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Tens of thousands of American families may be living in buildings once used as methamphetamine labs - most of them oblivious to the fact. Some who have learned of their home's history similarly attribute mysterious ailments to the toxic legacy of illicit drug manufacture, but like Katrina Evans they are finding that there is precious little firm knowledge about what risks they are running. Only now is a new federal law authorising more research into the problem, and promising to fill in some gaps.

If war ever breaks out in space it's not the loss of individual satellites that will do the damage, but the debris this produces. It will stay in orbit and go on harming satellites for decades, according to two studies presented at the American Physical Society meeting in St Louis, Missouri, last week.

The state environment department will come out with a roadmap next month to stop use of toxic colours on idols so that the Hooghly is not polluted during immersion. At a recent meeting of the state pollution control board, researchers and academics had expressed concern about the extent of the problem. Senior government officials and representatives of paint manufacturers attended the meeting.

Canada could be the first country to make a health finding against bisphenola or BPA, which has been shown to disrupt the hormonal systems of animals. Then on Thursday, a report from the United States Department of Health and Human Services' National Toxicology Programme endorsed a scientific panel's finding that there was "some concern' about neural and behavioral changes in humans who consume BPA, which is widely used to make polycarbonate plastics, which are rigid and transparent like glass but very unlikely to shatter.

Washington: A chemical in some plastic food and drink packaging including baby bottles may be tied to early puberty and prostate and breast cancer, US said on Tuesday. Based on draft findings by the National Toxicology Program, part of the US National Institutes of Health, senior congressional Democrats asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reconsider its view that the chemical bisphenol A is safe in products for use by infants and children. The chemical, also called BPA, is used in many baby bottles and the plastic lining of cans of infant formula.

According to some estimates, there are more than a million people across the world directly engaged in ship breaking- Bhaskar Dasgupta

Recycling That Harms the Environment and People Published: April 15, 2008 Recycling is supposed to be good for the environment. But if it's not carried out properly, certain kinds of recycling

Think about this next time you upgrade your PC: toxic metals from old electronic goods are finding their way into school grounds in China. Seventy per cent of the world's discarded phones and computers are exported to China. Most are processed in family-run workshops, where the circuit boards are ripped out of old equipment and heated over open fires. This melts the solder, allowing individual components to be removed and resold. The bare circuit boards are then burned.

A streamlined permitting system - which Government claims will cut red tape without putting the environment at risk - come into force for the waste sector and heavy industry at the weekend. The new system will focus on high-risk businesses while easing the regulatory burden on those with a proven environmental record and less hazardous processes. In practice this will mean less site visits and form filling for those seen as low risk and closer scrutiny of those whose activities pose the greatest threat to the environment.

The oily sludge that spilled along a one-km stretch of road in Vasco on Monday has been identified by Vasco police as phosphoric acid sludge, prompting residents to wonder how an open truck was allowe

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