A The new building code, called the 2002 Energy Conservation Construction Code, places greater emphasis on energy conservation relies on technologies for residential and commercial buildings, such as new energy efficient thermostats, transformers and fireplaces has been proposed in New York A Lehigh University professor, Coulter, has discovered that stronger that stronger plastic products containing products could be produced up to 50% of recyclable content can be produced by adding vibration to the mix feed as it was fed into the mould. He found that the end product made from According to the professor, even with half of the polystyrene starting materials comprising of up to 50% of recycled waste plastic ed of what would once have been waste, when vibrated, the end product would be is stronger than products made from if 100% new polystyrene was used without vibration. . The new code was an enhancement over the standard International Energy Conservation Code (IECC).

Researchers at Brigham Young University has Researchers at Brigham Young University have created a sensor that can continually measure metals levels in water as it flows. The system works by adapting a method of monitoring the levels of metals released into the environment by mining, smelting, fossil fuel combustion, and industrial use. The metals include zinc, mercury and cadmium.

To detect metals in water, compounds that seek out and bind to metal ions are first created. Then, small molecules that attach themselves to the metal-binding compounds are created. These small molecules, when bound to the metals in the water, fluoresce under ultraviolet light. The color of the glow depends on the type and concentration of the metal ions present. An new Earth- orbiting monitor mounted on a satellite is providing the most complete view assembled to date of the world's air pollution to date as its churns through the atmosphere, crossing continents and oceans.

Launched in December 1999, MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere) tracks the air pollutant carbon monoxide from aboard the Terra satellite as it circles the Earth from pole to pole 16 times a day. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder are blending the new data with output from a computer model of Earth's atmosphere to develop the world's first global maps of long-term lower atmosphere pollution.

A new technology for dealing with used batteries developed by China's Beijing University of Science and Technology has proven to be very successful.

The technology features a combination of "physical selection" and "chemical disposal". "Physical selection" means the different materials contained in used batteries are removed and separated from each other through physical methods. "Chemical disposal" refers to the process in which these selected materials are purified through a series of chemical methods. The heavy metal ions will be separated before the waste water is being discharged.

A new study by London researchers suggests that children learn more slowly when exposed to high levels of aircraft noise at school US company in Houston (USA), Equilon Enterprise LLC, has developed a technology called BioRemedy whichBioRemedy that uses microbes to break down MTBE. in subsurface.

The same college recently published research that showed a link between excess domestic noise and adult mental health. The latest study compared the performance and health of children in 10 schools exposed to high levels of aircraft noise (overhead flights at 90 second intervals, in some cases) with that of children in 10 schools experiencing lower levels of aircraft noise.

Greater aircraft noise exposure produced higher levels of annoyance among the children in the 'high-noise' schools and was associated with poorer reading performance on difficult items on a standard reading test.

A Japanese study suggests that as little as a half an hour of secondhand smoke can impair normal blood flow to the heart.

The study examines the effects of spending 30 minutes in a hospital's smoking room on 15 non-smoking men and 15 smokers. The smokers, whose heart arteries already showed damage, were not affected. But in nonsmokers, the result was a reduced ability of heart arteries to dilate, which previous research has suggested may be a precursor to hardening of the arteries.

International Fuel Technology, Inc. (IFT) recently entered into an agreement with Petrochem Carless Limited to establish a Joint Marketing and Distribution venture for a series of cleaner burning alternative diesel fuels, which will be distributed to consumers throughout Europe.

The fuels, which will be formulated using an IFT additive, which. The additive formulation allows for the complete blending of diesel fuel with oxygenates and other renewable substances. These will significantly reduce engine emissions, especially nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, while realizing improved engine power and efficiency. Lighting companies and waste management firms in the UK have launched a new initiative to dramatically boost the recycling and reuse of lamps. The industries claim it will lead to a fivefold increase in recycling, to 10% by the end of 2002.

The industries' two trade organizations, the Environmental Services Association (ESA) and the Lighting Industry Federation (LIF) have set up a non-profit company called SustainaLite to manage the new program. The scheme will cover gas discharge lightbulbs such as fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescents, high-pressure mercury, high-pressure sodium, metal halide and low-pressure sodium lamps.

At present about 80 million gas discharge lamps are sold in the UK annually and 12,000 metric tons go into the waste stream annually. The current recycling rate is 2%. SustainaLite expects this to rise to 10% by end of 2002.