A new washing machine that needs no detergent has been developed by the Beijing Tuiji Science and Trade Company Ltd.

The developers said the new washing machine is based on a principle different from that of the traditional washing machine.

While the traditional washing machine needs washing powder to remove dirt, the new machine has an "atomic oxygen generator" to electrolyse water and turn water molecule into an ionic state, thus oxidizing, resolving and eventually removing the dirt.

Tests showed that the atomic oxygen and active ion generated were effective in killing bacteria and neurtralising poisonous substances. The machine also cuts water and electricity consumption by half, and wastewater discharged by the washing machine will not cause environmental pollution.

IBM will create a new supercomputer, Blue Storm, which is one of the fastest of its kind for weather forecasting. It is slated to go live in early 2002 and will be housed at the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in Reading, England.

It will calculate atmospheric projections to assist scientists in determining weather patterns.

Blue Storm is capable of computing up to 7TF (teraflop or trillion operations per second) and will progress to 20TF by 2004. By then, it will be developed to contain 1.5 PB (petabytes) of data.

Fluoride is endorsed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and by the American Dental Association and the state Health Department.

However, a plan to fluoridate the municipal water supply in Athens in 2002 has stirred public debate.

A 1969 state law ordering that fluoride be added to public drinking water lets cities opt out through an ordinance or a ballot referendum. Athens opted out of the fluoride law until four years ago, when the council decided to fluoridate.

While dentists in the Athens county welcome the planned addition of fluoride as a move to lower the tooth decay incidence among Athens city children, opponents are against the idea. They say that fluoride is poisonous and contributes to cancer, lowered IQ in children, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease and other illnesses.

A study by the University of California and the California Birth Defects Monitoring programme revealed that women exposed to traffic fumes during pregnancy are more likely to give birth to babies with heart defects.

The researchers examined the health records of 9,000 babies born between 1987 and 1993, and correlated them with traffic pollution recorded from the areas where the mothers lived during their pregnancies.

The results showed a link. Pregnant women exposed to the highest levels of pollution from busy roads were three times more likely to have a child with heart defects, such as aortic artery or valve defects than mothers breathing clean air. No other birth defects were linked with air pollution.

However, scientists say further research is required to determine whether carbon monoxide and ozone are just "markers", with the culprit being other chemicals from car exhausts.

As part of the Clean Urban Transport for Europe demonstration project to promote the use of alternative fuels in transport, the Energy and Transport Directorate General of the European Commission has awarded Euro$18.5 million to nine cities to introduce fuel cell powered buses.

The fuel cell buses, running on hydrogen, an efficient and environmentally friendly power source, will operate in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Porto, Stockholm and Stuttgart by 2003.

The introduction of these zero emission fuel cell buses will help to improve air quality and reduce carbon dioxide emissions linked to global warming. The only byproducts emitted will be heat and pure water vapour.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that 500,000 tons of obsolete pesticides that were no longer usable for their intended purpose were scattered throughout developing countries.

These pesticides pose a health risk and the FAO's 2001 report - Baseline Study on the Problem of Obsolete Pesticide Stocks - listed persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin and endrin among the pesticides of concern.

As part of the worldwide growing awareness, the World Wildlife Fund and Pesticide Action Network UK have organized Africa Stockpiles Project to clean up Africa of obsolete pesticide stockpiles within a decade.

The head of an environmental protection advisory panel, Mr Terry Laidler, is urging Melbourne to recycle its wastewater, and put it to better use, or face the prospect of building another dam to provide drinking water in the future. Melbourne's Eastern Treatment Plant at Carrum is pumping about 400 megalitres of treated effluent water daily into Bass Strait.

The Victorian government will examine technologies that allow the water to be reintroduced indirectly, as it is unlikely that there would be widespread public acceptance for drinking water from sewage treatment.

The recycled water is currently being used to water public parks and golf courses. The government will look into other alternative uses such as for agricultural purposes.

Landfill gas can be captured and sold as an energy source for a number of purposes, such as for generation of electricity and heat, and as a substitute or supplement for natural gas.

As part of a continuing effort to support President Bush's energy plan, US EPA has awarded $50,000 to the Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development Council of Sugar Grove, North Carolina, to develop marketable energy from gas at seven small landfills in the state.

Besides the economic benefits, the grant will help reduce global warming and bring cleaner air and better-managed and safer landfills to the local communities.

This project will demonstrate different clean technologies for utilizing landfill gas, establish a research center for the study of landfill gas and other renewable resources, as well as provide assistance to the seven landfill sites in North Carolina.

The Solar and Wind Energy Survey Assessment (SWERA) project is an international collaboration spearheaded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to map the solar and wind resource of 13 developing countries.

The project aims to determine the size and intensity of solar and wind resources with greater accuracy so that potential investors can determine the locations where they can secure a good and reasonable return, thus accelerating the deployment of renewable energy.

The findings of this project will be linked to a Geographical Information System (GIS) for prospective developers to pinpoint the precise and promising locations on-line.

Dioxins are a group of highly toxic compounds that are a byproduct of some combustion and chemical manufacturing processes.

US EPA had announced that it would not regulate the levels of dioxins in sewage sludge that is incinerated or placed in sludge landfills or containment ponds as existing regulations for incinerators, landfills and containment ponds are adequate to protect human health and the environment.

The agency, however, will continue to consider whether to regulate dioxins in sewage sludge that is applied on land.

The US EPA has allowed refineries to produce new kinds of pollution-fighting reformulated gasoline (RFG) from conventional petrol when supplies are tight or inventories are low, provided necessary steps are taken to control volatile organic compounds in certain areas of the country.

The new rule will provide industry with greater flexibility in the types of gasoline products that may be blended to produce RFG and conventional gasoline, as well as benefit regions, such as Midwest, that have been affected by price hikes due to low gasoline supplies.

The new rule also allows storage tank operators to co-blend RFG gasoline with other gasoline.