Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 9/10/04
Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 9/10/04
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. (usually)
Titles here, abstracts below them:
- Lasers Improve Application Efficiency, May 2004
- Developments in Textile Inkjet Printing Working Towards Wider Acceptance, August 2004
- Lessons from Lotus Leaves, June 2004
- Nanocomposites: Microscopic Reinforcements Boost Polymer Performance, May 2004
- Nanoparticle Composites for Coating Applications, May 2004
- Arsenic Removal, May 2004
- Environmental Group Petitions for Cosmetics Safety Assessment, June 2004
- Risk Assessment at the EPA: An Agency Self-Exam, June 2004
- Who's Counting? The Systematic Underreporting of Toxic Air Emissions, 2004
- EU Ideas Not Always What They Seem, July/August 2004
1. TITLE Lasers Improve Application Efficiency
AUTHOR Huffman, Lori
SOURCE Journal of Protective Coatings & Linings, May 2004, vol. 21,no. 5, pp. 36-37
ABSTRACT A laser targeting device for manual and automatic spray guns can improve transfer efficiency and consistency of application, according to its manufacturer, Nick Horan, president of Laser Touch and Technologies, LLC. The Waterloo, IA-based company has marketed the technology since 1999, when it licensed the product from the developer, the Iowa Waste Reduction Center of the University of Northern Iowa.
NOTE: The Massachusetts Office of Technical Assistance (OTA) has worked to set up a Spray Technique & Analysis Research (STAR) training center at Bay Path VoTech using the Laser Touch equipment. For more information, contact Rich Bizzozero at (617) 626-1080.
2. TITLE Developments in Textile Inkjet Printing Working Towards WiderAcceptance
AUTHOR Eckman, Andrea L.
SOURCE AATCC Review, August 2004, vol. 4, no. 8, pp. 8-11
ABSTRACT Today's textile inkjet printing market is still extremely small, amounting to around 1% of them market and generally confined to the pre-print sample areas and a number of markets such as the flag/banner market, sportswear, and niche printed fashion articles. However, the market continues to grow. Based on information from BASF AG market studies, it is estimated that textile inkjet printing will achieve "significant market penetration over the next 10 years with developments in both hardware and ink and pretreatment chemicals." This growth is due to innovations within the industry that both improve the technology and make it easier to adopt.
3. TITLE Lessons from Lotus Leaves
SOURCE Chemical & Engineering News, June 7, 2004, vol. 82, no. 23, p. 30
ABSTRACT A surface of micrometer-sized hills and valleys dotted with waxy nanoparticles gives the lotus leaf its super hydrophobic self-cleaning properties. Water droplets bead up and roll off the rough surface, taking dirt and debris with them. Using a simple, water-based process, researchers from MIT have created a polyelectrolyte multilayer coating that mimics the leaf's tidy topography.
4. TITLE Nanocomposites: Microscopic Reinforcements Boost Polymer Performance
AUTHOR Stewart, Richard
SOURCE Plastics Engineering, May 2004, vol. 60, no. 5, pp. 22-29
ABSTRACT The long-awaited potential of nanocomposites is being realized. Over the past few years, a growing number of nanomaterials - consisting of particles measuring a billionth of a meter (one nanometer) or less - have been successfully commercialized. The new materials are easy to process and they offer increased strength, modulus, and dimensional stability over conventionally filled composites at very low loading. In addition, they provide lower permeability to moisture, gases, and hydrocarbons, as well as improvements in thermal stability, heat distortion temperature, flame retardancy, chemical resistance, surface quality, and optical clarity. Success stories are starting to roll in. Among the most commonly used nanomaterials is montmorillonite, a layered, silicate clay consisting of stacked, ultrathin platelets with surface areas much larger than conventionally sized reinforcements. Spaces between the platelets are filled with polymer, causing the clay to swell and increasing the distance between the layers to an intercalated state. Further swelling causes the plates to be exfoliated or dispersed throughout the polymer. Factors affecting exfoliation include surface treatment of the nanoclays, loading, and dispersive energy applied.
