to combat wheat rust around the world by supporting countries in developing resistant varieties, producing clean quality seeds, upgrading national plant protection and plant breeding services and developing contingency plans.
On 2nd April 2008, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced it would give US $26.8 million over the next three years for research to breed new wheat strains that resist the Ug99 fungus. However, the news was negated by the US Government’s intention to withhold a grant worth $50 million to crop breeding institutes.
USA: Oil Well Runs Wild
On 19th March 2008, an oilrig operated by Walden Resources on Cove Mountain, Tennessee, hit an overpressure pocket of gas while drilling at 1,300 metres depth. A blowout preventer was installed but the well went out of control and spewed thousands of gallons of oil to the surface. A passing motorist ignored warnings about driving past the unstable rig and his vehicle ignited an explosion and fire.
The Roane County Emergency Management Office said that the driver of the car was the only person injured in the blast, which left the rig engulfed in 20-metre-high flames. Local residents were evacuated by fire-fighters and the fire was left to burn until wild well control specialists arrived from Houston to attempt a containment operation.
International: Melting Glaciers Threaten Asian Food Production
The Ganges in India and the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers in China are fed by rains during the monsoon season, but during the dry season they rely for most of their recharge on meltwater from glaciers in the Himalayas. Last year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that many Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035, an estimate widely regarded as too conservative. Chinese glaciologists have estimated that two-thirds of the glaciers on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau could be gone by 2060.
These three great rivers, which are vital for irrigation water to grow grain crops, are at risk of drying up, posing a considerable threat to food production. China and India together produce more than half the world supply of wheat and rice, and depend on the three river basins to supply it. In addition, the Yangtze irrigates around half of the annual Chinese rice crop.
A similar warning was issued in March 2008 by a former Pakistan agriculture minister, who pointed out that 60% of the Pakistan population depend on grain irrigated by the Indus river, which is fed by meltwater from Himalayan glaciers. Out of 19.72 million hectares of cultivable land, more than 12 million hectares are irrigated through a canal system fed by the Indus. The Indus river system is also showing the effect of glacial meltwater flow.
He called for the adoption of prudent water conservation methods, or agricultural yields would go into serious decline. He estimated that the present average yield of around 2.3 tonnes could be increased to more than 6 tonnes per acre with sound water management techniques and appropriate technological support.
However, if those technologies include greater reliance on and exploitation of underground aquifers it will not work because water tables are already falling under both the main grain-growing regions irrigated by this method on the North China Plain and in the Punjab.
The loss of both river and aquifer irrigation could lead to politically unmanageable food shortages.
Spain: Government Action on Drought Relief
On 28th March 2008, the Spanish Government unveiled new measures to relieve the impact of the driest winter on record, including diverting water between regions to ensure supplies to 2.5 million people in the severely affected Mediterranean coastal region. It was the second time this year that government action had been necessary to alleviate the persistent drought. In February, the Government stopped the outflow from dams and switched water between regions. In some regions of Spain, restrictions on water use have been in force for the past four years.
Under the new proposals, the Spanish Cabinet agreed to allow 39 cubic hectometres to be diverted from the Tagus river basin in the north and west of Spain to the basin of the Segura, which flows into the Mediterranean on the south-east coast. The Tagus flows through one of the leading grain-producing regions, Castilla-Leon, while the Segura supplies Murcia, known as "the Garden of Spain" for its horticulture.
Spain depends on water to irrigate crops and reduce its heavy dependence on imported grain (mainly required as animal feed). Water is also a key element in boosting hydroelectric output as part of an official drive to promote renewable energy.
Spanish water reservoirs, including both those for agriculture and human consumption, are 44.1% full, down from 51.5% a year ago. Reservoirs intended for hydroelectricity generation are down to 54.5% capacity from 77.1% this time last year. The proportion of electricity contributed by hydroelectric turbines fell to 5.1% of the total in the first two months of 2008, down from 12% in what used to be thought of as a normal year.
In the Catalonian capital of Barcelona, water reserves have fallen to 19% of capacity, a critical level as reservoirs must be shut down at 15% to prevent drawing excess sediment into the system.
Spain has already been warned that it would be one of the countries worst affected by global warming. The strain on water resources is the greater because most development is taking place along its arid coastline. The country also suffers water losses of around 20% through leaking distribution pipes, perhaps not as high as in the UK but Spain has far less rainfall to compensate.
USA: Navajo Nation Plans for Wind Power Electricity
The Navajo Nation is an independent state lying in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. It has a population of around 200,000 native Americans, and has a long history of poverty and unemployment. The population has only limited access to power and running water. Over many years the Nation has made little progress in its attempts to build a third 1,500 MW coal-fired power plant named Desert Rock, because the US Environmental Protection Agency has refused to issue it an air emissions permit.
On 28th March 2008, it was announced that a joint venture had been formed between Dine Power Authority, the Navajo energy enterprise, and the Boston company Citizens Energy Corp., to develop 500 megawatts of wind energy on Navajo lands. It is estimated that the Dine Wind Project could produce between $60 to $100 million in total revenue for the Navajo Nation over the lifetime of the project, not including the employment and environmental benefits of wind energy.
If the 500 MW wind power project is successful, it could be a significant addition to wind power generation in the United States. Total installed US wind power at the end of 2007 was nearly 17,000 MW.
Ireland: State Utility to Halve Carbon Output by 2020
The Irish Electricity Supply Board (ESB) announced in late March 2008 an investment programme of €22 billion, half of which it plans to spend on renewable energy sources such as wind, tidal and biomass. The state-owned utility aims to halve its carbon emissions within 12 years, by which time it will be delivering one-third of its electricity from renewable generation.
The renewable component will include over 1,400 megawatts from wind power, in addition to wave, tidal and biomass sources. The company aims to achieve a carbon- neutral state by 2035 by utilising carbon capture and carbon offsets.
Ireland imports nearly 90% of its fossil fuels. The ESB plans to cease operating oil- burning power stations, although gas-burning stations will continue. More use will be made of coal utilising new clean technology and carbon capture.
European Union countries agreed last year to cut emissions contributing to global warming by 2020 and increase the share of wind, solar, hydro and wave power in electricity output by the same date.
Apart from cutting emissions by at least 20% by 2020 from 1990 levels, EU states have agreed to use 20% of renewable energy sources in power production and 10% of biofuels from crops in transport by the same date.
European Union: Workplace Accident Statistics
Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Commission) and member states are currently working on a programme to give consistency to workplace injury statistics in the EU. Based on common definitions, Eurostat published in late March 2008 standardised statistics for fatal injuries, and injuries leading to more than three days’ absence. The most recent statistics are for 2005. According to figures from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, the work-related accident rate in the EU is one every five seconds, and the mortality rate one worker every two hours.
In 2005, there were 4,011 work-related fatalities in the EU, including road traffic and transport accidents occurring during work.
