Archive for category Pollution

Gas Resulting from Geothermal Drilling Causes Respiratory Diseases in Iceland

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Geothermal Power, Pollution on May 10, 2012

A three-year study performed in Iceland revealed that toxic gases associated with geothermal drilling can be dangerous to human health. The study found a link between underground-originating hydrogen sulfide (the rotten eggs-smelling substance) and asthma and various respiratory diseases. The hydrogen sulfide had been measured next to a busy intersection in Reykjavik, from March 2006 [...]

City Center Inhabitants Prone to Heart Disease, Danish Study Reveals

Posted by Boniface Ndirangu in Pollution on May 1, 2012

A recent heart study specific to coronary artery calcification (CAC) suggests that city center pollution doubles vascular calcium build-up risk and thus raises the incidence of heart disease in major Danish cities. Residents of city centers who participated in this study were found to be at twice a higher risk of developing heart disease from [...]

Shocking Video: How Human Pollution Affects Wildlife on Remote Pacific Atoll

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Pollution, Video on April 18, 2012

I love animals. I love birds. I always imagined that birds are safe in their natural habitats, in forests or islands or places of the sort. But they’re not. In fact, animals are not safe even at 2,000 miles away from the nearest continent. The ghost of our unfulfilled dreams, ignorance and thirst for money [...]

Pestalotiopsis Microspora: Fungus That Eats Plastic Bottles Lives in The Rain Forest

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Pollution on March 27, 2012

Just when you thought that the miracles of the Amazonian forest are all known to man, a team of Yale researchers has just found out that a certain fungus living in the rain forest can actually cure one of the biggest illness and inventions of the 20th century: PET plastics, or polyurethane. Pestalotiopsis microspora is [...]

Trees and Ecosystems Also Get Affected by Noise Pollution, New Study Finds

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Pollution on March 22, 2012

Usually, people only think that pollution comes from gases like CO2, NOx or different chemicals that visibly harm the environment and us. On the other hand, there’s the pollution that we live in every day and that prevents us from focusing right, annoys and leads to mental diseases… it’s the noise. However, scientists have recently [...]

French Researcher Develops Impressive Pollution-Eating Streetlights Using Microalgae

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Pollution on March 9, 2012

Fermentalg, the company founded and led by French researcher Pierre Caleja, has recently developed street lighting that could one day soak CO2 from the air with the use of microalgae. Caleja’s company had received several millions in funding from various private investors in recent years to discover ways of harvesting the power of microalgae to [...]

Maltless Beer: The Greener and Cheaper Solution for Brewers

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Pollution on February 15, 2012

Like every industrial process, beer brewing has its own carbon footprint. And just like any other industrial process out there, brewing beer can be made greener by eliminating malt, made from barley, whose making is very energy-intense. Dustin Brau, CEO of Brau Brothers Brewery in Lucan, Minnesota, found out how to eliminate malt from the [...]

European Airport Pollution Tax Officially Opposed by Chinese Government

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Pollution on February 6, 2012

This news is simple at its core: the Eropean Union wants to impose pollution charges on airlines and China’s government opposes, as of today. What’s more complex is that this could degenerate into a row between EU, China and other countries not agreeing to the law and leading to fines applied to the “unlawful” airlines [...]

Bristol Researchers Discovering Magnetic Soap – The Ultimate Solution For Oil Spills

Posted by Mihai Sandru in Pollution on January 31, 2012

Doesn’t your heart ache at the sight of oil-covered sea creatures on TV when there’s an oil spill? It does, doesn’t it, but accidents do happen. So from now on, thanks to the University of Bristol, we have a cleansing solution with no side effects: a soap! Obtained by mixing iron with inert surfactant materials [...]

Europe to Fine Automakers Who Don't Comply to New Emissions Regulations

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Pollution on December 29, 2011

In an effort to tighten CO2 emissions, the European Union has recently announced that it will forcefully reduce tailpipe-generated carbon dioxide 20 percent by 2015. This move will be imposed on European automakers and those who don’t comply will pay higher taxes. Therefore, starting with the beginning of 2012, the automakers will have to comply [...]

On-Plant Carbon Capture Much More Efficient Than Air Scrubbing, Study Says

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Pollution on December 13, 2011

To get rid of carbon dioxide from our atmosphere, one sure way to go would be capturing the gas directly from the air. However, this is more of a challenge than would be capturing the carbon at the source of its emission, the power plant furnaces, say Stanford and MIT researchers. A similar study has [...]

Mathematical Model Proves Anti-Fungal Paints Negatively Affect Ecosystem, Food Chain

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Pollution on December 11, 2011

At least once in your lifetime you’ve heard about anti-fungal painting, or even used it on your own home. Did you know that the same anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties of such a paint are unbalancing the ecosystem? A scientific study performed in Lausanne, Switzerland, says so. Sylvain Coutu, from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), [...]

Report Suggests 2009 Financial Crisis Didn't Lower Pollution

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Pollution on December 6, 2011

A paper published recently in Nature Climate Change reveals that the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has not yielded a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, as did the other crises, like the oil-related ones in 1973 and 1979. Instead, the emissions kept growing because of developing countries like China and India, on whom the crisis did [...]

London Uses Special Glue for Trapping Air Pollution

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Pollution on November 30, 2011

London has been famed for its dirty air even since the early days of industrial revolution. Things aren’t like that anymore, however the city hall has decided it’s high time to meet the European legislation in the matter – if not for anything else, then for the $450 million fine the EU is going to [...]

Karabash, The Russian Town That Kills Its Own People With Pollution

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Pollution on November 24, 2011

The town of Karabash, from the Russian province of Chelyabinsk, 870 miles from Moscow, is one of the most polluted places on Earth. The copper factories built more than 100 years ago keep transforming the area into a living hell – a kind of Chernobil with inhabitants. The people living there have nowhere to go [...]

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