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Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 09/09/2005

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.

Titles here, abstracts below them:

Early Louisiana Water Sample Results. September 2005
Why Take a Life Cycle Approach? June 2005
Intumescent Coatings for Fire Protection: What Specifiers and Applicators Need to Know. June 2005
Manufacturing Uncertainty: Contested Science and the Protection of the Public's Health and Environment. 2005
Benchmarking Corporate Management of Safer Chemicals in Consumer Products -- A Tool for Investors and Senior Executives. January 2005
EPA Proposes Strict Ethical Safeguards on Human Studies Research. September 2005
Bacteria are key to 'green' plastics, drugs. 2005
Sustainability and Business Success (Management Summary). June 2005
U.K. Maintains a Tough Line on Reach. September 2005
Meeting Report: Summary of IARC Monographs on Formaldehyde, 2-Butoxyethanol, and 1-tert-Butoxy-2-Propanol. September 2005

1. Early Louisiana Water Sample Results

SOURCE Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, September 9, 2005

ABSTRACT The [Louisiana] Department of Environmental Quality and Environmental Protection Agency collected water samples at several areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. The results from the Sept. 4-5 sampling show high levels of bacteria and very low levels of toxics. Thus far, more than 100 samples have been taken. Water samples from six locations in Jefferson and Orleans parishes have been returned to DEQ from the lab. The samples were analyzed for more than 130 parameters including metals, pesticides and volatile organic compounds like those found in gasoline. The initial tests showed low readings of toxics, such as heavy metals, pesticides and fuel-related chemicals. The levels were below any levels of concern. EPA is coordinating all sampling activities and data analyses with DEQ and other federal, state and local agencies. “We are not surprised to find high levels of bacteria in these samples,” said DEQ Secretary Mike McDaniel. “The initial results are just the beginning of extensive sampling efforts and do not represent the condition of all flood water throughout the area. DEQ has initiated an extensive water-quality sampling program to document conditions in Lake Pontchartrain and evaluate the impact of pumping the floodwaters back into the lake.”

2. Why Take a Life Cycle Approach?

SOURCE United Nations Environment Programme

DATE 2005

ABSTRACT Today, there is opportunity for each of us to make well-informed choices – both as individuals and for the companies and governments where we work. A life cycle approach is one part of finding and attaining these opportunities. There are opportunities for different nationalities, cultures, professional disciplines, governments, businesses and Non Governmental Organisations, (NGOs) to become partners, working together to develop in a sustainable way. We have greater ability to cooperate, to be informed about the source of our environmental, social, and economical challenges, and to engage people on a global and local scale to address these challenges. The purpose of this brochure is to introduce a life cycle approach as one means to help us recognize opportunities, balance opportunities with risks and make choices that contribute value to our economies, our natural environments, and our communities. Reading this brochure will help you understand what a life cycle approach means and how individuals, businesses, and governments take that approach. It also illustrates the benefits and suggests where you can find out more.

3. Intumescent Coatings for Fire Protection: What Specifiers and Applicators Need to Know

AUTHOR Figore, Tim; Greigger, Paul P.

SOURCE Journal of Protective Coatings a & Linings, v22 n6, June 2005, pp40-47

ABSTRACT Passive fire protection products are being required with increasing frequency for new and existing buildings. As a result, more contractors and specifiers than before need to understand the basics of such products. This article focuses on coatings that resist fire by intumescence -- that is, they expand when subjected to fire, thus increasing the barrier between the fire and the steel, increasing the time it takes fire to reach and damage the steel, and allowing occupants in a burning building more time to escape before structural collapse. There are two types of intumescent coatings that concern us: thin film products (20 to 150 mils) and thick-film products (100 to 750 mils). The type of intumescent specified on any given product depends on all the properties needed in that coating in addition to fire resistance. Hence, properties such as weathering resistance, corrosion resistance, and appearance play a role in selecting the right type of intumescent coating for a job. This article gives an overview of thin and thick-film intumescents, including relevant information about their testing, specification, and application.

4. Manufacturing Uncertainty: Contested Science and the Protection of the Public's Health and Environment

AUTHOR Michaels, David; Monforton, Celeste

SOURCE American Journal of Public Health, n95 nS1, Supplement 1, 2005, ppS39-S48

ABSTRACT Opponents of public health and environmental regulations often try to “manufacture uncertainty” by questioning the validity of scientific evidence on which the regulations are based. Though most identified with the tobacco industry, this strategy has also been used by producers of other hazardous products. Its proponents use the label “junk science” to ridicule research that threatens powerful interests. This strategy of manufacturing uncertainty is antithetical to the public health principle that decisions be made using the best evidence available. The public health system must ensure that scientific evidence is evaluated in a manner that assures the public’s health and environment will be adequately protected.