There were 3,628 work-related deaths in the nine branches of industry that are covered by injury notification in all member states, comprising 1,054 in construction, 726 in manufacturing, 637 in transport, 514 in agriculture, 320 in the retail and wholesale trade, 276 in the two branches of financial and business services, 62 in hotels and restaurants and 39 in utilities. Road transport accidents accounted for 1, 402 fatal injuries.
In 2005, the EU average rate of work-related fatal injury excluding transport was 2.3 per 100,000 workers. The UK rate is 1.4 and is the lowest among EU member states.
The EU average rate of fatal injury has decreased by 15% since 2001. Over the same period the UK fatal rate has fallen by 7%. On average, UK rates of fatal injury in the main industrial sectors are substantially lower than the EU average. The British rate of (non-fatal) over-three-day injury is lower than other member states with the exception of Sweden and Ireland.
International: Can Global Emissions Reductions be Achieved?
Current attempts to mitigate the effects of global climate change are based on the evolutionary but unprecedented expansion of tested strategies, including renewable energy sources and nuclear power, CO2 capture and storage, methane emissions reduction, and forest protection.
The scenarios published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assume that very substantial technological advances, leading to greater energy efficiency and reduced carbon dioxide intensity, will happen spontaneously and without additional policy measures.
This assumption was questioned in an article by Roger Pielke, Tom Wigley and Christopher Green published online by the journal Nature, reference Nature 452, 508-509 (2008) | doi:10.1038/452508a. The writers consider it to be a gross underestimate of the challenges involved in reducing and stabilising greenhouse-gas emissions. They argue that to meet future energy needs, the evolutionary development of improved energy technologies must happen at four times the rate suggested by the IPCC.
The IPCC assumptions reflect the reasoning that high economic growth normally goes hand in hand with high rates of technological change. However, actual economic growth and energy use may develop in different ways than assumed in the scenarios.
The IPCC scenarios developed in 2000 do not match historical observations, as they did not foresee the extraordinary growth in the Chinese and Indian economies. There has also been less technological change in the past decade than was assumed, creating a bias in the extrapolated cost of emission reductions.
South Africa: Asbestos Banned by Law
For a century South Africa was a major producer of crocidolite (blue), amosite (brown) and chrysotile (white) asbestos, but in 2001 mining ceased and asbestos was gradually phased out from 2003.
On 27th March 2008, the South African Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism announced that new Asbestos Regulations had come into force that prohibit the use, processing, manufacturing, import and export of any asbestos or asbestos-containing materials, including waste. Penalties for the continued use of asbestos are a fine of up to R100,000 (US $12,000), a prison term of up to ten years, or both.
Zimbabwe and Canada had asked to be exempted from the prohibition but this had been denied. However, South Africa will continue to allow Zimbabwean asbestos products to pass through its borders while in transit.
Exposure to asbestos in the workplace, including mining, industrial, commercial, retail and public workplaces, and work involving the maintenance of building materials, is still controlled by the Asbestos Regulations 2001. Employers are required to draw up a register of all asbestos-containing materials, conduct a risk assessment, educate and inform employees, protect employees from exposure to asbestos and conduct regular dust and health surveillance.
International: UN Action on Air Pollution by Shipping
At a meeting held in London in early April 2008, the member countries of the UN International Maritime Organisation (IMO) considered how best to reduce harmful shipping pollutants, such as PM10s, sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide. The IMO agreed provisionally to critical limits on the sulphur content in ship fuels, although negotiations on CO2 emissions were still continuing.
The sulphur limit has repercussions for the oil refining industry as it will affect the availability and price of diesel for road transport. Cleaner distillate fuels would increasingly make up a substantial part of the fuel mix in the future.
The proposed revision of the marine pollution laws known as MARPOL Annex VI is:
- By 2010, all Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECAs), of which there are at present only two, the Baltic and the North Sea, will have a ship fuel sulphur limit of 1% compared to the current 1.5%.
- By 2012, the global sulphur limit will be reduced to 3.5% on ship fuels from the current 4.5%.
- By 2015, all SECA limits will be reduced to 0.1% from 1.5%. By then Japan, Australia and other regions are likely to have full SECAs alongside the EU and America.
- By 2020, the global limit will be reduced to 0.5% applied to ship fuels across the world, with an absolute deadline for compliance in 2025.
The IMO move will prove expensive for the shipping industry, as fuels represent up to 50% of operating costs and the price of bunker fuels will increase considerably.
USA: Environmental Protection Agency Sued over Greenhouse Gases
On 2nd April 2008, 18 American states sued the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks, one year after the Supreme Court ruled that the Agency had the power to do so. The lawsuit stated that the EPA has determined that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public welfare and must therefore regulate such pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The legal suit sought the response of the EPA to the high court ruling and is seen as a landmark defeat for the Bush administration policy on global climate change.
In addition to the states, officials from three cities and 11 environmental groups signed the suit, which sought action within 60 days, but a response is unlikely before George W. Bush leaves office.
International: Melting Ice Caps and Volcanic Eruptions
A research paper published in April 2008 by C. Pagli and F. Sigmundsson, “Will present day glacier retreat increase volcanic activity? Stress induced by recent glacier retreat and its effect on magmatism at the Vatnajökull ice cap, Iceland”, Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2008GL033510, discusses the influence of melting ice caps on volcanic activity in Iceland.
The writers argue that global warming is melting the largest ice cap in Iceland, which is disappearing at a rate of five cubic kilometres per year. As the ice melts, it relieves the pressure exerted on the volcanic rock buried deep under the ice sheet and thus increases the rate at which the solid rock melts into magma.
There are several active volcanoes in Iceland buried under ice. The last major eruption was in 1996 at Gjàlp, and before then in 1938. The results of field research suggest that the extra magma produced as the ice cap melts could supply enough magma for similar eruptions to take place at a significantly shorter average time interval. Over the past century the production of magma has increased by 10%, and an additional 1.4 km3 of magma has been formed under the Vatnajökull ice cap.
The situation in Iceland provides a model of wider application. Thinning ice cover causes change in the weight bearing down on the crust of the Earth and thus induces change in the geological stresses in the crust, increasing the likelihood of volcanic eruptions. Similar places likely to be at increased risk of eruption due to ice-melt include Mount Erebus in Antarctica, the Aleutian Islands and other Alaskan volcanoes.
Other researchers have pointed out that increasing the loading on the crust may trigger volcanic activity as well, and the melting of ice sheets is raising sea levels. Thus there is the possibility of a widespread increase in volcanic activity as an effect of global warming.
