making palm oil production less polluting - the wastewater issue

besides the issue of rain forest destruction conventional palm oil production generates up-to 4 tonnes highly contaminated wastewater and more then 40 cubic meter methane per tonne of palm oil produced.

To reduce environmental impact German researchers have developed a treatment process using wastewater and plant residues of oil production for co composting.

Concerns Over Bisphenol A

Human exposures are usually as high as those causing profound effects in rodents

"THE SUSPECTED LINK between low levels of human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), a monomer widely used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins, and adverse health affects was bolstered last week with the publication of four toxicology studies that investigated the link.

The most significant paper is a consensus statement from 38 scientists released online in Reproductive Toxicology (DOI: 10.1016/j.reprotox.2007.07.005). It concludes that human exposure to BPA, primarily from food containers, is within the range shown to be biologically active in animal studies. In rodents, low BPA exposures in the womb cause increases in the rates of prostate and breast cancer, reproductive abnormalities, lowered sperm counts, early onset of puberty in females, and obesity and insulin-resistant diabetes."

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"Despite growing evidence of toxic effects in lab animals, manufacturers of BPA insist that their product is safe. Steven Hentges, executive director of the polycarbonate/BPA group at the American Chemistry Council, an industry group, disputes the new research in Reproductive Toxicology. He says it is not credible, pointing to a European Food Safety Authority report that indicated no adverse effects of BPA"