»pollution«

Katja Ebbecke writes in Süddeutsche Zeitung (24.3.2006) about different environmental standards and legislation in Europe. For instance, vegetables may treated in Spain with pesticides which are prohibited in Germany. Thus products come on German markets with traces of these compounds. But Spanish farmer may apply for trade exceptions due to European agreements. NGOs like Greenpeace state that these undermines health and consumer protection.

Pictures of the Omi instrument at Nasa's Aura satellite show the smoke level over Europe. Actually, the instrument adds up all the nitrous oxide in an air column of 10 km above ground. As estimated levels above industrial hot spots are highest. Red is high concentration. Image (c) KNMI
[Correction: The data-processed picture of 14. December does not show the smoke plume of the oil tank fire near London. Investigator Richard Friebe was told that scientists who do the data-processing and modelling of Omi satellite data may not track the smoke plume of the fire.]

The EU commission published this week the awaited tightening of emissions limits for passenger cars. Two points are interesting: The limits have been tightened for a decade and the auto makers, obviously, have got enough technical innovations in the pocket to fulfil the higher demands.

diesel vehicles	particles [1]	NOx [2]
Euro 3 (2000-2004)	50	500
Euro 4 (since 2005)	25	250
Euro 5 (by 2008)	5	200
petrol vehicles	HC [3]	NOx [2]
Euro 3 (2000-2004)	200	150
Euro 4 (since 2005)	100	80
Euro 5 (by 2008)	75	60

caption: [1] particles in mg/km, [2] nitrous oxides in mg/km, [3] hydrocarbons in mg/km.

The German NanoCare project is aimed at studying potential hazards for researchers and workers in nano fabs. Christian Schwägerl reports in FAZ (20.2.2006) that the nanoparticles are almost safe when immobilized inside products (and there are many products). But during production and in research the particles may pose some yet unknown threat to people. Hence, major industrial companies like BASF, Degussa, Bayer and several universities cooperate with the project.
In a later article, Stephan Finsterbusch reports from the Nano-Tech fair in Tokyo (FAZ, 24.2.2006). Some notes: In Germany some 550 companies work in the field of nanotech, they received 300 million euros subsidies. "And we are just at the beginning," says Harald Pielartzik, Bayer's nanotech lead researcher.

However, after of the heavy dispute over the EU commission's proposed Reach programme (to check and register chemicals, which has been watered down in favour of industrial demands) now a study by the Danish research and consultancy organisation DHI comes to the conclusion that by year 2017 annually 150-500 million euros will be saved in environmental costs when chemicals are surveyed according to the Reach programme. However, the chemical industry is sceptical and says that an environmental cost assessment (as done by DHI) is speculative, at best. The European chemical industry council CEFIC comments that the study didn't account for the ever strengthening environmental legislation and improving technologies. Wiebke Rögener adds in here piece for Süddeutsche Zeitung (2.3.2006) that taking into account health care costs from prevented treatments all will sum up to 30 billion euros in 30 years. Well, the industry reckons with costs of some two billion euros in a decade. That should make clear: A tight Reach scheme will bring the most benefits and savings.

Fred Pearce reports about ecological footprints and whether comparing such footprints on a national level is useful in global warming talks. In New Scientist (8.4.2006) he describes "the footprint is an estimate of the land used to sustain a population. Its main components are land directly built on; the fields, forests and mines employed at home and abroad to meet consumer needs; and the national amount of land needed to absorb pollutants like carbon dioxide." Generally, the footprint is used to compare the waste of resources, for instance, of industrialized countries in comparison to developing nations on a per capita basis. "This puts the superconsuming US at the top, with almost 10 hectares of land needed to supply each American. Australia is close behind, requiring almost 8 hectares per citizen. Western European states and Japan require between 5 and 6, China less than 2 and India around 1 hectare," writes Pearce. But if you put these figures in relation with the available resources of biosphere in these countries, the U.S., Canada and Australia perform quite better, and dense populated countries rise in the rankings. Well, it's a statistics trick on the grounds of a nationalist view. Now the heat is on how to interpret this point.

With the burning oil depot north of London producing one of the largest ever fires, Mark Peplow investigates for Nature online (12.12.2005) about countermeasures, environmental and health effects. "This is the largest fire of its kind that we in the UK, and in Europe, have dealt with," a fire officer says. The fire is fuelled by "up to 270 million litres of kerosene, diesel and gasoline, held in 20 storage tanks on the site."

Health effects are small, but relevant for people with respiratory problems like asthma. Also environmental effects are small. There's nothing in the smoke that isn't already in the atmosphere, an expert says. A problem might be the chemicals of the foam used by the firemen. These should be collected by reservoirs. Also the water could wash out past contaminations of the area.
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/full/051212-2.html

Until 1925 people could swim in river Spree that flows through Berlin. Then local authorities prohibited the leisure activity due to the high waste water load in the river. Now engineers with the project Spree2011 plan measures to collect dirty surface water after heavy rainfalls and prevent it from polluting the river, reports Alexander Morhat in Deutschlandfunk radio (20.7.2006).