International: Construction Handbook
The Centre for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) in the USA has made available online the latest edition of its construction handbook providing information on all facets of the US construction industry, including health and safety issues. It provides guidance on the total cost of injuries and illnesses to the construction industry, the use of health care services among construction workers, expanded reporting of blood lead levels in construction workers, chronic illnesses and health risks and respiratory diseases. The Construction Chart Book was produced with a grant from the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
The entire fourth edition book can be downloaded as a PDF document from the CPWR website. Be warned, however, that it is 18 MB in size. Individual sections of the handbook can be accessed at:
http://www.cpwr.com/rp-chartbook.html
International: Pesticide Use and Parkinson's Disease
A paper published in the journal BMC Neurology suggests there is strong evidence that exposure to pesticides significantly increases the risk of Parkinson's disease. The study by Dana B. Hancock et al, “Pesticide exposure and risk of Parkinson's disease: a family-based case-control study”, BMC Neurology 2008, 8:6doi:10.1186/1471-2377-8-6, was based on 319 cases of the neurological disease and 296 of their relatives without the disease as controls. The cases all had associations with direct pesticide application, well-water consumption, and farming residence or occupation. Allowances were made while controlling for age-at-examination, gender, cigarette smoking, and caffeine consumption.
The study found that sufferers from Parkinson's disease (PD) were more than twice as likely to report heavy exposure to pesticides over their lifetime as family members without the disease. Consuming well-water and living or working on a farm were not associated with PD.
When classifying pesticides by type, exposure to both insecticides and herbicides was found to significantly increase the risk of PD. Two specific types of insecticide, organochlorine and organophosphate compounds, were significantly associated with PD. The data confirm a positive association of exposure to two specific pesticide classes with the incidence of Parkinson's disease.
European Union: Windfall Profits for Power Companies
In a report published on 7th April 2008, the environment organisation WWF criticised the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) as being flawed and subject to abuse by power companies. Under the current ETS, energy-intensive industries are allowed to release a fixed level of CO2 emissions. Those companies that exceed their limit have to buy surplus allowances at auction, the aim being to create an incentive for businesses to reduce their emissions. This has not happened in practice.
European national governments are allowed to auction up to 10% of their allocated pollution emissions permits, which represent caps on member states’ emissions; but the WWF estimate that the proportion actually sold is closer to 4%. The remainder is handed out free to power utilities in excess of their requirements, providing them with windfall profits of around €71 billion (£56 billion). The major beneficiaries of the free permits are German power generators, who make €14 billion to €34 billion, despite their 70% dependence on coal. The power utilities have also been passing on the cost of emissions permits directly to their customers in the form of ever-increasing energy bills.
The EU plans to abandon the issue of free permits to the power sector after 2012.
Bahrain: Climate Change and Human Health
In recognition of the first UN World Health Day on 7th April 1948, a joint seminar was held on the same date this year in Bahrain, organised by the Health Ministry and the Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife, under the patronage of its chairman, Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Although Bahrain has been little affected so far by climate change, the Health Ministry is concerned with planning for the foreseeable health effects upon its population in the form of an increasing incidence of mortality from hyperthermia and diseases spread by insects, such as ticks and mosquitoes.
Climate change has also increased the risk of natural disasters, especially severe dry weather, wildfires, major storms and floods, all of which have direct or indirect effects on human health. A natural disaster can cause death directly, or in consequence by food shortages and the spread of bacterial or virus diseases.
Australia: Sydney’s Toxic Seaweed
In a forthcoming study to be published in the journal Environmental Pollution, lead author David Roberts reports that the abundant brown seaweed of the Sydney Harbour coastal area is contaminated with the world's highest known levels of lead and copper, sufficient to devastate small marine animals.
Researchers from the University of New South Wales found that Rushcutters Bay and Balmain's Mort Bay are among the most polluted in an eight-kilometre stretch of the harbour. The copper and lead levels were the highest ever recorded in seaweed, with lead levels six times higher than those off Hong Kong Island and well in excess of water quality guidelines.
The study confirmed that in areas of high copper concentration, particularly Rushcutters Bay and Woolloomooloo Bay, the population of small marine crustaceans that feed on the seaweed had fallen by 60%. They would normally have been present at a density of around 6,000 per square metre, but had been killed by copper leaching from the harbour floor.
The sources of the heavy metal contamination are believed to be stormwater run-off from the city and its suburbs, and particles shed by copper-hulled boats. The use of leaded petrol was discontinued 20 years ago, but it remains present in the harbour sediments.
The New South Wales Environment Ministry was described as still addressing the legacy of manufacturing around the harbour and run-off from dumped industrial waste.
Spain: Radioactive Leak from Endesa Power Plant
On 5th April 2008, the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) reported that it had detected a radioactive leak at an Endesa nuclear plant near the port of Tarragona in the north-east Catalonia region. It claimed that any human exposure would have been well below the legal maximum, but admitted that around 800 people had to be screened for radioactivity exposure. The isotope particles, probably of cobalt and manganese, were detected outside of buildings at the Asco I 1,000-megawatt plant and described as being released from an air filtering system contaminated while the reactor was being refuelled in November 2007. The CSN, which was not told of the leak until 4th April 2008, said that the frequency of inspections at the plant had been increased and contamination was being cleaned up as and when discovered. The manager and nuclear safety director at the plant had their employment terminated.
Asco I has a pressurised water reactor (PWR) and is wholly owned by the second largest Spanish utility, Endesa. It came on stream in August 1983 and its operating permit is due to expire in 2011.
China: Seven Coal Miners Killed in Underground Flood
On 8th April 2008, seven people were killed and two were reported missing after a coal mine flood in the Chongqing Municipality of south-west China. The cause of the accident is under investigation by the safety authorities.
The accident took place in Lutang coal mine, which belongs to the state-owned Chongqing Zhongliangshan Coal Electric Limited Liability Company. The mine, in the Pengshui Miao and Tujia Autonomous County, has an annual output of 120,000 tonnes of coal.
Pakistan: Two Workers Die in Nuclear Plant Leak
On 8th April 2008, a gas leak took place during the annual maintenance shutdown at the Pakistan Atomic Energy Authority Khushab heavy water plant in central Punjab province. The plant was evacuated but two workers were killed by exposure to what was described as a non-radioactive chemical gas while involved in attempts to contain the release. When the incident was brought under control, the leaking gas was burnt in the plant flare system.
The nuclear facilities at Khushab are not subject to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. It was reported last year by the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington that Pakistan was building a third plutonium production reactor at Khushab, although this has not been confirmed by the Government.
China: Five Arrested after Fatal Mine Accident
Following a fatal accident on 8th April 2008, Chinese police detained the general manager, the facilities manager, the production manager and two elevator operators at the privately-owned Fengyuan lead-zinc ore mine near Tieling City, Liaoning Province. The elevator plunged to the bottom of its shaft while carrying eight mine workers, all of whom were killed.
The mine was founded in 2001 with a designed annual production capacity of 10,000 tonnes. Although the company has a legal business licence, it suspended operations in the first half of 2007 for technical renovations to increase its output to 60,000 tonnes. Operations were resumed in February 2008.
