The illegal trade in chemicals
<p>Chemicals provide important benefits to society and play a vital role in the global economy, but they also carry risks for the environment and human health, with greater risks to vulnerable social groups.
Toxic Wastes
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Run of the mill
The Tarawera river in New Zealand was once an abundant source of food for the locals and the region's wildlife, but today, it is known as the black drain, thanks to the tonnes of toxic effluents
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Losing appeal
The book says that common chemicals and plastics may be affecting our hormonal systems, affecting foetuses and our future generations and causing, perhaps, a fall in intelligence
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IN MURKY WATERS
A mining company in Marinduque, 160 kin South of Manila in Philippines, has invited criminal charges from the government for leaking toxic waste into a 25-kni river. The Marcopper Mining
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To ban or not to ban
A recent interim court order on toxic trade throws open a Pandora's box: environment, industry, employment, international commitments... the lot
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Beyond backwardness
Villagers in Bidar have taken up the cudgels against industrialists and lax state officials responsible for turning this backward district into a dumping ground for toxic waste
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Cyber Sniffer
The problem with the nose is that in the case of radioactive materials and toxic waste once you're close enough to smell it, you're too close. Tufts University professors John Kauer and David
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Crack down
The latest progress reported in the quest for a toxic waste-free environment comes from researchers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, US (Alternatives Journal. Vo122. No 1).
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A fill of wastes
A special landfill site has been designed in New Zealand to exclusively handle toxic wastes. The use of a unique leachate system helps in restricting the leakage of dangerous chemicals into surrounding water bodies
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MAKING AMENDS
The Occidental Chemical Corporation, a US company which had dumped 25,000 tonnes of toxic waste in the Love Canal locality of Niagara Falls, New York, has reached a US $129 million settlement
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STINK POOL
Lake Beira in the heart of Colombo, Sri Lanka has become a shadow of its former self. Jagath Gunawardanx, an environmental legal officer, describes as "a stinking mess".1he two major