The US EPA intends to change its existing waste regulations to facilitate the recycling of materials removed from discarded computers, televisions and other electronic equipment so as to prevent them from being disposed of at municipal landfills and incineration plants.

Germany has announced a plan to implement a new Equipment and Machinery Noise Reduction Ordinance to meet with EU's out-door noise directive (2000/14/EC; 4, 171:1201). The ordinance limits noise emissions of 57 types of equipment used outdoors, including road pavement machinery, sledge hammers, street cleaning machinery, and garden equipment such as chain saws, lawn mowers and leaf blowers.

A US company, Aqua Dyne Incorporated has started to market a unique water purification system known as the JetWater System. The system can be easily transported and readily adapted for a wide variety of applications. It can process 200,000 gallons of water per day and multiple systems can be configured to produce more water if necessary.

The JetWater System uses jet after-burner technology, which generates intense heat and steam, and a revolutionary application of an insulation product to contain the heat and steam generated. The operating flexibility of the system allows water purity to be tailored to meet user requirements. It offers a reliable and ecologically sustainable solution to the problem of purifying water.

An Australian company, Energetech is considering several sites along the New England coast for what could be the nation's first power plant capable of turning the energy from ocean waves into electricity. The proposed power plant could generate enough power to light up 800 to 1,200 homes by using ocean swells to power a turbine.

The company's wave machine uses two specially designed parabolic-shaped walls that force ocean swells into a hollow center chamber. When waves pass, the air in the chamber is compressed upward, spinning a turbine. Although the generators can be expensive to build, the fuel, i.e. waves is free, making it more competitive than the use of fossil fuels such as gas and oil.

Stephen Salter, an engineer at the University of Edinburgh has a new idea: a floating wind turbine that sprays water vapour high into the air, to increase evaporation from the ocean and precipitation over the land. This idea could help defuse burgeoning conflicts over access to water, stop deserts spreading, improve topsoil quality, save rain forests and neutralize the impact of climate change.

The turbine looks like a 40-metre-high eggbeater, with slender aerofoil-shaped blades attached at the top and bottom, which the wind sets spinning about the vertical axis. Centrifugal force generated by the rotating blades pumps water droplets into the atmosphere.

The US EPA has proposed to change its existing waste regulations for computers, televisions and other electronic equipment to discourage the disposal of these wastes at municipal landfills and incineration plants.

Color computer monitors and televisions have cathode ray tubes (CRTs) which contain lead to protect users from x-rays generated while the tube is in operation. Under the proposal, the EPA would reclassify unwanted computer monitors and televisions as products rather than wastes, if their CRTs were being considered for reuse. The US EPA is also proposing to lift the waste designation from glass removed from CRTs, as long as the glass is sent for recycling.

The US EPA proposal would also streamline regulations for scrap equipment containing mercury. Mercury is used in switches, barometers, meters, temperature gauges, pressure gauges and sprinkler system contacts. Under the proposal, scrap equipment containing mercury would be treated as a universal waste, rather than being subjected to the full hazardous waste regulations.

In Australia, an inventor Robert Dane has designed and built the world 's first solar powered ferry, the Solar Sailor, which is driven by both solar and wind power. The invention has won the top prize in the Australian design awards.

The global potential for an invention such as the Solar Sailor offers an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional diesel-powered crafts. It combines four sources of energy - sun, wind, battery power with stored solar energy and a back-up fuel generator.

With speeds of up to 7.5 knots on wind and solar power alone, the ferry's fiberglass solar panels act as sails while absorbing sunlight and storing solar energy in batteries which power the ferry's electric motor. The ship's onboard computer monitors the sun and the wind and adjusts the angle of the solar wings to absorb more sunlight.

US Federal regulators have proposed a water quality trading policy that will help speed the pace of cleaning up polluted rivers, streams and lakes. Despite advancements under the current Clean Water Act, waterways in the US are still polluted by urban storm water, sanitary sewer overflows and agricultural runoff.

The policy would use voluntary incentives to maintain high water quality where it exists as well as restoring polluted waters. The proposed policy, which will not change any of the current rules or standards, is estimated to save the public millions of dollars.

In the US, reduced biodiversity has raised numerous concerns, including the possibility that ecosystem functions may be affected negatively, which could be particularly important in the face of global changes.

An entomologist from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research has recruited an unlikely ally, a millimeter-long one-eyed crustacean called Mesocyclops to solve the dengue problem in South East Asia.

Using a combination of the entomologist's "magic mozzle muncher" and community participation, and introducing it into Vietnam; one of the countries worst-hit by dengue fever with 235,000 cases reported in 1998 alone, it was shown that the dengue carrying mosquito (Aedes aegypti) can be eradicated without using insecticides at very low cost. The early research into the killer shrimp took place in the Pacific islands.

Studies by researchers in the US have shown that short exposures of even two hours to elevated levels of fine particulate air pollution -the kind in automobile emissions - raises the likelihood of heart attack, especially among people already at risk of developing cardiac diseases. The patients experienced an increased risk even 24 hours after exposure.

Combustion processes in automobile engines, power plants, refineries and smelters produce fine particle pollution. Fine particles are less than 2.5 micrometers in size. They are so small that they can be inhaled. The particles can penetrate deeply into the lung's air sacs and invade the normal defense mechanisms in the lungs. Their presence there can trigger a systemic inflammatory response that can be detected as high levels of a certain protein associated with an increase in heart attack risk.

British Petroleum announced that it was selling petrol and diesel almost completely free of sulphur, a contaminant that contributes to acid rain. The company also states that the fuels are the cleanest in Britain - with a maximum sulphur content of 10 part per million - and come six years before the mandatory European Union targets.

The cleaner fuel is now available at 18 BP service stations in the Edinburgh area of Scotland. The sulphur-free fuel, is a step beyond ultra low sulphur diesel and ultra low sulphur petrol fuels - with less than 50 ppm of sulphur.