Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 02/01/2008
This is the weekly bulletin of the TURI Library, reporting a selection of recently published titles we have acquired. Our pledge is to keep the bulletin relevant to your work and brief -- no more than 10 titles. You are welcome to send a message to jan@turi.org if you would like more information on any of the articles listed here.
Titles here, abstracts below:
- Massachusetts chemical fact sheet: Formaldehyde
- State of green business 2008
- Water repellent wood fiber products developed
- Case study: one company's lead-free journey
- Security, commerce suffer chemical imbalance
- Increasing paper efficiency
- FDA reports perchlorate widespread: millions of children at risk from exposure levels
- Soy carpet backing delivers performance
- Hold the mercury: how to avoid mercury when buying fish
- Engineered nanoscale materials and derivative products: regulatory challenges
1. Massachusetts chemical fact sheet: Formaldehyde
Source: Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI), 2007
Abstract: Off-gassed from construction products and released by manufacturing facilities and combustion sources, formaldehyde is almost ubiquitous at low levels in both indoor and outdoor air. It is often targeted as a cause of health complaints associated with "sick building syndrome," such as respiratory irritation and headaches. In 2005, Massachusetts companies used more than 3.5 million pounds of formaldehyde.
This fact sheet is part of a series of chemical fact sheets developed by TURI to help Massachusetts companies, community organizations and residents understand the chemical’s use and health and environmental effects, as well as the availability of safer alternatives.
WWW: http://www.turi.org/content/view/full/4459
2. State of green business 2008
Author: Makower, Joel
Source: GreenBiz.com, 2008
Abstract: This report answers the question: How are U.S. businesses doing in their quest to be greener and more environmentally responsible? It introduces the GreenBiz Index, a set of 20 indicators of progress, tracking the resource use, emissions, and business practices of U.S. companies: carbon, materials, energy, and toxics intensity, clean-tech investments, e-waste recovery, paper use, employee commuting, and more.
WWW: http://www.stateofgreenbusiness.com/
3. Water repellent wood fiber products developed
Source: ScienceDaily, January 28, 2008
Abstract: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a method that opens up new opportunities for the use of lignin-containing wood fibres and other natural fibres as well as fibre products. The method offers an innovative, environmentally friendly approach to customize or even to introduce completely new properties - such as moisture repellency or electric conductivity - to fibre-containing products.
The new chemo-enzymatic modification method of fibre materials enables manufacturers to better tailor the fibre properties according to the desired end product. The method can be used to enhance the original properties or even to introduce new properties to lignin-containing fibre materials. To achieve the desired modification, suitable chemical compounds are attached to the material in a chemical or enzymatic process.
WWW: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080123163554.htm
4. Case study: one company's lead-free journey
Source: Global SMT & Packaging, October 2007, pp58-61
Abstract: July 2007 marked the one-year anniversary of the European Union’s (EU’s) Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, otherwise known as lead free regulations. This is the story of RiverSide Electronics' experience in becoming lead free and how the drive to meet regulations has changed their organization.
WWW: http://www.globalsmt.net/documents/Issue_Archive/7.10%20US_opt.pdf
5. Security, commerce suffer chemical imbalance
Author: Loewenberg, Samuel
Source: The Politico, January 30, 2008
Abstract: Legislation designed to protect the nation’s chemical plants from terrorist attack has sparked a lobbying ruckus in the House among the industry, environmentalists and labor unions. At the center of the debate: the 4,400 facilities across the nation considered potential targets because they contain dangerous chemicals.
Pressure on Congress to enact a chemical plant security regime is increasing because the Department of Homeland Security is operating under a temporary law that will sunset next year. So far, chemical industry advocates have been frustrated by what they see as the overly burdensome bill in the House Homeland Security Committee.
They are particularly concerned about a requirement in the bill that facilities considered likely targets stop using chemicals or manufacturing processes that could be especially dangerous. This concept, known as inherently safer technology, or IST, is the cause of major consternation to the chemical industry, which objects to the government’s interfering in its business.
WWW: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/8220.html
6. Increasing paper efficiency
Source: Environmental Paper Network, 2008
Abstract: Making more efficient use of paper is good for forests, climate and public health, good for organizational budgets and competitiveness. This fact sheet highlights the successes of innovative business leaders and will help you identify opportunities to make changes at your organization or business and to achieve the benefits of increasing paper use efficiency.
WWW: http://www.environmentalpaper.org/documents/paperefficiencyfactsheet.pdf
7. FDA reports perchlorate widespread: millions of children at risk from exposure levels
Source: The House Committee on Energy and Commerce, January 22, 2008
Abstract: A report published by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that nearly 300 commonly consumed foods and beverages are contaminated with perchlorate, a component of rocket-fuel. According to health data, this contamination is at levels that place the health of millions of young children at risk every day. Every proposed or final drinking water standard, except one, the Massachusetts standard of two parts per billion, fails to protect two-year olds from routine, daily, unsafe exposure to perchlorate when combined food and water exposures are considered.
The FDA study examined 285 common foods and beverages in connection with its annual Total Dietary Study, finding that perchlorate was present in 74 percent of the foods and beverages that the study examined. The study suggests that the pervasiveness of perchlorate in food presents serious health risks to the population, particularly children. For example, according to the FDA study, every day the average two-year old is exposed to one half of EPA’s preliminary reference dose, a level of contamination that the EPA estimates will have no adverse health effects, through food alone.
