older citizens. The agency wants to hear from outsiders about how the migration of retirees to regions with warmer climates might cause ecological pressure. And agency staffers are interested in recruiting retirees to volunteer to speak about ecological preservation. Once information about this topic is made public, baby boomers are likely to act, notes Steven Wallace, professor of Public Health at the University of California–Los Angeles’ Center for Health and Policy Research. “It is the generation that changed things in the 1960s,” Wallace says. “They have definitely been seen as a group that is hyper about their health concerns.” For more information, go to www. epa.gov/aging. —CATHERINE M. COONEY
Declining water resources raise food concerns Citizens of dozens of poor African and Asian countries could face starvation in the next 30 years, according to the first-ever quantitative analysis of water resources and a country’s capability to grow food. In the July 15 issue of ES&T (pp 3048–3054), scientists at the Swiss Institute for Environmental Science & Technology (EAWAG) introduce a statistical model that correlates renewable water resources with a country’s cereal grain imports. They find that although many countries have become more efficient at using their freshwater for agriculture, 35 countries in this region lack enough water to feed their expanding populations without food imports by the year 2030. In most countries, more than two-thirds of the total water resources are used by agriculture. Therefore, say the researchers, a country’s water resources are linked to its capacity for food production. When food supplies fail to meet demand, cereal grains are the most
common food import. The EAWAG researchers analyzed data for African and Asian countries from the World Resources Institute, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the World Bank that covered the years 1980 to 2000. They found food imports exponentially grew when water resources were lower than a key “water threshold” variable. Previous estimates of this water stress threshold presumed it was constant. The EAWAG analysis, however, found that this threshold has dropped in Asian and African countries from 2000 cubic meters per capita per year [m3/(capita year)] in the early 1980s to 1500 m3/ (capita year) in the late 1990s because of an expansion of irrigated areas and an improvement in water use efficiency. The calculated decline in water threshold is important, says Hong Yang, senior scientist with EAWAG and first author of the study, because it means that “we should not
News Briefs Fighting environmental crime Environmental crime is one of the most profitable and fastest-growing areas of international criminal activity, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). To help combat the multibilliondollar illegal trade in ozonedepleting substances, toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes, and endangered species, UNEP is teaming up with Interpol (the international criminal police organization) and the World Customs Organization to train border guards to better spot and apprehend criminals trafficking in “environmental commodities”. “The illegal traffic of toxic waste negatively impacts on the environment and health of thousands in the developing world,” said Klaus Töpfer, UNEP’s executive director. “At the same time criminal groups smuggle environmentally harmful products like ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), whose legal trade is subject to stringent international restrictions,” he adds. Local and international crime syndicates worldwide earn $22–31 billion annually from dumping hazardous wastes, smuggling proscribed hazardous materials, and exploiting and trafficking protected natural resources, says Thomas L. Sansonetti, Assistant Attorney General of the U.S. Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. The “Green Customs” initiative aims to improve coordinated intelligence gathering and ensure that customs officers receive training that covers all relevant environmental agreements. A key feature of the project is the Green Customs website: Go to www.unepie. org/ozonaction/customs to learn more about the project.
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on 75 projects, with 31 of those from ORD. Forty-six of the total are research studies. Many medical and health research groups support the initiative. Janet Allen, dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, says that nurses, who are often the first to see emergency room patients, are not trained in the appropriate diagnosis or treatment of illness related to environmental hazards in older persons. As the number of retirees rises, more will be entering emergency rooms. “I commend EPA for doing this before it becomes a critical health problem,” Allen said. EPA officials are seeking public comments on actions that local governments or planners can take to anticipate the needs of today’s
Environmental▼News just limit ourselves to talk about water scarcity but actively seek ways and opportunities to further lower the water resources threshold.” Among the potential Cyprus Lebanon improvements, say Afghanistan Tunisia Iran Morocco Israel the researchers, are Jordan Pakistan greater emphasis Algeria Libya Egypt Saudi on wastewater Arabia India Emirates treatment, Eritrea Yemen reuse, recyBurkina Faso cling, and Nigeria Ethiopia Togo artificial Cape Verde Somalia Uganda recharge Kenya Rwanda to groundwater. Finding ways to Burundi Tanzania Maldives limit pollution and environmental Comoros degradation will also be important. Malawi Malin Falkenmark, a hydrologist Zimbabwe with the Stockholm International This map highlights the African and Water Institute, who was among the tral Asia, Asian nations whose citizens are threatSouth Africa first to concentrate on water scarciwhich use ened with starvation due to impending 3 ty issues, is not surprised by the 2500 m /(capita water shortages. EAWAG results. In 1992, Falkenmark year), whereas China reestimated the water stress threshports water withdrawals of only The looming threat of insuffiold at 1700 m3/(capita year) solely 500 m3/(capita year). cient food production will have on the basis of empirical data. Until recently, most countries to be met by bigger efforts “to enComparison of water needs, or below the water threshold were oilhance water use efficiency,” asserts consumption values, shows that rich and thus could afford cereal Falkenmark. Yang agrees, adding “there are huge differences among imports. However, the new analysis that these efforts “should be devotvarious regions in the world,” says predicts that many poor and popued to innovation and application of Falkenmark. Several regions cluster lous countries, such as Afghanistan, environmentally sustainable agriaround 1000 m3/(capita year). The India, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, and cultural technologies,” as well as highest water consumers are the Uganda, will fall below the water improving international food trade. United States and countries in Cenresources threshold before 2030. —ORI SCHIPPER
California to develop selenium standard for wildlife The California offices of the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFW), and several other agencies have agreed to develop an aquatic standard for selenium to protect wildlife in California. This would be the first water quality regulation intended to protect birds and other wildlife in addition to fish. The move comes at a time when draft federal EPA guidelines, which used selenium tissue concentrations in fish as the basis for revising water quality recommendations, have been blocked for almost a year by objections from USFW. Selenium is an essential micronutrient, but at high concentrations it leads to reproductive abnormalities in fish and birds. Its toxic effects have been the topic of furious debate among aquatic toxicologists for
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more than 10 years. Government scientists charged with protecting wildlife say existing standards must be tightened because selenium contamination is widespread, but industry scientists say that it is an environmental oddity and that EPA’s draft addresses the issue. Like mercury, selenium’s aquatic cycle is complex and diet is the
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main exposure route. Consequently, EPA’s current chronic criterion for selenium, 5 parts per billion (ppb) in water, is often not closely related to the amounts found in fish. EPA’s draft selenium chronic criterion, completed in March 2002, used tissue concentrations with the intent of safeguarding fish reproduction. Toxicologists agree that tissue concentrations “offer an opportunity to let the fish tell us whether the environment is safe,” says William Adams, senior science adviser for Rio Tinto, a mining company. “I think the selenium chronic criterion is a unique step forward in environmental protection.” However, USFW claimed that the draft standard could lead to adverse reproductive effects in many of California’s threatened and endangered species and delayed it by appealing to the Endangered Species Act.
Korea Republic
