Pacific Environment News

• Experts running Odour Measurement, Assessment and Control Training at IWES 2013
• Victorian Annual Statements of Performance Explained
• Latest Information on the Queensland Greentape Reduction Act
• EnviroSuite is rolled out at Anglo American’s Drayton Coal Mine
• Environmental Noise and Health - the WHO and Australia

Breaking News

• Researchers discover world’s most extreme hearing animal (published 8 May 2013 by University of Strathclyde)
  "Researchers at the University of Strathclyde have discovered that the greater wax moth is capable of sensing sound frequencies of up to 300kHz – the highest recorded frequency sensitivity of any animal in the natural world...."

• Wind farm sickness: anedcotes versus evidence (published 7 May 2013 by ABC News)
  

  "A family's experience of illness they attribute to a local wind farm is concerning, but is no substitute for medical research and hard evidence..."

• Dust in the clouds (published 9 May 2013 by MIT)
  "Cirrus clouds form around mineral dust and metallic particles, study finds..."
  
  

• An electronic nose can tell pears and apples apart (published 8 May 2013 by Platforma SINC)
  "Swedish and Spanish engineers have created a system of sensors that detects fruit odours more effectively than the human sense of smell. For now, the device can distinguish between the odorous compounds emitted by pears and apples..."

• PCBs are everywhere (published 2 May 2013 by University of Iowa)
  "Since polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are produced through industrial processes or activities, it is assumed that people living in industrial cities will have higher concentrations of these toxic chemicals in their blood than people in rural communities..."
  

• Researchers pinpoint how trees play role in smog production (published 25 April 2013 by University of North Carolina)
  "After years of scientific uncertainty and speculation, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill show exactly how trees help create one of society’s predominant environmental and health concerns: air pollution..."

• It's fishy, but smell almost gone (published 16 April 2013 by The Timaru Herald)
  "Timaru has made it through summer without a repeat of the pungent odour experienced in the past three years... "

• Google Earth GIFs, 'Timelapse' Project, Show Startling Impact Of Humans On The Planet (published 9 May 2013 by Huffington Post)
  "Google has released some stunning time-lapse images of our changing planet, highlighting some of the most startling impacts made by humans..."

• The microbes you inhale on the New York City subway (published 24 April 2013 by American Society for Microbiology)
  "The microbial population in the air of the New York City subway system is nearly identical to that of ambient air on the city streets. This research, published ahead of print in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, establishes an important baseline, should it become necessary to monitor the subway's air for dispersal of potentially dangerous microbes..."

For archived news articles click here