Where do you go when the burning rubbish dump near you emits the smell of burning plastic and you know it is toxic?

On not being satisfied with the present arrangement on disposal of bio-medical waste, the High Court has asked the government to file an affidavit on the matter.

To avoid being turned into a dumping ground for e-waste, the Nigerian government has decided to slap duties on old computers imported for spare parts. Much of the unwanted material is dumped. It is

Radioactive waste from three government-owned uranium mines has put about 50,000 people in Jharkhand's Jaduguda at risk. The people, mostly tribal communities, suffer from serious radiation-related

Environment experts at a workshop in the city yesterday underlined the need for formulating a specific policy to manage industrial hazardous waste properly for ensuring sustainable and environment-fri

Washington: When a federal jury in Alaska in 1994 ordered Exxon to pay $5 billion to thousands of people who had their lives disrupted by the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill, an appeal of the nation's largest punitive damages award was inevitable. But almost no one could have predicted the incredible round of legal ping-pong that only this month lands at the Supreme Court. In the time span of the battle

The Defence Department said on Monday it had a "high degree of confidence' that the missile fired at a dead U.S. spy satellite in space destroyed the satellite's fuel tank as planned. In its most definitive statement yet on the outcome of last Wednesday's shootdown over the Pacific, the Pentagon said based on debris analysis it is clear the Navy missile destroyed the fuel tank, "reducing, if not eliminating, the risk to people on Earth from the hazardous chemical.' The tank had 454 kg of hydrazine, a toxic substance that U.S. government officials believed posed a potential health hazard to humans if the satellite had descended to Earth on its own. The presence of the hydrazine was cited by U.S. officials as the main reason to shoot down the satellite

More than 100 dental clinics in Colombo will participate in a "Go Green' project aiming for zero environmental effect from dental dangerous waste containing mercury. Amalgam separators will soon be installed at the clinics collecting 99 per cent of the amalgam which contains mercury. Sweden Recycling AB, a Swedish environmental oriented company, with financial assistance from the Swedish organisation SIDA, is spearheading this project to reduce the mercury waste coming from dental clinics in Sri Lanka. With this project, Sri Lanka will be the first country in Asia to move towards a safe recycling of dental dangerous waste. Installing amalgam separators will evidence that mercury waste can be reduced instantly. Awarness of the positive effects on the evironment and the benefit of this to humans is expected to lead to a wider use of amalgam separators both on a national and international level. The Sri Lanka Dental Association with 1,500 dentist members, together with Sweden Recycling is offering dental clinics to participate in a subsidised project where dangerous waste will be collected and recycled. Sweden Recycling has during the last 25 years successfully reduced the amount of mercury finding its way into nature, polluting the environment in Nordic countries. In Sweden, more than 500 kg of mercury is yearly recovered by Sweden Recycling from the dental sector. Mercury is a heavy metal which posses the most severe threat to nature and to human beings through pollution caused by inadequate handling of mercury contaminated waste. Dental clinics generally represent approximately 50 per cent of the total amount of mercury being wasted into nature and polluting the environment for decades. Amalgam waste, and thus mercury being its main ingredience in the dental amalgam, has to be collected at source (the dental clinic) according to the mercury strategy adopted by the European Parliament. In Asia pollution caused by mercury waste is not restricted like in Europe and the amalgam pollution continues. Teeth repair with amalgam fillings continue to be the main method for dental proffesionals. Since there is no collection in Asia of waste containing mercury and recovery of mercury the impact of the waste is massive. Many inhabitants in Asia have fish as their most important daily food and the fish is prone to be contaminated by mercury in the water. Mercury will thus be transferred to man and accumulated in the human body with well-known lethal effects. Inducting amalgam separators in dental clinics is thus a big step towards a cleaner environment and consequently less polluted food.

Thousands of tons of used computers and obsolete electronic equipment, which contain large amounts of hazardous waste, are being brought into Pakistan with complete disregard to the grave risks they pose to human and environmental health, Dawn has learnt. Tens of thousands of used computers and related equipment, which are difficult and expensive to dispose of in developed countries because of their hazardous nature, are annually imported under the pretext of

NAZIRA,Feb12