5. Benchmarking Corporate Management of Safer Chemicals in Consumer Products -- A Tool for Investors and Senior Executives

AUTHOR Liroff, Richard

SOURCE Corporate Environmental Strategy, v12 n1, January/February 2005, pp25-36

ABSTRACT Companies face growing questions about their knowledge and management of toxic chemicals in their products. These are fueled by reports of rising levels of contaminants in human blood and breast milk, scientific findings about links between chemical exposures and human health, activist campaigns against cancer-causing ingredients in cosmetics and hazardous chemicals in electronics products and shareholder resolutions urging changes in corporate management of toxic chemicals. Companies that do not understand toxic hazards in their products and who do not take steps to reduce or eliminate them face the risk of disruption to their supply chains, exclusion from markets, damage to their reputation, foregone profits, and toxic tort litigation. On the other hand, such concerns present a remarkable opportunity for innovation and entrepreneurship that can contribute to competitive advantage, reduced operating costs, increased profits, and enhanced shareholder value. This article offers a benchmarking tool to assess progress in corporate management of product detoxification. The tool can be used internally by senior corporate management teams. Externally, investors and investment analysts can use this tool to screen investments, assess "best in class" environmental performance, manage portfolio risk, and launch shareholder actions. Vignettes of prominent companies in the electronics, retailing and consumer products sectors illustrate how corporate leaders have adopted elements of this framework.

6. EPA Proposes Strict Ethical Safeguards on Human Studies Research

DATE 2005

SOURCE United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

ABSTRACT On September 7, 2005, EPA proposed a rule that will establish stringent enforceable ethical safeguards governing the conduct of third-party intentional dosing research with human subjects. Among other new ethical protections, EPA proposes to prohibit all new third-party intentional dosing research on pesticides with children and pregnant women intended for submission to EPA, and announced a categorical ban that EPA will neither conduct nor support any intentional dosing studies that involve pregnant women or children. This rule is intended to ensure that people who volunteer for third-party pesticide studies involving exposure to humans are treated ethically, with full disclosure as to potential risks. These regulations from EPA are designed to strongly discourage and prevent the conduct of human studies that do not meet the highest ethical and scientific standards. In addition, the protections in the proposed rule are consistent with the recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's foremost scientific review body. For any new, intentional dosing studies with pesticides, this proposal would require researchers to do the following: (1) comply with the requirements of the Common Rule (current ethical standards for research conducted or supported by the federal government); (2) submit detailed study protocols to EPA prior to initiation so that EPA can review to ensure the study meets the new ethical protections and is scientifically sound; and (3) once the study is conducted, provide detailed information to EPA describing how the study met the necessary ethical protections. This rule would also put in place standards that EPA would follow in determining whether to rely on human studies. The agency is proposing to establish a Human Studies Review Board to review study protocols and selected available studies. The new protections would apply to pesticide intentional dosing studies conducted by EPA, those supported or sponsored by EPA, and those conducted by a pesticide manufacturer or other researchers. This rule focuses largely on pesticide studies because such studies have elicited a strong expression of public concern, and because the risks they potentially present to people who volunteer to participate. Today's proposal is the first in a series of potential actions that will address the full spectrum of human studies issues at EPA. The agency has been conducting a comprehensive review of older pesticides to ensure that they meet current health and safety standards so that the public, especially infants, children and other sensitive individuals, are protected from pesticide risks. EPA sponsored or supported research meets current federal ethical standards set forth in the Common Rule, and today's proposal would extend those and other safeguards to third party research involving pesticides. EPA welcomes public input, and the proposal includes a 90-day public comment period. For more information on the rulemaking, visit: http://www.epa.gov/oppfead1/guidance/human-test.htm

7. Bacteria are key to 'green' plastics, drugs

DATE 2005

SOURCE Rice University

ABSTRACT Trials have begun in Kansas on a "green" production method for succinate, a key ingredient of many plastics, drugs, solvents and food additives. Developed at Rice University, the technology uses a genetically modified form of the bacteria E. coli that metabolizes glucose and produces almost pure succinate. Finding "green" methods to make key chemical intermediates like succinate is a high priority for the chemical industry. Green technologies use renewable resources like agricultural crops rather than non-renewable fossil fuels, and they produce less waste. "Succinate is a high-priority chemical that the U.S. Department of Energy has targeted for biosynthesis," said process co-developer George Bennett, professor and chair of the department of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice. "One reason for this is succinate's broad utility -- it can be used to make everything from non-corrosive airport deicers and non-toxic solvents to plastics, drugs and food additives. Succinate's also a priority because some bacteria make it naturally, so we have a metabolic starting place for large-scale fermentation." The centerpiece of Rice's succinate technology is a mutant form of E. coli that makes succinate as it's only metabolic byproduct. The bug contains more than a half-dozen genetic modifications. It was created over the past four years by the research groups of Bennett and collaborator Ka-Yiu San, the E.D. Butcher Professor of Bioengineering and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. The technology is taking its first step from the lab to the marketplace this month with the start of industrial scale-up efforts in Kansas. These efforts resulted from an $80,000 award from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Bennett and San are working with Manhattan, Kansas-based AgRenew Inc., which just began testing how to use farm-grown products like grain sorghum as feedstocks for the succinate-producing bacteria.

