Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 09/02/2005
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.
- Decision traps in ISO 14001 implementation process: case
study results from
- Precision Cleaning Fixtures. June/July 2005
- PIRG again calls for ban on HF acid. August 2005
- Sharp Develops New Technology to Blend Plant-Based
Plastic with WastePlastic. 2005
- Immune function biomarkers in children exposed to lead and organochlorine compounds: a cross-sectional study. April 2005
1. Decision traps in ISO 14001 implementation process: case
study results from
AUTHOR Ghisellini, Alessia; Thurston, Deborah L.
DATE 2005
SOURCE Journal of Cleaner Production, v13 n8, June 2005,
pp763-777
ABSTRACT This paper describes cognitive decision traps
into which companies may fall prey during implementation of the ISO 14001
Standard, and their effect on the environmental performance of certified
companies. The environmental performance of several Illinois ISO certified
companies over time has been investigated. Furthermore, three manufacturing
plants have been analyzed, in depth, in order to determine the possible
correlation between their Environmental Management Systems and the
environmental decision biases. The outcomes of this survey show that even
companies seriously committed to the fulfillment of the Standard, can still
accidentally fall prey to cognitive decision traps, and that the myths
regarding the effectiveness of the ISO 14001 Standard are often far from
reality. A set of guidelines that companies should follow in order to avoid the
most serious decision traps is provided, as well as recommendations for the
next ISO 14001 review.
2. Precision Cleaning Fixtures
AUTHOR Apell, Marc
DATE 2005
SOURCE Global SMT & Packaging, v5 n6, June/July 2005, pp26-28
ABSTRACT The precision cleaning process consists of a
variety of critical and variable parameters - each of which must be carefully
reviewed when optimizing for machine performance. And while this is often
difficult because of the many diverse factors involved, it is essential that
all aspects of the cleaning tool are explored. One of the most overlooked
aspects - one that can dramatically impede cleaning results - is the product
holder and tool fixturing, for unless the energy generated by the movement of
the wash or rinse solution is allowed to directly reach and impact the end
product, even the best available cleaning tools will not succeed.
3. PIRG again calls for ban on HF acid
AUTHOR Bourge, Christian
DATE 2005
SOURCE Chemical Market Reporter, v268 n5, 15-21 August,
2005, p12
ABSTRACT A consumer advocacy group recently repeated its
call on Congress to ban the use of hydrofluoric acid by oil refineries, arguing
that safer, cost-effective alternatives exist. The US Public Interest Research
Group (PIRG) has released a report saying that alternatives such as sulphuric
acid in the alkylation process are already used by some factories and pose a
lessened public health risk if released in the environment, either by accident
or by a terrorist attack. American Petroleum Institute senior policy analyst
Lou Hayden takes issue with PIRG’s assessment that chemicals in the refining
process can simply be substituted or that use of such chemicals is a security
issue, calling mandated use of a particular agent “not a helpful security
measure.” He notes that use of hydro-fluoric acid is already regulated by the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as well as by the EPA.
4. Sharp Develops New Technology to Blend Plant-Based
Plastic with Waste Plastic
DATE 2005
SOURCE Sharp Corporation [website]
ABSTRACT Sharp Corporation has developed a new technology to blend plant-based plastic that uses corn as the raw material, and waste plastic recovered from scrapped consumer electronics. Using a mix of plant-based plastic and waste plastic blended by means of this technology in consumer electronics can significantly reduce environmental impact compared to using common plastics derived from petroleum-based feedstocks. In the future, Sharp will be conducting tests to assess commercial potential, with the goal of using blended plastic in Sharp products within fiscal 2006. In the future, when the price of plant-based plastics is reduced to a level on a par with general plastics, it is estimated that the percentage of renewable resources (plant-based plastic and waste plastic) used in all products will increase to 30% by fiscal 2010. At present, raw materials used in consumer electronics rely almost entirely on fossil materials such as petroleum, but efforts to shift as much as possible to renewable resources (plant-based and recycled materials) are moving forward from the perspective of limiting emissions of greenhouse gases, with the aim of building a sustainable recycling-oriented society. At the same time, plant-based plastics have the potential to reduce the impact on the environment given that incinerating these materials does not cause the concentration of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere to rise. However, problems remain in terms of impact/shock resistance, thermal resistance, cost and other factors, and their adoption in the area of consumer durable goods, particularly electronic products, remains limited. Against this background, Sharp has been conducting research since 1999 on technologies to recycle waste plastic from consumer electronics, and in May 2003, put such a recycling technology into practical use to enable repeated re-use of polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) recovered from four categories of discarded household electrical appliances falling under the Home Appliance Recycling Law (air conditioners, TVs, refrigerators and washing machines) in components in new manufactured products in these four categories without loss of physical properties such as material strength.
5. Immune function biomarkers in children exposed to lead
and organochlorine compounds: a cross-sectional study
AUTHOR Karmaus, Wilfried; Brooks, Kevin R.; Nebe, Thomas;
Witten, Jutta; Obi-Osius, Nadia; Kruse, Hermann
DATE 2005
SOURCE Environmental Health: A Global Access Science
Source, v4 n5,
ABSTRACT Different organochlorines and lead (Pb) have
been shown to have immunomodulating properties. Children are at greater risk
for exposure to these environmental toxicants, but very little data exist on
simultaneous exposures to these substances. We investigated whether the
organochlorine compounds (OC) dichlorodiphenylethylene (DDE), hexachlorobenzene
(HCB), hexachlorocyclohexane ( -HCH), the sum of polychlorinated biphenyls
(SPCBs) and Pb were associated with immune markers such as immunoglobulin (Ig)
levels, white blood cell (WBC), counts of lymphocytes; eosinophils and their
eosinophilic granula as well as IgE count on basophils. The investigation was
part of a cross-sectional environmental study in
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