Shark fin is now a health hazard, based on a survey that showed eight of 10 samples sold in Hong Kong contained mercury levels above the legal standard. The highest mercury content was more than four times the permitted limit, according to laboratory tests done by green groups, reported here. Mercury does not dissolve in cooking, it is harmful to the brain and nervous system. Environmentalists said eating shark fin is tantamount to self-poisoning. You get what you deserve in my view...

Even though Singaporeans have been told to “Open your hearts” to foreigners, many are not very comfortable with the level of new immigrant workers flowing into the country. There have been numerous letters to the forum pages of local papers including this one which states: “But given Singapore's developed status and its English proficiency, it will be a setback if our competitive advantage is eroded by quick fixes by employers, who, as NTUC chief Mr Lim Swee Say has said, hire foreigners because they are cheap, and not because they are good.” This article from Forbes notes that the low-skilled workers from China are ubiquitous in Singapore these days and that the tidal wave of mainland Chinese workers began last year, when Singapore relaxed its rules to allow more immigration to staff its service industries. Chinese workers are just one constituency in Singapore's fast-growing foreign population, but they are the largest component, having crossed the 1 million mark last October and helping boost the population to 4.68 million. Their popularity with the city-state's employers, who like their work ethic and low wage expectations, further fuels resentment. They threaten the job security of Singapore's most unskilled, the low-wage workers who earn less than 1,200 Singapore dollars ($872.73) a month, numbering about 350,000.

The world's largest population of wild orangutans on Indonesia's Borneo island faces extinction within three years due to rapidly expanding oil palm plantations, a conservationist group said Wednesday. A report by the Center for Orangutan Protection says just 20,000 of the endangered primates remain in the tropical jungle of Central Kalimantan, down from 31,300 in 2004. If the government does not protect wildlife from commercial exploitation, illegal logging and poachers, orangutans there could be extinct by 2011, said Hardi Baktiantoro, the group's head. Adding to the problem is a plan by Indonesian authorities to open up 1.1 million acres (455,000 hectares) - an area larger than the U.S. state of Rhode Island - of protected land for palm oil growers, he said. More here.

• AIDS in Asia: The right response?
• Disney, Slate, Miley Cyrus, licensees, sex and China 
• The CUMBA CSR Conference 2008 
• Adapting to carbon constraints: Buildings in Hong Kong 

If you'd like to be included in our e-mailout list, send us an email and subscribe. We upload and email CSR Asia Weekly out every Wednesday.

Six young fashion addicts experience life as factory workers in India, making clothes for the British high street. In this four-part series, the six work in the mills of India’s cotton belt and stitch clothes in cramped back rooms, sleeping next to their sewing machine. See how it changes their attitudes to cut-price clothing.

Blurb from a new BBC reality show, Blood, Sweat and T-shirts. I discovered this show via an interesting blog called Where Am I Wearing?