News ▼ Briefs
There is a growing gap between the efforts of business and industry to reduce their impact on the environment and the decline in the environment worldwide, according to a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report that assesses progress by industry on sustainability issues since the Rio Summit 10 years ago. The report includes 22 global sustainability reports written by different industry sectors and is available at www.uneptie.org/outreach/wssd/ sectors/reports.htm. Current typical exposures to methanol are unlikely to cause developmental problems, according to a report by the National Toxicity Program’s Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction released online on April 26. According to the report, the U.S dietary main exposure route leads to less than 10 milligrams per liter of methanol in blood, a level unlikely to cause problems. Methanol exposure might increase if alcohol-based fuels for cars become more prevalent. The report is available at http://cerhr. niehs.nih.gov/news/methanol_ report.PDF. The California Fuel Cell Partnership opened a methanol fueling station at its West Sacramento, Calif., demonstration center on April 25. The station features new spill-proof nozzles developed by the Swedish company Identic. Methanol is one of three fuels the partner274 A
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ship plans to test for fuel-cell vehicles by 2003. The use of direct hydrogen for fuel has already been demonstrated at the center, and all eight automotive companies in the partnership have agreed that direct hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles will be the first fuel-cell vehicles to be tested in the marketplace. For more information on the partnership, go to www.fuelcellpartnership.org.
tive is based on the “cradle to grave” or “cradle to cradle” approach to product design. The collaborative effort is meant to address problems such as finding alternatives to hazardous substances like lead and devising better systems of ecolabeling. For more information, go to www. uneptie.org/pc/cp7 and look for “SETAC Life Cycle Initiative”.
PHOTODISC
The U.K. government must urgently review its disposal and storage of nuclear waste, recommends a report by the Royal Society, which also accuses the government and the nuclear industry of failing to invest in up-to-date technologies. By 2001, only 10% of medium- and high-level waste had been contained using technologies such as vitrification. The Society estimates that it may cost $128 billion to dispose of existing and future waste. The report can be found at www. royalsoc.ac.uk/templates/state ments/statementDetails.cfm? StatementID=173.
Plastic garbage floating in the oceans is giving many invasive species a free ride, particularly at high latitudes, according to a survey of thousands of pieces of trash that washed ashore on 30 islands around the world. Although natural debris, such as volcanic rock and driftwood also serve as rafts for invasive organisms, there has been an enormous increase in the amount of plastic entering the oceans in recent years, reports David Barnes of the British Antarctic Survey, who collected and analyzed the specimens. Barnes estimates that the movement of plastic debris has roughly doubled the propagation of subtropic fauna and more than tripled it at latitudes >50°. The report is published in the April 25 issue of Nature (2002, 416, 808–809). To help governments, businesses, and consumers to adopt more environmentally friendly policies, practices, and life-styles, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) have jointly launched a Life-Cycle Initiative. Intended to spur the scientific community to collaborate with business to reduce the environmental impact of the rapidly rising consumption of goods and services worldwide, the initia-
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / JULY 1, 2002
Ethanol is projected to lead the fuel oxygenate market by 2006, replacing MTBE as the leading oxygenate in use, according to The Freedonia Group, an international business research company in its new study Gasoline & Other Fuel Additives. MTBE’s phaseout, tax credits, and legislation at the state and federal level, as well as a growing demand for cleaner diesel fuels and the desire to lessen the reliance on petroleum feedstocks can be credited to the $11 billion annual increase for ethanol by 2006. National energy security concerns will boost the standing of biodiesel in the gasoline market as well, and doubledigit growth is expected to reach $130 million annually by 2006. Gasoline & Other Fuel Additives can be purchased from The Freedonia Group for $3700; e-mail
[email protected], or go to www.freedoniagroup.com. In 5 to 10 years, 44 Himalayan lakes could burst their banks, threatening people and property downstream, warn two new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reports. Using data from monitoring stations, topographic maps, aerial photographs, and satellite images, researchers from UNEP and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development found that the glaciers in Bhutan are retreating by 30–40 meters a year; and average temperatures in Nepal are one degree centigrade higher than in the 1970s. As a result, lakes in the two countries are filling up. The reports can be found at www.rrcap.unep.org/ glofbhutan/start.htm (Bhutan) and www.rrcap.unep.org/glofnepal/start. htm (Nepal).
