The US EPA has lowered the arsenic standard for drinking water from 50 ppb to 10 ppb to provide additional protection for at least 13 million Americans from cancer and other health problems.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US has proposed a new rule that will require food developers to notify FDA at least 120 days in advance of their intent to market a food or animal feed developed through biotechnology.

An ultra-low emissions fuel and engine management system for large trucks that improves performance, power and mileage while reducing typical diesel emissions has been developed in the UK.

The POPs treaty will be signed at a ministerial meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, in May 2001, and will come into effect once 50 countries have ratified it.

A researcher from Texas University has invented a new device to make petrol-driven cars cleaner and save fuel consumption by solving the engine cold-start problem.

Researchers at the Ohio State University have experimented with moisture levels in two laboratory-size bioreactors that create a wet environment suitable for bacteria to decompose waste.

Concern is growing in California that hexavalent chromium, a suspected carcinogen, is present in unsafe quantities in the state's drinking water.

Recent studies in the US have found that about 175 to 200 metric tons of mercury come from vehicles on the road today and they are one of the major sources of toxic mercury emissions.

A new analytical technique could identify and remove pollutants in crude oil.

The US EPA has set a new arsenic standard for drinking water at 10 parts per billion (ppb), down from the current 50 ppb level. This action would provide additional protection from cancer and other health problems for at least 13 million Americans.

The earlier 50 ppb arsenic standard for drinking water was set by EPA in 1975, based on a Public Health Service standard originally set in 1942. In March 1999, the National Academy of Sciences completed a review of updated scientific data on arsenic and recommended that EPA lower the standard as soon as possible.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed a new rule which, if finalized, would require food developers to notify FDA at least 120 days in advance of their intent to market a food or animal feed developed through biotechnology and to provide information to demonstrate that the product is as safe as its conventional counterpart.

At present, developers of food and feed developed through biotechnology participate in a voluntary consultation program with FDA. To date, all such food and feed marketed in the U.S. have gone through the consultation program before they entered the market.

Scania (Great Britain) Ltd in conjunction with IMPCO Technologies, Mobil CNG and BG Group has developed an ultra-low emissions fuel and engine management system for large trucks that improves performance, power and mileage while reducing typical diesel emissions by employing lean-burn natural gas technology.

The environmentally friendly fuel system is extremely clean and quiet while offering a new lease on life for older trucks. The system can be operated with either compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LNG) with much less emission levels.

Delegates from 122 nations have reached an agreement to control risks to health and the environment posed by 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs). This will be accomplished by reducing or eliminating the production and release of identified chemicals into the environment.

The POPs treaty will be signed at a ministerial meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, in May 2001, and will come into effect once 50 countries have ratified it. The initial list, which includes nine pesticides, will be expanded over time according to criteria set forth in the treaty.

In addition, the treaty includes public health exceptions that will allow DDT to be used for malaria control while efforts continue to find alternatives to the hazardous compound.

A researcher from Texas University has invented a new device to make cars cleaner and save fuel by solving the engine cold-start problem. Ford also has supported the patent application of the invention and funded further research into the idea.

When a car engine is cold, only part of the petrol injected into the engine vaporizes and the non-volatile components drop into the intake manifold, causing fuel wastage and creating air pollution problem. Some 80% of this type of exhaust pollution, known as unburned hydrocarbons, is emitted in the first few minutes of an engine's operation. The solution to the engine cold-start problem is to get the car itself to separate and save the volatile parts of fuel and then use them to start the engine.

The researcher invented a device known as an on-board oil refinery to extract the volatile components from petrol. The device, which weighs about 2 kg, consists of a column packed with stainless steel wool. Petrol is drawn into the column once the engine compartment has warmed up. The volatile components of the petrol evaporate and are sucked out of the column, re-condensed, and stored in a small back-up fuel tank. The heavier components, which remain liquid, are fed back into the main fuel tank and burned in the normal way when the engine has thoroughly warmed up.

Researchers at the Ohio State University have experimented with moisture levels in two laboratory-size bioreactors that create a wet environment suitable for bacteria to decompose waste.

According to a study in the January issue of the journal "Applied Engineering in Agriculture": waste that ends up in urban landfills will decompose 10 to 20 times faster if it is kept moist. Quicker decomposition rates means more room for trash in the same landfill, which would cut down on the need for additional landfill space.

California's current standard for total chromium in drinking water is 50 parts per billion (ppb). The chromium standard was set under an assumption that hexavalent chromium accounts for approximately 7.2 % of the total chromium in drinking water. These standards are already stricter than the US federal standards for drinking water.

Two years ago, the state Environmental Health Hazard Assessment Office suggested the allowable amount of total chromium in drinking water be lowered to 2.5 ppb. The state Department of Health Services (DHS) has been studying this proposal. Upon learning that a DHS response might take as long as five additional years, the California legislature recently approved a bill intended to hasten the proceedings.

Two recent studies in the US found that automobiles were one of the major sources of toxic mercury emissions.

The studies found that the bulk of mercury releases occurred when contaminated steel, recovered from scrap automobiles, was melted in electric arc furnaces (EAFs). It was estimated that EAFs emitted about 15.6 metric tons of mercury each year, which is more than all manufacturing sources combined in the US.

The studies revealed about 175 to 200 metric tons of mercury are in the vehicles on the road today, primarily in mercury switches in hood and trunk lighting and anti-lock braking systems. One auto mercury switch contains nearly one gram of mercury, equivalent to the amount of mercury found in clinical thermometers. While U.S. automobile manufacturers continued to use mercury switches, international automakers such as Toyota, Volvo and BMW phased out mercury switch applications since 1993.

New federal standards are targeting for cleaner-burning gasoline and diesel fuel as a way to get cleaner emissions from cars and trucks. However, if these tough standards are to be met, oil companies must do a better job of identifying and removing pollutants in crude oil.

When released through burning, sulfur forms sulfur dioxide gas and other airborne pollutants that contribute to respiratory problems and acid rain. In order to remove sulfur and also nitrogen-containing compounds from oil, they first need to be identified. An analytical technique, ion cyclotron resonance mass spectroscopy that bombards gaseous forms of compounds trapped in a magnetic field with radio signals that act as electronic probes to identify the compounds has been developed.

A crude oil sample contains at least 10,000 different compounds, more than 1,000 of which contain sulfur. In the past, the process of sorting all these out has been time consuming, but this new technique can identify 3,000 or more in a single step.