F r o m Pollutants to Industries

News & Views

News & Views F r o m Pollutants to Industries The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ~EPA) has disclosed a new program designed to achieve greater environmental protection at less cost by focusing on regulation of entire industries rather than individual pollutants. R e "Common Sense Initiative" is a fundamentally different system of environmental protection that replaces the pollutant-by-pollutant approach of the past. Government officials at all levels, environmentalists, and industry leaders will create strategies that will work cleaner, cheaper, and smarter to protect the health of people and the natural resources. A new approach is necessary because current environmental laws have become too complicated. The result is too little environmental protection at too high cost. Six industries will participate in the pilot phase of the initiative: auto manufacturing compouters and electronics iron and steel - metal finishing and plating - printing petroleum reflining. EPA chose them because they are among the U.S. largest, employing about 4 million people. Under the program, each industry will assemble a team. Each team will include an assistant administrator from EPA, industry vice presidents, labor union and local government officials, and representatives from grassroots and national environmental organizations. Six items will be on each team's agenda: - reviewing every major law and regulation as they apply to the industry - preventing pollution - making collection of environmental information easier strengthening enforcement - improving the permitting process - raising incentives for industry to find innovative technologies to solve pollution problems. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) believes the program has much promise. The initiative "represents the future of environmental protection". "It will enable EPA, business, and the public to develop and implement more creative strategies for environmental improvements than are possibie with environmental statutes alone". However, the Natural Resources Defense Council has some reservations: "we are concerned that more cooperation with industry might hinder environmental protection".

Source: C&EN, July 25, 1994

178

European Environment Agency (EEA)

ISO/TC 207 held its first meeting on 2 and 3 June 1993 and created its subcommittee 5 to prepare standards concerned with life cycle analysis.

In October, the first director-general of the European Environment Agency (EEA), Domingo JLVIENEZ-BELTRAN,will celebrate the official opening of the new EEA headquarters in Copenhagen.

The first meeting of the subcommittee was held in Paris on 4 and 5 November 1993, and adopted the following:

The European Union (EU) legislation creating the Agency was passed in May 1990. Only in October 1993, when the location of the new EU-institutions was determined (Frankfurt won the European Monetary Institute, Strasbourg kept the Parliament, and Copenhagen won the EEA), a budget was provided, and the management and scientific boards appointed.

Life Cycle Assessment

At a July 26 meeting in Copenhagen, the Agency's board agreed on an ambitious, 10-point work program. The new directorgeneral, appointed in April to a five-year contract, is now formulating a detailed plan for the Agency's first full year. BELTRANregards the Agency as an interface between politicians and scientists. The most important task for the Agency Is to establish itself as a reliable, independent source of information at low cost. The new Agency will form a network of"topic centers" (existing institutions and privatesector consultants). The power of the EEA will be in quantifying and analyzing environmental impacts across the continent. The Agency will gather data and publish a periodic state-of-the-environment report. It will identify the causes of environmental damage and analyze the effectiveness of proposed policy responses. The Agency will gather environmental data from across Europe and the Mediterranean, including non-EU countries in eastern and central Europe, Scandinavia, and North Africa. At a 1991 meeting in the former Czechoslovakia, European environment ministers requested that the EEA prepare a report on the state of the environment for the whole continent. The slow birth of the Agency shifted this work to an "EEA task force" within the European Commission, and a report will be presented to the next ministerial conference in Sofia, Bulgaria. Source:

ES&T, 28/9, 411 (1994)

Life Cycle Assessment - ISO/TC 207/Subcommittee 5 ISO/TC 207 has been created as a result of the decision that international standards were required in the field of environmental management, in order to prepare such standards.

1.

Title

2. Scope Standardization in the field of life cycle assessment as a tool for environmental management of product and service systems. It encompasses the assessment of impacts on the enviornment from the extraction of raw materials to the final disposal of waste. 3. Membership 3.1 Participating members (24) Australia Austria Belgium Canada China Colombia Denmark Finland France Germany Italy Japan

Republic of Korea Mongolia Netherland Norway South Africa Spain Sweden Switzerland Thailand Turkey United Kingdom United States of America

3.2 Observer members (18) Argentina Brazil Chile Cuba Czech Republic Iceland Indonesia Ireland Israel

Lithuania Malaysia New Zealand Poland Russia Singapore Slovakia Sri Lanka Trinidad and Tobago

3.3 Liaisons External (5) ICC International Chamber of Commerce INEM International Network for Environmental Managament IPAI International Primary Aluminium Institute OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development CEFIC Conseil Europ&n de l'Industrie Chimique Internal ( 1 ) ISO/TC 203 Technical energy systems Source: Report of the ISO/TC207/SC 5 Secretariat No. 25

ESPR-Environ. Sci. & PoUut. Res. 1 (3) 178 (1994)

European Environment Agency (EEA).

European Environment Agency (EEA). - PDF Download Free
109KB Sizes 0 Downloads 0 Views