The local government sent a team of investigators, including police and production safety supervision administration officials, to the site.
Bahrain: Inauguration of First Integrated Commercial Wind Turbine Project
In the second week of April 2008, the world’s first large-scale wind turbine facility to be integrated into a commercial development was completed at the Bahrain World Trade Centre. The project contains three 29-metre-diameter-blade turbines and is expected to provide around 13% of the electrical power for the two towers when fully operational. The turbines are forecast to be operational for around 50% of the time.
The turbine installation was by Atkins Architects and Engineers and Norwin turbine specialists, using established technologies. The elliptical-shaped towers act as aerofoils, funnelling and accelerating the air between them from the prevailing onshore wind from the Gulf coast.
The project received both the LEAF Awards 2006 for “Best Use of Innovative Technology within a Large Scheme” and the Arab Construction World “Sustainable Design Award”.
Nigeria: Kidnapped Oil Workers Released
On 4th April 2008, the Nigerian press confirmed that after government negotiations five employees of Express/Shebah Petroleum and Gas Company Limited, all Nigerians, who were kidnapped on 30th March offshore from Ondo had been released.
The abduction by militia from the Ilaje communities took place from an offshore platform after eight speedboats surrounded the structure. The Ilaje communities claim that the oil company had failed to honour a previous agreement to offer employment and scholarships to the young of the community.
Ondo government officials stated that such hostage situations would no longer be tolerated. Oil production for the area is around two million barrels of oil per day, with 36 million barrels in reserve.
USA: Second Tennessee Well Runs Wild
Following a wild well incident on 19th March 2008 on Cove Mountain, Tennessee, when a rig hit an overpressure pocket of gas at 1,300 metres depth, on 7th April a gas deposit ignited at shallower depth during the drilling of a well about 120 kilometres north-west of Chattanooga. The pressure was such that fire-fighters abandoned efforts to cap the hole and instead diverted gas via a makeshift chimney. They set up a water curtain to block the combustion heat from nearby homes under construction.
The rig was operated by Samuel Mills and Son Well Drilling of Pikeville, Tennessee, and its purpose was to install a well for a geothermal heating unit. Such geothermal systems are located throughout the McMinnville area, and include 150 wells used to heat and cool the town's civic centre.
The Wild Well Control Company of Houston was called in to help extinguish the blaze, which was eventually extinguished by filling the well with water prior to removal of the drill bit. The overpressure meant that the well could not be capped and the fire would be left to burn out naturally.
Press reports did not explain why established precautions against a known hazard were not in place.
International: New Smokestack Retrofit Material for Emissions Capture
Researchers from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the US Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pennsylvania, have published a report on the development of a new, low-cost material for capturing carbon dioxide from the smokestacks of coal-fired electric power plants and other industrial sources that generate greenhouse gases.
The problem with existing carbon capture technology is that it is unsuitable for wide use. Absorbent liquids are energy-intensive and expensive, while solid adsorbents suffer from low absorption capacities and lack stability after extended use.
The research describes development of a new solid adsorbent called a hyperbranched aminosilica (HAS) that captures up to seven times more carbon dioxide than conventional solid materials, including some of the best carbon dioxide adsorbents currently available. The material shows greater stability under different temperature extremes, allowing it to be recycled many times. Combined with improved heat management techniques, the new material could provide a cost-effective way to capture large quantities of CO2 from coal-burning facilities.
The HAS material has the combination of high capacity, easy synthesis, low cost, and a robust ability to be recycled, all of which are key criteria for an adsorbent that could be scaled up for use on an industrial commercial scale. Once removed from flue stream gases, the CO2 might be sequestered underground, as and when the sequestration process can be proven viable. Production of the material requires only the mixing of a silica substrate with the precursor of an amine polymer in solution. The amine polymer is initiated on the silica surface, producing a solid material that can be filtered out and dried.
The reference is Jason C. Hicks, et al, 2008, “Designing Adsorbents for CO2 Capture from Flue Gas-Hyperbranched Aminosilicas Capable of Capturing CO2 Reversibly”, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 130 (10), 2902 -2903, 2008; 10.1021/ja077795v.
Australia: Xstrata Faces Lawsuit on Lead Poisoning
On 14th April 2008, it was announced that the company Xstrata Copper North Queensland was to face legal action from a lead poisoning victim over its Mount Isa mining and smelting operations, which produce around 4% of the world's lead.
The legal case is likely to escalate because local health authorities have identified 45 children with dangerously high levels of lead in their blood in the remote mining town of Mount Isa, 1,300 km north-west of the city of Brisbane. The town lies directly adjacent to the zinc, lead, copper and silver mining operation. The Queensland Health Agency has been testing children in Mount Isa for elevated lead levels in their blood and is due to publish its report in May 2008.
Xstrata, which purchased the operation from MIM Holdings Ltd in 2003, claims the company has 15 environmental monitoring stations around Mount Isa, and disputes a convincing causal connection between exposure and the alleged illnesses.
However, concerns over lead contamination forced another international mining company, Ivernia Inc. of Canada, to close its Magellan lead mine after lead residue was blamed for the death of thousands of birds in western Australia.
Bangladesh: Climate Change Challenge
Bangladesh government officials and non-government organisations estimate that annual floods and storms damaging river estuaries and coastal islands threaten around ten million people.
In April 2008, the International Institute for Environmental Development, which is based in London, said in a statement that around 30% of the Bangladesh coastline could be flooded if the sea rises on average one metre in the next 50 years, causing salt water incursion into underground freshwater aquifers and making agriculture unsustainable. The additional number of people displaced from their farms would be around 20 million, roughly the same as the population of Australia. It is unclear how the Government could feed, house or find enough clean water for 30 million refugees in a country of 140 million people occupying an area of 142,080 sq km.
The Government is taking steps in terms of infrastructure protection by building embankments, cyclone shelters, roads and other works over the next 15 years to mitigate climate change threats. The total population is growing at 2% per annum, however, and consuming arable land for occupation at a similar rate. Bangladesh increased food grain production to nearly 30 million tonnes from less than half that in the early 1980s because of better farming practices and high-yielding varieties of rice, but has now reached a saturation point in food production.
The World Bank has advised Bangladesh to change cultivation practices to boost food security, plant large areas of forest in flood-prone areas along rivers and the coast and build embankments.
Peru: Trapped Miners Rescued
A landslide that took place on 12th April 2008 in the Andes mountain foothills trapped seven miners, who were buried under rubble. The small independent mineral mine concerned is at Chuncanaqui, in the region of Ancash, north of Lima.
The miners were trapped for around 38 hours before their rescue by police, civil defence workers and technicians from the Canadian company, Barrick Gold Corp. They were found inside the mine's entrance and were not seriously injured.
In the Spring of 2008, heavy rains in central and northern Peru caused extensive landslides and flooding as a result of which at least 16 people have been killed.
