Publications

Toxic ignorance has become a major issue in the current debate on chemicals policy both in the EU and the US.1 The term refers to a lack of knowledge of the health and environmental properties, as well as the mechanisms of action, of Existing Chemicals. There can be little doubt  that this term also goes to the heart of the problem facing us today.

The most recent progress report under the Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Mechanism (GHGMM) shows that the EU Member States are at present considerably far off their target to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 8 % compared to 1990 levels in the period between 2008 and 2012. According to this report, greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 2.9 % between 1990 and 2002.

For a long time we have been aware of the fact that environmental influences play a central role in human health and particularly children's health. Children are not simply small adults. They often react differently - often with greater sensitivity - to environmental influences. Depending on their age, children can be exposed to these influences for longer periods of time than adults.

If you want to build, you need land. It has always been like this. But the loss of open land outside of human settlements in Germany has never been so massive as in the last 50 years – more than in any other European country.

This report summarizes the results of the project ‘CORINE Land Cover 2000 – Germany’, which was performed within the framework of the European-wide project CLC2000 and which generated up-to-date maps of land use and land cover and their changes within the last 10 years for Germany.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its follow-up regulations include special commitments on transmission of emission data as well as the data basis (activity data) and applied methodologies. In connection with the international agreements on climate protection, information on emissions have also to be reported to the European Commission.

At the VIth Internatitonal Conference on Toxic Cyanobacteria, held from 21 – 27th of June 2004 in Bergen, Norway, 190 participants from 36 countries presented results covering a wide range of aspects of research on toxic cyanobacteria.

Before the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on Climate Protection, the fluorinated greenhouse gases HFCs, PFCs, and SF6 (F-gases) aroused little public attention. Since then, the standards on surveying and reporting on national emissions have been rising constantly.

We have compiled this consumer-oriented publication in response to the huge demand for brochures and pamphlets on the subjects “A healthy home” and “Indoor Air Quality.” It is not surprising that there is such great interest in this topic: after all, in this part of the world we spend somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of the day indoors – most of that at home!

It had been the aim of the present study to characterize, on the one hand, the PBDE background exposure in Germany and to assess whether any health risks could be involved in PBDE intake by the infant through breastfeeding.

As a Party to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, since 1994 Germany has been obliged to prepare, publish and regularly update national emission inventories of greenhouse gases. In February 2005, the Kyoto Protocol entered into force.

With the long awaited entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol on 16 February 2005 there is hope that the deadlock in international climate negotiations can be overcome. Still, the USA, as the largest emitter, has rejected emission reductions and developing countries will not act before industrialized countries (including the USA) have demonstrated substantial action.