A long-running campaign to highlight the health impacts of a dangerous chemical used by farmers in the UK has been vindicated by the conclusions of a major new study. Several hundred farmers in the UK are believed to have suffered debilitating health problems from exposure to organophosphate pesticides (OPs). A large number of them were…

Lab-grown meat could help reduce the environmental footprint of intensive farming. But will it ever appeal to vegetarians or even more eco-conscious consumers? Tom Levitt reports Lab-grown meat will create up to 96 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions. Before the end of the year, Dutch scientists are promising a high-profile debut for a burger…

Campaigners urge health secretary Andrew Lansley to act to reduce air pollution, as government medical experts warn of its ‘significant’ health burden. Long-term exposure to particulate pollution, largely from road traffic, is shortening the lives of as many as 200,000 every year, according to a government advisory committee.

Almost every country in the world has signed a UN agreement to attempt to halt biodiversity loss by expanding protected marine and land areas. [There is] broad welcome for new biodiversity targets, including increase in protected areas, but campaigners express concern that previous 2010 targets have still not been met.

A toxic spill of mining waste from an industrial plant in Hungary is the worst of its kind in the country’s history and may end up matching the Baia Mare cyanide spill in Romania in 2000. The spill, with a pH level of up to 13, has already spread into rivers with fears that heavy…