Record number of radioactive particles found on beaches near Sellafield | Environment. A record number of radioactive hotspots have been found contaminating public beaches near the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria, according to a report by the site's operator. As many as 383 radioactive particles and stones were detected and removed from seven beaches in 2010-11, bringing the total retrieved since 2006 to 1,233.
Although Sellafield insists that the health risks for beach users are "very low", there are concerns that some potentially dangerous particles may remain undetected and that contamination keeps being found. Anti-nuclear campaigners have called for beaches to be closed, or for signs to be erected warning the public of the pollution. But the government's Health Protection Agency (HPA) has said "no special precautionary actions are required at this time to limit access to, or use of, beaches". Elsewhere, the public has been warned about radioactive contamination on beaches. CETCO announces GCLs with New Engineered Clay Technologies on Environmental Expert.
HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL -- New Technologies Provide Ultra-Low Permeability and Enhanced Chemical Resistance CETCO announces the release of three new product lines in the category of geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs). The names of the new product lines are InterLoK, Resistex and Continuum. Each product features a unique engineered clay technology designed by the research and development team at CETCO to enhance the permeability and/or chemical resistance. InterLoK, Resistex, and Continuum GCLs are now available in the U.S. with an expected release in Europe later this year. Continuum GCLs bring an entirely new technology to the lining industry, known as bentonite polymer alloy, where the polymers are synthesized in bentonite.
The unique properties of this technology offer the highest level of chemical resistance available in a GCL. Resistex GCLs (formerly known as Bentomat CR) contain dry-blended polymers to counter the affect that some chemicals may have on standard bentonite-based GCLs. Carbon black. Vast reserves of shale gas revealed in UK | Environment. The huge scale of a natural gas field discovered under the north-west of England has been revealed, potentially revolutionising the UK's energy outlook and creating thousands of jobs, but environmental groups are alarmed at the controversial method by which the gas is extracted. Preliminary wells drilled around Blackpool have uncovered 5.6tn cubic metres (200tn cubic ft) – equal to the kind of recoverable reserves of big energy exporting countries such as Venezuela, according to Cuadrilla Resources, a small energy company which has the former BP boss Lord Browne on its board.
It said up to 800 more wells might be drilled in the region, creating 5,600 jobs and promising a repeat of the "shale gas revolution" that swept the US, sending local energy prices spinning downwards. Even if only a relatively small fraction of gas could be exploited, it could trigger a rush of drilling in other parts of the UK at a time when Britain is running out of North Sea reserves.
Graphene coatings on marine infrastructure. XGNP_MSDS_4-10. Stopunsafenano. Nov 15th 2010 Picket the HSE Problems with NANOSILVER This early campaign flyer is a good description of why we are concerned about nano-silver and what we want: Stop unsafe NANO-SILVER from being sold Aquafresh toothbrush by Glaxo Smith Klein sold at Superdrug Nano-silver hair straighteners by Nicky Clarke sold at Argos Silver-fresh socks by sold at Marks & Spencers These companies (and many more!)
Nano-silver is a brand new type of silver that is highly reactive and extremely small in size. Is this just about nano-silver? · Firstly, we want the Health and Safety Executive to do their job and regulate products for public safety. . · Secondly, we demand a moratorium on nano products until there can be a review of regulatory and measurement standards! · We want immediate labelling (especially food!).
· We support trade union demands for safety in the workplace. . · Most of all, everyone can demand basic common sense principles of precaution! Is it all just about safety? Return to website home page. RFID Concerns. Bioplastic Made from Waste Shrimp Shells. Written by Philip Proefrock on 17/06/12 Insect cuticle is a pretty versatile material. Layers of chitin, a biopolymer, are built up to make strong, lightweight material that composes the exoskeleton and wings of insects. Now, scientists from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed an artificial version of insect cuticle called 'Shrilk' that is as strong as aluminum allow but with only half the weight.