International: Early Mountain Snow Melt Threatens Water Shortages
From the European Geosciences Union conference held in April 2008 in Vienna, Austria, it was reported by hydrogeologists that Austrian glaciers and mountain snow were melting earlier in the year than usual, in common with mountain glaciers throughout the world. The significance is that the water will be gone by the time that large populations need it during the summer when rainfall is lower. Rising global temperatures mean the melt water is occurring earlier in the year and faster and the mountains may no longer be able to provide a vital stopgap.
The areas most at risk from a lack of water for drinking and agriculture include parts of the Middle East, southern Africa, the United States, and South America. Areas dependent on glacier melt water feeding streams and rivers include the entire Alpine region of the Mediterranean and the Himalayan countries.
Of the melt water contribution to supplies, 70% is used for crop irrigation and the remainder for drinking.
Other researchers at the conference said that melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warming water could lift average global sea levels by between 0.8-1.5 metres by the end of this century, displacing tens of millions of people. The prediction of an 18-59 centimetre rise by 2100 made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is now considered a serious underestimate in the light of new data and more accurate reconstruction of sea levels over the past 2,000 years. The IPCC had failed to account for ice dynamics, i.e. the more rapid movement of ice sheets due to melt water, which could markedly speed up their disappearance and boost sea levels.
Canada: Bisphenol A Reclassified as a Dangerous Substance
On 15th April 2008, the Canadian government department Health Canada reclassified Bisphenol A (BPA) as a dangerous substance, making it the first regulatory body in the world to reach such a determination and taking the initial step toward measures to control exposure to it.
The Government did not announce specific bans or restrictions, but the new designation as dangerous could pave the way for the chemical compound, which mimics the female hormone oestrogen and is a known endochrine disruptor, to be listed as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. This in turn would allow the Health Minister to issue specific measures to curb its use.
Concerns over the widespread presence of BPA in food and beverage containers have been raised before. BPA was originally developed in 1891 as a synthetic oestrogen. It was only in the 1950s that it was realised it could be made into polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins, and it has since become one of the most widely used synthetic chemicals. It is used to make the epoxy resins lining the insides of most tin cans, along with numerous other uses such as helmets and CDs. US tests found that 93% of the human population carry trace residues of the chemical in their bodies, derived by leaching from containers and liquid detergents.
The conclusion by Health Canada that BPA is a possible threat amounts to one of the most important regulatory decisions regarding a single chemical in decades, and will put pressure on its counterparts in both the European Union and the US Food and Drug Administration to reconsider their approval.
Health Canada and Environment Canada are expected to publish a draft assessment indicating that Bisphenol A endangers people and the environment, and after public consultation the Government will issue a final report outlining control measures within a year.
On the day after the Canadian announcement, a request was made in the American Congress for the US Food and Drug Administration to reconsider its view that Bisphenol A is safe in products for use by infants and children. The action was based on a recent draft report by the US National Toxicology Programme, which identified health risks from BPA following experimental exposure of laboratory rats to the substance.
Middle East and North Africa: World Bank Warns of Impending Water Crisis
On 15th April 2008, the World Bank warned that North Africa and the Middle East countries are overusing limited water resources to such an extent that by 2050 the amount of water available per head will halve. The consequences will be social unrest and wholesale population migration to urban areas. While human population numbers are expected to rise, adverse climatic change will reduce rainfall by 20% by 2050. Declining water quality alone has already reduced the gross domestic product of Morocco, Algeria and Egypt by 1%; and of Iran by around 3%.
The World Bank stated that a water crisis can still be averted if governments pay heed to infrastructure development by repairing leaking water networks and reducing evaporation losses, building new desalination plants and educating people not to waste water, particularly in the area of agricultural irrigation which accounts for 85% of total consumption.
The World Bank complimented Tunisia and Jordan as being strong performers in the management of water demand and making the most of available water. Although Morocco set an example after it gained independence by capturing available rain with a network of dams, in the farming-intensive Souss region around Agadir the water table has since fallen by 60 metres over a 25-year period.
Bahrain: Oil Well Fire
Output from the onshore BAPCO Awali field was not seriously affected when a wellhead caught fire after being struck by a truck on 12th April 2008. No injuries were reported. At the time the well was being used for gas reinjection at the field to enhance oil output. The collision caused a high-pressure gas leak, which ignited on the following day. The gas pressure was such that the fire could not be put out with available equipment and manpower.
The specialist American company, Wild Well Control of Houston, was called in to extinguish the fire. The company was said to be bringing in fire-fighting equipment by road from the United Arab Emirates.
The Awali field was discovered in 1932 and was the first oil find on the Arab side of the Gulf. Its production is around 35,000 barrels per day (bpd). Bahrain also receives around 150,000 bpd of crude from Saudi Arabia, its share of output from the Abu Saafa oilfield.
China: Managers Sentenced to Seven Years’ Imprisonment
In mid-April 2008, the chairman and deputy general manager of a coal mine that flooded in August 2007 and drowned 172 workers, were sentenced to seven years in prison for negligence. The incident was caused by a river dyke, which burst in torrential rain, sending water rushing into two mineshafts.
The miners were declared dead after several weeks of pumping failed to lower the water level in the mine. The managers were found guilty of failing to halt production and order an evacuation in time, delaying the chance for the miners to escape.
International: UN Climate Change Panel Announces Further Reports
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced on 16th April 2008 that its fifth report will be published by 2014. The report from the first working group will be circulated in 2013, so that its findings can be incorporated more fully into the reports from the second and third working groups.
At its planning meeting in Budapest, the IPCC also released a smaller report on the effects of climate change on water supplies worldwide. The agency also plans to produce a special report on renewable energy, which is expected to be released in 2010.
Australia: Drought and the Global Rice Shortage
The largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere is the giant Australian Ricegrower's Co-operative Deniliquin mill, located 725 km south-west of Sydney in Australia, which has a milling capacity of 50 tonnes per hour and once bulk-processed enough grain to meet the needs of 20 million people around the world. After six years of severe drought the Australian rice crop has fallen by 98% and the entire plant has been forced to suspend operations.
The collapse of Australian rice production is one of several factors contributing to a doubling of rice prices in the first three months of 2008. The increases led the other large producers to restrict exports severely, triggering social unrest in several countries, including Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, the Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
The Australian drought has also caused changes in agricultural land use, with those farmers still able to grow rice switching to less water-intensive crops, such as wheat or wine grapes. This has worried economists as the reallocation of scarce water resources away from rice and other grains toward more lucrative crops and livestock production threatens poor countries that import rice as a dietary staple.
Even with the recent rice price of around $1,000 per tonne for the high grades produced in Australia, it is more profitable to grow wine grapes, which yield a pre-tax profit of close to $5,000 per hectare, while rice produces a pre-tax profit of around $600 per hectare.