5. TITLE Nanoparticle Composites for Coating Applications
AUTHOR Cayton, Roger H.
SOURCE Paint & Coatings Industry, May 2004, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 48-54
ABSTRACT To evaluate the performance of alumina nanoparticles as scratch- resistant fillers in a transparent coating, a nanocomposite was prepared with NanoDur alumina dispersed in a UV-curable coating formulation. The alumina nanoparticles were dispersed in 1,6-hexanediol diacrylate, a reactive monomer, at 30 wt%, and this dispersion was blended with a UV-curable formulation to provide composite coatings with variable levels of alumina particles between 0.2 and 2.0 wt%.
6. TITLE Arsenic Removal
SOURCE Chemical Engineering, May 2004, vol. 111, no. 5, p. 19
ABSTRACT Dow Chemical Co. has licensed a patent-pending technology from HydroGlobe that removes arsenic ions from drinking water. The titanium-based adsorbent, developed by the Stevens Institute of Technology provides a way to meet new US EPA arsenic standards of 10 pbb, which take effect in 2005, says Dow.
7. TITLE Environmental Group Petitions for Cosmetics Safety Assessment
SOURCE Chemical Market Reporter, Vol. 265, No. 25, June 21, 2004, p. 11
ABSTRACT Most cosmetics and other personal care products sold in the US contain chemicals that have never been assessed for safety, according to an environmental group's analysis. Of the 10,500 chemical ingredients used in personal care products, just 11 percent have been safety assessed - and the assessments were not conducted by government officials, but by a panel funded by manufacturers, says the Environmental Working Group (EWG). Of those chemicals that have been studied, some are listed by government agencies as known or probable carcinogens or reproductive toxins, says the EWG.
8. TITLE Risk Assessment at the EPA: An Agency Self-Exam
AUTHOR Schmidt, Charles A.
SOURCE Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 112, No. 8, June 2004, pp. A483 - A485
ABSTRACT The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has for the first time conducted an internal investigation of its own approach to risk assessment. The investigation's results are contained in a 193-page staff paper titled An Examination of EPA Risk Assessment Principles and Practices, released in final form 25 March 2004. The staff paper is not a guidance document - rather, it is a snapshot of how risk assessments are currently performed at the EPA. The paper also provides recommendations for how the agency can strengthen and improve its risk assessments.
9. TITLE Who's Counting? The Systematic Underreporting of Toxic Air Emissions
CORP AU OR PUBLISHER' The Environmental Integrity Project; The Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention
DATE 2004
ABSTRACT The U.S. EPA and state governments appear to be underreporting refinery and chemical plant toxic air emissions - including known carcinogens benzene and butadiene - an the "startling magnitude" of at least 330 million pounds per year. This study, which is based on findings by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, applies the Commission's findings on the underreporting of certain toxic emissions nationwide and concludes that at least 16% of toxic air emissions from all sources "have been kept 'off the books'." Additionally, the study notes that the EPA for years has knowingly underreported the air pollution data in its annual TRI data.
10. TITLE EU Ideas Not Always What They Seem
AUTHOR Rio, Robert
SOURCE New England's Environment, July/August 2004, vol. 10, no. 4
ABSTRACT A group calling itself the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow (AHT) and others have been attempting to lend credibility to the numerous bills they filed in MA. As a general rule any bill filed by this group will involve product bans or phaseouts, making Massachusetts a leader in exaggerating the health and environmental dangers of using everyday products. In every case, at every hearing, whenever there was a shred of concern raised about these bills putting MA at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of the country and the world, whenever there was a modicum of logic creeping into the discussion exposing these bills for what they are - anti-business and anti- Massachusetts - the next line was either "You know, of course, the European Union is doing this" or the stateside variation "You know, California is doing this." And it's spoken as if they are experts on European law, like they just came back from their chateau in France after hobnobbing in Cannes. In fact, the Europeans aren't doing it. At least on some issues, the EU is not exactly the one big happy family the activists make them out to be.
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