Currently, trace amounts of zinc from anti-dandruff shampoo and mercury from dental fillings remain uncollected in sewage works and are discharged straight into rivers. New EU legislation says the levels of these and other potentially toxic substances must be reduced.

Under proposed EU directives, water companies could be forced to install expensive new equipment to remove the contaminants, since their discharge pipes will be held to be the source of the pollutants.

California could become the first state to try easing global warming by limiting carbon dioxide emissions from cars if a bill approved by the State Assembly becomes law.

The bill would give the Air Resources Board until January 2004 to adopt regulations that achieve the maximum feasible and cost effective reduction of carbon dioxide from cars and light trucks.

Carbon dioxide is an odourless gas that is not considered a direct threat to human health. But scientists say that it is the biggest culprit in an increase in global temperatures.

A Swedish regulation that entered into force on 1 January 2002 bans combustible wastes from landfills in an effort to increase recycling and reuse efforts. A 1998 law, The Environmental Code (1998:1063) approved the ban. The law gave municipalities and industry four years to prepare for its entry of force. The ban was promulgated by a 2001 regulation (the Waste Act, 2001:1063).

The government hopes the ban also will conserve landfill space, reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as methane from landfill waste, and promote safe landfill practices.

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that more than 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage pours into waterways each year in the United States from aging sewer systems designed to overflow when it rains.

Most of the raw sewage discharged by the older systems spews into rivers and streams, but some also flows into ditches, canals, oceans and lakes. Two-thirds of the 772 communities that rely on these systems don't comply with minimum federal standards, prompting serious public health and water concerns.

USEPA said that federal loans for upgrading system totaled US$2 billion from 1989 to 2000. This is only about 5 percent of what was needed to bring them into compliance. Congress also appropriated more than US$600 million in grants for 32 communities in the past decade.

American scientists said that children who play sports in areas with high levels of air pollution are three to four times more likely to develop asthma than other youngsters. A study by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California showed that ozone could contribute to asthma, the most chronic disease in children.

Reducing levels of ozone is the ideal solution, but the researchers say limiting prolonged outdoor activity of children when air pollution levels are high could help.

Scientists with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) have conducted field trials with a bacterial enzyme that showed it could reduce organophosphate residues by 90 percent. The researchers are also confident that naturally-occurring bacteria hold the key to a host of organic pollutants. It is just a matter of identifying the right enzymes and pathways to match the contaminants.

There is no single enzyme that will break down every one of the agrochemicals. Each chemical or group of chemicals needs its own enzyme. The scientists believe that there is a bacterium for practically every organic pollutant. They have isolated enzymes to biodegrade insecticides which are used widely in agriculture.

The German government announced plans for a massive increase in wind generation capacity over the next 25 years. The move would put energy supply on sustainable footing and reduce national carbon dioxide emissions by 10% from 1998 levels.

The wind energy strategy foresees offshore wind parks in the Baltic and North Sea growing in stages to achieve 20-25,000 megawatts of installed capacity by 2030. The turbines would supply 15% of electricity demand based on 1998 figures. This including 10% from land-based turbines and within a generation, one quarter of today's energy needs will be generated with environmentally-friendly wind power.

The Long Island Power Authority is well under way with its first-of-a-kind programme that will use a total of 75 fuel cells to generate electricity for Long Island consumers. This application of fuel cell technology will be the first large-scale use of fuel cells for this purpose in New York State. The fuel cells are being installed at Long Island Power Authority's West Babylon substation under the utility's Clean Energy Initiative.

A fuel cell is a device that converts the energy of a fuel (hydrogen, natural gas, methanol, gasoline, etc.) and an oxidant (air or oxygen) into useable electricity. But unlike traditional fossil power plants, fuel cells generate electricity through an electrochemical process instead of one that involves combustion.