The World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation have called on major agricultural nations to overhaul policies to avoid even worse social unrest from rising food prices. In the last 25 years, rice consumption has outpaced production in the countries where it is grown, causing a decline in global reserves; the reserves figure has fallen by 50% since 2000. Around 645 million tonnes of rice (430 million tonnes in milled rice equivalent) was grown in 114 producing countries in 2007. It is a diet basic for three billion people. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted last year that even slight global warming would lower agricultural output in the tropics and subtropics.
UAE: Developments in Low-Carbon Power
In an announcement made on 17th April 2008, the Chief Executive of the MASDAR Initiative said that the United Arab Emirates would guarantee high prices for low-carbon electricity to make sure investments succeed in hydrogen and solar power. The UAE recently guaranteed higher prices for a proposed solar power plant and would do the same for a hydrogen plant once MASDAR had presented a business case. The UAE wants to begin preparations for an era of falling oil reserves by investing in alternative sources of energy such as renewables.
The MASDAR Initiative is focused around a zero carbon-emitting city to be completed by 2015, intended to be the hub of clean technology businesses, research and deployment, as well as home to 40,000-50,000 people and a workplace for an additional 40,000 commuters.
The proposed hydrogen plant, which is a joint venture between BP and the mining company Rio Tinto and has a capital cost of $2 billion, will utilise natural gas as fuel to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The CO2 would be trapped and injected into oilfields as an aid to enhanced oil recovery. The hydrogen would be sold to electricity generating plants as a clean fuel.
MASDAR will also invest in the project along with Hydrogen Energy, as capital is required to pay for the running cost of transporting and storing the CO2 underground. However, there is still a need for a policy which guarantees a higher power price for hydrogen, hence the necessity to present the case to the Government by next year.
The Government has already given its backing to a proposed 100 MW solar thermal plant.
Greenland: Effects of Global Warming on the Ice Sheet
In the summer months the surface of the Greenland ice sheet melts and the water pools on top, forming many lakes that are often kilometres across. These temporary lakes are known to drain rapidly through cracks in the melting ice below and down to the bedrock, but how fast was unknown.
A team of researchers from the US Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution carried out studies next to a three-kilometre-wide lake in western Greenland in July 2006. Their seismometers picked up disturbances from the ice, and 30 minutes later the water started draining. The entire lake disappeared in about an hour and a half, which meant that the lake was draining at a greater rate of flow than the water passing over Niagara Falls.
The researchers think that the weight of the water created a fracture in the ice which then opened through the entire one-kilometre thickness. Once at the base of the ice sheet, the water seems to have drained away within a day, either by tapping into an existing drainage system or forming a new system under the ice sheet.
The immediate concern was that with further global warming such melt water would increase and have a catastrophic destabilising effect on the ice sheet by lubricating its base and making it slide quickly into the ocean.
However, another study by the University of Washington in Seattle using satellite imagery and GPS data suggests that the melt water effect is not as strong as feared. The team assembled the first map of the movement of the ice sheet and glaciers in Greenland, and found that each summer the ice sheets slid toward the ocean at twice the speed they did during the rest of the year. Glaciers, which flow much faster than the surrounding ice sheet, showed a speed increase of less than 15% during the summer.
The conclusion was that lubrication from melt water could make Greenland lose between 10% to 25% more ice over the present century than if this effect was not at work. The team wrote that increased melting from continuing global warming does not seem likely to cause a runaway effect, as had been predicted, although global warming does seem to be substantially speeding up the rate of glacier flow through other means, such as warmer ocean waters dissolving the feet of the glaciers. They describe the scenario as substantial but not catastrophic.
The journal references are: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1153360, and DOI: 10.1126/science.1153288.
Cyprus: Government Emergency Action on Failing Water Supply
On 21st April 2008, the Cypriot Agriculture Ministry signed a contract with a local shipping company to begin importing fresh water. An estimated eight million cubic metres of water will be imported from Greece by November 2008, despite Greece being warned by the EU Environment Commissioner that it faces potential drought.
Official records show that rainfall in Cyprus has fallen by 20% over the past 35 years. In mid-April this year, reservoirs were 9.8% full, and contained 26.8 million cubic metres of water. Emergency water rationing was introduced in March and all households have a reduced supply, in some cases involving denial of service for up to five days. Hospitals have been particularly badly affected.
Europe: Palm Oil Protests against Unilever
In April 2008, the Anglo-Dutch corporation Unilever became the target for environmental pressure groups in England and the Netherlands over the source of the 800,000 tonnes of palm oil that it processes annually into food products, such as margarine, and another 500,000 tonnes used in soap and cosmetics.
Protesters claim that the peatland forests of Indonesia, one of the last remaining habitats of the orang-utan, are being damaged to create palm oil plantations. They called on the company to end the expansion of palm oil into forest and peatland areas and stop trading with suppliers who continue to destroy rainforests. Alternative sources of palm oil are available that do not cause rainforest destruction.
Unilever is a member of the multinational Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and is the world’s largest purchaser of palm oil at around 1.3 million tonnes per year.
Unilever said of its palm oil operations that the company is looking to determine what actions need to be taken, if any, and will look at the supply chain.
Russia: Wildfires Trigger State of Emergency
The Russian authorities declared a state of emergency in southern and eastern regions of the country in mid-April 2008 due to numerous out-of-control wildfires. Natural wildfires usually peak in late summer and their occurrence this early in the year is attributed to human land-clearing agricultural activities, with unintentional fire spread to adjacent forests.
An image of dozens of large active fires in the Amur Oblast’ region was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the NASA Aqua satellite and made available online at:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17998
Middle East: Energy Demand Soars
Energy demand in the Middle East is reported to be growing as fast as in China, despite its far smaller population. Record oil prices are encouraging greater consumption and stimulating rapid economic growth in the Gulf region. State subsidies on fuels remove the incentive for energy efficiency and environmental arguments for reducing carbon emissions have as yet made little impact. In Saudi Arabia, the cost of gasoline to the consumer is 12 cents a litre, in the USA 86 cents, and in the UK the equivalent is $2.14.
According to the International Energy Authority, Middle East demand was 6.6 million barrels of oil per day in 2007, and is expected to rise to 7 million bpd this year. Oil demand in China is also around 7 million bpd. In both cases oil demand is predicted to increase by around 5% a year.
Much of the increase will be met by Saudi Arabia, where a major expansion in refining and petrochemicals is under way, with the additional capacity coming on stream in 2013.
Canada: Ban on Sale and Use of Garden Pesticides
The Ontario provincial government announced on 22nd April 2008 that the sale and general use of pesticides would be banned from next year under new environmental legislation aimed at curbing the “cosmetic” use of potentially hazardous pest control products on residential lawns, gardens and parks. Exceptions will be made for golf courses, farms and forests. Only the province of Quebec has a similar ban.
