Environment

A ceiling air-conditioning vent. Public health initiatives around air pollution have closely tracked the availability of technologies for monitoring. Instrumentation firm ACOEM UK is supporting emerging initiatives in relation to wood-burning stoves and the emergence of indoor air quality as a serious priority of occupational health. And the company is also beefing up its UK-based […]

A new study in Sweden indicates a need for caution in the metals recycling sector, where elevated levels of metals in the blood of workers have been discovered. Many of these are unusual elements whose toxicity has yet to be properly explored or evaluated. The metal recycling industry is growing, not least due to the

Hinkley Point nuclear power station construction in Somerset in 2022. The government’s review of nuclear delivery, published in November, is based on misleading advice, says new research published by The Wildlife Trusts, a federation of UK wildlife charities. Faulty evidence underpins the Prime Minister’s appraisal of “pointless gold-plating, unnecessary red-tape, well-intentioned, but fundamentally misguided environmental

The Water Innovation Fund is opening its doors to innovators from outside the water sector to enter bold solutions to the urgent challenges facing the industry in England and Wales, as it announces the return of the £7.5m Water Discovery Challenge. Following the success of the first Water Discovery Challenge in 2023, Ofwat’s Water Innovation

Recyclers are typically not required to know what chemicals are in the waste they process. A new policy briefing by waste advocacy group Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) argues for tougher chemical policy measures to be included in the European Commission’s upcoming Circular Economy Act (CEA) to avoid a future public health crisis. The briefing, Building

Wooley (pictured) and Stone have developed a way to convert plant-derived sugars and natural phenolic compounds into high-performance alternatives to bisphenol A (BPA). A major science prize has been awarded to the developers of chemistry to replace toxic, petroleum-derived plastics with safe, degradable alternatives made from agricultural waste The 2026 Hill Prize in Physical Sciences

Solar is still the principal success story of the energy transition, say the authors. Despite continued low-carbon technology investment and progress, shortfalls in project realization ahead of 2030 threaten to impact interim goals set by countries and companies in the path to reaching net zero by 2050, according to analysis from consulting firm McKinsey &

Electronic waste for recycling. A facility for separating and recycling rare earth magnets has been launched at the University of Birmingham, which was opened on 15 January by Chris McDonald MP, Minister for Industry in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Business and Trade. The new facility uses an

Researchers say they have developed a new way of measuring and analysing indoor air pollution that – in initial trials – has established a clear link between office occupancy, physical activity, and air quality. Using radar-powered movement detectors and low-cost pollution sensors, researchers equipped office space in central Birmingham to monitor the number of people

The measures are intended to support a move away from expensive, short-term repairs, and towards long-term proactive maintenance. A new ratings system lets the public see how well each of the 154 local highway authorities in England is fixing potholes and maintaining roads. An interactive map provides a visual appraisal of progress, with authorities graded