Country Profiles of Environmental Burden of Disease for LAC
Friday, August 3rd, 2007Several weeks ago the World Health Organization (WHO) released what it billed as "the first ever country-by-country analysis of the impact environmental factors have on health." It phrased it that way ("country-by-country") because it released a more global analysis of the issue last year — in fact, that report was the subject of one of […]
Guyana Joins Ranks of LAC Nations Ratifying POPs Convention
Sunday, July 29th, 2007The Guyanese Government announced this week that it will ratify the Stockholm Convention on Pesistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The Stockholm Convention (text: English, Spanish) commits Contracting Parties (CPs) to eliminate, severely restrict and/or minimize the production, use and trade of 12 POPs — nine pesticides, three byproducts of industrial processes and of combustion (dioxins, furans […]
Assessing Children’s Vulnerability to Chemical Exposures
Saturday, July 28th, 2007The report discussed in the press release below is actually from the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), for which the World Health Organization (WHO) serves as secretariat, but is also cosponsored by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and UN Environment Programme (UNEP). It represents an emerging international (not just North American or European) consensus […]
More Sections Added to The Reading List
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007As promised (albeit a couple of days later than planned!), more sections have now been added to the Temas Recommended Reading List: Consumer Protection Environmental Governance Environmental Law Hazardous Substances Industry I have also added new entries to the sections on Climate Change and Energy. Coming in the next couple of days will be the […]
Building a National Network to Prepare for Chemical Accidents
Wednesday, April 25th, 2007Synopsis in English: After the bad accident at Cataguases that polluted 16 municipalities in three states, the Brazilian government finally got serious about getting the country better prepared for emergencies involving accidental releases of hazardous substances. The President adopted a decree in 2004 that led to the creation of the National Plan for the Prevention […]
An Environmental Agenda for the Andes
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007Another piece I started long ago (at the end of Sept.) and left in the queue. I’ll clear the backlog yet! This is one is not over-ripe, though, because the Andean Community is only now implementing the Agenda. The Lima-based General Secretariat of the four-nation Andean Community* (Comunidad Andina – CAN) has released the Community’s […]
Toxics in Electronics Redux: Greenpeace Responds
Monday, October 30th, 2006As I noted here previously on the Temas Blog, a few weeks back Treehugger invited me to guest blog about my reservations concerning Greenpeace’s handling of its report on the testing of laptops for certain substances. My entry drew quite a few comments, including a long, detailed reply reputedly penned by the scientist who did […]
Judging the Electronic Firms Revisited
Wednesday, September 20th, 2006Since I wrote my prior Temas blog entry on the Greenpeace “report card” on “greener electronics,” I have read a number of interesting reviews of the GP report written by other blogs. Two examples I suggest reading: Treehugger’s analysis and the debate in Dan Dilger’s “Roughly Drafted” blog on all things Apple. Reading these have […]
Judging the Electronic Firms
Monday, September 4th, 2006Last week Greenpeace released an interesting report on the environmental performance of 14 major mobile and computer manufacturers. I recommend that anyone interested in environmental management, waste policy and corporate social responsibility to take a look at it, and I am adding it to the Temas reading list. To read and/or download the report yourself, […]
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