Pesticide industry sources commented that while they support an end to non-essential use of pesticides, the new Bill creates a double standard by allowing use on farms and golf courses but not on lawns. Either pesticides are safe for use or they are not.
International: Ozone Exposure Increases Premature Death Risk
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requested the National Research Council (NRC), part of the advisory US National Academies of Science, to analyse the link between ozone and early death. On 22nd April 2008, the NRC released its report, which looks at ground-level ozone, a component of smog, as opposed to the ozone found in the upper atmosphere, which protects the Earth from ultraviolet rays.
Ozone is a form of oxygen and a powerful oxidising agent which can cause cellular damage in the body. It is formed by the reaction of sunlight on air containing pollutants such as hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide. It is known to cause respiratory problems and worsen heart disease, with children and the elderly at special risk.
The NRC committee found that deaths related to ozone exposure are more likely among people with pre-existing diseases and other factors that could increase their susceptibility. They also said that short-term exposure to current levels of ozone is likely to contribute to premature deaths, but not just limited to people who are already within a few days of dying. A review of existing literature showed that there is a dose response to ozone levels with a clear effect on mortality.
The report recommends that the US Environmental Protection Agency consider ozone-related mortality in any future ozone standards, and local health authorities should keep this in mind when advising people to stay indoors on polluted days.
The EPA tightened up its standards for ozone pollution in March 2008, but outside experts complained that the new requirements were more lax than recommended by the EPA's own scientists. The new standard is 75 parts per billion in ambient air in the United States. The previous standard was 80 parts per billion. The EPA Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee had recommended a standard of 60 to 70 parts per billion.
International: Factsheets on Health and Safety Management
The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU OSHA) has made available online a series of information factsheets in the form of PDF documents dealing with occupational health and safety management issues. Among those of general interest are:
- Factsheet 80 Risk assessment - roles and responsibilities, which covers understanding of the legal context, concepts, the process of assessing the risks and the role to be played by the main actors involved in the process of risk assessment.
- Factsheet 81 Risk assessment - the key to healthy workplaces, which in essence applies the five-step approach to risk assessment developed by the UK Health and Safety Executive.
These and other Factsheets are available at:
http://osha.europa.eu/publications/index_overview
International: Clean Development Mechanism under Stress
In late April 2008, the UN administrators of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) scheme announced that after a crackdown nearly a third of all projects reviewed were either rejected or sent for further review. There had been criticism that the scheme is becoming discredited by incompetence and fraud, with many projects put forward being bogus and not contributing to emissions reduction. Recent rejected projects include a wind farm in India and factories in India, Brazil and Malaysia designed to operate on biowaste.
The CDM scheme is one of the central market-based mechanisms to emerge from the Kyoto Protocol, and allows polluting industries in developed countries to buy credits to emit carbon through the CDM, with the proceeds being used to fund environmentally sound projects in developing nations. Unfortunately the scheme has a bias against small projects where the funding could have its greatest effect, because the cost of the administration approval process for a small project is the same as for a large one.
In 2008, it is likely that the global carbon market will trade around 4.2 billion tonnes of carbon emissions, worth around US $92 billion, but the problems with the CDM are disrupting the European and American carbon markets. If the scheme collapses, the polluters will have to reduce their emissions to comply with environmental laws, leading to significant rises in the price of goods and services.
International: How Did PFOA Contaminate the World?
The artificial chemical agent, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, a perfluoroalkyl carboxylate), is classed as a likely human carcinogen and animal studies indicate that perfluorinated chemicals affect the liver, neonatal development, the immune system and hormone levels. Until recently the substance was widely used in the processing of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), in the manufacture of water or stain repellent coatings, in food packaging resistant to grease, in polishes and paper coatings. Manufacturers in the USA have begun voluntary efforts to eliminate its use. As a pollutant, PFOA has become ubiquitous on a global scale, even contaminating the flesh of polar bears.
The recently published results of laboratory-based studies, funded by Teflon manufacturer DuPont, have shown that PFOA can move into the atmosphere more readily than previously thought (journal reference Environmental Science and Technology, DOI: 10.1021/es7032026). It is now argued that ocean aerosols can concentrate PFOA and lift it into the air.
It had been assumed that the widespread distribution of the substance took place after it entered bodies of water, where it remained because the predominant form of PFOA in water is an ion, PFO–, which is a potent surfactant with negligible vapour pressure. It was thought that bioaccumulation in the food chain took place through water.
Research by David Ellis and colleagues at Trent University, Canada, has found that aerosols can concentrate PFO– on the surfaces of bubbles, which lift the aerosols into the air. Once airborne, some of the PFO– converts to PFOA, which then moves into the atmosphere. In this form the agent should stay airborne long enough to travel great distances.
In the marine environment, wind and waves kick up sea spray, a natural marine aerosol, and as a surfactant, PFO– should concentrate on the surface of the water particles, from where PFOA should release into the atmosphere. Aerosolisation from sea spray and transportation in the gas phase may therefore account for the global distribution of PFOA and other perfluorocarbons.
Nigeria: Bonny Terminal Shut-In
On 21st April 2008, field operator Shell Petroleum Development Co. (SPDC) declared a force majeure and shut-in around 169,000 barrels per day of crude production from the Bonny Light oil fields following an attack on a key pipeline which feeds-in to its export terminal. The move followed an attack by an armed group on the Greater Port Harcourt Swamp Pipeline in the eastern operations area. The pipeline was damaged by explosives and was leaking.
SPDC operates a joint venture involving Nigeria National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) with a 55% stake, Royal Dutch Shell with a 30% stake, Total SA with 10% and Agip, a unit of Italian oil company Eni SpA, with 5%.
From a total output of around 500,000 bpd, the amount of oil capacity unavailable due to sabotage and security concerns is 20% below Nigeria's potential, based on the International Energy Agency estimate of an effective production capacity of 2.47 million barrels a day. NNPC officials estimate that its capacity is nearer 3 million barrels a day.
In another recent incident the wife of the CEO of Lonestar Drilling was kidnapped in an armed attack on her home in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Lonestar had announced that it would increase its drilling operations in the Niger Delta with the delivery of additional rigs. On the same night the wife of an executive of the MoniPulo exploration company was also kidnapped.
USA: Statistical Probability of Drought
Drought in the American Midwest is known from long experience to recur at intervals of 18.6 years. The last major drought was in 1988, and on the basis of statistics and current weather conditions, specialists at Iowa State University have predicted a one in three (33%) chance of drought this year in the Corn Belt. The cyclicity is associated with the climatic phenomenon called La Nina, an unusual cooling of Pacific Ocean surface temperatures that can trigger widespread changes in global weather patterns. If the present year-old La Nina has not dissipated by July, there is a 70% chance that US corn yields will fall below the 30-year trend of 150.6 bushels per acre (equivalent to 101 tonnes per hectare). The current La Nina has also corresponded with another long-term oceanic cycle called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which has shifted to its cool phase.
