• Pesticide Labeling Rules to Be Globally Harmonized
  
• Progress Made, But Billions Needed for Sewage Control
  
• China Uses American Expertise for Flood-Drought Forecasting
  
• Private Stewardship Grants Benefit Hawaiian Species at Risk
  
• BP Alaska Pays $18 Tax Bill
  
• Federal Emergency Agency Updates Flood Maps
  
• Micro-Clock Could Improve Precision Timekeeping
  
• Weight Loss Herbs May Be Unsafe Even If Ephedra-Free
  

Pesticide Labeling Rules to Be Globally Harmonized

The change will take place in multiple stages over several years, the EPA says, given the size and scale of the pesticide market in the United States and the importance of label review in the U.S. system of pesticide regulation.

At the international level, bodies such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum have set goals for GHS implementation in the 2006-2008 time frame. "This is a very ambitious goal for pesticides," the EPA said in a position statement on Friday.

In its statement, known as a White Paper, the EPA outlines its current thinking and invites public comment on how to implement the GHS in ways that will maximize the benefits of harmonization while minimizing the burden on stakeholders and the agency.

In the United States alone, chemicals constitute more than $450 billion in business, and exports exceed $80 billion per year.

The GHS sets out hazard classification criteria and key label elements, including symbols, signal words such as "danger" or "warning," depending on the severity of the hazard, and hazard statements such as "causes skin irritation."

Existing systems for providing information are not always compatible and often require multiple labels and safety data sheets for the same product both within the United States and in international trade. Chemical companies find these conflicting requirements onerous, and consumers can find the different labels are confusing.

"Users may see inconsistent label warnings or safety data sheet information for the same chemical," the EPA said. Companies involved in international trade need to follow multiple regulations regarding hazard classification and labeling depending on where they do business."

"In addition to being costly and time-consuming, this complicates compliance efforts and can result in barriers to international trade in chemicals," the agency said.

The regulation that is being changed is 40 CFR 156 Labeling Requirements for Pesticides and Devices. It deals with hazardous properties and control measures aimed at ensuring the safe production, transport, use, and disposal of chemicals.

The agency says it is open to recommendations on other rules or laws that need to be changed, asking the public, "Do you have recommendations on additional regulations, in addition to 40 CFR 156, which you believe may warrant review and possible revision in connection with GHS implementation?"

EPA will "consider all comments submitted by the public," the agency said but is especially interested "in hearing from our stakeholders" on a voluntary pilot project, a time frame for the rule change, suggestions on work-sharing with North American Free Trade Agreement Technical Working Group, and reccomendations on outreach and education. The proposals are available for review at: http://www.epa.gov/oppfead1/international/globalharmon.htm

Progress Made, But Billions Needed for Sewage Control

"Impacts and Control of Combined Sewer Overflows and Sanitary Sewer Overflows" calls for an estimated $88 billion to handle combined overflow - sewage and rainfall combined during storms - and $50.6 billion for sanitary sewer overflows alone.

The agency says that 3,500 to 5,500 gastrointestinal illnesses per year on coastal and Great Lakes beaches alone are caused by sewage overflows, and the number is expected to rise when other types of waterways are included.

The Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA) noted the possibility for "a meaningful federal-state-local partnership" in the report. AMSA is a national trade association representing hundreds of the nation’s publicly owned wastewater treatment utilities that serve the majority of the sewered population in the United States

The EPA estimates that the annual volume of sanitary sewer overflows is between three and 10 billion gallons – two orders of magnitude smaller than the 311 billion gallon per year figure it had estimated when developing the draft sanitary sewer overflow rule.

With this in mind, the AMSA members are asking for more "a more flexible policy on sanitary sewer overflows" as they say they are making progress and have done well controlling the number of combined sewer overflow events.

AMSA members collectively treat and reclaim over 18 billion gallons of wastewater every day as "environmental practitioners dedicated to protecting and improving the nation’s waters and public health."

Sewer systems that were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in U.S. cities in the Northeast and the Great Lakes region overflow when the combined volume of sewage and storm water exceeds the capacity of the systems, which were designed to discharge directly into rivers, streams or coastal waters.

Sanitary sewer systems do not combine storm water with wastewater. Sanitary sewer overflows have a number of causes: blockages, pipe breaks, defects that allow storm water or groundwater to enter the system, inadequate operation and maintenance, equipment or power failures, and vandalism.

