Short items
Make your own ethanol
US firm E-Fuel Corp says its new ’microfueler’ will allow drivers to brew their own ethanol fuel. The $10,000 (?5100) device doesn’t rely on corn, instead using sugar. ’There’s no mother in America crying that their kids aren’t getting enough sugar,’ said E-Fuel founder Tom Quinn. The company claims the unit could pay for itself in under two years, although scientists are sceptical.
Reuters, 8 May 2008
Malaria remedy pulled
UK cosmetics chain Neal’s Yard Remedies has been told by government regulators to withdraw a homeopathic remedy for malaria. The product was declared potentially dangerous and misleading, being ’clearly intended to be viewed as a treatment or preventative’ for the disease, the regulator said.
The Guardian, 7 May 2008
Agent Orange cancer claims
The high cancer death rate in Innisfail, Queensland - ten times above the state average - has been linked to secret 1960s testing of toxic herbicide Agent Orange in the Queensland jungle. Tests of the defoliant, now known to be a carcinogen, were carried out 100m from the town’s water source.
Sydney Morning Herald, 18 May 2008
Cyanide for sale
A Texas man has been caught trying to sell a 25 gallon drum of cyanide, when he offered it to an FBI informant, in exchange for cash, a thermal imager and an automatic rifle. The man was arrested while attending a funeral. The FBI are keen to establish the cyanide’s origin.
Houston Chronicle, 14 May 2008
Pesticides kill Kenya’s lions
Lions in the Masai Mara game reserve are being paralysed and then killed after eating a hippo carcase contaminated with pesticide. Environmentalists suspect that carbofuran - banned in the US and Europe - was used to keep insects away from guests at a park lodge.
The Times, 30 April 2008
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