Morocco: 55 Workers Die in Factory Fire
Moroccan police arrested the owner and manager of the Rosamor Ameublements mattress and furniture factory in Casablanca after the building was engulfed by a fire in which at least 55 people died. When the blaze broke out on 26th April 2008, the workers inside were trapped because the doors were locked, windows were barred and the fire extinguishers were empty, despite the building being full of highly flammable materials. Their employer had locked them in during work hours to prevent theft. Thirty-five of the dead were women.
The Casablanca Civil Protection Service commented that the lack of fire control equipment maintenance had caused the destruction and normal safety procedures had not been applied in the factory. However, lax enforcement of basic safety standards is reputed to be widespread in Moroccan textile factories.
Ukraine: 19 Workers Die in Offshore Helicopter Crash
A Russian-built Mil Mi-8 helicopter crashed into a Naftogaz offshore gas platform 70 kilometres off the Black Sea coast on 28th April 2008. The aircraft's tail hit the platform due to pilot error and it exploded on impact, killing all 19 people onboard.
The type of helicopter involved was designed for both military and civilian purposes, and can carry up to 28 people. Around 11,000 have been produced since it was first launched in 1965. A Mi-8 operated by the Ukrainian border guard service crashed over the Black Sea in March 2008 killing 12 people.
USA: Environmental Protection Agency Pressured to Regulate Nanoparticles
On 1st May 2008, a coalition of consumer protection groups led by the International Centre for Technology Assessment filed a legal petition with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking to halt the sale of consumer products containing nanoparticles of silver, which is finding increasing use among manufacturers as a bactericide. In America, nanosilver is used in over 200 products, including baby bottles, children’s clothing and clothes-washing machines.
The petition asked the Agency to stop the sale of products containing nanosilver and to regulate the chemical as a pesticide, which would require toxicity studies and risk assessments to measure its environmental and human health impacts.
The EPA responded that it already has stringent regulatory standards for pesticides, including those made with nanotechnology, but will review the petition.
The disagreement is about how nanosilver should be regulated, since the EPA has not yet addressed the potential risks of nanoparticles as a form of pollution. Recent studies have found that when garments impregnated with nanosilver are washed, the substance is shed and enters wastewater, and that nanosilver inhibits the growth of beneficial bacteria that break down harmful chemicals in wastewater treatment plants. It can also cause harm to aquatic organisms in addition to bacteria.
Pakistan: No Action on Mercury Pollution
In 2007, the Federal Agency for the Environment gave the task of preparing an inventory of mercury pollution in Lahore to the Environment Protection Department (EPD), which was supposed to work in a joint project with the United Nations Development Programme. There is believed to be a large-scale problem with mercury contamination in the city, the substance being released by incinerators, coal-fired power plants, soda ash and pesticide plant drains, and discarded medical equipment. Industrial consumption of mercury in the city runs to several hundred kilogrammes per day and is unregulated by the state.
Although the EPD has since acquired air and water environmental monitoring equipment, it has remained in storage and the EPD has yet to undertake any measuring work. The Federal Agency also instructed the EPD to hold awareness seminars and programmes to sensitise factory owners on the increasing levels of mercury pollution in the city, but no such programme has been initiated.
Mercury-contaminated waste is known to be discharged to the Ravi River. Although metallic mercury is relatively inert, it can be inhaled as a vapour or absorbed through the skin and mucous membranes. In its organic form of dimethylmercury or methylmercury it is a notorious neurotoxin, causing both chronic and acute poisoning. It can accumulate through the food chain. In the European Union the use of mercury is banned or restricted and most developed countries have strict limits on the amount present in air and water.
International: Link between Herbicide Use and Brain Cancer
A research paper by Claudine M. Samanic, et al, entitled “Occupational Exposure to Pesticides and Risk of Adult Brain Tumours”, was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology 2008, 167(8):976-985; reference doi:10.1093/aje/kwm401. The abstract is available online.
The authors examined the incidence of brain cancer risk associated with occupational exposure to insecticides and herbicides, based on 1,400 American adult hospital cases, some with brain cancer and some without.
Their findings were that there was no overall link between the disease and on-the-job exposure to pesticides or herbicides, but closer analysis of the data revealed that women whose jobs regularly exposed them to weed killers may have a two-fold higher risk than normal of a particular form of brain cancer than women with no such exposure.
Of the 17 women with the highest herbicide exposure, most worked in restaurants or grocery stores, where they were probably exposed by the routine handling of produce contaminated with herbicides.
Some previous studies have linked both farming and heavy pesticide exposure to a higher risk of brain cancer, but the present research also calculated estimated exposure to pesticides and herbicides.
The elevated brain cancer risk for women exposed to herbicides did not apply to men. Why this is so is not known, but information on the exact identity of the chemical agents used by the patients was not available.
USA: The Perils of Lone Working
While working alone in the early hours of the morning on 1st May 2008, a man employed by DRS Technologies in north-west Florida pressed the wrong operating button to release the pressure in a machine resembling an elevator. He inadvertently increased the pressure and became trapped by both forearms. He managed to shake his cell (mobile) phone free from his waist belt, then kicked off one shoe and used his big toe to dial the emergency services on 911.
Fire-fighters had to break into the building and shut down a compressor before prising the man loose with a thick metal bar. He was airlifted to a Pensacola hospital where his condition was not immediately known.
USA: Kuwait Radioactive Sand Dumped in Idaho
During the first Gulf War in 1991 a fire destroyed military vehicles and munitions at Camp Doha, a US Army Base in Kuwait, contaminating the ground with toxic and radioactive waste. The radioactivity came from depleted uranium, which is used as armour plating to protect tanks and in the noses of armour-piercing projectiles. The Kuwait Ministry of Defence contracted MKM Engineers Inc. of Stafford, Texas, to package the waste and transport it back to the United States. MKM then subcontracted with a company called American Ecology Corp. for disposal.
In early May 2008, American Ecology shipped 6,700 tonnes of sand containing traces of depleted uranium and lead to a hazardous waste disposal site in the Owyhee Desert around 70 miles south-east of Boise, Idaho. The load amounted to 80 rail cars and according to the company radioactivity levels were about 10 picocuries per gram, which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission deems to be unimportant quantities. However, the sand registered lead levels of 19 parts per million. The US Environmental Protection Agency standards classify anything over five parts per million as hazardous waste.
European Union: Two-Year Campaign on Risk Assessment
This year the European Campaign for Safety and Health at Work, formerly known as Euroweek, has been transformed into a two-year campaign focusing on risk assessment.
The aim of the campaign is to promote an integrated management approach that takes into account the different steps of risk assessment, defined as a systematic examination of all aspects of the work undertaken to consider what can cause injury or harm, whether the hazards can be eliminated and, if not, what preventive or protective measures are, or should be, in place to control the risks.
The campaign also promotes the idea of a participatory approach to risk assessment, stressing that it is essential for the workforce to be consulted and involved in the risk assessment process to ensure that hazards are identified not only from principles of knowledge, but also by knowledge of working conditions and patterns of adverse effects upon workers.
Risk assessment with its component of worker involvement is one of the key elements in building a sustainable prevention culture.
More details are available online at:
http://osha.europa.eu/campaigns/hw2008/about.
USA: Oil Companies Settle Groundwater Pollution Case
On 7th May 2008, 12 oil companies, including BP America Inc., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, Shell Oil Co., Marathon Oil Corp., Citgo Petroleum Corp. of Venezuela, Sunoco Inc. and Valero Energy Corp., agreed to a settlement filed in the US District Court in Manhattan, under the terms of which they agreed to pay US $423 million in cash plus clean-up costs to settle litigation over groundwater contamination from the gasoline additive MTBE (Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether, C5H12O).
For around 30 years the substance was used extensively as a fuel additive in the form of an octane enhancer and oxygenator to dilute aromatic and sulphur emissions. MTBE became notorious in the USA as a persistent groundwater pollutant due to its high solubility, which makes it difficult to remove, and its use is being phased out. At high concentrations it is classed as a human carcinogen.
The lawsuit had originally been brought before the federal court in 2003 as a single case by public water utilities and public agencies in 17 American states.
Among six other oil companies involved, ExxonMobil Corp. refused to settle, as did five smaller companies, including Lyondell Petrochemical Corp., the manufacturer of the chemical.
European Union: Oil Companies Resist Climate Targets
The European Commission plans to revise its 1998 Fuel Quality Directive, which defines specifications for petrol, diesel and gas-oil used in transport, in order to reflect new developments in fuel and engine technology and reduce CO2 emissions. The proposed amendments would permit higher volumes of biofuels to be used in petrol and oblige fuel suppliers to ensure that greenhouse gases produced by their fuels throughout their life cycle are cut by 1% per year between 2011 and 2020.
The oil majors responded to this development by claiming that the target proposed by the Commission is unachievable. That claim was contested in a report entitled Extracting the truth: Oil industry attempts to undermine the Fuel Quality Directive published in May 2008 by the environmental organisation, Friends of the Earth Europe (FoE Europe).
The FoE Europe researchers used data published by the oil companies themselves to show that reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of between 10.5% and 15.5% are possible through such measures as reduced gas flaring and venting, energy efficiency improvements and fuel switching in refineries, and without the need for those harmful biofuels which can have negative environmental and socials impacts and have been proven not to reduce overall emissions.
The report claims that although currently making record profits, oil companies are not willing to bear the cost of reducing emissions because such investment is unprofitable, and they will not do so until compelled by a regulatory body. It also points out the inconsistency between promoting higher quality fuels and biofuels on the one hand and introducing a life-cycle approach on the other. Such an approach puts highly upgraded refineries, capable of more complex conversion techniques, at a disadvantage because they are often more energy-intensive. This ultimately creates a perverse incentive for the incomplete and inefficient conversion of crude oil.
Uganda: Concern over DDT Spraying
Uganda is the only country in East Africa still using DDT to prevent malaria, which kills on average 320 people a day in the country. The Ministry of Health justification for using the agent is that it is half the price of the next cheapest alternative, Icon. Icon is a pyrethroid insecticide with much lower toxicity to humans. In the past, DDT has been used successfully to control malaria in some African countries, including South Africa, Zambia and Ethiopia, but there it was sprayed in townships, where there is no agricultural activity and drinking water is piped, lessening the risk of contaminating the food chain. In Uganda it is being sprayed in remote villages.
In May 2008, a consortium of Ugandan exporters of organic agricultural products was reported to be preparing to file a lawsuit against the Government, accusing it of non-adherence to World Health Organisation guidelines on indoor residual spraying in the northern malaria-endemic districts of Oyam and Moyo. The exporters contend that the manner in which the spraying is being carried out could contaminate the food chain, damaging organic exports worth about $500 million annually if DDT residues are detected on reaching American and European markets. The issue is not trivial as the income from organic exports accounts for over 60% of total export revenue annually, making Uganda one of the biggest exporters of organic products in Africa.
The two organisations involved in the spraying are USAid and the Research Triangle Institute, who claim to have developed strict protocols for DDT use.
The Ugandan Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries commented that they were aware of the allegations being made and were investigating. The various other Government bodies involved indicated that they were obliged to promote Government policy, which in this case is to spray DDT for the control of malaria.
Bangladesh: Ferry Capsize Kills Many Passengers
A recent study into the safety of ferries in Bangladesh found that around 20,000 cargo and passenger vessels operate in the country, but only half of them meet basic safety standards or take on less than their legal quota of passengers. It called for the strengthening of coastguard patrols, the identification of dangerous river crossings, the enforcement of registration requirements and provision of training for navigators and crew. In response, the Government said that measures would be taken to improve safety on the waterways.
However, on 12th May 2008, a ferry carrying nearly 150 passengers sank in the Ghorautura River, about 180 km from the capital city of Dhaka. At least 32 people were reported to have died after being trapped in the sinking boat and some 50 were missing.
In February 2008, 40 people died after a ferry collided with another vessel in the Buriganga River near Dhaka and capsized.
China: Underestimating Earthquake Risk
The densely populated Sichuan area in south-western China has suffered major earthquakes in the past. There was a Richter scale 7.5-magnitude earthquake in 1933 during which the town of Diexi was destroyed and over 9,000 people were killed.
On 12th May 2008, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake took place in Eastern Sichuan that ruptured about 275 kilometres of a fault running north-east between the easternmost mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and the densely populated Sichuan Basin. The death toll was estimated seven days later by the state media at around 50,000, with another 32,000 missing believed dead, and 247,000 reported injured.
Chinese assessment of earthquake risk is considered equivalent to that of the Global Hazard Seismic Assessment Programme (GHSAP), a UN-endorsed project designed to reduce the toll from natural hazards, but unfortunately the seismic code for the Sichuan area underestimated the strength of the May 2008 earthquake by 80%.
The GHSAP classes Sichuan province as equivalent to a rating of 7 on the Mercalli intensity scale, which assesses the risk of damage from earthquakes based on historical information. Intensity 7 (Strong) means there is a 10% risk of an earthquake occurring once in 50 years that will be powerful enough to cause a peak ground acceleration of 1.6 m/s2, but will cause only negligible damage to buildings of good design and construction. The May 2008 earthquake would be classified on the Mercalli scale as 10 or 11 (Catastrophic) and exceeded the prediction by a factor of five.