The synthetic insect cuticle is made from chitin which is obtained from waste shrimp shells. By varying the level of moisture during the production process, the stiffness of the material can be varied, allowing flexible or very rigid products to be made with the same material. Since it is biodegradable, Shrilk is also being investigated for a number of medical uses, including use for sutures that need to be particularly strong and as a scaffold for tissue regeneration. Image: Public Domain by Siga/Wikimedia Commons. Bananas Could Make Cars Leaner, Greener | Autopia. Updated: Additional information from Alcides Leão was added to this story March 28 at 8:05 p.m. EDT. Researchers are going bananas in the quest to build cleaner, greener cars. Brazilian scientists have developed a way of using fibers from bananas, pineapples and other plants to create plastic that is stronger and lighter than the petroleum-based stuff.
So-called nanocellulose fibers rival Kevlar in strength but are renewable, and the researchers believe they could be widely used within a couple of years. “The properties of these plastics are incredible,” Alcides Leão, a researcher at Sao Paulo State University, said in a statement. “They are light, but very strong — 30 percent lighter and three to four times stronger.”
That could reduce the weight of new vehicles, which would increase fuel economy. Beyond being lighter and stronger, Leão says nanocellulosic plastic is more resistant to heat, gasoline and water. Cellulose comprises the primary cell wall of green plants. Epigenetic Toxicology. Epigenetics and Beyond ISIS Report 21/01/09 Environmental toxins modify our genes and affect our children and grandchildren; enormous implications for risk assessment of synthetic chemical and other xenobiotics Dr. Mae-Wan Ho A fully referenced version of this article is posted on ISIS members’ website. Details here An electronic version of the full report can be downloaded from the ISIS online store. Download Now Bisphenol A in baby bottles and other plastics cause developmental defects across generations A common chemical bisphenol A (BPA) that leaches out from baby bottles and other containers of food and drink, when given to pregnant mice, caused gross chromosomal defects in the egg cells of her female foetuses.
The US research group led by Patricia Hunt at Washington State University, Pullman, made headlines around the world when they published the results in 2007 [1]. During foetal development, the germ cells in both sexes undergo massive proliferation by ordinary cell division. Widespread exposure to BPA substitute is occurring from cash register receipts, other paper.
People are being exposed to higher levels of the substitute for BPA in cash register thermal paper receipts and many of the other products that engendered concerns about the health effects of bisphenol A, according to a new study. Believed to be the first analysis of occurrence of bisphenol S (BPS) in thermal and recycled paper and paper currency, the report appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science and Technology. Kurunthachalam Kannan and colleagues point out that growing evidence of the potentially toxic effects of BPA has led some manufacturers to replace it with BPS in thermal paper and other products. BPS is closely related to BPA, with some of the same estrogen-mimicking effects, and unanswered questions exist about whether it is safer. Nevertheless, very little is known about BPS occurrence in the environment, the scientists noted. To fill that knowledge gap, they analyzed 16 types of paper from the U.S., Japan, Korea and Vietnam.
Sulfur-Eating Bacteria Sense Water Pollutants | Latest News | Chemical & Engineering News. Vet medicines, Harris. Veterinary medicines in the envir... [Rev Environ Contam Toxicol. 2004. Laundry Lint Pollutes the World's Oceans. Nitrogen pollution changing Rocky Mountain National Park vegetation. A new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder indicates air pollution in the form of nitrogen compounds emanating from power plants, automobiles and agriculture is changing the alpine vegetation in Rocky Mountain National Park. The emissions of nitrogen compounds to the atmosphere are being carried to remote areas of the park, altering sensitive ecosystems, said CU-Boulder Professor William Bowman, who directs CU-Boulder's Mountain Research Station west of Boulder and who led the study.
"The changes are subtle, but important," he said. "They represent a first step in a series of changes which may be relatively irreversible. " In other regions of the world, higher amounts of nitrogen pollutants correlate with decreased biodiversity, acidified soils and dead stream organisms like trout, said Bowman. "There is evidence that indicates once these changes occur, they can be difficult if not impossible to reverse. Researchers assess effects of a world awash in nitrogen. Humans are having an effect on Earth’s ecosystems but it’s not just the depletion of resources and the warming of the planet we are causing. Now you can add an over-abundance of nitrogen as another “footprint” humans are leaving behind. The only question is how large of an impact will be felt.
