GUATEMALA CITY - The inundation caused by a dam in Guatemala has already claimed the life of one local resident, and threatens 58 families, who fear floods in the village of Los Cerritos, 125 km south of the capital.

"We don't know how the dam formed on Los Esclavos River, where more than 60 percent of the current is stopped, and in some places the water is five meters deep," deputy mayor Baltasar Avila told Tierramérica.

"We have asked for government assistance, but no one listens to us. In late December, one resident was caught in the current, and we never found him," said Avila.

The floods have damaged a bridge and the village's only access road.

"We fear that a leak could cut us off by destroying the road and the bridge, or that it could flood the village, were 58 families live," said the deputy mayor.

Jorge López, a regional government spokesman, said the petition was sent to the Ministry of Environment, and promised to send technical advisors to attend to the situation.

TEGUCIGALPA - The municipal government has installed four air quality control boxes throughout the Honduran capital, the city with highest rates of air pollution in Central America.

The boxes, together costing 500,000 dollars, were set up in December in the areas with heaviest road traffic and highest levels of gas emissions. Each box contains instruments to measure temperature, humidity, windspeed and other climate conditions.

"We want a constant record of the daily, monthly and annual averages of the city's air quality. In February, we will issue a report on the results of the project," Jonathan Laínez, of the city's environmental management unit, told Tierramérica.

The aim is to provide data support for the policies geared towards reducing air pollution.

According to a 2002 study by the Swiss cooperation foundation Swiss Contact, Tegucigalpa, home to a million people, is Central America's most contaminated city in terms of emissions of polluting gases and particulate matter.

RIO DE JANEIRO - The gases and particulates generated by forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon cause climate changes more than 4,000 km away, says Paulo Eduardo Artaxo Neto, physics professor at the University of Sao Paulo.

Satellite images allowed experts to make calculations that these substances make up 30 percent of the aerosols found in the atmosphere of Sao Paulo in August tests.

The presence of these contaminants obstructs the formation of clouds, thus reducing rainfall.

A previous study by the same university found particulates from the Amazon burnings -- a method used by settlers to clear the forests -- in the snow of the western Andes Mountains.

CARACAS - Venezuelan authorities are preparing to release Maggie the dolphin, a young female of the Delphinus capensis family, who beached on the coast of Margarita Island in May 2003.

Since then, the long-nosed gray dolphin has undergone testing at the privately-run Waterland aquarium, which had custody over Maggie while she recovered.

The Environment Ministry determined that "the animal is 100-percent ready for release because she is in good health," ministry official Sergio Sánchez told Tierramérica.

But Waterland director Margarita Mejía says the medical tests show that "Maggie continues to suffer liver and immune problems." Mejía opposes her release for now.

"They want to release her at any cost. I hope it isn't a repeat of what happened to Keiko," she said, in reference to the killer whale star of "Free Willy". Keiko died recently after being returned to the wild after spending practically his entire life in captivity.

SANTIAGO - Chile's Institute of Public Health (ISP) has appealed to consumers to help detect sunscreen lotions sold in the capital that do not meet skin protection requirements.

Guido Girardi, legislator of the governing Party for Democracy, denounced on Jan. 20 that several sunscreens on the market are of known brands, but because they do not bear the ISP seal their effectiveness cannot be guaranteed.

"Sunblocks are practically a medication. People can expose themselves to sunburn or skin cancer if they use a falsified product," he said.

Sunscreen use is widespread in Chile during the summer, because its geographic location means the country is subject to stronger ultraviolet rays.

HAVANA - Cuban experts are working a project to recuperate an ecosystem damaged by several centuries of copper exploitation in Santiago de Cuba, 900 km east of Havana.

The plan entrusted to the firm Geominera Oriente entails soil clean-up, landscape modification and reforestation around El Cobre mine, which was discovered in 1540 and shut down by the government in 2001.

According to the Law on Mining, it is obligatory to restore and rehabilitate the environment after the definitive closing of a mine.