A further contribution to the resulting destruction arose from the fact that the existing building regulations, which require structures to be reinforced, were not followed in the countryside where people cannot afford building safety practices and there is a lack of enforcement.
Hydrodams and power stations are always built to much higher standards, but of 390 reservoirs and dams in the affected zone, two hydropower stations in Maoxian County were reported as seriously damaged. NASA satellite imagery found that 21 new lakes had formed in the Sichuan Basin. Several chemical plants were known to be damaged and leaking. The Three Gorges Dam lies 700 kilometres from the epicentre and is outside the damage radius.
The Chinese building code has long required that new structures be able to withstand earthquakes, but the standards applied are inconsistent between regions. The devastation caused by the Sichuan earthquake raises questions about whether the accepted level of risk is too high.
Australia: Offshore Facility Closed on Safety Concerns
Following an inspection in early May 2008 by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (NOPSA) of the Four Vanguard installation, a floating production, storage and offtake vessel operated by Australian FPSO Management Pty Ltd (AFM), NOPSA issued a Prohibition Notice to AFM forbidding use of the process plant on its offshore facility until safety issues are resolved.
The Four Vanguard process plant, located 42 kilometres west of Barrow Island in Western Australia, is a pressurised system for separating oil, water and gas from production wells. NOPSA was concerned that a number of critical safety systems related to shut-down and emergency depressurisation within the process plant are not currently able to meet the necessary standards, presenting an immediate threat to the safety of the offshore workforce.
Every offshore facility operating in Australia is required under the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1967 to have a safety case, which sets out the facility operator's commitment to reducing risks to a level that is as low as reasonably practicable. The safety case must include a detailed description of the safety management system for the facility. Performance standards for critical equipment must be listed and failure to comply is a breach of the law.
Nigeria: Pipeline Rupture Destroys Suburb of Lagos
At least 100 people, many of them children, were killed when a bulldozer engaged in road construction work burst an oil pipeline and triggered a major explosion in the Ijegun suburb of the city of Lagos. The blast took place on 16th May 2008 and the fireball engulfed schools and homes. Fire-fighters fought the blaze with sand and water, but a downpour of rain eventually brought the fire under control.
Many Nigerian pipelines are routed through residential areas, both in cities and oil-producing areas, and they are subject to frequent acts of vandalism. In this case it seems to have been an industrial incident caused by human error.
According to official figures, the number of civilian fatalities in pipeline explosions in Nigeria over the past ten years stands at 1,980.
Australia: Alarm over Weedkiller in Drinking Water
The herbicide atrazine (2-chloro-4-(ethylamine)-6-(isopropylamine)-s-triazine) is banned from use in the European Union because of its toxicity and teratogenic properties when ingested. The substance can cause harmful genetic changes in human placental cells at exposures as low as 20 parts per billion (ppb) of atrazine. It can damage a developing embryo by retarding foetal growth and causing infertility.
However, atrazine is approved for use by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) and is widely used to control weeds in forest plantations and crops such as canola, sugarcane, maize, sorghum and lupins across Australia. The Australian regulators consider it "unlikely that atrazine is an endocrine (hormonal) disruptor in humans".
The health value limit adopted under the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines for the amount of atrazine present in drinking water has been set at 40 ppb, or twice the level known to cause damage. The US drinking water maximum for atrazine is 3 ppb, and in the EU it is zero.
A new study on atrazine was published in May 2008 in the science journal PloS ONE by Miyuki Suzawa and Holly A. Ingraham of the University of California, San Francisco, reference PLoS ONE 3(5): e2117. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002117. They found that atrazine is an endocrine disruptor and indirectly estrogenic.
The APVMA is aware of the new research and said it had drawn it to the attention of the Australian Office of Chemical Safety. The Health and Medical Research Council said it would consider the latest evidence as part of its review of drinking water guidelines, but unlike the Australian news media it does not consider the matter to be urgent.
Atrazine producer Syngenta did not comment but has insisted the product poses no risk to human health.
USA: Wastewater Management Crumbles
In 2006, the Texas oil and gas industry injected a record 6.7 billion barrels of salt water into depleted oil and gas reservoirs. Texas oilfields do in any case tend to produce large volumes of salt water along with crude. Federal regulators have become concerned that the volumes are now such that contaminated saline water could escape from underground reservoirs and pollute drinking water aquifers. Wastewater is usually injected 300 metres or more below ground, beneath a capping of non-porous rock to prevent its escape. The problem is that if water is injected at too high a pressure, it can fracture the adjacent rock formations and escape, or flow up nearby oil wells.
In mid-May 2008, a giant sinkhole suddenly opened up in the ground adjacent to an oilfield wastewater disposal facility in the small town of Daisetta, about 90 kilometres north-east of Houston. The hole measured 300 metres across and 85 metres deep. It is believed to have resulted from the collapse of an underground salt dome, eroded and dissolved away by the wastewater.
The facility had been injecting nearly twice the volume of water into the ground that its disposal permit allowed. The body responsible for monitoring oil and gas industry sites is the Texas Railroad Commission, which now oversees more than 30,000 disposal sites. The Railroad Commission did not discover the violation until after the sinkhole appeared, even though the company that runs the facility, Deloach Oil and Gas Wastewater Disposal, reported exceeding its volume quota in monthly reports filed with the Commission.
The US Environmental Protection Agency is reported to have been insisting that the Railroad Commission do more testing to detect potential leaks before issuing permits, but the Commission complains that it does not have the manpower to undertake the number of inspections required. In 2006, the Commission received 5,650 applications for new disposal sites, up 21% from 2005.
International: Global Climate Crisis Map
An animated map of the Earth from space went online on 21st May 2008 to illustrate the potential impact of climate change over the next century. It can be accessed via Climate Change in Our World.
Based on Google Earth, which uses NASA satellite images, the project is the result of co-operation between Google, the UK environment ministry DEFRA and the UK Meteorological Office. It enables a user to run a time-lapse series to display the Earth warming under medium-case scenarios up to 2100, either from a planetary perspective or zeroing in on individual countries or cities.
International: Health Risks from Carbon Nanotubes
It has been established for over a century that inhaling asbestos fibres can cause debilitating lung disease and cancer. A study published on 20th May 2008 by K. Donaldson and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh, UK, reports that injecting carbon nanotube fibres into the abdominal cavity of laboratory mice can trigger toxic responses similar to asbestos fibres, causing a strong immune response with asbestos-like inflammation and lesions (granulomas) forming in the abdominal mesothelium. The researchers examined the potential for long and short carbon nanotubes, long and short asbestos fibres, and carbon black, to cause pathological responses known to be the precursors of mesothelioma. The journal reference is Nature Nanotechnology, DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2008.111.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were developed in the early 1990s as electrical conductors and semiconductors of unusual strength, and were thought ideal for a range of applications including electronics, batteries, drug delivery and materials science. The global market in microscopic carbon nanotubes is expected to grow to around $2 billion by 2014. Although they look identical to asbestos fibres, it had been argued that they are not dangerous when inhaled, perhaps because they do not persist in the body as do asbestos fibres.
The physical characteristics that make asbestos fibres dangerous are well established. They include a needle-like shape with a length of around 20 micrometres, insolubility and the ability to persist in the body. Body cells called phagocytes normally scavenge and engulf small foreign particles, but since they cannot stretch beyond about 20 microns they become hyperactivated on encountering such particles, leading to inflammation, scarring and eventually cancer.
These features match those of CNTs as well. The new research proved that longer carbon nanotubes are pathogenic, but did not show whether they are able to persist in the body for long enough to reach the areas into which they were deliberately injected. For that to be proven it would be necessary to do inhalation studies.
Ireland: Workplace Deaths Increase
The Irish Health and Safety Authority (HSA) announced in May 2008 that in the first three months of its current reporting year there were 24 work-related deaths, representing an incidence rate almost five times greater than that of the UK for a similar period. The most hazardous sectors were construction and agriculture, which between them accounted for 60% of work fatalities.
In 2007, construction deaths rose by more than 33%, but agriculture fatalities fell by nearly 40% compared with the previous year.
The Irish Construction Industry Federation expressed concern at the figures, particularly the fact that plant-and-machinery-related fatalities accounted for more than half the total for the construction sector. It is endeavouring through its training programmes to highlight the significant risks of working on sites with the aim of driving down the negative outcomes from potential incidents that can lead to serious injuries and fatalities.
Provisional figures from the Health and Safety Executive in the UK for a comparable period show there were 54 work-related deaths (19 in construction, nine in agriculture). The incidence rate per 100,000 workers has been estimated to be 0.18, compared with the Irish rate of 0.875.
International: Global Atmospheric Methane Increase
Methane is 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, although it is chemically degraded rapidly in the atmosphere. In April 2008, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a preliminary analysis of readings taken at monitoring stations worldwide, which revealed that methane levels are rising after almost a decade of stability. The NOAA findings suggest that in 2007 global atmospheric methane rose by 0.5%.
The phenomenon is probably related to emissions from Arctic wetlands and there are indications that the extra amounts of the gas in the Arctic region are of biological origin, suggested by the presence of the lighter carbon isotope C-12, which is produced by bacteria. It implies that some of the methane sequestered in permafrost is being released, which would have major climatic implications. A sustained release of methane in Arctic regions, or from tropical wetlands, could drive a feedback mechanism, whereby higher temperatures liberate more of the greenhouse gas, which in turn forces temperatures still higher.
The drastic reduction in summer sea ice around the Arctic between 2006 and 2007 could also have increased the release of methane from seawater into the atmosphere. A crucial question is whether methane is also being released from frozen hydrates trapped in sediments on the ocean floor. The amount of the methane held in oceanic hydrates is thought to be larger than the Earth's remaining reserves of natural gas.
China: Government Ban on Plastic Bags
The Chinese use up to three billion thin plastic bags every day for convenience wrapping, an environmentally costly habit picked up by shopkeepers and consumers in the late 1980s. In consequence, waste non-biodegradable plastic bags have become so widespread in the environment that windblown and floating bags are known in Chinese as “bai si wu le” or "white pollution".
Following in the footsteps of such countries as Ireland, Rwanda and Bangladesh, the Chinese Government announced a ban on their manufacture and a charge on the use of plastic bags thinner than 0.025 millimetres thick from 1st June 2008. Such bags are also banned from all forms of public transportation and from scenic locations. The move may save as much as 37 million barrels of oil currently used in plastic bag production, according to China Trade News. The largest Chinese producer of thin plastic bags in Huaqiang has shut down its operations.
The use of traditional reusable cloth bags is being promoted by various state and private organisations, but it remains to be seen how strong enforcement will be. A similar ban on disposable wooden chopsticks failed when it proved too difficult to implement. There is also some doubt as to whether replacement thicker or biodegradable plastic bags will be any better.
International: Global Biofuel Output to Soar
A report was published in Paris on 29th May 2008 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, in which it was argued that global production of biofuels will rise rapidly over the next ten years, stimulated by high government blending targets and subsidies. The foreseeable effect will be to boost the already soaring prices of world agricultural commodities and reduce their availability for food and feed. Food prices will remain high over the next decade even if they fall from current records.
Global ethanol production is projected to reach about 125 billion litres in 2017, twice the quantity produced in 2007, with biodiesel production forecast at around 24 billion litres by 2017, up from nearly 11 billion at the end of 2007 and less than one billion in 2000. The report suggests that although biofuels can increase farmers' revenue both in developing and wealthier economies, distortive policies in some large producing countries encouraged production of fuel-destined crops on land previously devoted to food. A sharp rise in biofuels output will influence food prices and keep the issue high on the international political agenda.
The international ethanol trade was expected to grow rapidly to reach six billion litres in 2010 and almost ten billion litres by 2017. Most of this trade would originate in Brazil and would be destined for markets in the EU and the United States.
The report was issued ahead of a June 3rd-5th world food summit in Rome, the headquarters of the FAO.
USA: Manhattan Tower Crane Collapse
On 30th May 2008, a tower crane collapsed on a Manhattan construction site at the corner of First Avenue and 91st Street. The crane tower broke in two and the boom toppled over onto an adjacent building, ripping off its outer structure as it fell. The crane operator was killed, as was a second worker struck by debris. A third worker was seriously injured.
It was the second such incident in New York in three months. In March 2008, a crane collapsed at Second Avenue and 51st Street, killing seven people. In that case a city building inspector was charged with failing to undertake safety inspections and falsifying records. The New York Buildings Commissioner was forced to resign and the Mayor promised a re-inspection of all 250 cranes used in New York.
Serious incidents involving tower cranes often tend to occur in clusters rather than as single events and are symptomatic of endemic safety management failure. The safe erection, inspection, operation, maintenance and dismantling of such cranes by competent people are management responsibilities. Procedures should include pre-use checks by the crane operator at the start of each shift, along with in-service inspections at weekly intervals, and keeping records of the inspections. A properly planned maintenance system should be established and used. Competent people should undertake the maintenance at intervals specified by the manufacturer and records should be kept of the work completed.
