• Kidney headache for ICI

  Residents of the Cheshire village where homes were contaminated by an ICI waste site are suffering from kidney "dysfunction"

• EMAS-2 opens for business

  Only four new UK registrations to the EMAS eco-management scheme were achieved last year - but renewed interest is now anticipated with the launch of the revised scheme.

• Foot and mouth liabilities

  The Environment Agency has already recoreded some 250 pollution incidents from carcasse burial sites used in the foot and mouth crisis.

• Crypto hat-trick for Belfast

  Contamination of Belfast's drinking water has caused three outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis within a year - the latest causing 221 cases.

Waste management

• Waste managers turn to LCA

  Fifty local authorities have now purchased a life cycle analysis (LCA) software tool to compare the impacts of different waste options.

• Ford, Dow plan PU recycling

  A project to find new markets for recycled polyurethane foam from old car seats is under way, involving Ford, Dow Chemical and European Metals Recycling.

Parliament

• IPPC in steel and cement

  The steel and cement industries will face tighter emissions control under the new IPPC regime, new draft guidance has signalled.

• Endocrine panel backs testing review
• City neglects the environment
• Spat over GM trial site
• Bright future for low-carbon technologies
• Regional targets for renewable energy
• Boost for energy services urged
• Anglian pioneers effluent reuse
• Biosensors protect drinking water
• Nitrate link to bladder cancer
• Pressure for tighter particulates limit
• Double first as IPPC dairy recovers milk from effluent
• 9 out of 10 councils have LA21 strategies
• Most brominated flame retardants are oestrogenic
• Major lead solder breach in North West
• IPC authorisation for Guildford incinerator
• UK newspapers reach 60% recycled content
• Photovoltaics get another small push
• Enforcement action
• Electrochemical destruction of sheep-dip waste
• ADAS to sell environmental consultancy
• Municipal recycling increases - but so does landfill
• On-line database for environmental awards
• Public sector resource use study

Waste management

• Damning report on CSG waste site
• Green indicators for waste industry
• Incinerator ash breach

• European Commission issues draft green claims code
• EC eco-label criteria for cleaners, detergents
• Mercury-free low-energy lighting
• Bottled water in the spotlight

Parliament

• Biofuels row in Finance Bill
• New target for landfill tax credits
• Green Ministers agree renewables target
• Lengthy wait for VAT cut on energy efficiency
• Review of NETA's impact on renewables, CHP
• Maritime safety proposals unveiled
• No exemption from abstraction controls for whisky industry
• MPs back wave and tidal power
• Guidance on tyre burning decisions

UK policy

• Agency's abstraction management plans
• Warning over air traffic growth
• Draft emissions trading scheme
• Impact assessments for agriculture
• EC equipment noise rules implemented
• Guidance on biocides regulations
• Scottish consultation on special waste
• Small costs for penta-BDE phase-out

EU policy

• EC sustainable development strategy
• Commission's clean air plan
• Producer responsibility for WEEE
• Bathing water setback
• Environmental inspection guidelines
• Tanning industry guidance
• Draft directive on energy efficiency

• Pitfalls for the new administration

• Voluntary action in industry

  Despite repeated cajoling, only a tiny fraction of firms produce environmental reports - and just a handful of sectors have met the Minister's challenge to produce a sustainability strategy.

• New era in scrap car recycling

  The EC Directive on end-of-life vehicles will force radical changes in scrap car treatment - and an enforcement change for regulators.

• Debate on EC chemicals plan

  The European Commission's White Paper on chemicals has provoked polarised reactions - including industry claims that the development of new products might be killed off.

• Little greenery in election

  Labour's election manifesto says almost nothing about how it will address environmental challenges looming for the next term.

• Fudge and waffle in oilmen's sustainability strategy
• Countdown to the ELVs Directive
• Counting the costs of regulating new chemicals

• Planning and human rights

  The House of Lords has ruled that the Secretary of State's powers to take planning decisions are not inconsistent with human rights.

• Timber firm pollutes wildlife site
• Wessex fined £2,000 for sewage pollution
• Builder fined for sewage offences
• Kimberley-Clark fined for oil pollution
• United Utilities' waste offence
• £50,000 fine for food firm
• Agency wins waste definition case
• Shanks fined £2,000 for uncovered waste
• Crime pays?
• Councils fined for waste offences
• Fly-tipping costs firm £37,000
• Metal recyclers in court