Overflows of both types contribute to beach closures, shellfish bed closures and contamination of drinking water supplies because they discharge untreated wastewater that contains microbial pathogens, suspended solids, toxics, nutrients, trash, and pollutants that deplete dissolved oxygen.

Outflow enforcement against seven major municipalities has resulted in the elimination of 14 billion gallons of sewage overflows per year, more than $10.8 million in fines and more than $75 million in environmental improvement projects, the EPA estimates.

Since 2002, EPA has settled sewer overflow cases with Los Angeles, California, Baltimore, Maryland, Baton Rouge, Louisana, and Hamilton County/Cincinnati, Ohio.

China Uses American Expertise for Flood-Drought Forecasting

Private Stewardship Grants Benefit Hawaiian Species at Risk

Norton used the cost-share Private Stewardship Grants program administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to award 97 grants. Each grant requires at least a 10 percent match in non-federal dollars or in-kind contributions.

The new grants will benefit species ranging from the bog turtle in the eastern United States to the O'ahu 'elepaio, an endangered forest bird in Hawaii.

Norton said the grants are "empowering private citizens to do what the federal government cannot do alone - conserve habitat for imperiled species on private lands."

"Private stewardship grants encourage private landowners in their voluntary efforts to implement tailor made conservation strategies for listed, proposed, candidate, or other at-risk species found on their land," said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams.

As the state with the country's largest number of endangered species, Hawaii is the recipient of several of the grants. The Hawaiian Silversword Foundation will receive $114,125 to build a three mile fence to protect 15,000 acres of forest and former ranch lands from alien animals - feral pigs, mouflon sheep, and goats - and control alien animals within the fenced unit.

The project area on the Big Island of Hawaii contains diverse native forest and provides habitat for three endangered forest bird species, the endangered Hawaiian hawk, the endangered Hawaiian hoary bat, and nine endangered plant species.

On Kauai, the National Tropical Botanical Garden will receive $336,000 to construct 4.5 miles of feral ungulate-proof fence along the perimeter boundary of 400 acres of Limahuli Upper Valley. Any pigs inside the fence will be removed.

This area is a biologically rich native Hawaiian lowland and montane wet forest that is habitat for wild populations of 10 federally listed species. Considerable restoration efforts have already occurred in Upper Limahuli and this fence project will secure the area from future damage from feral pigs and goats.

Two projects on Maui and one on the Big Island aim to keep the pigs and goats out of protected dryland forests.

Ducks Unlimited was awarded $49,000 to restore and increase the number of wetland habitats available to breeding populations of the Hawaiian goose, the nene, and the Hawaiian duck, the koloa maoli. The project on the Island of Hawaii will be carried out on two parcels just south of Honoka'a Town at Cloud Forest Coffee organic farm.

The Private Stewardship Grants Program provides federal grants on a competitive basis to individuals and groups engaged in voluntary conservation efforts on private lands that benefit federally listed endangered or threatened species, candidate species or other at-risk species.

Under this program, private landowners as well as groups working with private landowners are able to submit proposals directly to the Service for funding to support these efforts.

BP Alaska Pays $18 Tax Bill

The settlement covers disputed production taxes for 2000 and 2001 on BP’s share of oil production at the Prudhoe, Kuparuk, Endicott, North Star and Milne Point fields.

“The Departments of Revenue and Law worked with BP to craft a fair settlement that avoids protracted hearings and lawsuits that could drag on for years,” said Governor Frank Murkowski. “I am pleased that the parties reached agreement.”

Alaska tax statutes require that the specific terms and conditions of the agreement remain confidential. BP says that "significant change occurred" in its business during the years in question and this settlement "provides future guidance" to both the state and BP.

“This agreement represents a significant achievement in that it provides clarity on BP’s tax obligations pertaining to new issues,” said Steve Marshall, president, BPXA. “The priority for both parties was to pursue this effort jointly and come to mutual agreement without resorting to litigation, which we’ve accomplished.”

BP transfered the funds to the state on Thursday. All of the payment will be deposited into the Constitutional Budget Reserve Fund. This fund was established to provide cash to fund the state government during periods of temporarily low oil prices when revenues fall short of expenditures in this oil producing state.

Federal Emergency Agency Updates Flood Maps

Maps of flood-prone areas in seven counties are being redrawn to make them more accurate and to reflect changes in flooding patterns. Work already has begun in Clark, Pierce, Skagit and Whatcom counties and will soon be under way in Kitsap and Spokane counties.

The work involves a series of engineering assessments, computer modeling, GIS mapping and public meetings. For many Washington communities, it has been nearly 20 years since their flood maps were last updated.