European Union: Campaign for Greater Corporate Accountability
The European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) is a network of over 250 civil organisations around Europe, including trade unions, charities, academic institutions and campaign groups. At an international conference held recently at the European Parliament in Brussels it published policy proposals which, if adopted by the European Union, would guarantee the legal responsibility of companies based in Europe and their directors for human rights or environmental violations committed by their subsidiaries or subcontractors anywhere in the world.
The ECCJ argues that the legal structure of companies and weak accountability mechanisms all too often result in ethical mismanagement. It calls on the European Union to accept three proposals: extending the direct liability of parent companies of multinational enterprises operating in Europe; establishing a mandatory duty of care on parent companies in Europe to prevent human rights abuses by persons under their economic influence throughout the supply chain; and a mandatory system for large companies to report on their social and environmental risks and impacts.
The ECCJ suggests that these proposals would lead to a coherent and harmonised approach to business regulation, putting an end to the unfair competition caused by companies which profit from human rights and environmental abuses.
USA: Utah Coal Mine Collapse Covered 20 Hectares
The 2007 underground collapse of the Crandall Canyon coal mine in central Utah resulted in the deaths of six miners and three rescuers. A recent report by the University of Utah Seismograph Stations revealed that the collapse covered an area of 20 hectares and registered on instruments as a single event 3.9 magnitude earthquake.
Rescue attempts continued for 25 days after the incident to reach six miners trapped underground. During the operation three rescuers were killed and six were injured. The mine has ceased commercial operation. The mine's owner, who faces potential criminal charges, argued it was a natural earthquake that triggered the collapse, but the seismologists insist the mine collapse itself was the event.
The report was submitted to the journal Seismological Research Letters and to federal Mine Safety and Health Administration investigators.
USA: Polluter Escapes Emissions Control
The Valero Energy Corp. oil refinery in Delaware City accounts for more than one-fifth of all carbon dioxide emissions in Delaware state, but officials in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control plan to exempt the refinery from Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) regulations. The RGGI is the first American effort to control greenhouse gas emissions by ten states, with the objective of reducing power plant CO2 emissions by 10% in the north-east by 2018.
The Valero refinery's six coke-fired electrical generating units have a capacity of 360 megawatts and emitted more than 1.7 million tonnes of CO2 in 2006, but state officials argued the refinery should be exempt from RGGI because the programme is aimed at electrical utilities, not businesses that generate their own electricity. The refinery will be exempt from RGGI as long as it sells no more than 10% of its electricity to the grid. In each of the past two years, it has sold less than 2%.
Other participants in the RGGI include Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont, where electricity generators have to obtain an allowance for each tonne of CO2 emitted, with excess allowances sold at a profit on the secondary market.
USA: Bisphenol A Turns Sour
The ubiquitous consumer products manufactured from or containing Bisphenol A (BPA), now under suspicion as a serious risk to health, have drawn the attention of the media and the US Congress. Many US retailers have bowed to consumer pressure and voluntarily removed BPA-containing products from their shelves. Manufacturers are phasing out polycarbonate water bottles.
According to ICIS Chemical Business, more than one billion kilos of BPA are used annually in the USA, mostly in polycarbonate resins and epoxy resins. The rest goes into making miscellaneous products such as flame retardants. Almost all food and beverage cans are lined with epoxy resins made with BPA; dental sealants painted on children's teeth contain BPA; and many reusable plastic water bottles and food containers, including baby bottles, are made from BPA-containing polycarbonate plastic.
At present, the Environmental Protection Agency considers 50 mg per kg of body weight per day to be the lowest exposure level at which adverse effects can be detected. After applying a safety factor, the EPA set an oral reference dose for BPA at 50 µg/kg/day, below which it is considered safe. That safety standard, which went into effect in 1988, is the same standard used by the US Food and Drug Administration to regulate how much BPA can migrate from food packaging.
Although the state agencies are reluctant to revise their toxicology methodologies to include non-monotomic responses (as the dose goes down, the response goes up) a flurry of medical and academic studies are taking place into low dose exposure to BPA, with the main concern regarding potential neurological effects from prenatal and early childhood exposures.
If Congressional activity results in a BPA ban, finding alternatives for water containers will be simple, but there are few alternatives to replace epoxy-based resins in food and beverage cans.
China: Miners Drown in Coal Mine Flood
On 30th May 2008, a flood took place at the privately run Hengda Coal Mine in Jidong County, Jixi City in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang. The mine owner told the authorities that nobody was trapped below ground, but workers later approached the State Administration of Work Safety directly and revealed that 13 men were missing. Rescue work was thus delayed by 14 hours. The mine owner was detained by police.
The mine has an annual capacity of 30,000 tonnes, but should not have been working as a technological improvement plan had not been approved by local work safety authorities.
Europe: European Court of Justice Asserts Sea Pollution Laws
On 4th June 2008, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided that the European Union is entitled to set tougher standards and criminal penalties on sea pollution than measures included in international conventions. The Court dismissed a challenge to EU marine pollution laws by an international coalition of ship operators.
The shipping interests, which included the tanker-owning group, Intertanko, had argued that the EU Directive on ship-source pollution contravened two sets of international maritime laws. Ship owners said the Directive sought to criminalise accidental spillages and questioned whether the EU had the right to impose criminal liability on foreign-flagged ships.
The Court concluded that the validity of the Directive could not be assessed in the light of either the MARPOL Convention or the Convention on the Law of the Sea. EU maritime laws seek to protect coastal tourism and fisheries from minor discharges from shipping, as well as catastrophic oil spills such as that from the “Prestige” offshore from Spain in 2002 and the “Erika” offshore from France in 1999.
International: CO2 Emissions to Double by 2050
In a report entitled Energy Technology Perspectives published on 7th June 2008, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that global emissions of carbon will rise 130% and oil demand will rise 70% by 2050 under current government policies.
The IEA called on governments around the world to bring about a global energy technology revolution to reduce CO2 emissions. The total investment required to halve emissions by 2050 would amount to US $45 trillion, and require a massive research and development effort in the next 15 years costing between $10 billion and $100 billion per year to develop emissions control technology. Some 215 million square metres of solar panels would be required globally and 32 new nuclear power stations would have to be built each year for 40 years.
The report was issued in Aomori, Japan, ahead of a meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) energy ministers, with representatives from China, India and South Korea. Aomori lies in a region where the Japanese have invested heavily in a nuclear fuel rod reprocessing facility.
Russia: Pollution in St Petersburg
The city of St Petersburg was ranked 85th in a survey of 89 regions in Russia carried out by the Russian Independent Environmental Monitoring Agency. The position ratings were assessed on the basis of a range of factors affecting the state of the environment, including air and water pollution, changing ecosystems, the production and treatment of industrial waste, environmental protection efforts, accountability by local business communities and the endangered status and extinction of animal species.
The poor rating is being blamed on the city authorities, who are engaged in large-scale land reclamation works on Vasilyevsky Island which have released pollution from contaminated soil deposits into the Gulf of Finland and threaten to stagnate the waters of Neva Bay. Rubbish incinerators are also under construction, which critics argue will contribute to air pollution as there is no separation of toxic and non-toxic waste. Spent nuclear fuel destined for reprocessing and storage in Siberia is transported from abroad via the city. Water pollution in St Petersburg has rendered tap water undrinkable; before 1978, the city had no water treatment facilities at all.
The nearby area of Leningrad Oblast was rated 69th, due to better air quality and the condition of ecosystems and animal life. The highest rating was awarded to Kamchatka in the Russian Far East, followed by the Republic of Adygea in the Krasnodar Krai, the Republic of Tuva, the Buryat Republic and the Irkutsk region in Siberia.
The bottom positions included St Petersburg, the Stavropol region in south-west Russia, the Tula region (200 kilometres south of Moscow), the Orenburg region in the Volga federal district and the Penza region, also in the Volga federal district.
USA: Drinking Water Quality and Plastic Balls
In early June 2008, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) dropped 400,000 floating black plastic balls into its 58 million gallon Ivanhoe water reservoir, which serves around 600,000 consumers in south Los Angeles. The effect resembled a giant bowl of caviar. It was an experimental exercise to cover the surface of the water, which has to be shaded in bright sunlight to prevent a reaction being triggered between bromide and artificially added chlorine. The chemical reaction produces the carcinogen bromate. Bromide is naturally present in local groundwater and chlorine is used to kill bacteria, but strong sunlight is the final ingredient in a potentially harmful chemical mix. If the experiment is successful, the same technique will be used to cover the adjacent and much larger Silver Lake Reservoir, which will require three million plastic balls to cover its surface.
Open reservoirs exposed to sunlight are now rare in the area, most of them being constructed a century ago. Last year, water monitoring revealed elevated levels of bromate between June and October, and this year state health officials took preventative action. Covering the reservoirs with tarpaulins or some other semi-fixed shading technique was too slow and expensive, but one DWP biologist suggested dropping in "bird balls", as currently used by airports to prevent birds from congregating in wet areas alongside runways.
Indonesia: Lusi Mud Volcano was Caused by Drilling
An international team of experts from the UK, the USA, Indonesia and Australia concluded in a paper published on 9th June 2008 in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters that the disastrous mudflow in Sidoarjo regency in Java was caused by the drilling of a gas exploration well, and not by an earthquake. The reference is R. J. Davies, et al, “The East Java Mud Volcano (2006 to Present): An Earthquake or Drilling Trigger?”, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2008.05.029.
The company responsible for the drilling had argued that the cause was the 6.3 magnitude Yogyakarta earthquake and its aftershocks two days before the mud eruption. The authors examined records kept by oil and gas company Lapindo Brantas during the drilling of a gas exploration well called Banjar-Panji-1 and found that they show events that could have triggered the disaster. Before the mud volcano erupted there was a huge 'kick' in the well, representing an influx of fluid and gas into the well bore. The well pressure rose beyond a critical level, resulting in the fracture of the adjacent rock formations and leakage of the fluid from the well and the strata to the surface. It was an example of an underground blowout. The mud was picked up by the fluid during its ascent and spurted out through cracks instead of the wellhead.
The team think there is no way to control the situation, as blocking one hole or crack will simply force mud to flow round the plug. The well itself now has no effect on the erupting mud, but it was the initiating trigger of the event.
The Lusi mud volcano has been active for two years and has displaced more than 50,000 people. At present it covers around 7 sq km and mud is flowing at the rate of 100,000 cubic metres a day.
Africa: UN Environmental Atlas
At the request of African environment ministers, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has constructed an atlas of environmental change for the continent over the past four decades. The entire document is available in hard copy form via UNEP and individual chapters can be downloaded as PDF files from:
http://na.unep.net/AfricaAtlas/AfricaAtlas/chapters.html.
The 400-page atlas uses NASA Landsat satellite imagery of all 53 African countries to illustrate the devastating scale of environmental degradation. The transformation shows clearly disappearing forests, shrinking lakes, vanishing glaciers and eroded landscapes, and underlines the extent to which development and population growth, regional conflicts and climate change are altering the environment of the continent for the worse.
The purpose of the atlas project is to inspire African governments to improve their environmental performance and the atlas is carefully worded in a non-critical manner, although the pictures speak for themselves.
The atlas also contains statistical data, which reveals deforestation to be a major concern in 35 African countries. Africa is losing more than four million hectares of forest every year, roughly twice the average global rate, and associated with it is major loss of biodiversity in 34 countries. Land degradation is of serious concern in 32 countries; erosion has degraded around 65% of Africa’s farmlands.
Population growth is one of the principal pressures on the natural resource base and if current trends continue, in the next 50 years Africa will have twice the population growth rate of any other region, but surviving on a rapidly decreasing area of cultivable land.
Italy: Toxic Fumes Overcome Six Workers
Toxic fumes killed six maintenance workers who were cleaning the inside of a water purification tank at a water treatment plant in the town of Mineo, Sicily. The incident took place on 11th June 2008, three months after a similar accident in which four men died after inhaling hydrogen sulphide fumes near the southern Italian city of Bari, while cleaning the inside of a road tanker. Both incidents appear to have involved entry into a confined space without risk assessment or adequate safeguards.
The cause of this latest incident is being investigated, but Italy has become notorious for its high number of workplace deaths. According to the research institute, Eurispes, an average of 1,376 people die every year in industrial or workplace accidents. The previous government passed legislation aimed at tightening safety regulations in the workplace and imposing heavy fines on companies that violate them, but so far there has been little enforcement. There is also a significant problem with criminal involvement in the provision of illegal labour.
European Union: Small Business Act
On 25th June 2008, the European Union passed its Small Business Act, which contains several measures to limit the impact of the regulatory burden. Wherever practicable, the European Commission (EC) will use common commencement dates for regulations and decisions affecting companies, and will publish an annual statement of forthcoming legislation. The EC will undertake impact assessments of new legislative and administrative initiatives on small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), and take the results into account when designing proposals. There may be exemptions for small businesses from reporting requirements.
Myanmar: Ruby Miners Killed by Landslide
On 13th June 2008, torrential rains in Mogok, known as the "Valley of Rubies", caused a landslide in which 12 miners died. Another four people were swept away by floodwaters during a monsoon season downpour in the foothills of the Shan Plateau.
