The Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG) has been investigating mercury-added skin lightening products (SLPs) for several years, primarily due to their health risks, their illegality under many national laws,
Attempts to reduce the environmental and health impacts of mining cause unrest.
PANJIM: It’s more than a month that the E-waste Management and Handling Rules, 2012 - notified by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Central Pollution Control (CPCB), Govt of India, has come into force, but till date barely 1% of e-waste manufacturers and users have woken up to the reality of the new regulations. The e-waste handling rules, which came into effect from May 1, 2012, through a gazette notification on May 12, 2011 - has come fixing the responsibility on all stakeholders including mainly manufacturers, retailers and consumers.
The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board is vexed over the rampant burning of household trash in personal backyards in complete violation of instructions from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. Pollution control experts say that when household garbage is burnt, Dioxins, a known carcinogen, associated also with birth defects, are released into the air we inhale. Dioxins are impossible to be removed from the food chain since these are Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxins (PBTs) which enter plants through air and water, then cattle and poultry, and finally, humans.
With the available waste management policies, including e-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 silent on handling of used fluorescent tubelights (FTLs), which contain mercury, the Puducherry Pollution Control Committee is in the process of framing a draft policy for safe management of FTLs. The core element of the policy, according to a PPCC official, was to encourage manufacturers to set up plants to recycle used FTLs and dealers, both wholesalers and retailers to provide special disposal bins in their outlets to collect the lamps. The organisation was also mulling to provide a small sum as incentive to get back the used FTLs.
Most of us often face a situation where the cellphone we use becomes obsolete thanks to a newer technology emerging. When we give in to this, how many of us really worry about what happens to the older gadget? More often than not, such electronic waste is thrown into dustbins. This problem of e-waste generation and its subsequent disposal is now seen as a global occurrence. The United Nations Environment Programme states that 50 million metric tonnes of e-waste are generated worldwide every year.
Environmental scientists have known that high levels of the toxic element, mercury, have been accumulating in the Arctic Ocean for some time. It was believed to be mostly caused by atmospheric sources
Ahmedabad: These tiny creatures love heavy metal. It’s not music we mean, but toxic metals like cadmium, mercury, chromium, lead and zinc: stuff that not only cause cancer but also trigger impairments in humans after they seep into our soil and groundwater. A five-year research at the Central University of Gujarat (CUG) has zeroed in on a special group of microbes — mainly bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes — that not only munch on these deadly wastes but also turn the land useful by a process of bio-cleansing.
Even though e-Waste (Management and Handling) Rules have come into force from Tuesday, the AP Pollution Control Board is still gearing up for implementation and strict enforcement of these rules with a framework of guidelines to be followed by manufacturers of e-products. The Union ministry of environment and forests had announced e-waste rules way back in June 2011 under the Environment Protection Act. This would be implemented in letter and spirit only after the APPCB prepares a draft explaining “how to ensure implementation and check violation” of the norms.
NEW DELHI: The e-waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2011 will come into effect from Tuesday. The rules were notified in May 2011 and aim at reduction in the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment by specifying threshold for use of hazardous material including lead, mercury and cadmium. These rules were notified in advance to give the various stakeholders adequate time to prepare themselves and also to put in place the required infrastructure.
<p>Colonial cinnabar mining and refining began in Huancavelica, Peru, in 1564. With a local source of mercury, the amalgamation process was adopted to refine silver in Potosí, Bolivia, in the early