"These maps are used in making decisions about where homes, businesses and utilities can be built safely, and where they should not be built," said Ecology's Dan Sokol, who coordinates the National Flood Insurance Program for the state. "It's about saving lives and economic assets, so it's important that the maps be as accurate as possible."

The maps are also used by insurance companies and lenders to determine who needs flood insurance and how much it will cost.

Eventually, flood maps will be modernized for all 39 counties, and some priority flood-hazard areas will be restudied and incorporated into the new digital maps. All existing maps will be converted to the new digital format, which will make the information more accessible to citizens and officials who need to use it.

The entire project should be completed in four to six years and its estimated $20 million cost will be covered primarily by FEMA.

Micro-Clock Could Improve Precision Timekeeping

About the size of a grain of rice, the clock mechanism consumes less than 75 thousandths of a watt, enabling it to be operated on batteries.

Highly accurate, the clock is stable to one part in 10 billion, equivalent to gaining or losing just one second every 300 years.

Described in the Aug. 30, 2004, issue of Applied Physics Letters, the clock makes atomically precise timekeeping in portable, battery-powered devices possible for secure wireless communications and more precise navigation.

The micro-clock could improve the performance of many commercial and military systems that require precision time keeping, NIST says.

This clock could be fabricated and assembled on semiconductor wafers using existing techniques for making micro-electro-mechanical systems.

NIST envisions the potential for low-cost mass production of an atomic clock about the size of a computer chip that permits easy integration with other electronics.

"The real power of our technique is that we're able to run the clock on so little electrical power that it could be battery operated and that it's small enough to be easily incorporated into a cell phone or some other kind of handheld device," says physicist John Kitching, principal investigator for the project.

"And nothing else like it even comes close as far as being mass producible," he says.

Kitching says the "physics package" of the chip-scale atomic clock includes (from the bottom) a laser, a lens, an optical attenuator to reduce the laser power, a waveplate that changes the polarization of the light, a cell containing a vapor of cesium atoms, and (on top) a photodiode to detect the laser light transmitted through the cell.

Tiny gold wires provide electrical connections to the electronics for the clock. Atomic clocks measure time by the natural vibrations of cesium atoms, at 9.2 billion "ticks" per second.

In Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, small clocks could improve the precision of satellite-based navigation systems such as those used in commercial and military vehicles and emergency response networks. In addition, as atomic clocks get smaller and cheaper and use less power, they could replace quartz crystal oscillators in many common products such as computers, offering several orders of magnitude better time keeping.

Weight Loss Herbs May Be Unsafe Even If Ephedra-Free

The review, published in the September issue of "Experimental Biology and Medicine," found that no reliable scientific evidence supports the use of C. aurantium for losing weight.

In fact, high doses of the herb, which contains synephrine, may not be safe. Synephrine can cause hypertension, and C. aurantium also interacts with drugs in a manner similar to grapefruit juice.

“C. aurantium has many of the same potential deleterious cardiovascular effects as ephedra, and it also potentially affects the metabolism of other drugs,” said Adam Myers, PhD, professor of physiology and co-author of the review. “The public and the medical community should be concerned about the growing use of C. aurantium without adequate data on safety and efficacy.”

Since the banning of ephedra-containing products by the Food and Drug Administration, a new wave of "ephedra-free" herbal weight loss preparations has surfaced, Myers said.

Many of these products contain C. aurantium. The small, sour citrus is used to flavor Curacao, Cointreau, and Triple Sec and it has also been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat digestive problems.

Myers and co-author Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, associate professor of Physiology, explain that C. aurantium, like grapefruit, contains flavonoids that affect drug metabolism and can increase blood levels of drugs, thus increasing side effects.

"The effects on drug-metabolizing systems are not identical. C. aurantium juice, but not grapefruit, increased levels of indinavir, a drug used to treat AIDS.," said Myers.

Grapefruit juice, but not C. aurantium juice, increased cyclosporine levels.

Both citruses increased levels of felodipine, a calcium channel drug used to treat high blood pressure,” said Myers who directs the first Master's degree-granting graduate level program in Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States.

"Potential drug interactions could be serious," warns Fugh-Berman, author of the "5-Minute Herbs and Dietary Supplement Consult."

"Anyone who is taking daily medication should consult a physician before combining it with the use of C. aurantium. This and other herbal weight loss products should not be considered safe simply because they are available over-the-counter. The best way to lose weight is through exercise and diet."