Mogok, about 1,000 km north of Yangon, is the source of the famed "pigeon's blood" rubies, the world's finest. Conditions in the mines around Mogok are primitive and based on bell pit excavation.
Rubies, sapphires and jade are important sources of foreign exchange for the military rulers of Myanmar; according to US sources the country made about US $300 million from the gem trade in 2007.
Japan: Earthquake Damage to Another Nuclear Facility
A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 hit northern Japan on 14th June 2008, killing at least six people and injuring more than 200. Landslides swept down the mountainous hillsides. Damage was sustained at the Tokyo Electric Power Company Fukushima Daini nuclear power facility, causing a leakage of radioactive water within the plant. The cooling water pool was inside a warehouse where radioactive waste is stored. There are two TEPCO nuclear plants in Fukushima with a combined power capacity of 9,096 megawatts. Both were reported to be operating normally.
TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata prefecture in north-western Japan, the world's largest, has been shut down since a major earthquake in July 2007, when 11 people were killed and 1,950 injured.
The Tohoku Electric Company said that one of its geothermal power generating plants in Akita prefecture and a total of six hydroelectric power plants in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures had shut down after the earthquake. A dam in the region began to leak, forcing rescue workers to abandon their efforts.
Elsewhere, casualties were reported to be nine confirmed dead and around 300 injured. The Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, around 300 km north of Tokyo, are sparsely populated.
Japan does have a controversial early warning earthquake monitoring system, which takes advantage of the differing travel speeds of two shock waves emanating from the seismogenic zone, but on this occasion the affected areas were too close to the epicentre for the warning system to be of use - the system provided between 0.3 seconds’ and 5 seconds’ notice at nearby monitoring stations, and at 50 km distance the public warnings were issued 15 seconds before the ground shook. The major flaw in the system is that those closest to an earthquake’s origin have the least advance warning.
Bangladesh: Dhaka Poisons its Rivers
The Buriganga is the main river flowing beside Dhaka city, the capital of Bangladesh. The river is Dhaka's main outlet for municipal sewage waste, of which around 80% is untreated. Lack of water resource management has allowed more than two-thirds of the city sewage to discharge into the surrounding rivers. Industrial effluent and wastewater, particularly from tanneries, is discharged to the river, along with agrochemical run-off from the upstream flow. Each day some 100 tonnes of solid waste, including finished leather trimmings, shaving dusts, hair, fleshing, rawhide trimmings and skins are dumped into the Buriganga, posing a threat to human health and imposing severe environmental stress. Water flow in the Buriganga is low except during the monsoon season, when the flooding period flushes contamination out to sea.
On 15th June 2008, the Water Resources Department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology reported their research findings based on a three-year assessment of water quality using bio-indicators. They found that levels of pollution in the Buriganga and most parts of the Turag and Norai flowing around the capital are so high that no life can survive in their waters. The dissolved oxygen level of the Buriganga, Tongi canal of Turag and a part of Norai is less than 0.1 mg per litre, compared with an optimum standard of around 7.0 mg/l. All species of local fish need 4-6 mg/l of oxygen to survive. The researchers collected three times from a sampling station at the Chadnighat point of the Buriganga, and twice failed to find any living organisms. On the third sampling they recovered some leeches, aquatic worms and small snails from river bed sediments, but the team think they were washed in from outside by the monsoon. In the post-monsoon season the oxygen level increases slightly to around 0.65 mg/l, but still not enough to sustain life in the local waterways.
Asia: New ASEAN+3 Website on Infectious Diseases Information
On 16th June 2008, a new website was launched in Jakarta by the Information Exchange Network on Emerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs) in ASEAN Plus Three Countries, financially supported by the Australian Government and with system management co-ordinated by the Indonesian Health Ministry.
The purpose of the website is to exchange information on infectious diseases among ASEAN member states, which include Japan, China, South Korea, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Due to the scale and speed of human travel movements, multilateral co-ordination in the region is crucial to assist in efforts at disease prevention and control.
The website at http://www.ASEANplus3-eid.info is designed to provide policymakers, health programme managers and stakeholders with the necessary information to help improve health interventions and raise awareness on health-related issues and concerns.
International: Warnings Ignored on Ocean Fertilisation
In the 1970s, oceanographers speculated on what nutrient chemical elements triggered phytoplankton growth in the open marine environment. Following several small-scale experiments it was concluded that iron, Fe, was a key ingredient. Later it was suggested that ocean iron fertilisation (OIF) could function as a conduit for sequestering carbon, the hypothesis being that after a plankton bloom the algae would die and sink to the seabed, taking carbon with them.
Some scientists advocate the artificial seeding of ocean waters with large volumes of iron as a means of sequestering carbon, but in a special report the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) described the idea as speculative and unproven, with the risk of unknown side effects and unintended consequences. At the end of May 2008, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity called for a moratorium on the practice of adding nutrients to the oceans. In June, the matter was referred for guidance to the London Convention, part of the International Maritime Organisation. That body also expressed caution and urged more research before ocean iron fertilisation is practised on a larger scale.
The two main protagonists are a company in San Francisco called Climos, which has ignored international warnings and announced its intention to proceed with plans to test and develop OIF commercially; and Ocean Nourishment, an Australian company that is trying to sequester carbon dioxide in offshore trials by using urea instead of iron.
European Union: Parliament Agrees New Landfill Targets
On 17th June 2008, the European Parliament in Strasbourg approved new targets for recycling waste, aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions from landfill sites. The agreement still has to be approved by member states before becoming law. The EU has become increasingly concerned by the accumulating mountains of calorific waste, as typified by the situation in Naples where waste disposal is under the control of the Camorra, the local mafia. Over 1.8 billion tonnes of waste are generated each year in Europe, equating to 3.5 tonnes per person, of which less than a third is recycled.
The EU Parliament voted for the goal of recycling or reusing 50% of the main types of household waste by 2020 and 70% of all waste from building and demolition. The agreement promotes incineration as a means of disposal, but fails to address the issue of setting limits on the amount of waste produced. The agreement lays down a hierarchy of priorities that member states should use for dealing with waste: first, do not create waste; second, reuse materials wherever practicable; third, recycle as much as possible; fourth, recover the energy contained in the waste; and finally, dump to landfill.
The move is unlikely to be popular in either the UK or Ireland, where levels of recycling are well below the EU average.
Australia: Water Management Delayed by Government Infighting
Australia is the world's second-largest wheat exporter, despite being the driest inhabited continent on the planet. The country has suffered more than seven years of drought, with water inflows into its rivers at record lows and farmers facing tough restrictions on irrigation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that the continent is suffering accelerated climate change, with temperatures expected to rise by around 1C by 2030 and rainfall forecast to decrease by up to 20% by 2070 in the most populous south-east.
In mid-June 2008, the Government cut its wheat output forecast by nearly 9% after the return of prolonged dry weather during a crucial planting period in April and May. Parts of the key Murray-Darling River food bowl may be beyond recovery unless the dry spell ends, along with political wrangling over water use. The Murray-Darling river basin, an area the size of France and Germany, produces 41% of Australian agricultural output and generates US $21 billion of agricultural exports to Asia and the Middle East, including rice, corn, grapes and dairy produce.
A US $12.2 billion ten-year water plan by the Government to secure supplies and repair ailing rivers by buying back river water from irrigators has been deferred until November by regional political infighting, by which time much of the river system could be virtually dead, with vegetation on the crucial lower Murray wetlands facing ecological collapse due to rising acidity and salinity, and fish species driven to extinction. That at least is the conclusion of a leaked report prepared by the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Natural Resource Management Board.
This year Australian wheat exports are expected to be 16.3 million tonnes, which is more than last year but still a smaller crop that threatens global corn price inflation. The best Australian wheat crop was 26.132 million tonnes in 2003/04. Drought cut the two most recent crops to 13.1 million tonnes in 2007/08 and 10.64 million tonnes in 2006/07.
European Union: Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Transport Increase
The EU Environment Commission published data on carbon dioxide emissions by the European Union for the year 2006 on 18th June 2008. The figures show that emissions from transport have continued to grow, despite a slight reduction from overall sources. Much of the increase took place among the 12 newer EU states in Eastern Europe, a reversal of the dramatic fall in those countries during the 1990s when their economies suffered after the collapse of communism.
Emissions from road transport rose 0.7% in 2006, while overall emissions within the bloc fell 0.3%. Emissions of greenhouse gases from international aviation and shipping continued to rise sharply in 2006. The EU Environment Commission notes that transport-related emissions are increasing constantly and are of particular concern. Emissions from energy industries have stabilised in the last few years, while those from manufacturing industries declined slightly.
The 15 EU countries which signed the Kyoto Protocol cut their CO2 emissions by 0.8% in 2006, taking their total reduction below the base year of 1990 to 2.7%, which puts them on track collectively to meet the Kyoto Protocol target of keeping average emissions between 2008 and 2012 at least 8% below base year levels.
However, the data is far from reassuring as the older member states are still unlikely to meet their Kyoto targets. The small overall emissions decreases achieved so far are not the result of political action, but are due to industrial decline, warmer weather conditions, and lower consumption of gas and oil in households and services due to higher prices, particularly in Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and Britain.
Nigeria: Militant Attack Closes Offshore Oilfield
Royal Dutch Shell announced on 19th June 2008 that it had temporarily stopped production at its main offshore oilfield. The Bonga oil platform, which has a capacity of 200,000 barrels a day and lies around 120 km offshore in the Niger Delta, was attacked by militants in speedboats during the night.
The gunmen failed to get inside the relatively new platform, but attacked a key vessel used for production storage and offloading. Several people were reported to have been injured. A Nigerian navy spokesman confirmed reports that militants had kidnapped a US captain from a separate vessel on their way back from the attack.
This latest shutdown cut a tenth of Nigeria's total oil output in one go, on top of a reduction of at least 20% in recent years following onshore attacks. So far the militant groups have concentrated on inshore and onshore installations in the Delta, but have now demonstrated they are better armed and equipped, and all of Nigeria's facilities are within their reach.
The Nigerian navy responded a week later by sending two frigates to patrol waters around the Bonga deep sea oilfield. A military source said the two vessels deployed would have only a dissuasive effect, as they are not sufficiently mobile and no match for the militants’ speedboats.
International: REACH Goes Global
The European Union stance on chemical regulation is the latest area in which American companies are being compelled to reshape their business practices, or lose access to a market of 27 countries and nearly 500 million people.
The European REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) Regulation came into force in June 2008 and had an immediate impact on the US chemical industry by forcing manufacturers to improve their health and safety performance. The Bush administration and the American chemical industry are vigorously opposed to the EU legislation because it requires a far more precautionary approach than under US law. In America, regulators must prove a chemical is harmful before it can be restricted or removed from the market. In contrast, REACH requires companies to demonstrate that a chemical is safe before it enters commerce.
REACH places restrictions on manufacturers of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems, such substances being phased out over the next decade. American manufacturers are already searching for safer alternatives to chemicals used to make thousands of consumer goods and to find new ways to produce a wide range of everyday products.
Under REACH, manufacturers must publish their findings on the risks posed by specific chemicals they utilise and make the information freely available on the Internet, enabling data access to consumers, regulators and potential litigants around the world.
New Zealand: Engineers Convicted for Ozone Layer Depletion
On 19th June 2008, two refrigeration engineers were convicted by a court in Wellington for depleting the ozone layer. It was the first prosecution ever brought by the Ministry of Economic Development since a law protecting the ozone layer was passed in New Zealand in 1996. The two men released the substance chlorodifluoromethane, HCFC22, into the atmosphere while they were repairing a drink-chilling unit and ignored a warning that it was hazardous. The two were convicted and fined NZ $750 each (US $568). Permits are required to handle HCFCs, which will be banned under an international agreement from 2015.
New Zealand: Renewable Electricity Generation in Decline
The New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development (MED) announced on 20th June 2008 that the country generated less electricity from renewable sources in the first three months of 2008 because of drought, resulting in a consequent 30% rise in carbon emissions from the greater use of thermal power. The Government has a target of 90% electricity generation from renewable sources by 2025 and has imposed a ten-year ban on new non-renewable power stations.
Renewable energy generation from hydro, wind and geothermal fell to 65% of capacity in the three months to March, down from 72% in the same period in 2007. Reduced rainfall has resulted in hydro lakes filling to just over half of their average storage capacity, leading to higher electricity generation from gas, coal and oil. Hydro generation fell to 51% from 61% in the comparable quarter, while gas generation was up at 25% from 20%, and coal generation increased to 10% from 7.5%. Total electricity generation rose 3% to 10,130 Gigawatt hours (GWh). One industrial side effect was that the largest consumer of power in New Zealand, the Rio Tinto aluminium smelter at Tiwai Point, has reduced output by 10%.
The MED report also stated that national emissions of CO2 from electricity generation increased by about a third in the quarter to 1,845 kilotons of carbon.
International: Downside of the Global PC Boom
According to a report published on 23rd June 2008 by the research company Gartner, Forecast: PC Installed Base, Worldwide, 2004-2012, the number of personal computers in use around the world, as opposed to the number shipped over a given period, has surpassed one billion, with around 58% of the total located in the USA and Western Europe (those regions accounting for 15% of the human population). However, the perception that computers are indispensable for economic advancement is likely to result in this figure falling to about 30% with the addition of the next billion machines. Rapid growth in India and Brazil will double the number of PCs to two billion by 2014.