8. Sustainability and Business Success (Management Summary)

DATE 2005

SOURCE Munich University of Technology and oekom research AG

ABSTRACT To investigate the question of whether environmentally and socially responsible action by companies and success in terms of economic criteria are fundamentally irreconcilable or conjointly achievable goals, the Psychology Department of Munich University of Technology (TUM) conducted a study project on "Sustainability and business success". oekom research AG was a partner in the project. As a pioneering company in the field of independent sustainability ratings in Germany, oekom research possesses a high level of expertise in evaluating companies according to environmental as well as social and cultural criteria. In addition, the rating agency has at its disposal an extensive and representative database. The basis for the statistical analyses was provided by data from a total of 704 companies which have been evaluated by oekom research AG over the last few years. For 333 of these companies we have carried out more detailed analyses. These are broken down in the Social/Cultural Rating into the areas of management (e.g. corporate mission statement and objectives, co-determination), employees (e.g. working hours, health & safety) and stakeholders (e.g. suppliers, customers) and in the Environmental Rating into the areas of environmental management, products and services and eco-efficiency. The results of the study demonstrate statistically significant positive correlations between the overall score in the sustainability rating and the ROI and EPS values averaged over the period from 2001 to 2003. As far as the socio-cultural aspects of the rating are concerned, significant positive correlations can be seen between performance in the "Stuff Relations" and "External Relations" categories and the averaged EPS values. Corporate commitment in these areas does not therefore have a detrimental effect on profits, rather it has a positive impact on business success. On the basis of the statistical results, it can be stated clearly that there is no negative correlation between the sustainability rating and the ROI and EPS financial indicators. Consequently, sustainability does not entail lower returns.

9. U.K. Maintains a Tough Line on Reach

SOURCE Chemical Week, v167 n29, September 7, 2005

ABSTRACT The U.K. government, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) until year-end, has circulated to other EU national governments a revised draft of the EU’s Reach chemicals legislation. The draft features few amendments that will reduce costs for industry, however, observers say. The U.K., in one amendment suggested by the chemical industry, proposes a system of “one substance, one registration” under Reach, to avoid duplication of data and ensure that only one test is conducted for each chemical substance to obtain any missing data. Any producer with relevant data on a given substance would be required to submit information on that product, under the proposal. However, the U.K. has rejected Cefic’s call for a system that exempts from registration chemicals that are unlikely to pose a risk to human health and the environment. The U.K. is due to publish a final version of its draft on September 18, following comments from EU states.

10. Meeting Report: Summary of IARC Monographs on Formaldehyde, 2-Butoxyethanol, and 1-tert-Butoxy-2-Propanol

AUTHOR Cogliano, Vincent James; Grosse, Yann; Baan, Robert A., et al.

SOURCE Environmental Health Perspectives, v113, n9, September 2005, pp1205-1208

ABSTRACT An international, interdisciplinary working group of expert scientists met in June 2004 to develop IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of the Carcinogenic Risk of Chemicals to Humans (IARC Monographs) on formaldehyde, 2-butoxyethanol, and 1-tert-butoxy-2-propanol. Each IARC Monograph includes a critical review of the pertinent scientific literature and an evaluation of an agent's potential to cause cancer in humans. After a thorough discussion of the epidemiologic, experimental, and other relevant data, the working group concluded that formaldehyde is carcinogenic to humans, based on sufficient evidence in humans and in experimental animals. In the epidemiologic studies, there was sufficient evidence that formaldehyde causes nasopharyngeal cancer, "strong but not sufficient" evidence of leukemia, and limited evidence of sinonasal cancer. The working group also concluded that 2-butoxyethanol and 1-tert-butoxy-2-propanol are not classifiable as to their carcinogenicity to humans, each having limited evidence in experimental animals and inadequate evidence in humans. These three evaluations and the supporting data will be published as Volume 88 of the IARC Monographs.

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://greenlist.turi.org/ for greater topic coverage.

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Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 09/09/2005