Perchlorate is an ingredient in rocket fuel, 90 percent of which is produced for use by the United States Department of Defense and NASA. Perchlorate presents a risk to human health in vulnerable populations, including pregnant women and children, as it blocks the ability of the thyroid to absorb iodine. Normal thyroid hormones levels are critical for a healthy metabolism and normal brain and organ function and development. In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that perchlorate exposure was widespread in our population and that children ages 6 to 11, had 65 percent more perchlorate than adults aged 20 years and older. The CDC studies also concluded that perchlorate at high levels causes decreases in thyroid function.
WWW: http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_110/110nr181.shtml
8. Soy carpet backing delivers performance
Source: Biobased Solutions, January, 2008
Abstract: EnviroCel is the first high-performance soy carpet backing designed specifically for the various installation and performance requirements of hospitality and high-end residential use.
The soy-based carpet backing is designed for use in hotel rooms, corridors and other mid-traffic environments and contains environmentally friendly materials at levels ranging from 55 percent to 85 percent of the weight of the product. EnviroCel technology replaces 100 percent of the petroleum-based polyols in its polyurethane formula.
The soy polyurethane backings are recognized for their ability to support heavy furniture and extend a carpet's useful life, making replacement less frequent. The backings feature an extruded fiberized adhesion layer that provides increased flexibility and delamination strength while significantly reducing product weight.
The carpet backing has low volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the rapidly renewable and postconsumer recycled content contributes toward the total project credit for LEED certification. EnviroCel can be specified for virtually any carpet suited to the hospitality market.
WWW: http://www.unitedsoybean.org/Library/RecentLibraryItems.aspx
9. Hold the mercury: how to avoid mercury when buying fish
Source: Oceana, 2008
Abstract: As many Catholics prepare for the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday (February 6), they start planning special meals. One of the traditions of the season is avoiding meat every Friday during Lent. Practicing Catholics worldwide often choose fish as an alternative source of protein.
But recent independent laboratory testing of 94 samples of fish and sushi bought in 26 U.S. cities revealed that the mercury content of fresh tuna and swordfish approaches or exceeds levels that may pose risks to human health, particularly for children and women thinking of having kids.
Oceana, an international ocean conservation group based in Washington, D.C., describes the results of these tests of popular fish in a new report entitled Hold the Mercury: How to Avoid Mercury When Buying Fish. The fish tested were purchased at grocery stores and sushi restaurants, and included tuna (both steaks and sushi), swordfish, tilapia and sushi mackerel. The new report also evaluates seafood counter personnel knowledge about the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) mercury advisory.
WWW: http://www.oceana.org/fileadmin/oceana/uploads/mercury/
Hold_the_Mercury/Hold_the_Mercury_Final.pdf
10. Engineered nanoscale materials and derivative products: regulatory challenges
Author: Schierow, Linda-Jo
Source: Congressional Research Service (CRS), 2008
Abstract: Scientists and engineers are rapidly learning how to examine, design, and manipulate materials at the molecular level, termed "nanoscale," between 1 and 100 billionths of a meter. The U.S. government has invested billions of dollars to ensure that American industry remains a global leader in the field, because the products of nanotechnology are seen to have great economic potential and offer possible solutions to national problems ranging from energy efficiency to detection of agents of biological warfare.
Optimism about nanotechnology is tempered, however, by concerns about the unknown potential of nanoscale materials to harm the environment and human health. Some have called for federal regulation of potential environmental, human health, and safety (EHS) risks, arguing that the lack of federal EHS regulations increases the risks of unanticipated adverse consequences due to human or environmental exposure to engineered nanomaterials.
The cost of such consequences would depend on their actual, as well as publically perceived, severity, frequency, and reversibility. The cost to the nanotechnology industry could be great, if consumers responded to a potential threat of harm by indiscriminately rejecting all products of nanotechnology, rather than the offending nanomaterial or an individual application. Others oppose federal regulatory requirements, arguing that they might unnecessarily delay the environmental, health, and economic rewards expected from nanotechnology.
Questions about the need for, and ideal form of, nanotechnology regulations are exceedingly difficult to address, given the current state of scientific understanding of engineered nanoscale materials. The purpose of this report is to consider certain challenges faced by scientists, entrepreneurs, and government officials in the 25 agencies involved in the National Nanotechnology Program, as they strive to define the characteristics of nanomaterials, the EHS risks they might pose, and how any potential risks should be addressed.
Challenges include the wide variety of nanomaterials and applications; lack of basic information about their properties; lack of conventions for naming, measuring and identifying nanomaterials; the proprietary nature of some critical information; the need to prioritize federal resource needs; and a possible lack of clear statutory authority or appropriate regulatory framework to anticipate or respond to any identified risks. These difficulties may be surmounted over time without significant legislative action, or Congress may choose to intervene.
If it does, it might choose any of several approaches. Possible approaches include increasing funding for workshops in standardization or other research relevant to identifying and possibly ameliorating any environmental or human health and safety concerns associated with nanomaterials; changing the allocation of research money among agencies or the interagency research management structure; adopting a national or international research strategy; or enacting legislation that authorizes, mandates, or constrains agency actions to require information collection or to restrict production, sale, use, or disposal of nanomaterials. Each risk management approach has potential positive and negative consequences that Congress may want to consider.
WWW: http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL34332_20080122.pdf
You are welcome to send a message to jan@turi.org if you would like more information on any of these resources. Also, please tell us what topics you are particularly interested in monitoring, and who else should see Greenlist. An online search of the TURI Library catalog can be done at http://slk060.liberty3.net/turi for greater topic coverage.
This page updated Friday February 01 2008