Rapid growth also translates into multiplying quantities of old or obsolete equipment. Gartner estimates that more than 180 million PCs will be replaced in 2008, a few for use elsewhere or for recycling, but many will go to landfill. Some 35 million PCs are dumped annually to landfill with little regard for their toxic content, a problem that will increase in the emerging markets. Of the computers sent for recycling, around 70% are exported to China, where environmental conditions around e-waste recycling centres have become toxic to levels that would be illegal in the Western countries supplying the waste.
Middle East: Population Pressure and Water Demand
During the Regional Conference on Water Resources Management and Development in the Arab Region held in Amman, Jordan, on 23rd-27th June 2008, the Director General of the Arab Organisation for Administrative Development (AOAD) said that the scarcity of water resources in shared river basins, coupled with an ever-increasing population, is of rising concern.
The UNESCO regional advisor for water sciences said the total population of the region is expected to increase from the current 300 million to 500 million in 2025, which will increase water demand from 205 billion cubic metres a year to around 400 billion cubic metres in 2025.
The sound and integrated management of water resources has become one of the greatest challenges faced in the Arab region and a crucial factor in sustainable development.
In Dubai during the Second Annual Middle East Water and Waste Water Conference it was suggested that controlling water losses is critical in reducing costs. Water losses include leaking pipe networks and reservoirs, and untracked volumes of water delivered to end-users. The UAE and GCC countries use a significantly higher volume of water per capita than European countries, much of which is considered to be water loss. The strategies for reducing water demand include adopting more efficient domestic water fixtures and micro-irrigation systems in agriculture.
European Union: Continuing Debate on Pesticides Law
European health and safety and environmental laws tend to be prescriptive in nature and adopt an approach based on hazard rather than risk. That does not suit some industries, especially pesticides, as products which have been available on the market for some time may be removed without an adequate substitute being available. The industry argues that because a product or substance has hazardous properties it does not mean it is dangerous.
Proposed changes to the 1991 pesticides legislation will be debated by the European Parliament in Autumn 2008, and on 23rd June 2008 the EU agriculture ministers reached a compromise deal, from which the UK abstained, to revise pesticide authorisation laws in a fashion that will reduce the number of crop chemicals that can be sold in EU markets; but it will allow groups of countries with similar geography and climate to decide whether farmers may use specific products. Individual countries may apply for exceptions, under certain strict conditions, for particular substances to gain bloc-wide authorisation.
The new arrangements totally prohibit the marketing and use of substances proven to be carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic for reproduction, but it was not resolved how to establish cut-off criteria for approving substances that had possible hazardous properties. Substances considered hazardous could be used if available products did not offer sufficiently effective plant protection, an exception to the general rule subject to strict conditions, with a transitional period of not more than five years. It will no longer be possible to grant provisional authorisation to products still in the process of registration unless the EU-level assessment lasts longer than two and a half years. The EU countries would be divided into three zones, allowing approval by region rather than by individual country.
The UK complained that the revised law would lead to the withdrawal of certain fungicides, likely to cause sharp reductions in the national wheat yield.
USA: Pfizer Fined for Clean Air Violations
On 24th June 2008, the US Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency announced that in the first federal court case of its kind under regulations designed to control the emissions of hazardous air pollutants from pharmaceutical manufacturing, Pfizer Inc. had agreed to pay $975,000 to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at its former manufacturing plant in Groton, Connecticut.
The alleged violations between October 2002 and December 2005 resulted from a failure of Pfizer's leak detection and repair programme, which presented the risk of excess emissions of hazardous air pollutants. Pfizer used such substances as methanol, hydrogen chloride, methylene chloride, MTBE, hexane, toluene and many others, which are classified as hazardous air pollutants.
The specific violations included a failure to properly conduct pressure tests to identify leaks, to repair leaks before start-up, to equip open-ended lines with a cap or other seal, and to document leak tests to establish full compliance with requirements.
European Union: Plan to Phase Out Incandescent Light Bulbs
On 25th June 2008, it was announced that the European Commission is preparing a plan to phase out the use of incandescent light bulbs from 2009 as part of its climate protection policy. The new rules would place progressive bans on incandescent bulbs based on the number of watts of electricity they consume and their energy efficiency class. The Commission estimates savings for European consumers of €5 billion to €8 billion (US $7.7 billion to $12.4 billion), as compact fluorescent bulbs use one-fifth of the energy required by conventional incandescent bulbs, as well as lasting ten times longer. The higher purchase price of an energy-saving bulb delivers a return in terms of working life and energy saved.
The estimated outcome is a reduction in CO2 emissions over the entire European Union of 23 million tonnes per year. Incandescent light bulbs will disappear from Europe over a ten-year span, provided manufacturers are able to produce the two billion bulbs required to meet EU demand.
Australia introduced an incandescent light bulb phase-out in 2007, with a total ban on their use to be effective in 2010. New Zealand will introduce a similar plan next year.
International: EIA Predicts 50% Rise in Carbon Emissions
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) published its annual report, International Energy Outlook 2008, on 25th June 2008, reference DOE/EIA-0484(2008). The report highlights a projected forecast that in the time period 2005-2030, global emissions of carbon dioxide will rise by more than 50% to 42 billion tonnes plus per year, essentially as a consequence of coal burning in China.
Chinese coal demand will increase by 3.2% annually from 2005 to 2030, and US coal burning will rise at the rate of 1.1% during the same period. By 2030, Chinese annual carbon emissions should hit slightly more than 12 billion tonnes per year, up from more than 5.3 billion tonnes per year in 2005. US carbon emissions should hit 6.9 billion tonnes per year in 2030, up from nearly 6 billion tonnes per year in 2005. In the rapidly growing economy of India, coal consumption is forecast to rise by an average of 2.4% per year to 15.5 quadrillion BTUs (British thermal units) per year.
Coal is the cheapest fuel available in China and is used to feed its surging manufacturing industry and demand for electricity as its population migrates to urban areas. In the United States a move to more nuclear power should help slow emissions growth. The EIA raised its forecast of annual Chinese carbon emissions in 2030 by 6.8% from its outlook released last year, while reducing its forecast for 2030 carbon emissions in the United States by 13.8%.
The accuracy of the EIA forecast is open to dispute as the data is derived from figures for the past five years, during which China became an exporter of steel. It does not predict possible changes in China in decades to come.
Ireland: Toxic Waste Cover-Up
A copy of an official investigation obtained by the Irish Examiner newspaper indicates that the Irish Department of the Environment instructed a subcontract company involved in a clean-up operation at a highly contaminated Irish Steel site on Haulbowline Island, near Cork, to cap lagoons containing around 500,000 tonnes of hazardous waste instead of removing it for safe disposal. The waste includes such toxic substances as the carcinogen Chromium 6, as well as hydrocarbon and metal by-products classed in the report as likely to present a severe health risk to the local population, as well as to the environment.
The Environmental Protection Agency and Cork County Council decided that the contractor should cap the lagoons with inert waste slag material, pending a detailed risk assessment of the entire site. Such an assessment had already been carried out six years ago on behalf of the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.
The subcontractors had removed 100,000 tonnes of hazardous waste from the site, at a cost of €50 million, and shipped it to Germany for disposal. However, the German company involved in processing the waste complained about the level of Chromium 6 contained in the material. The subcontractor was then told to bury the waste and did not, as the health and safety obligations in the contract require the complete removal of the waste. The Department of the Environment has now terminated that contract.
Departmental responsibility for dealing with the polluted material is still unclear, but the course of action proposed is contrary to both Irish and European environmental law. The cost of operations at Haulbowline Island so far suggests a full site clean-up could cost up to €300 million.
USA: Solvent Explosion Caused by Static
On 26th June 2008, the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) published its final report on an explosion at the Barton Solvents distribution facility in Valley Centre, Kansas, in July 2007. The CSB found the most likely cause of the explosion, which involved a nonconductive flammable liquid, was a static spark resulting from a loosely linked level-measuring float within a storage tank. The spark ignited the air-vapour mixture inside the tank as it was being filled. Nonconductive flammable liquids can accumulate and maintain static electrical energy which discharges more slowly than from more conductive liquids. Also, some of these liquids can form ignitable vapour-air mixtures inside storage tanks, which can explode if a spark occurs.
The incident caused an explosion and fire, which led to the evacuation of 6,000 residents. Eleven local people and one fire-fighter were injured and the facility was destroyed by fire. The CSB investigators reported that on the day of the accident a tanker-trailer arrived to transfer a load of Varnish Maker's and Painter's Naphtha (VM&P Naphtha) into a storage tank. The transfer equipment from the truck tanker to the storage tank was probably properly bonded and grounded to prevent the generation of static electricity. However, the float device inside the 15,000-gallon storage tank presented a hidden danger. When transferring liquids, it is standard industry practice to bond and ground storage vessels, tankers and other equipment to prevent static discharges, but the CSB found that normal bonding and grounding might not be enough to prevent ignition from static electric sparks.
Inside the tank was a device used for measuring the liquid level, a metal float linked to a metal tape measure. A static electrical charge in the liquid was generated by the flow of the solvent pumped from the trailer into the storage tank, and by stop-and-start filling which introduced air into the liquid, resulting in bubbles and turbulence. At the same time, the space above the liquid was being filled with an explosive mixture of vapour and air. The liquid flow and turbulence created by the filling of the tank seems to have resulted in the metal float accumulating a static electrical charge. As the float moved, a gap probably formed within the linkage of the tape and the float. A spark is likely to have jumped between the metal parts and ignited the air-vapour mixture. The explosion blew the tank 40 metres into the air, and within seconds two more tanks ruptured and released their contents. Ignition of the liquids launched debris into the air, from where it struck neighbouring premises.
The CSB remarked that several common flammable liquids are particularly susceptible to ignition by static sparks, and some of them can produce the optimal amount of vapour to fuel an explosion at normal temperatures inside a storage tank. In the case of the Barton explosion the most likely cause was sparking across the float linkage. It was emphasised that explosions can occur in tanks without faulty floats when there is a discharge from the build-up of static in the nonconductive flammable liquid itself. The CSB note that the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) for the VM&P Naphtha do not adequately describe the explosive hazard or the precautions necessary to prevent ignition from static electricity, although those for other flammable solvents supplied did. The CSB undertook a review of 62 MSDSs for widely used nonconductive flammable liquids in industry, such as VM&P Naphtha, hexane and toluene, and found that most failed to recommend specific precautions beyond bonding and grounding.
The CSB issued recommendations to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and trade associations to improve MSDSs for nonconductive flammable liquids.
USA: Uranium Mining near Grand Canyon Halted
A US House of Representatives committee voted on 25th June 2008 to halt the mining of uranium near the rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona for three years. The emergency action was triggered by a recent surge in the number of mining claims within seven kilometres of Grand Canyon National Park. In January 2003, there were ten mining claims submitted, but in January 2008 there were more than 1,100, according to government figures. The huge rise was sparked by the escalating price of uranium, required to feed the increasing number of nuclear power plants around the world.
The emergency action is designed to prevent uranium mining from harming the Grand Canyon and to protect public health. Mining activities are likely to pollute the Colorado River, source of drinking water for millions throughout the south-west, including the Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas areas.
Global consumption of raw uranium is around 90 million kilogrammes per year, of which some 26 million kilos are utilised in the USA.
Philippines: Ferry Capsizes with Toxic Cargo
The Sulpicio Lines passenger ferry, “Princess of the Stars”, ran aground during Typhoon Fengshen and overturned near Sibuyan Island in the central Philippines on 21st June 2008. The Japanese-built, 193-metre-long, 23,824 GRT, seven-storey ferry carried a total of 865 passengers and crew. Only 56 people survived the disaster. On 27th June, a rescue effort to free the bodies of hundreds of passengers trapped inside the ferry was halted after the authorities learned that ten tonnes of the highly toxic pesticide Endosulfan was on board. Endosulfan, C9H6Cl6O3S, is a neurotoxic organochlorine insecticide and an endocrine disruptor. Its use is banned in the European Union.
The Philippines Fertiliser and Pesticides Authority told the rescuers on 26th June that the pesticide, which should not have been on a passenger vessel, was bound for a Del Monte plantation in the southern Philippines. It was Del Monte that raised the alarm over the shipment. Del Monte claimed that all of the documentation was correct and properly presented to Sulpicio, including the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) and the Bill of Lading that detailed the cargo as a toxic marine pollutant.
The vessel’s owner failed to alert officials to the presence of the container with 400 boxes of the substance in powder form as part of the cargo, and divers sent to the site to search for bodies were at risk of potential exposure to the dangerous chemical. No sign of pesticide leakage was detected, but the Government banned fishing in the waters off Sibuyan Island and sealed off the area around the vessel while awaiting the results of analytical tests.
Safe recovery of the container will be difficult as the stern of the ship rests on the edge of a reef with only the tip of its bow visible from shore. Reports claim there are still around 100,000 litres of fuel on board.
