TEGUCIGALPA, Oct 2 (Tierramérica) - The Honduran national human rights commissioner, Ramón Custodio, has called on the authorities to provide protection for Catholic bishop Luis Alfonso Santos, in the western city of Copán, who has received death threats for his opposition to an open-pit mine in the area.

"We have taken bishop Santos's charges seriously, and we demand that the state take measures for his safety and that of the members of the Civic Alliance for Democracy, whose fight for the environment is just," Custodio told Tierramérica.

Alongside the Alliance -- a coalition of social and community groups -- the bishop of Copán was able to halt changes to the 1998 mining law that would have allowed open-pit mining to continue without environmental protections and with little economic benefit for Honduras.

The bishop is calling for the law to be overturned and declared unconstitutional.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 2 (Tierramérica) - Hair stylists run the greatest risk of alterations of their DNA and, as a result, of developing cancer, due to their exposure to chemicals like formol and aromatic amines, found in products for straightening or coloring hair, according to a study presented in Sao Paulo.

"We are working for early identification of mutations in order to prevent cancer of occupational origin, given that tumors tend to appear 20 to 30 years after exposure (to harmful substances)," the study's author Maira Precivalle Galiotte, a biologist at the University of Sao Paulo medical school, told Tierramérica.

Tests of 80 hair stylists showed damage to their genetic material at double the frequency of 80 women who were not regularly exposed to chemicals in their places of work, according to the study.

Hair salons employ 1.3 million people in Brazil, according to the 2005 census.

SANTIAGO, Oct 2 (Tierramérica) - The Chilean government's National Forestry Corporation approved the cutting of 2,700 native trees in the Santiago Metropolitan Park, the capital's biggest "green lung", in order to make way for a 21.5-km highway.

In August, the Itinera group -- affiliate of the Spanish firm Sacyr -- in charge of the project, cut down 1,300 exotic tree species in the park, with the promise to replant more than 20,000 trees.

"Many species of flora and fauna will disappear, there will be fewer herbaceous plants, bushes and bird nesting areas," to the detriment of Santiago itself, which already suffers severe air pollution, said Flavia Liberona, coordinator of the Native Forest Network.

Work began on the highway in 2005 and is slated for completion in 2008. The route will connect the Santiago communities of Vitacura (population 81,499) and Huechuraba (74,070), at a cost of more than 200 million dollars.

CARACAS, Oct 2 (Tierramérica) - The waste ponds used by the state-run metals company Bauxilum, which contain red sludge (silica sands, caustic soda, iron oxides and aluminum oxides), "are at the limit of their capacity and could filter into the surroundings," says the Aluminum Workers' Syndicate in southeastern Venezuela.

Luis Guzmán, of the University of Guayana's environmental management center, told Tierramérica, "the ponds are necessary for waste sedimentation and to allow the liquids to evaporate."

The problem, he said, "is that the rains raise the pond levels to the point of potential overflow or spills" towards populated areas along the Orinoco River, 500 km southeast of Caracas.

"The community should demand that the company dispose of previously treated waste," added Guzmán. Bauxilum, which has the capacity to produce two million tons of aluminum oxide, did not comment on this matter.

MONTEVIDEO, Oct 2 (Tierramérica) - The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is planning to open a regional observatory in the Uruguayan capital to promote renewable energy.

The proposal, which will be submitted for evaluation, was announced at the Ibero-American Ministerial Meeting titled "Energy Security in Latin America: Renewable Energy as a Viable Alternative," Sep. 26-28 in Montevideo.

"Latin America is the region that has made most progress in renewable energy. And the observatory is a necessary initiative for improving the region's energy matrix and the quality of life in the poorest areas," Aizar Antonio Assefh, director of the regional UNIDO office in Uruguay, told Tierramérica.

Once finalized, in 2007, the project will involve the regional governments and institutions. Public participation is expected, but "the private sector can also be a good partner," added Assefh.

GUATEMALA CITY - Oct 2 (Tierramérica) - Guatemalan environmental authorities will complete construction in November of the second water purification plant on the Villalobos River, which carries some 500,000 tons of sediment to Lake Amatitlán, 35 km south of the capital.

It is located in the town of El Frutal, some 5 km from Amatitlán, and will be more than three kilometers long, Edgar Zamora, director of the lake's sustainable management authority, told Tierramérica.

The first plant, two km long, was completed in December 2005 and "allows the filtration of 300 liters per second, with water coming out 70 percent cleaner," said Zamora.

The government began lake clean-up efforts in April 2005, with an investment of 29 million dollars against the threat that by 2015 it would have turned into a swamp.