Recently,application of polyolefin type materials has been widely spread to the environmental field due to its lightness, low environmental load at incineration because of their halogen free charactericity and recyclability. In this paper,we show several examples of application of our olefin type materials, such as functional ethylene copolymer,new type soft polypropylene and polyolefin type thermoplastic elastomer (TPO). Key technologies for attaining performance are combination of materials; blending, compounding or multi-layer technologies.
( 4 - 11 by Harunori FUJITA, Eisuke SHIRATANI, Hiroyuki SUGIMOTO, Koichi YANASE, Yosuke MIYAZAKI )

New type of Chlorella sp. with high efficient in fixing CO2 under high temperature and high CO2 concentration were isolated after large-scale screening of microalgae in various natural environments. A low chlorophyll-content mutant of the Chlorella sp.showed a high performance of light-utilization efficiency under the high-cell-density culture with high illumination. We also cloned a desaturase gene of the alga,as a first step for the molecular breeding of green algae.
( 12 - 18 by Toshiya MURANAKA, Tetsuya NISHIDE, Masakazu MURAKAMI )

Rising consciousness on environment has urged to develop various technologies that reduce environmental impact. The situation applies to alumina products and there are growing number of the applications that improve environment. In water the activated alumina is being used to reduce toxic chemicals such as arsenic and fluorine because it catches ions and hydrophilic compounds on its surface. The activated alumina is also effective to suppress generation and emission of dioxins in an incinerator. Here we introduce the applications of alumina products along with the other environment-conscious products such as honeycomb and halogen-free flame-retardant.
( 19 - 27 by Yoshio TOMOMASA, Shoji SUGIMOTO, Osamu YAMANISHI, Satoru NIPPA, Toshio ASHITANI )

Some rhizosphere fungi which promote plant growth are functionally designated as Plant-Growth-Promoting-Fungi (PGPF). Several species belonging to PGPF also show suppression effect of soil-borne disease in addition to growth promotion.
PGPF-SHIZAI is a new type of microorganism-based product for agriculture, consisting of selected Phoma strain which is most efficient PGPF.
Field tests including trial use of PGPF-SHIZAI by farmers showed that PGPF-SHIZAI contributes to raise healthy seedling of vegetables and flowers. It has also been shown that PGPF-SHIZAI can be used to protect several crops from soil-borne disease, resulting in stable crop yields and quality.
Details of the development of PGPF-SHIZAI and examples of its efficacy in field trials are described.
( 28 - 34 by Seigo OOUCHI, Takafumi OOHIRA )

In this report, background of PRTR system introduced in Japan, PRTR system in OECD countries, PRTR system in Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA), PRTR Law in Japan and future activities to PRTR Law are mentioned.
( 35 - 39 by Tadatsune FUKUNAGA )

Determination methods of formaldehyde in synthetic process of fine chemicals were studied. Titration, absorptiometry, gas chromatography and liquid chromatography methods were applicable, but the choice must be sure to prevent the products, which exist in samples, from degradation not to release formaldehyde.
As far as we investigated, the combination of derivatization with acetylacetone under mild conditions and absorptiometry or liquid chromatography can suppress the liberation of formaldehyde from the matrix. By this method, formaldehyde was determined sensitively and selectively.
( 40 - 44 by Satoshi TAGIUCHI, Kiyoshi YAMAMOTO, Masami YOSHIDA, Chizuru YOSHIMURA, Takashi HIROSE, Hiroshi TAKIGAWA )

A tiny monkey, common marmoset (Callithrix Jacchus), was examined its applicability to the safety evaluation. The investigation with common marmoset achieved the convenient bleeding procedure and the anesthetic method of longer duration, suggesting that this promate can be used in the various tests similarly to cynomolgus monkey. It was also demonstrated that marmoset made a good model for neuroleptic-induced extrapyramidal syndorome, which has been difficult to predict with other animal species so far. The advantage of employing this apecies is that the similar data to those in human can be obtained easily, so that it will be utilized not only in a safety study but also in an efficacy study.
( 45 - 50 by Toshifumi FUKUOKA, Takayuki IWAISAKO, Atsushi MATSUMOTO, Minoru NAKANO )