Drought is not a foregone conclusion for the Midwest, where excessive rainfall held up spring corn plantings. The crops may benefit from the extra soil moisture during a dry summer, according to the US Department of Agriculture. In contrast, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned that crops planted during wet springs can develop shallow roots, making them more susceptible to a summer drought.
If a drought brought on a major crop failure in the United States, it would wreak havoc on global food prices, which are already at record levels. The United States exported 2.13 billion bushels of corn in 2007, but a drought would force America to purchase corn back from the international market, leaving other countries to compete for food staples. In the event of a crop failure, the US Government would be forced to reduce or abandon its corn-based ethanol usage mandate, which requires the use of nine billion gallons of ethanol in motor gasoline in 2008.
Norway: Wind Turbines to Join the Offshore Oil Platforms
Norway has been slow to embrace wind power electricity generation because most of its electricity is produced by hydropower and there is limited demand for more renewable energy. However, Norway has the second longest coastline in Europe and is exposed to the Atlantic winds, as is the UK. On 29th April 2008, the Norwegian Government announced that it is contemplating licensing offshore blocks in the North Sea for wind power electricity generation in a fashion that mimics oil and gas legislation.
On the same date the oil company StatoilHydro announced that it plans to start work next year on a floating turbine project near the site of the first North Sea oil discovery 40 years ago. Another project, led by the Norwegian utilities Statkraft and Lyse and including StatoilHydro and Shell, is developing wind turbine towers that tilt against the wind to withstand severe North Sea conditions. A full-scale 5 MW prototype of the "Sway" turbine is planned in 2010.
The Norwegian Government is providing cash to both projects, but the real test of its resolve will come in the detail of its offshore wind power licences and associated incentives.
Kenya: Pesticide Poisons Game Reserve
Carbofuran (2,3-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-7-benzofuranyl methylcarbamate, CAS number 1563-66-2) is a systemic pesticide of acute toxicity to humans as a cholinesterase inhibitor and its use is banned in the European Union. The USA is in the process of proscribing the agent. The substance is marketed under such trade names as Furadan and Curater, and is designed to control insects in field crops, including potatoes, corn and soybeans. The chemical must be applied by agricultural workers using closed systems with engineered controls to eliminate any exposure. Carbofuran is known to be highly toxic to birds when applied in its granular form, but less so as a liquid. Despite its hazardous nature, its application has increased in America and some other countries because it is one of the few insecticides effective on soybean aphids.
Under the Furadan name it is manufactured locally by AgroEvo East Africa Limited and widely used in Kenya. (AgroEvo merged with Rhone-Poulenc Agro some years ago to form Aventis CropScience, a French company that is a major player in the global pesticides market.) Mass bird mortalities were reported in Kenya in the 1990s when it was first used, and recently the conservation organisation WildlifeDirect has claimed that there has been a spate of deaths among hippopotami at the renowned Maasai Mara Game Reserve. The Mara Reserve published a statement on 29th April 2008 in which they said that post-mortems carried out on five hippos found dead in the safari park revealed they had died of Carbofuran poisoning, and four lions that ate part of one of the hippos were also paralysed.
WildlifeDirect has urged a ban on the substance on the grounds of significant human health concerns and environmental risks. The neurotoxic poison is now known to affect large predators as well as scavengers and birds of prey such as vultures.
Canada: Government Failure on Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Canada signed a commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5% below 1990 levels by 2012. According to official government figures published at the end of April 2008 by Statistics Canada, greenhouse gas emissions by that country increased by 25% between 1990 and 2005, the highest increase among members of the G8 group of nations. Although Canada has around 0.5% of the world human population, it contributes about 2% of global emissions of carbon dioxide gas. Industrial activities in Canada released the equivalent of 747 megatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2005, compared with 596 megatonnes in 1990.
Population growth of 16% over the time period is equivalent to a per capita increase in carbon emissions of around 8%. Much of the greenhouse gas emissions increase is accounted for by exploitation of the Alberta oil sands, and energy use in oil and gas production and transportation.
International: Unregulated Risks of Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is concerned with the manipulation of natural and synthetic materials at the atomic and molecular scale (100 nanometres or less). In 2004, the UK Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering published a report entitled Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies: Opportunities and Uncertainties, in which it was argued that there is virtually no information available about the effect of nano-particles on living species other than humans or about how they behave in the atmosphere, water or soil, or about their ability to accumulate in food chains. The conclusion was that the release of nano-particles should be restricted due to their unknown potential effects on the environment and human health.
Although a large number of workers are currently employed in the manufacture and handling of nano-particle products, there are no specific safety regimes in place, nor are there methods for determining potential exposure levels to nano-particles in the workplace. A report on nanotechnology in food and agriculture was published in April 2008 by the environmental organisation Friends of the Earth at FOE Nanotechnology (559 KB). It highlights the increasingly widespread use of nanotechnology in food processing, finding that at least 104 food, food packaging and agricultural products containing nano-ingredients are now on sale internationally, including diet replacement milkshakes, cooking oil, tea and fortified fruit juice; food additives sold for use in processed meats, soft drinks, bakery and dairy products; long-life and antibacterial food packaging; and antibacterial kitchenware. The report claims there is evidence that many nano-ingredients used in such products, such as nano silver, nano titanium dioxide, nano zinc and zinc oxide, pose toxic risks to humans at the cellular level and to the environment, and calls for a halt to the sale of nano-foods until they can be shown to be safe and are adequately controlled.
In Australia (where the report was published) there is no mandatory requirement for food companies to conduct safety tests on nano-ingredients before putting them in foods, provided those ingredients have been used previously in larger form. FOE claims this means that most nano-ingredients are effectively unregulated. There is no law requiring nano-ingredients to be labelled, and food processors have chosen not to do so. FOE states that packaging for Cadbury chocolates, antibacterial kitchen wipes and cleaning sprays, and refrigerators sold in Australia by Samsung, Hitachi and LG Electronics now contain manufactured nano-materials. The nano-food additives and ingredients reviewed in the report are also found in foods in Europe and the USA.
European Union: Physical Agents Directive
The EU Physical Agents (Electromagnetic Fields) Directive (2004/40/EC) came into force on 30th April 2004 and member states had until 30th April 2008 to implement it into national legislation. It was subsequently amended by a new Directive (2008/46/EC), which changed the implementation date to 30th April 2012.
The delay followed concern that some medical procedures, which include interventional MRI scanning, would expose workers such as radiologists to levels above the exposure limit values in the 2004 Directive. The European Commission is carrying out a full impact assessment of the Directive and considering new scientific advice before proposing further amendments to address the impact of the original Directive. It is likely that the findings will be available by early 2009.
The amending Directive can be downloaded as a PDF document from:
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