ES&T
INTERNATIONAL Officials from more than 20 European governments and Canada met in Norway in June to sign an agreement on sulfur dioxide emissions. The agreement, negotiated by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, forms a protocol to the convention on transboundary air pollution. It pushes Europe toward massive emissions cuts—of 8 0 % in many countries—aimed at reducing the impact of acid rain on rivers, forests, and buildings. As with an earlier protocol signed in 1985, the United States declined to sign the agreement. This time, however, Britain, Spain, and Poland, w h i c h b u r n large a m o u n t s of coal and refused to participate in 1985, have signed on. The targets are relative to the 1980 baseline year as set in the earlier protocol. But whereas the 1985 agreement prescribed a 3 0 % cut by all nations, this time the cuts depend on the impact of each country's emissions. The agreed figures follow years of elaborate calculations and negotiations. Sweden, Denmark, Finland, a n d Austria will cut emissions by 80% by 2000; Germany will cut emissions by 8 7 % by 2005, in part by phasing out polluting plants in its eastern Lander. Britain, w h i c h is already switching from coal to gas-fired electricity generation, will cut sulfur emissions by 8 0 % by 2010. Emissions of carbon dioxide from European Union (EU) countries fell 3.2% between 1990 and 1993, according to n e w figures compiled by Eurostat, the EU's Luxembourg-based statistical office. But most of this improvement w a s due to the restructuring of eastern German industry a n d the reduction in EU energy d e m a n d caused by the recession. The n e w figures provide valuable a m m u n i t i o n for those EU nations that h o p e to reach agreement on a n e w carbon tax. Germany, w h i c h has just taken over the influential presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, argues that without fiscal measures the target of stabilizing C 0 2 emissions at 1990 levels by 2000 cannot be achieved. The fig-
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ures s h o w that emissions reductions in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy have been offset by increases in Denmark, The Netherlands, Spain, a n d Portugal. Eurostat reports that, overall, industrial emissions fell 8.2% but transport emissions rose 4.4% because of increased road a n d air travel. Emissions from h o u s e h o l d s rose in all EU countries except Germany a n d Ireland, w h i c h are shifting away from the use of solid fuels. The Swedish environment minister, Olof Johansson, has resigned following the government's decision to grant the go-ahead to one of Europe's biggest p l a n n e d construction projects: the Oresund bridge a n d tunnel linking S w e d e n w i t h Denmark. Environmentalists raised concerns that the bridge section of the 17-km road and rail link w o u l d restrict the flow of salt water into the Baltic Sea, a claim denied by Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt. The resignation of Johansson, the leader of the Centre Party, threatens the stability of Bildt's four-party coalition government.
French winemakers have unwittingly recorded a history of air pollution, according to a study by Richard Lobinski at the University of A n t w e r p , Belgium. Lobinski measured concentrations of organolead c o m p o u n d s in 19 vintages of Chateauneuf-du-Pape m a d e from grapes collected in vineyards close to two heavily used French autoroutes (freeways). Reporting in Nature (Vol. 370, p . 24) he found that concentrations of trimethyllead were 450 picograms per gram in
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1970s vintages—100 times the level found in drinking water— but only 50 pg/g in the 1991 wine. Lobinski attributes this almost 10-fold reduction in organolead concentrations to the introduction of pollution control measures, including lead-free gasoline. Environment ministers from the 12 European Union (EU) nations have agreed on a new regulation of ozone-depleting chemicals, w h i c h , as well as tightening the phase-out timetables, will introduce n e w controls on illegal imports a n d leaking apparatus. The n e w regulation, w h i c h if it gains a second reading in the European Parliament will come into force next summer, sets tighter controls than those agreed u p o n u n d e r the Copenhagen revisions of the Montreal Protocol. Hydrochlorofluorocarbon emissions will be phased out by 2015 a n d reduced by 3 5 % by 2004 from a 1996 cap defined u n d e r a Montreal Protocol formula. Methyl bromide c o n s u m p tion will be frozen at 1991 levels and cut by a quarter by 1998. Clamping d o w n on illegal imports of CFCs, the ministers have agreed on a n e w import licensing regime. The regulation requires operators to take "all practicable precautionary m e a s u r e s " to avoid leaks of ozone-depleting chemicals from e q u i p m e n t that contains solvents or refrigerants. Penalties, to be set by member states, will be imposed for any failure to comply with the controls. Albanian environmentalists staged their first public demonstration recently after obtaining police permission to block traffic and h a n d out leaflets in Tirana's main square. The environmental group Perla drew attention to worsening traffic in the capital city, the loss of parkland, a n d the need for environmental laws to be enforced. Three years since Albania's first multiparty elections, the country has passed laws on pollution control a n d environmental protection, but there is still n o environment ministry. Environmental policy is handled by a health ministry committee that has a budget of roughly $160,000. Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 28, No. 8, 1994