On 14th July 2008, it was announced that a team of United Nations chemical experts would be sent to assess the wreck situation and the potential seriousness of the environmental impact if leakage does occur. The Manila authorities said that salvage operations to recover the deadly cargo would start on 4th August, followed by an attempt to refloat the ship.
The sinking is the country's worst sea accident since the “Dona Paz” ferry collided with an oil tanker in 1987, killing more than 4,000 people. Sulpicio Lines also owned the “Dona Paz”.
USA: Coal Burning and the Economics of Carbon Burial
At the McCloskey 2008 Coal USA conference held in late June 2008 a paper presented by Hill and Associates analysts drew attention to a problem with carbon capture and sequestration that has not been widely understood. The process requires as much as 20% of the electricity a power plant generates, with the result that for every five coal-burning plants using the technology, a sixth would be required just to power the capture and burial of the carbon dioxide produced. The electrical utilities are aware of the challenge, and their apparent lack of action is due to continuing efforts to find a way to carry out carbon capture and storage (CCS) as cheaply as possible.
According to the Southern States Energy Board, a coalition of 16 US states and two territories, a four-well drilling project is underway in the south-eastern United States to test and develop the technology of CCS, but the industry claims that it cannot solve the problem alone. Government will have to be involved to close the environmental loop.
USA: 10 Million Tyres Piled in Waste Tip
In June 2008, the state of Arizona closed down a company collecting waste vehicle tyres and piling them on a site in the middle of the Sonoran Desert National Monument. The ten million tyres are deemed a fire code violation and the state is spending $50,000 a month to secure the site against arson. The tyres are stacked in rows two metres high and present the risk of a catastrophic toxic fire. Should a fire break out, fire-fighters would have to use foam in a desert valley location, leading to groundwater contamination.
The recycling company was formed as a start-up to test the idea of microwaving waste tyres to produce fuel. The process did not work and the company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which means the state cannot touch the vast stockpile of tyres. The Arizona Department of Administration therefore has an environmental and public health hazard on its hands and no practicable plan on what to do with the stockpile.
The 640-acre site itself has a history of misuse. In the late 1980s, it was the proposed site of the polarising ENSCO hazardous-waste dump, but public opposition to the project was so great that the state bought the site in 1991 from its owners. In 2000, the Department of Administration sold the lease to Envirotech Industries International, who proposed to store and recycle tyres. In practice, the site was used as a waste tip. The lease failed to place a cap on the number of tyres allowed on-site, and an oversight in the state fire regulations meant that the site was not subject to routine inspections. While officials try to sort the matter out in the courts, the potential hazard remains.
In 1990, 14 million tyres caught fire at a dump in Hagersville, Ontario, and burned for 17 days, filling the skies with smoke and forcing thousands to evacuate. In 1999, a fire at a tyre-recycling facility 100 km outside Columbus, Ohio, burned for five days and took nine years and $32 million to clean up. Toxic oil and contaminated water run-off from the smouldering rubber killed more than 10,000 fish in a nearby creek.
Canada: 12 Million Bees in Road Accident
On 30th June 2008, a truck carrying 12 million honeybees in 330 crates on the four- lane Trans-Canada Highway overturned on a ramp in St Leonard, New Brunswick, and released its load. Fortunately a downpour of rain helped to contain the bees around the vehicle.
The bees were being transported back to their base after pollinating a crop of blueberries. Royal Canadian Mounted Police and bee experts in protective suits had to confront millions of disoriented, agitated and wet honeybees. The insects were eventually lured back into their hives. A number of people were stung, mostly television and newspaper reporters, but no serious injuries were reported.
European Union: Shell Calls for Refiners to be Exempt from Carbon Limits
The Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell Plc told the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid that the crude refining, chemicals and paper industries should be exempt from proposals to charge businesses for emitting CO2, on the grounds that they would otherwise be at a disadvantage against rivals in the USA and Asia. He wants oil refiners to be given free CO2 emission permits in the next phase of the European Union CO2 emissions trading scheme, but he supports the idea of other sectors being charged for them as a means to fight climate change. He also voiced scepticism of the EU proposal to raise its target for cutting CO2 emissions to 30% by 2020, from the current target of 20% by that date.
Netherlands Antilles: Polluting Refinery Still Operating
The Isla refinery on the island of Curaçao, a territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is operated by the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA. The facility was built by Shell on the site of a former Willemstad slave market in 1918 to process the first Venezuelan crude oil, and the refinery supplied the Allies in World War II. By 1985 it was obsolete and had become an environmental hazard. Shell sold it to Curaçao for a symbolic US $1, and the island then leased it to PDVSA virtually tax-free.
Despite numerous court cases and complaints, PDVSA has not taken steps to upgrade operations or address the toxic emissions issue at the refinery. In 2007, a Curaçao court threatened to close the plant if it could not meet emissions standards, citing a commissioned study which estimated that each year 18 people die prematurely from exposure to contaminants. Based on data collected by the refinery itself, emissions of sulphur dioxide from the facility are about twice the limits allowed by its local licence. It is also alleged that excessive levels of fine particulate dust are emitted to the atmosphere.
PDVSA is also under pressure to keep the 320,000-barrel-per-day facility running as it struggles with repeated outages at its own refineries in Venezuela. Gasoline from Isla is exported mainly to other Caribbean nations and to South America.
USA: Formaldehyde Risk in Trailers
Following the severe hurricanes Katrina and Rita along the US Gulf Coast in 2005, many tens of thousands of displaced people were placed in trailer caravans, where they are still living. In June 2008, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sent hundreds more trailers to temporarily house people displaced by this year’s Midwestern flooding. A serious outbreak of respiratory complaints over the past three years among the disaster survivors has been attributed to a variety of causes, such as mould spores and toxins released by wrecked chemical plants and refineries.
A report published in early July 2008 by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that pressed wood products such as particle board and plywood are the main source of irritating formaldehyde fumes in trailers used to house disaster victims. Particle board is used mainly in the walls, ceiling, floors, and in the cabinets of trailers, and can make a greater contribution to the concentration of formaldehyde inside the trailer. The report suggests that such temporary housing should be designed with better ventilation, and current health and safety standards may not be enough to protect people. Even though construction materials used in the trailers meet standards, the manner in which they are used can foster high levels of formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds.
Formaldehyde is used to manufacture many building materials, and can irritate the skin, eyes, nose and throat. High exposure levels may cause cancer. An earlier CDC study showed average levels of formaldehyde in trailers and mobile homes of around 77 parts per billion, a level high enough to raise the odds of cancer and respiratory diseases. The Director of the Division of Environmental Health Hazards at CDC said the present findings applied only to trailers distributed by FEMA in the Gulf Coast region. The two studies taken together indicate that manufacturers of travel trailers and the government agencies that influence their design, should consider using construction materials that emit lower levels of formaldehyde as well as designs that increase outside air ventilation.
International: Rankings of the G8 Countries on Climate Change
An assessment of the effectiveness of the industrialised countries in the Group of Eight (G8) to forestall the risk of rapid and uncontrolled climate change was published on 3rd July 2008 by the World Wide Fund for Nature and the German insurance company, Allianz SE. The report was compiled by Ecofys, a Dutch-based consulting firm, and finds that the USA ranks last and Canada second to last in the G8 because they have done so little to curb their emissions of greenhouse gases.
The United States was ranked lowest because it has the highest per-capita emissions and a trend to even higher emissions, with very low average energy efficiency in its household, transport, industrial and power-generation sectors, and little in the way of substantive federal measures to curb emissions in the short term.
Canada performed badly because of the huge emissions from working the Alberta tar sands, and the reluctance of its government to comply with the greenhouse gas reduction targets in the Kyoto Protocol. There are still no federal regulations to cut overall emissions.
The ranking was calculated using such factors as the growth in national carbon-dioxide emissions, emissions of gases per person, and the development of renewable energy production. The various measures were ranked against a goal of keeping the rise of global temperatures due to human activity at less than two degrees centigrade. That average value, if exceeded, is likely to lead to destabilising and catastrophic climate change, such as the melting of part of the Greenland ice cap.
Unfortunately, the report demonstrates that none of the G8 countries are taking enough action to keep global warming below the two-degree threshold. The eight countries as a group must cut emissions by at least 25% to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020. By 2050, additional reductions must take emissions down 80% from 1990 levels to limit rapid warming risk.
Britain was ranked best because its emissions are below its Kyoto targets, a feat achieved mainly by switching much of its electricity generation from coal to natural gas, although national gas reserves are now almost exhausted. Second best was France, which relies on nuclear power.
Europe: EU Probe into Baltic Gas Pipeline
On 8th July, the European Parliament voted in favour of a non-binding report calling on the European Commission to conduct an investigation into the potential environmental impact of the planned Nord Stream pipeline, which is designed to pump Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany.
The project is a joint venture between Gazprom of Russia, and E.ON and BASF of Germany, to ensure secure gas supplies for Europe, but it has been subject to criticism by Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Sweden, as the pipeline could damage marine ecosystems along their coastlines. The complaining nations say that construction could create an ecological disaster if work disturbs Nazi German chemical weapons that have lain on the Baltic sea bed since World War II, amid 80,000 tonnes of dumped munitions.
The two 1,200 km Nord Stream pipelines would cut through the economic zones of Finland, Sweden and Denmark, so under international law only their assent is needed for construction. Swiss-based Nord Stream has yet to present its own impact assessment, which is being carried out by independent consultants.
In an extreme case, the European Commission could ask the European Court of Justice, the highest EU court, to halt construction if Brussels were to reject completely Nord Stream's environmental impact assessment.
Work on the project is planned to start in 2009 and be completed in 2010.
France: Uranium Leakages from Nuclear Sites
On 9th July 2008, the French nuclear safety authority (ASN) issued a media statement regarding the leakage of 30 cubic metres of liquid containing unenriched uranium, which accidentally spilled from an overflowing reservoir onto the ground and into the Gaffiere and Lauzon rivers at the Tricastin nuclear site at Bollène, 40 km from the city of Avignon in south-eastern France. The site is controlled by the Areva subsidiary, Société Auxiliaire de Tricastin (Socatri), who delayed reporting the incident to the regulator for eight hours, and failed to alert affected residential areas for 24 hours.
ASN provisionally classified the event at Level One on the INES nuclear scale, which is used to measure the potential danger of incidents at nuclear installations. The scale has seven levels, the lowest of which is zero. The ASN said that the latest uranium measurements taken by Socatri in rivers close to the site showed that the levels were within the guidelines of the World Health Organisation for water destined for human consumption.
The ASN inspected the site on 10th July to determine the precise causes of the incident. They have requested that the Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) take new independent tests. The local prefecture of Vaucluse put in place a ban on fishing, bathing and irrigation, as well as restrictions on water consumption in the affected area. The incident may lead to court action if the Commission for Research and Independent Information registers a complaint with the Environment Minister.
A local newspaper, La Provence, published extracts from a May 2007 report, which said that the Socatri site had already seen repeated leaks due to old pipes that carry waste liquid. The site has a nuclear reactor as well as a contaminated waste treatment plant.
On 21st July, a new uranium leak (comprising 800 grammes of uranium enriched at 50%) was found at another Areva facility, the FBFC factory at Romans-sur-Isère in south-eastern France. The leak came from a buried pipe transporting liquid uranium and dated back several years, according to the ASN. The defective pipe did not meet safety standards. Areva believed the crack occurred in 2006 at a time when the company carried out works at the site.
These safety management problems could cast new doubts on France's recent decision to build a second new-generation European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) by 2017, bringing to 60 the number of nuclear reactors in France.
USA: Environmental Protection Agency Declines Action on Climate Change
Acting under instruction from the Bush Administration, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on 11th July 2008 that it would not use the Clean Air Act to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The move was interpreted as deferring any climate change strategy decisions to the next US President and Congress.
Debate over the use of the Clean Air Act has been going on for eight years, under both of the Bush Presidents. In 2007, a Supreme Court ruling said that the EPA must regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the law if it found that the gases threatened human health.
The EPA came under pressure from many other government agencies opposed to such action, and found an escape route by claiming that since they could not predict how nations, markets and individuals would respond to their environments, it was impossible to address in a timely fashion all the legal and political questions raised by the court ruling.
In a separate development on the same day, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the EPA went beyond its authority in creating the Clean Air Interstate Rule, known as CAIR, which used a trading scheme among power generation utilities to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides at 28 power plants located in the East and Midwest. The rule, issued by the EPA in March 2005, aimed to slash power plant emissions by 70% by 2015, preventing 18,000 deaths a year. The federal court decided that the EPA had used a flawed approach in developing the CAIR and it could not be fixed in a piecemeal manner and the regulation had to be withdrawn.
On 15th July, the EPA posted on its website a 149-page document in which it argued that greenhouse gas emissions do endanger human health, that warming of the climate system is unequivocal and that potential health risks include more heatwaves, floods and droughts, insect outbreaks and wildfires, along with crop failure and decline in livestock and fisheries productivity. The EPA analysis had been kept under wraps by the White House, but was released in response to the April 2007 Supreme Court ruling that greenhouse gases can be regulated as a pollutant under the US Clean Air Act.
These events still leave America without a major clean air programme.
