The USEPA has revealed that contact with Chlorpyrifos, a pesticide can cause neurological damage.

Use of the pesticide has been effectively eliminated in the US following this new study into its potential health hazards. However, in the UK, the pesticide is still commonly used for agricultural purposes.

The USEPA has found that Atrazine, a common weed killer and tap water contaminant, is more toxic than previously believed. In its first in-depth look at the potential for Atrazine to harm children, the agency has raised its estimate of the chemical's lifetime cancer potency.

The study found that Atrazine has the potential to deliver harmful effects to the foetus, infant and child reaching puberty. After a five-year review, EPA has classified the weed killer as a "possible" carcinogen.

Researchers from the University of Buffalo have found that women who regularly eat fish from Lake Ontario, known to be contaminated with PCBs and other hormone disrupting chemicals, may be about 25% less likely to become pregnant than women who do not.

These findings suggest that reproductive health endpoints may be early indicators of the adverse effects of environmental hazards on human health.

A system developed in Germany offers an efficient solution to fix leaking manhole shafts. The system consists of two raw material components, which are applied at room temperature using low-pressure spray units. The two liquids are fed via hoses to the light and compact spray head, where they are mixed. The hoses, which are up to 25m long, enable manoeuvrability during application. The mixture is sprayed onto the shaft walls by compressed air where it reacts immediately and becomes so viscous that nothing drips. This ensures minimum material waste. After 12 seconds of curing the lining can be fully loaded and put back into service. It takes less than three hours to complete the rehabilitation of a shaft-including preparation time.

The USEPA has proposed new rules to make it easier for oil firms to use ethanol to produce cleaner burning reformulated gasoline (RFG) for the Midwest market, where gasoline prices are the highest in the nation.

The agency's proposal will make it easier for refiners to blend ethanol in RFG by recognising that the oxygenate distilled from corn reduces carbon monoxide that causes air pollution, more so than other gasoline additives that add oxygen.

Oil refiners generally can choose between MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) or ethanol to produce the cleaner fuel to meet Congress' requirement that RFG contains two percent oxygen by weight. The use of ethanol in RFG provides more oxygen in the fuel than other additives, such as MTBE.

However, for cleaner-burning gasoline with ethanol to meet pollution reduction standards, an adjustment must be made to the gasoline to reduce the rate of the fuel's evaporation. This is because ethanol can make gasoline evaporate faster, resulting in an increase in air pollution.

The European Union has passed a law that will pave the way for a major cleanup of Europe's rivers, lakes and coastal regions and ban industries from discharging hazardous substances into rivers.

The so-called water framework directive will compel EU countries to ensure their waters are up to a reasonable standard within 15 years.

The wide-reaching legislation will have a direct impact on industry and agriculture as it will set up a list of substances - to be revised every four years - that will no longer be allowed in water discharges.

The hazardous substances list will be established by the EU institutions at a later date, but the EU's Executive Commission has already proposed a list of 32 substances. It includes metals - mercury, cadmium and nickel, and the pesticide lindane.