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« Previous EntriesImposing EPR for End-of-Life Medicines and Batteries
Thursday, May 31st, 2007Back in April, Colombian Environment Minister Juan Lozano promised proposals for mandatory extended producer responsibility (EPR) regimes for expired medicines and end-of-life (EOL) lead-acid batteries. Earlier this month he made good on that promise: the Environment Ministry (Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial –MAVDT) has published for public comment two draft decrees, one on […]
World’s First Power Transformers That Run on Vegetable Oil
Thursday, May 31st, 2007Synopsis in English: The Minas Gerais Power Company (Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais – Cemig) — the main power company for Brazil’s central mining and industrial state of Minas Gerais, announced that it plans to switch its power transformers on its grid to utilizing solely vegetable oil as its insulating fluid. Cemig claims that it […]
World No-Tobacco Day in LAC: RIACT Launched
Thursday, May 31st, 2007Brazil’s Health Minister, José Gomes Temporão, today announced the launch of the Ibero-American Tobacco Control Network (RIACT – Rede Ibero-Americana de Controle do Tabagismo in Portuguese, Red Ibero-Americana de Control del Tabaquismo in Spanish) to bring together the tobacco control authorities of (Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking) Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) with those of Spain […]
Court to Exec Branch: If You Don’t Enforce, You’re Also Liable for Environmental Damage
Thursday, May 31st, 2007Synopsis in English: The Second Turma (not sure how to best translate this into English — Chamber, perhaps?) of Brazil’s Superior Court (Superior Tribunal de Justiça – STJ) has just issued a ruling which, on the face of it (I’m in the process of consulting my Brazilian environmental lawyer friends just to make sure I […]
World No-Tobacco Day in LAC: PAHO Honors Those Making a Difference
Thursday, May 31st, 2007From the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO): PAHO Honors Eight on World No Tobacco Day Individuals and institutions recognized for their contributions to tobacco control The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) marked World No Tobacco Day, May 31, by recognizing three individuals, four government agencies, and a nongovernmental organization for their contributions to smoke-free environments […]
Cleaning Up Gold Mining in Guyana
Thursday, May 31st, 2007In March the International Human Rights Clinic of Harvard Law School‘s Human Rights Program (HRP) issued an indictment of the failings of Guyana’s gold mining regime and its adverse impacts on Amerindians in that country. With a catchy name like “All That Glitters,” the report’s PR caught the attention of several bloggers and regular media […]
WHO Issues Policy Recommendations on Secondhand Smoke
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a set of policy recommendations to governments on secondhand smoke (SHS) as part of the run-up to World No-Tobacco Day (31 May). The recommendations are intended as guidelines for national measures to protect the health of workers and non-smokers by making all indoor public places and workplaces 100% […]
Warped Priorities
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007A snapshot of the cost of tobacco addiction in LAC: yesterday Brazil’s Getulio Vargas Foundation (Fundação Getulio Vargas – FGV) released research results showing that Brazilian households now spend more on cigarettes than on rice and beans, the staple of the Brazilian diet.
Tetra-Pak Given 60 Days to Propose Packaging Waste Solution… Or Else!
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007Synopsis in English: In a meeting held in Curitiba in the middle of May, the government of the southern Brazilian state of Paraná gave Tetra-Pak executives (including the Vice President for Central and South America) 60 days to come up with their own proposal to solve the post-consumer waste problem in that state associated with […]
Youth Smoking in Mexico / Tabaquismo y los jovenes en México
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007Synopsis in English: The Mexican Youth Institute (IMJ), a government-backed body created in 1999 to focus on issues facing Mexicans between the ages of 12 and 29, has released in time for World No Tobacco Day (31 May) the tobacco-related results of a 2005 national survey of 12,000 Mexican youth regarding a wide variety of […]