Kenya: Court Halts Biofuels Project
The Malindi High Court in Kenya ruled on 11th July 2008 that a US $370 million sugar and biofuels project in a coastal wetland should be halted temporarily. The proposed joint project by the Government and Mumias, the biggest national sugar miller, involves a plan to plant sugar cane on 20,000 hectares in the Tana River Delta to produce an estimated 200,000 tonnes annually.
Mumias hopes to distil around 23 million litres of ethanol from sugar cane molasses each year. The company said it would also generate 34 megawatts of electricity and provide some 20,000 jobs, partly through the construction of an 8,000-tonnes-per-day sugar mill. The Government, which has a 30% stake in the project and also owns 20% of Mumias, supports the project.
The Court found in favour of objectors representing local livestock keepers, who had asked for a judicial review, despite the Kenyan National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) approving the project in June 2008. Environmental activists claim that wildlife is threatened by the development, including birds, lions, elephants, rare sharks and reptiles. It was argued that NEMA had ignored a study demonstrating that irrigation in the area would cause severe drainage of the Delta, leaving local farmers without water for their herds during dry seasons.
Kenya produced 475,670 tonnes of sugar in 2006.
International: Tropical Forests Face Destruction
Two reports released on 14th July 2008 in UK Government offices in London by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) warn that only half of the extra land demand for growing food and biofuels required by 2030 is available without eating into tropical forest areas. Demand is set to outstrip supply, leading to the probable destruction of forests. A companion report documents poor progress in reforming land ownership and governance in developing countries. In addition, the dual crises of fuel and food are attracting significant land speculation.
The RRI is supported by the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and its equivalents in Sweden and Switzerland.
According to RRI calculations, rising demand for food, biofuels and wood for paper, building and industry means that 515 million hectares of extra land will be needed for growing crops and trees by 2030, but only 200 million hectares will be available without encroaching into tropical forests.
The report foresees demand increasing further into the century, and cites studies suggesting that if the current plateau in productivity continues, the amount of additional agricultural land required simply to meet the world projected food demand in 2050 would be about three billion hectares, nearly all of which would be in developing countries. According to UN figures, the world currently has about 1.4 billion hectares of arable land and about 3.4 billion hectares of pasture.
Yields are falling, a trend which is likely to be exacerbated by climate change, but consuming tropical forests to create extra agricultural land would in turn promote more climate change. At present, deforestation accounts for around 20% of greenhouse gas emissions.
The RRI suggest that reform of land ownership is crucial if large-scale pillage of tropical forests is to be avoided. So far, progress in reforming ownership has been slow, with only such countries as Brazil, Cameroon and Tanzania handing over significant tracts to local communities.
USA: Government Report Critical of Nuclear Waste Management
A report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) published on 14th July 2008 strongly criticises the US Department of Energy (DoE) for delaying an $8 billion programme of waste treatment on a site at Hanford in Washington State. More than 210 million litres of radioactive and chemical waste are stored in 177 underground tanks at the facility. Most of the tanks are more than 50 years old and 67 of them have failed, leaking almost four million litres of waste into the ground. The GAO questions the long-term viability of the storage tanks. Clean-up plans are 19 years behind schedule and not due for completion until 2050.
The DoE responded that emptying the tanks and treating the waste is "technically challenging" and argued that it is making progress in such a way as to protect human health and the environment.
The GAO argues that there remains an increasing statistical risk of catastrophic tank failure with each year that passes. The site lies close to one of the largest American rivers, the Columbia.
USA: Carbon Emissions Map
Total American carbon dioxide emissions in 2007 were around six billion tonnes, according to statistical data published by the US Energy Information Administration. Until recently, the finer spatial details of when and where carbon dioxide is emitted have not been available to policy-makers, but that has now been remedied by the Vulcan Project, designed to assess carbon footprints across the United States.
In July 2008, NASA published online a map showing annual carbon emissions, measured in kilotonnes, for the continental United States in 2002. The Vulcan Project used a range of statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Census Bureau. The information was fed into a computer model to produce a map of carbon dioxide emissions.
Emissions are centred on densely populated urban areas, with the heaviest concentrations along the East Coast, but other urban centres also show high emissions, including Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. There were also some anomalies in that different areas produced high emissions for different reasons. Although high population density is one factor, in some areas industrial emissions are the primary source, and in others (such as Los Angeles) it is automobiles.
Asia: Research on Arsenic in Rice
It is well known that rice absorbs arsenic from soils rich in that element, presenting a potential hazard in a staple food. In the past, arsenic was used in small amounts to treat such diseases as syphilis, but prolonged exposure, e.g. as a contaminant in drinking water, has been linked to cancers of the lung, bladder and skin, numbness, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Arsenic poisoning is a serious problem in Bangladesh and West Bengal in India, where arsenic-contaminated groundwater is used to irrigate rice crops, resulting in the toxin accumulating in soils and grain. Recent research (Nature 454, 263 (2008) | doi:10.1038/454263a) suggests that drinking water in the Irrawaddy delta of Myanmar may be contaminated with high levels of arsenic.
Elsewhere, a team of researchers in Scandinavia reported that a gene that helps plants fight off fungal infections appears to allow plant cells to absorb arsenite (the soluble compounds As2O3 and NaAsO2).
A paper published in July 2008 in the Japanese Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences identifies two proteins in rice plants that appear to transport arsenic from the soil to the grain. The researchers at Okayama University Research Institute for Bioresources also planted a mutant paddy with the two transporter proteins knocked out, and found sharply reduced levels of arsenite in both the stalk and rice grain. Unfortunately, the absence of the two transporter proteins reduced the absorption of silicon from the soil. Silicon occurs naturally and is important for the growth and productivity of rice plants. It also protects rice from pests and disease (as does arsenic to a lesser extent).
The Japanese team conclude that their next task is to try to change the selectivity, to allow silicon to be transported, but not arsenic. They also recommend the use of more silicon fertilisers to promote more silicon uptake and less arsenic. Their hope is that the findings may lead to a genetically engineered rice crop that allows the plant to accumulate silicon but not arsenic.
Philippines: Second Toxic Cargo Lost
On 21st June 2008, the cargo ship MV “Ocean Papa” sank at the height of typhoon “Frank” near Mararison Island, around 5.6 km from the coast of Culasi. The ship was en route to Iloilo City from Manila when it sank in rough seas. Two of the crew members of the vessel died, two were missing and 24 were rescued. Like the ferry “Princess of the Stars”, the MV “Ocean Papa” lies tilted and stranded on a reef.
On 16th July, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DEM) in Iloilo City, in the Western Visayas region, raised a media alert after discovering that the ship was carrying 16 tonnes of the carcinogenic substance, toluene di-isocyanate or TDI (CH3.C6H3.[NCO]2). Only half of 160 drums have been recovered.
TDI is a major ingredient in the production of flexible polyurethane foam and other polyurethane applications, including synthetic leather, coated fabrics, paints and adhesives. It is a clear, pale yellow liquid with a sharp, pungent odour and is rated extremely toxic from acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) exposure by inhalation.
For further information on the substance see the US Environmental Protection Agency Technology Transfer Network Air Toxics website at http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/toluene2.html or the US Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/mhmi/mmg179.html.
The owner of the cargo ship, Ocean Container Lines Inc., claimed it was unaware of the presence of TDI, which was brought in from Pusan, Korea, by Wallem Philippines Shipping Inc. and was marked as “Polyther Polyvol GP3001”.
The DEM is conducting water sampling in the area, but so far there have been no indications of fish kill or oil spillage. If the substance leaks, it will dissolve or evaporate; although not persistent, it will create a risk to fish and to humans, especially if ingested. By the end of July, coastguard divers assisted by a sonar-equipped ship had failed to locate the missing toxic cargo and had widened the search area.
USA: Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone to Hit Record Size
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium and Louisiana State University, announced on 16th July 2008 that the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, a swathe of algae-laden water with oxygen levels depleted so low as to kill all marine life, will reach record size this year. The main causes are soaring ethanol use in US motor gasoline supplies and recent massive flooding in the American Midwest, which released extra nitrates and phosphates applied as agricultural fertilisers.
Because increasing amounts of corn and soybean have been planted for biofuels, the additional fertiliser requirement is simply running off into the Mississippi River, and hence into the Gulf of Mexico. The US scientists estimated that a record 83,000 tonnes of phosphorus seeped into the Gulf of Mexico from April through June this year, up to 85% above normal seasonal levels.
The dead zone reforms each year off the Texas and Louisiana coasts, and is likely to cover more than 23,000 sq km this year, compared with 17,000 sq km in 2006 and nearly double the annual average since 1990 of 12,500 sq km. Excess nutrients from the Mississippi River watershed during the spring are the primary human-influenced factor behind the expansion of the dead zone. The only way to reverse the pattern would be for US farmers to plant more perennial crops that trap rainwater and prevent it from running into the Gulf of Mexico.
USA: Texas Plan for 18,000 MW of Wind Power
After a three-year study into potential wind production capacity, the Texas Public Utility Commission approved a plan in July 2008 to tempt US $5 billion in new investment to build power transmission lines to move electricity from the sparsely populated but windy western areas of the state to its power-hungry cities, including Houston, San Antonio and Dallas, where demand is highest.
The utility regulator wants transmission lines to accommodate more than 18,500 megawatts of wind generation by 2012, or enough to power roughly 18,000 homes. If the plan is successful it will exceed the current USA wind generating capacity.
Texas currently has 5,500 MW of wind capacity, an amount expected to grow to more than 9,000 MW by the end of this year; but the wind boom has created congestion on the existing power grid, leading to price volatility in the wholesale market and losses for small power retailers.
Canada: Regulating the Risks of Nanotechnology
Concern over the increasing use of nanomaterials has spread to Canada. In July 2008, a scientific panel of the Council of Canadian Academies published several documents warning of the potential dangers posed by the rapidly expanding number of products containing engineered nanomaterials, which companies are adding to products ranging from sunscreens to diesel fuels.
The Council cautions that the nano substances might be able to penetrate human cells and interfere with biological processes. It was asked by Health Canada and several other federal agencies to study the state of knowledge about nanomaterials and the regulatory changes necessary to oversee their use. It concludes that there is inadequate data to inform quantitative risk assessments on current and emerging nanomaterials.
Middle East and North Africa: Prioritising Food or Water
Global food shortages have placed the Middle East and North Africa in a quandary, as they are forced to choose between growing more crops to feed an expanding population or preserving their already scant supply of water. For decades, nations in the region have drained aquifers containing ancient fresh water, desalinated seawater and diverted the Nile to make the deserts bloom. Unfortunately, those projects were so costly and used so much water that it remained far more practical to import food than to produce it. Today, some countries in the region import 90% or more of their staple foods.
The population of the region has more than quadrupled to 364 million since 1950, and is expected to reach nearly 600 million by 2050. By that time, the amount of fresh water available for each person will be half that currently available. Other key resources will also be in decline. Some nations are turning anew to expensive schemes to maintain their food supply. Djibouti is growing rice in solar-powered greenhouses, fed by groundwater and cooled with seawater, a project described by the World Bank as “probably the most expensive rice on Earth”.
Several oil-rich nations, including Saudi Arabia, have started searching for farmland in fertile but politically unstable countries like Pakistan and Sudan, with the goal of growing crops to be shipped home. In Egypt, where a shortage of subsidised bread led to rioting in April this year, Government officials are considering growing wheat on two million acres straddling the border with Sudan. Egypt had ambitious plans for Toshka, a Sahara Desert oasis project that started in 1997. It was proposed to develop around 500,000 acres of farmland, but only 30,000 acres have been planted so far because of the cost. In July 2008, the UAE signed a memorandum of understanding with the Philippines to ensure food supply.
The challenges presented by nutritional self-sufficiency in this part of the world are difficult. Saudi Arabia tapped aquifers to become self-sufficient in wheat production in the 1980s, and by the early 1990s the kingdom had become a major exporter. In 2008, the Saudis decided to phase out the programme because it used too much water.
Russia: Geologists Confront Workplace Hazards
In mid-July 2008, a group of geologists working on the remote Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East were trapped at their survey site after hungry bears killed two of the site’s guards. The camp was reported to be surrounded by at least 30 native brown bears. Due to poor weather a rescue helicopter could not be flown to the campsite, but an all-terrain vehicle carrying hunters set out, with instructions to await Government approval to shoot the bears.
Officials on Kamchatka, which is nine time zones east of Moscow on the Pacific Ocean, said this year was unusual in that there are either too many bears or not enough fish for them to eat. The fish shortage is man-made and caused by rampant poaching in the empty tundra. When this has happened in the past, the bears have been attracted to population centres to scavenge for the food-rich rubbish humans leave behind.
The Kamchatka bears are related to the American Grizzly; an adult male can weigh 700 kilograms and stand three metres tall.
European Union: Illegal Timber Imports
According to a report, Illegal Wood for the European Market, published in Belgium on 22nd July 2008 by the environmental organisation, WWF, nearly 20% of the 30 million cubic metres of wood and timber imported into the European Union in 2006 was harvested illegally or came from suspect sources in Russia, Indonesia and China.