In a Perspectives piece in the current issue of Science (Dec. 16, 2011), Arizona State University researcher James Elser outlines some recent findings on the increasing abundance of available nitrogen on Earth. In “A World Awash in Nitrogen,” Elser, a limnologist, comments on a new study showing that disruption to Earth’s nitrogen balance began at the dawn of the industrial era and was further amplified by the development of the Haber-Bosch process to produce nitrogen rich fertilizers. Until that time nitrogen, an essential building block to life on Earth and a major but inert component of its atmosphere, had cycled at low but balanced levels over millennia. UV from sunlight excites nanoparticles to kill phytoplankton in lab setting | Human World. Microscopic bits of metal – nanoparticles, a thousand times smaller than the thickness of a human hair – have been touted as a biotechnology and manufacturing miracle.
Among many other applications, they can be used to keep the smell out of sweaty gym clothes, to treat wastewater, and they are being considered as a way to deliver cell-specific cancer drugs. However, as a recent experiment shows, the very properties that make nanoparticles so valuable in killing harmful and unpleasant bacteria also kill ocean phytoplankton that regulate the climate and are the base of the oceans’ food chain.
The study – whose lead author is Robert Miller of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at University of California Santa Barbara – was published on January 20, 2012 in the online journal PLoS One. It is called “Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) Nanoparticles Are Phototoxic to Marine Phytoplankton.” Phytoplankton. Titanium dioxide is by far the most commercially used nanoparticle. Dr. Papua New Guinea's seabed to be mined for gold and copper | Environment. A "new frontier" in mining is set to be opened up by the underwater extraction of resources from the seabed off the coast of Papua New Guinea, despite vehement objections from environmentalists and local activists.
Canadian firm Nautilus Minerals has been granted a 20-year licence by the PNG government to commence the Solwara 1 project, the world's first commercial deep sea mining operation. Nautilus will mine an area 1.6km beneath the Bismarck Sea, 50km off the coast of the PNG island of New Britain. The ore extracted contains high-grade copper and gold. The project is being carefully watched by other mining companies keen to exploit opportunities beneath the waves. The Deep Sea Mining (DSM) campaign, a coalition of groups opposing the PNG drilling, estimates that 1 million sq km of sea floor in the Asia-Pacific region is under exploration licence. Nautilus alone has around 524,000 sq km under licence, or pending licence, in PNG, Tonga, New Zealand and Fiji.
291na3rss. Glowing Pollution Sensor Equipped Kites Replace Beijing's Stars - Environment. Urban air quality in China has been miserable for years, but the issue really came to the foreground in June when China’s vice minister for environmental protection put foreign embassies on blast for publishing national air pollution data online. The U.S. Embassy, whose hourly Twitter updates on Beijing's air quality have helped spread awareness of the dangers of pollution among the Chinese public, was the likely target of the criticism. With the Chinese government’s resistance to letting air quality information circulate freely, two graduate students from Carnegie Mellon and Harvard are taking things into their own hands: literally.
Deren Guler and Xiaowei Wang are the creators of FLOAT Beijing, a grassroots project allowing urbanites to measure air quality with sensor-equipped handmade kites that identify pollutants by lighting up the night sky in a variety of colors. FLOAT plans to kick off a series of workshops and kite flights beginning in August. Photos courtesy of FLOAT Beijing. Cloud Seeding Methods " China Pours Billion into Rainmaking. News CHINA - China will launch the country's first regional program to artificially enhance precipitation in its northeastern area in an attempt to guarantee the wheat harvest there, says a senior official. A technician helps a student load a cloud-seeding rocket into a launcher at an event to disseminate knowledge about artificial weather intervention. The event was held at a primary school in Chongqing's Yongchuan district. Photo: Chen Shichuan, China Daily "More than 1 billion yuan ($150 million) will be invested and the program will gradually be expanded to cover the Northwest, South, Southwest and East China," said Wang Guanghe, deputy director of the artificial weather intervention center under the China Meteorological Administration.
According to China Daily, he said that the reason why Northeast China was picked for the pilot project was the fact that the area is a major wheat growing zone and is at risk of forest fires in the event of a long drought. TheCropSite News Desk. Two Geoengineering Experts Preparing Small Experiment with Sulfates.