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On May 31, the government of Kuwait signed a contract with a consortium of consultants to assess environmental damages and prepare claims as a result of the 1990 Iraqi invasion. The claims, which will be submitted to the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva, will cover health risk assessment, terrestrial ecosystem damage, damage to underground water supplies and coastal areas, and loss of fisheries. In addition to the claims, it calls for development of a "database system" of environmental information collected prior to and after the invasion. U.S. Vice-President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin signed a bilateral environmental agreement on June 23. The treaty, which will be administered by EPA, establishes cooperative efforts in biodiversity, environmental management, public participation in environmental decision making, increased data sharing, and protection of intellectual property rights. With the signing, the Agency for International Development will spend $1 million to support the Komarov and Vavilov Institutes in St. Petersburg (research facilities with major efforts related to biodiversity), and the United States will work with Russia to reduce risks associated with low-level radioactive wastes in the Russian Arctic.
FEDERAL Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown announced in May the creation of an Environmental Technologies Exports (ETE) office and appointed Anne Alonzo to head the operation. ETE is charged with fostering p u b l i c private partnerships and promoting interagency cooperation to facilitate U.S. environmental tech354 A
nology exports. The office will concentrate on emerging markets in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. ETE is part of an aggressive push by the Clinton administration to boost exports of "green technologies" (see June EStrT, p. 256A). Alonzo was an enforcement attorney in EPA's Region V office, where she specialized in hazardous waste issues. For the last three years, she was EPA's first attache to a U.S. diplomatic mission, working at the embassy in Mexico City. There she counseled U.S. and Mexican private and public sectors on bilateral issues of environmental interest.
Assessing and saving U.S. biodiversity is high on the administration's action list. In May, H. Ronald Pulliam was appointed the first director of the Interior Department's National Biological Survey. The survey is a major effort to gather, analyze, a n d disseminate biological information. Since 1987, Pulliam has directed the University of Georgia's Institute of Ecology. As one of his first acts, Pulliam announced on June 1 a major collaborative effort to track non-native plants spreading through the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii boasts more than 10,000 species of plants and animals, many of which are on the U.S. Endangered Species List. Ninety percent of the plants are unique to the islands. Meanwhile, seven federal agencies have joined forces to conserve native plants and their habitats. The partnership, formalized under a memorandum of understanding, creates the Federal Native Plant Conservation Committee with members from the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Biological Survey, Bureau of Land Management, U.S.
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Forest Service, Soil Conservation Service, and Agricultural Research Service. "Today, over half of the species listed as endangered or threatened are plants," said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Mollie Beattie. EPA issued a final rule in June that adds health effects information and testing requirements to its registration program for vehicle fuels and additives. Manufacturers will be required to analyze combustion and evaporation emissions for potential adverse health effects, either by surveying the scientific literature or by testing. The health effects to be surveyed are general systematic and organ toxicity as well as possible developmental, reproductive, neurotoxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic effects. Manufacturers of the 7200 fuels and additives already registered have up to six years to complete the requirements. New products need to meet the requirements prior to registration. Testing will be done in a tier arrangement, with each step determining the need for additional tests. To reduce expenditures, fuels and additives will be classified in groups, and producers can share the cost of testing just a representative of the group. EPA will undertake a five-year, $50 million study of disinfection byproducts and microorganisms under two drinking-water rules signed June 7. The research is designed to balance the health risks of the byproducts against the need to protect against waterborne diseases, an issue highlighted by last year's outbreak of Cryptosporidium in Milwaukee's drinking water. The rules follow nearly two years of negotiations between water suppliers, EPA, and environmentalists. According to the Agency, the rules would target Cryptosporidium and the byproducts chlorine, chloroform, bromoform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane, dichloroacetic acid, trichloroacetic acid, bromate, chlorite, chloral hydrate, chloramines, and chlorine dioxide. On May 18, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce withdrew its support of the Basel Convention, which would ban the transport of hazardous wastes. The decision jeopardizes U.S. ratification of the