Around 40% of wood-based products from South-East Asia, 30% from Latin America and 37% from Africa originated from illegal or suspect sources. The major EU importers were Finland, Britain, Germany and Italy. The main exporter was Russia, with 10.4 million cubic metres of illegal or suspicious wood transferred to EU countries, mostly via processing plants in Finland.
Illegal logging destroys the protective function of hill-slope forests and increases the risk of such natural disasters as floods and landslides. In addition, deforestation is a major causative agent of climate change.
The existing EU scheme to deal with illegal logging is the Forest and Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Licensing Scheme, which is voluntary and demonstrably ineffective. The EU executive body is expected to adopt proposals in September aimed at curbing the trade by demanding certificates proving timber imported into the EU is legally harvested.
International: Bee Deaths and Pathogen Spillover
The mysterious phenomenon of bee mass mortality known as Colony Collapse Disorder has spread throughout North America and Western Europe, with potentially devastating results for agricultural production in terms of crop pollination.
Commercially-bred bees have been falling in numbers for some years, and several agents have been suggested as the possible cause, including parasites and virus disease. Wild bumblebees have also suffered serious declines and circumstantial evidence suggests that pathogen ‘spillover’ from commercially-reared bumblebees, which are used extensively to pollinate greenhouse crops, is a possible cause.
A Canadian study by a research team at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Ontario, was published in the journal PloS ONE in July 2008. The reference is M. C. Otterstatter and J. D. Thomson, 2008, “Does Pathogen Spillover from Commercially Reared Bumble Bees Threaten Wild Pollinators?”, PLoS ONE 3(7): e2771. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002771. The paper is available online free access.
The research involved the construction of a mathematical computer model of pathogen spillover in bumblebees and, using laboratory experiments and the literature, estimating parameter values for the infection rates of Crithidia bombi, a destructive parasite commonly found in commercial bees. They also monitored wild bumblebee populations near greenhouses for evidence of pathogen spillover, and compared the fit of the model to patterns of bee infection observed in the field.
The mathematical model predicted that during the first three months of a pathogen spillover from commercial hives, there would be a relatively slow build-up of infection in nearby wild bumblebee populations, affecting up to 20% of wild bees within 2 km of the greenhouse. Then a travelling wave of disease was expected to form suddenly, infecting up to 35 to 100% of wild bees, and spread away from the greenhouse at a rate of 2 km per week.
The researchers checked their model by carrying out fieldwork studies near two large greenhouse operations in southern Ontario where commercially-reared pollination bees are used in the growing of such crops as tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers. They were unable to detect the large wave of infection predicted by the model, but they did find that the pathogen spread to wild bees around greenhouses exactly as expected.
They concluded that pathogen spillover from commercial bees is contributing to the on-going decline of wild bees in North America. They suggest that improved management of domestic bees, especially in reducing parasite loads and their overlap with wild bees, could diminish or even eliminate the spillover phenomenon.
USA: 80-Mile Oil Slick Coats the Mississippi River
More than 400,000 US gallons of No. 6 thick industrial fuel oil spilled into the Mississippi River on 23rd July 2008, following a collision between the 600-foot, Liberian-flagged tanker “Tintomara” and a 61-foot barge being pulled by a tugboat operated by DRD Towing Co. The oil spill, the largest on the Mississippi River in the New Orleans area in nearly a decade, halted shipping traffic on one of the nation's busiest waterways. By the next day the slick had spread more than 80 miles downstream and was threatening an ecological disaster on the delta ecosystem.
The US Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating the circumstances of the collision. Apart from stopping shipping movements, drinking water processing intakes had to be closed downstream from the spill site. Work to contain the spill was on-going and expected to take several days. The clean-up operation was forecast to take months. The impacts on wildlife are being monitored by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
European Union: New ECJ Ruling on Air Pollution
Dieter Janecek, a German environmental activist and Green Party member who lives in the city of Munich, complained to the city authorities that the level of particulates in the air linked to car exhaust had breached the legal limit on more than the 35 days allowed in a year. His request to the local authority to draw up an action plan with short-term measures, such as traffic bans, to curb pollution was turned down. He took his case to the German courts, where it was found that there was no obligation under German law for a local authority to draw up an anti-pollution action plan.
Janecek then took his case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg. On 26th July 2008, the ECJ ruled that EU environmental rules did allow for such measures, and where there is a risk that the limit values for particulate matter may be exceeded, persons directly concerned can require the competent authorities to draw up an action plan. However, EU states would be obliged only to take short-term measures capable of reducing to a minimum the risk that pollution thresholds may be exceeded and of ensuring a gradual return to a level below that threshold.
The reference is Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-237/07, Dieter Janecek v. Freistaat Bayern. The ECJ press release and information can be downloaded from:
http://curia.europa.eu/en/actu/communiques/cp08/aff/cp080058en.pdf.
The significance of the case is that ECJ rulings are applicable across the EU.
France: Contamination of Nuclear Workers
Following two recent leakages of radioactive materials from sites in southern France, the Independent Commission on Research and Information on Radioactivity (CRIIRAD) issued an online press release on 25th July 2008, claiming that too many French nuclear workers are being contaminated with low doses of radiation.
The organisation said that in less than 15 days they had been informed of four malfunctions in four nuclear plants, leading to the accidental contamination of 126 workers. An incident at the Tricastin nuclear site at Bollène (see France: Uranium Leakages from Nuclear Sites France: Uranium Leakages from Nuclear Sites earlier in this newsletter) contaminated 100 employees with low-level radiation.
According to the French nuclear safety body, ASN, in 2007 less than 100 nuclear workers had been contaminated by radiation in France.
CRIIRAD also criticised the French state-owned nuclear operator, EDF, for saying the latest contamination incident had no impact on health or on the environment because the radiation doses were below the regulatory limits set by international standards. They point out that the regulatory limits for radiation do not mean there is no risk; instead they relate to a maximum risk level that can be permitted.
The CRIIRAD was created in 1986 to offer independent nuclear expertise after the French Government wrongly claimed that the Chernobyl radioactive cloud had stopped at the Italian border and told the French people that no safety measures were necessary.
USA: Maine Bypasses Federal Chemical Control
The majority leader of the State of Maine House of Representatives sponsored the introduction of legislation that gave the state the authority to identify and investigate "chemicals of high concern" in consumer products, particularly those that may reach children. The Bill was signed into law in April 2008 and took effect in July 2008, making Maine the first US state with such authority.
The legislation is designed to fill a regulatory void created by the federal US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Since 1976, that organisation has banned only five chemicals out of 82,000 known to be hazardous to human health, the most recent being asbestos in 1989.
To some extent the new state legislation was inspired by the EU decision to ban phthalates in 1999, and the more recent introduction of REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals), which requires businesses to prove that substances in everyday products are safe and to submit data about them.
The Maine law also requires manufacturers of toxic chemicals to notify state authorities of the quantity and purpose of the chemicals and to work to develop safer alternatives. The state itself will test chemical substances and issue a "certificate of non-compliance" to manufacturers, stating that their chemicals do not meet state laws. The state can notify retailers that a product contains toxic chemicals and order them to ban its sale.
Chemical manufacturers expressed concern that the Maine legislation might form a model for other states to copy.
UAE: Quarries Violate Environmental Standards
Following public protests about dust emissions by local residents, the Dubai Minister of Environment and Water visited quarries in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah on 27th July 2008 to carry out spot inspections in order to verify compliance with a Cabinet decision on environmental guidelines. After working operations were ordered to be resumed, it was found that equipment in use was primitive and in violation of the environmental standards set by the ministry in regard to dust, noise and transportation.
Some quarries with the required safety systems and filters to reduce dust pollution did not operate them at all times, or used them only in the presence of supervisors. Others had failed to install the equipment and had nothing to limit dust emissions.
All the violations were documented to be followed up by the federal and local authorities. A schedule will be prepared for the offending companies to amend their working methods. In addition, abandoned quarry workings will have to be cleared of waste and properly backfilled.
Netherlands: Investigation into Workplace Organic Solvents
It has been estimated that half a million workers in the Netherlands are regularly exposed to organic solvents, which are widely used for degreasing and diluting, and commonly found in such products as paints, stains and glues.
On 18th July 2008, the Dutch State Secretary for Social Affairs asked the Health Council to investigate the issue of occupational exposure to organic solvents and their impact on workers' reproductive health. The request followed publication of two expert studies formed to review the relevant scientific literature. The committee found indications that exposure to various solvents may impair both male and female fertility. They were especially concerned with the harmful effects of ethylene glycol ethers, a class of chemical that increases the risk of spontaneous abortions and birth defects.
Workers exposed to ethylene glycol ethers include those carrying out painting or maintenance work, and those employed in the semiconductor industry. Appropriate health and safety regulations have been introduced to reduce exposure levels to these glycol ethers in the Netherlands, and case incidence has fallen in recent years. There has been a switch from the use of ethylene glycol ethers to other less harmful glycol ethers.
The committee found there are weak indications that exposure to tetrachloroethylene and xylene in pregnant women increases the risk of spontaneous abortions. Experimental animal studies also show that exposure to these solvents may harm the unborn foetus. However, the committee concluded that the evidence is not strong enough to confirm the epidemiological data. They also found that exposure of pregnant women to toluene increases the risk of spontaneous abortion, with weak indications for an increased risk of childhood leukaemia.
A copy of the report, in Dutch and English, can be downloaded from:
http://hesa.etui-rehs.org/uk/newsevents/files/Occupational-exposure-organic-solv.pdf.
UAE: In-Flight Magazine Bites the Dust
The Emirates airline is withdrawing the Open Skies in-flight magazine that it provides in the back pocket of every seat on its aircraft in an effort to save fuel costs and for environmental reasons. In general such airline magazines are not highly regarded by travellers as they tend to be uninformative promotional vehicles. The company said the decision to ban all onboard paper would lighten the aircraft by a tonne, or 2 kg per seat. The printed matter will be replaced by content shown on the aircraft's seat-back TVs.
Other airlines announced in June 2008 that they plan to reduce weight by cutting magazine pagination and size. A Japanese airline is reported to have removed seats from some of its planes in the 1990s because the in-flight magazines were 300-odd pages in length, and it was a case of ticket sales versus advertisement page rates.
USA: Chemical Safety Board Calls for Action on Dust Explosions
At a Senate hearing on 29th July 2008, the chairman of the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) called on the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to act on a CSB recommendation made last year to adopt a comprehensive standard regulating combustible dust in the workplace. The recommendation followed an explosion in November 2007 at the Imperial Sugar Port Wentworth refinery in Georgia, in which 13 workers were killed.
The CSB investigation into the incident found that certain parts of Imperial's milling process were releasing thousands of kilogrammes’ weight of sugar dust per month into the work area. It was reported by workers that powdered sugar was piled up below the mill approximately 500 cm high. Imperial did not have a written dust control programme nor a programme for using safe dust removal methods. Electrical equipment in the sugar packaging plant was not dust-tight. The company lacked a formal training programme to educate its workers about combustible dust hazards, and Imperial operators interviewed by the CSB had minimal knowledge of those hazards.
The chairman noted that the CSB 2006 Combustible Dust Study identified 281 dust fires and explosions in the USA between 1980 and 2005, killing 119 and injuring 718 workers. These included major dust explosion accidents in North Carolina, Kentucky and Indiana in 2003, killing a total of 14 workers. Since that study was released, the media have reported approximately 82 additional dust fires and explosions.
In their investigation report the CSB also recommended improved training of OSHA inspectors to recognise dust hazards, better communication of dust hazards to workers through material safety data sheets (MSDSs), and instituting a national emphasis programme to better enforce existing standards. Good engineering and safety practices to prevent dust explosions have existed for decades, and current US good practices are contained in numerous National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards, some of which have been adopted by state and local governments in their fire codes.
A comprehensive OSHA dust standard is necessary to get businesses, government inspectors, and insurers to identify dust hazards and take appropriate actions to control them. Existing standards do not clearly identify what kinds of dust are hazardous and only address limited aspects of how to control those hazards.
France: Tricastin Nuclear Plant Problems Continue
The troubled Tricastin nuclear power site at Bollène was evacuated by all 120 workers after an alarm was set off on 29th July 2008. The site operator claimed the alarm was triggered accidentally, but the French nuclear safety authority, ASN, said it would await an independent examination before making any conclusions.
Precautionary tests were carried out by ASN on 45 employees and "very weak" traces of contamination were found on two of them, but it was interpreted as residual traces from an earlier incident the previous week, when sensors detected a rise in radiation levels as maintenance work was in progress.
China: Safety Drive Causes Energy Crisis
The Chinese Government safety campaign to close down dangerous coal mines has created an unforeseen side effect, namely a shortage of coal. Rising prices over the past year have left many coal-burning electricity generating power stations with less fuel than they need, and declining profits.
Fifty-one power plant units have been closed across China because of a lack of coal, equivalent to nearly 3% of national capacity. Electricity is rationed in 14 provinces. Electricity supply blackouts have hit the energy-hungry metals and manufacturing sectors especially hard. According to a statement by the State Grid Corporation of China on 29th July 2008, some 46% of the stations connected to its grid had coal stockpiles below the official seven days’ supply caution level.
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