MONTEVIDEO - With few exceptions, Uruguayans are obeying the six-month-old presidential decree that bans smoking in enclosed spaces, whether public or private, aside from one's own home.

So far, "the assessment is satisfactory. We have conducted 1,500 inspections across the country and only eight infractions have been found," in which fines have been handed down for about 1,100 dollars for the first violation, and 2,200 dollars for the second, Winston Abascal, head of the Public Health Ministry's national tobacco control program, told Tierramérica.

In Uruguay, smoking-related illnesses claim the lives of some 5,000 people each year -- more than 500 of them from second-hand smoke.

President Tabaré Vázquez, who continues to practice as an oncologist, declared tobacco control an "issue of state", and launched the campaign "a million thanks", targeting the smokers affected by the measure.

SANTIAGO - Chile has renewed its protest against Argentina's publication of maps that annex the southern territory of Campos de Hielo Sur (Southern Ice Field of Patagonia), one of the planet's largest reserves of freshwater.

The Chilean Foreign Ministry sent a diplomatic note on Aug. 28 -- something it has done on several occasions since 2001.

A 1998 agreement establishes that the area should be represented as blank until a binational commission determines the binational border. All that is needed is to delineate the 66 km between Fitz Roy and El Murallón mountains.

"The scientists could be very useful in resolving the dispute. Although Argentina has studied the zone more, Chile has not had sufficient financing," Carlos Cárdenas, researcher for the Antarctic program at the University of Magallanes, told Tierramérica.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil, world champion in recycling of aluminum cans, has achieved the same record for collecting used containers for agro-chemicals, surpassing similar programs in countries of the North, like Canada and Germany.

In 2005, Brazil recuperated 84 percent of those containers, according to the National Institute for Container Processing.

This success is due largely to a "smart law", passed in 2000, which commits the entire agricultural production chain to "sharing responsibilites", the institute's Juliana Hosken told Tierramérica.

Farmers return the cleaned containers to the commercial network, while industry takes care of transporation and final processing. Currently, 87 percent are recyclind and the rest are incinerated, said Hosken.

GUATEMALA CITY - The Guatemalan government and private entities have opened a laboratory for detecting contamination from toxic and nuclear substances in industry and ship traffic in a portion of the Pacific Ocean.

Located in Puerto Quetzal, 120 km south of the capital, the lab was inaugurated on Aug. 25 and cost about 200,000 dollars, most of which was donated by the International Atoic Energy Agency.

The program includes "a scientific buoy, three miles at sea, which sends data about wave action, temperature and atmospheric conditions to the lab's computer network," Nicolás Solares, chief oceanographer for the Quetzal Port Enterprise, told Tierramérica.

Monitoring of the maritime waters will be along a 14-km band between Puerto San José and the town of Iztapa, and extending three miles out from the coast.

CARACAS - Three resident cooperatives in the San Luis neighborhood of Maracaibo, Venezuela's second largest city, located on the lake of the same name, have obtained up to 5,000 dollars per day for harvesting lemna sp, the much-feared water lentil, or duckweed, that has taken over the lake's surface.

"In one day we collect 2,060 baskets, and 13 are needed for a cubic meter. But it's worth it because they pay us 73,000 bolivares (34 dollars) per meter. Here, one of every two people is unemployed," Judith Iriarte, a member of the harvesting group, told Tierramérica.

The duckweed covers 4.36 percent of the lake's 13,000 square-km surface, according to Environment Minister Jacqueline Farías, "but we hope to defeat it by the end of 2006, with a decrease in contamination and manual collection, for which we are not hiring staff but rather paying by the meter, which allows an entire family to work."

TEGUCIGALPA - El Pino, which covers more than 107 million hectares in the northern Honduran department of Atlántida, is being promoted as "the green villate" for the environmentally sustainable activities of its residents.

The 1,000 inhabitants of the village, at the heart of Pico Bonito mountain, make their livelihood from farming, and they use environmentally friendly techniques, such as applying natural fertilizer to their crops, controlled burning for cultivation, and reforestation.

"We want to propose to the Tourism Ministry that it foment eco-tourism in the village," environmentalist José Guerrero told Tierramérica.

Pico Bonito is home to many endangered species of flora and fauna, including butterflies, birds, monkeys, snakes and jaguars.