Environment Report 27 Sep 1999 to 3 Oct 1999

Table of Contents

S/N	Title		Synopsis
I. Subject Area : Public Health
1	New York Sprays Entire City to Control Encephalitis Outbreak		An outbreak of the St Louis encephalitis in New York has set off a campaign to eradicate mosquitoes by aerial spraying and fogging with insecticides.
2	WHO Gives Southeast Asia a Health Warning		WHO's 52^nd Regional Committee Meeting highlights increasing trends for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Southeast Asia
II. Subject Area : Environmental Pollution
3	BP Launches a Clean Fuels Programme in the Paris Region	BP France has launched a "Clean Fuels" Programme for the Paris region, with the introduction of a new ultra low sulphur diesel fuel (ULSD).
III. Subject Area : Environmental Technology
4	Asbestos-Digesting Foam	The US' Brookhaven National Laboratory and W.R. Grace & Co. have developed a foam that could convert asbestos fibres in asbestos-containing materials into harmless minerals.
5	DNA Chip Technology Being Developed to Test Drinking Water Quality	Lyonaise des Eaux in France and United Water Resources in US are jointly developing a DNA chip technology for rapid identification of disease-causing microbes in drinking water.
III. Subject Area : Global Environmental Matters
6	Fire's Role in Global Warming Studied		Scientists from 12 countries are involved in a project to monitor the contribution of fires to greenhouse gas emissions as well as how they impact on forests as carbon sinks.
IV. Subject Area: Waste Minimisation and Recycling
7	German Recycling Efforts 'Too Successful'		The recycling industry in Germany is overwhelmed by public response to a recycling programme designed as a game. The huge response caused the price of recycled paper to dip sharply.

SUMMARY REPORT

Period Covered: 27 Sep 1999 to 3 Oct 1999

Item 1	New York Sprays Entire City in Encephalitis Outbreak
Summary	Public-health officials in New York City are continuing to investigate 65 possible cases of St Louis encephalitis in an outbreak that was first reported in the last week of August. The geographical extent of the outbreak convinced officials to begin a mosquito eradication campaign over the entire city. The strategy included aerial spraying of malathion every 7 to 10 days and fogging with pyrethroid. City officials quickly began public education efforts and were supported by investigators sent to New York from the US Centres for Diseases Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Reference	The Lancet, Vol 354, Page 1009

Item 2	WHO Gives Southeast Asia a Health Warning
Summary	HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis are the most formidable challenges for Southeast Asia and account for more than 40% of the global communicable disease burden, according to WHO's 52^nd Regional Committee Meeting. Between July 1997 and March 1999, Southeast Asia reported a 40% increase in AIDS cases with Thailand, Myanmar, and India accounting for more than 95% of cases. Tuberculosis still claims the highest mortality in the region. The annual number of new smear positive cases has increased from 18,000 to 70,000. The region also accounts for 80% of global leprosy cases but is expected to achieve the target prevalence rate of less than 1 in 10,000 by 2002, albeit 2 years later than planned.
Reference	The Lancet, Vol 354, Page 1010

Item 3	BP Launches a Clean Fuels Programme in the Paris Region
Summary	On 1 Sep 99, BP France launched a "Clean Fuels" Programme for the Paris region, with the introduction of a new ultra low sulphur diesel fuel (ULSD). The sulphur content is 50 ppm. The current sulphur standard in EU is 500 ppm or 0.05%. BP's ULSD is marketed in all 40 BP inner-Paris service-stations and will be available in all of BP's 240 Paris region retail network by the end of the year. BP's USLD is also being marketed to BP's commercial customers such as bus and other transport companies running fleets. The ultra low sulphur fuel is offered at no extra cost to motorists.
Reference	http://www.dieselnet.com/news/9909bp.html

Item 4	Asbestos-Digesting Foam
Summary	Brookhaven National Laboratory and W.R. Grace & Co. in the United States have developed a foam that could chemically digest asbestos fibres in asbestos-containing products such as fireproofing on building columns, beams and decking. The foam is an acid solution that contains phosphoric acid and a small amount of a proprietary fluoride catalyst. When it is sprayed directly onto the asbestos-containing material, it chemically digests the asbestos fibres, dissolving them into harmless minerals and leaving behind a material that still retains its functions. The asbestos-digesting foam has helped reduce the amount of waste containing asbestos and also saved building owners the expense of disposing regulated asbestos waste materials.
Reference	http://www.gnet.org/filecomponent/newsdetail.cfm?NewsID=8523

Item 5	DNA Chip Technology Being Developed to Test Drinking Water Quality
Summary	French water giant Lyonaise des Eaux and US based United Water Resources announced their joint research and development effort in DNA chip technology called the GeneChip array technology to test drinking water and prevent waterborne diseases. The technology works by matching as many as 400,000 programmed genetic codes with the DNA signature of a microbe. When applied to water testing, it enables plant operators to quickly and accurately identify waterborne germs, at lower concentrations than is currently possible with existing techniques. The new technology is expected to reduce testing costs drastically because the DNA chip technology can measure the presence of many microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses and parasites, in a single water test.
Reference	Pollution Engineering, Aug 99, Page 10,11

Item 6	Fire's Role in Global Warming Studied
Summary	Scientists from 12 countries are involved in a project, called the World Fire Web, to monitor the contribution fires make to greenhouse gas emissions as well as the impact fires have when they destroy trees that soak up carbon dioxide. This project is co-ordinated by the European Commission Global Vegetation Monitoring Unit (GVM) and the countries involved are Vietnam, Brazil, Australia, Italy, Dakar (Senegal), Thailand, Venezuela, Argentina, Canada. Russian Federation, Central African Republic and Botswana. The objectives of GVM are to document the evolution of global fire activities, develop detection procedures to identify and characterise fire events and also to create a global fire information system. To facilitate the identification of locations of fires, researchers from the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and GVM are currently trying to train the computers to automatically recognise and measure burnt areas from satellite images.
Reference	http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/1999/09/092799/csirofire_5847.asp

Item 7

German Recycling Efforts 'Too Successful'

Summary

Germany brought in tough packaging regulations in the form of the German Packaging Ordinance as far back as 1991. In 1996, packaging manufacturer Tetra Pak Europe came up with the 'recycling for millions' game to boost the recovery rate for drink cartons to the required 64% from the 48% level which the country had achieved in 1995. The game involves consumers writing their name and phone number on used cartons and returning them to the recycling points, in order to enter a prize draw.

Unfortunately, German enthusiasm for recycling overwhelmed the existing system. Consumers returned more goods than could be recycled, which caused the price of recycled paper to dip sharply.

Reference

World Waste Management , Sep 99, Page 23

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