Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 04/07/2006 / Greenlist Bulletin Archives: 2006 Issues / Greenlist(tm) Bulletin / Library / TURI - TURI

Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 04/07/2006

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:

Nanotechnology: Risks and the Media
EPA Proposes Reporting Requirements for Fluoropolymers
PFOA: Sticky troubles for producers?
Allocating ecological footprints to final consumption categories with input–output analysis
Design for the Environment at Johnson & Johnson: A Product Design Process
A Robust Strategy for Sustainable Energy
A simple and "green" method for the synthesis of Au, Ag, and Au–Ag alloy nanoparticles
Sandia researchers develop low-density, environmentally friendly foam that may also be the answer to surf industry crisis
Oxide nanoparticle uptake in human lung fibroblasts: effects of particle size, agglomeration, and diffusion at low concentrations
Export Case Information: Lead-Free Electronics Industry

1. Nanotechnology: Risks and the Media

AUTHOR Friedman, Sharon M.; Egolf, Brenda P.

SOURCE IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, Winter 2005, v24 n4, pp5-11

ABSTRACT Nanotechnology is supposed to drive a "new industrial revolution", according to U.S. government officials, who are investing heavily in it. A few environmental organizations and a significantly large number of business, academic, and government interests have expressed concerns about nanotechnology. This article discusses how the media has reported on concerns about the technology's potential long-term health and environmental effects.

2. EPA Proposes Reporting Requirements for Fluoropolymers

AUTHOR Bryner, Michelle

SOURCE Chemical Week, March 22, 2006, v168 n10, p19

ABSTRACT EPA recently proposed reporting requirements for fluoropolymers that break down into perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the first time the agency has issued regulatory requirements for PFOA and related chemicals. Labor and environmental groups say the move is an acknowledgement by EPA that PFOA may present a health risk to humans. In the proposed rule, EPA says it can no longer conclude that these chemicals “will not present an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment.”

3. PFOA: Sticky troubles for producers?

AUTHOR Lerner, Ivan

SOURCE Chemical Market Reporter, 20-26 February 2006, v269 n7, pp22-23

ABSTRACT After the Environmental Protection Agency made its official request to ban the use of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) by 2015, several companies quickly distanced themselves from the controversial fluoropolymer, while DuPont went on the offensive to protect its Teflon investment. DuPont is the only US producer of PFOA, with the other companies either buying it from DuPont or from a handful of foreign chemical companies. In a statement released in January, DuPont's tone was adamant in stressing the difference between PFOA and Teflon. Teflon's rivals, like French cookware manufacturer Groupe SEB, have also expressed concern over the impact to sales of nonstick pans. Other companies are taking a different tack: Early this month, the Asahi Glass Co introduced its AsahiGuard E-Series line of telomer chemicals that serve as fluorinated water and oil repellents for textile and paper.

4. Allocating ecological footprints to final consumption categories with input–output analysis

AUTHOR Wiedmann, Thomas; Minx, Jan; Barrett, John; Wackernagel, Mathis

SOURCE Ecological Economics, January 2006, v56 n1, pp28-48

ABSTRACT We present and discuss a method that allows the disaggregation of national Ecological Footprints by economic sector, detailed final demand category, sub-national area or socio-economic group. This is done by combining existing National Footprint Accounts with input–output analysis. Calculations in the empirical part are carried out by using supply and use tables for the United Kingdom, covering the reporting period 2000. Ecological Footprints are allocated to detailed household consumption activities following the COICOP classification system and to a detailed breakdown of capital investment. The method presented enables the calculation of comparable Ecological Footprints on all sub-national levels and for different socio-economic groups. The novelty of the approach lies in the use of input–output analysis to re-allocate existing Footprint accounts, in the detail of disaggregation by consumption category and in the expanded use of household expenditure data. This extends the potential for applications of the Ecological Footprint concept and helps to inform scenarios, policies and strategies on sustainable consumption. The method described in this paper can be applied to every country for which a National Footprint Account exists and where appropriate economic and environmental accounts are available. The approach helps to save time in data collection and improves the consistency between Ecological Footprint estimates for a particular human society from different researchers. For these reasons, the suggested methodology includes crucial steps on the way towards a standardisation of Ecological Footprint accounts.

5. Design for the Environment at Johnson & Johnson: A Product Design Process

AUTHOR Iannuzzi, Al; Haviland, Randolph T.

SOURCE Environmental Quality Management, Spring 2006, v15 n3, pp43-50

ABSTRACT Product development teams are subject to many pressures— regarding innovation, efficacy, quality, cost, time-to-market, regulatory approval, customer acceptance, and competition. Environment-related concerns can slow or even prevent regulatory approval of new products or product ingredients, and can impact both customer acceptance and perceived quality. These impacts are significant enough that they must be identified and addressed as an integral part of the product development process. Time-to-market considerations, which usually are paramount, become secondary when a business is faced with the costs involved in recalling and reformulating a product because of environment- related regulatory concerns and customer acceptance issues. Regulations restricting the use of specific materials in products, or requiring recovery of products or product ingredients, have prevented products from reaching markets and have required the withdrawal of products. In some markets, public opinion, influenced by the positions of activist organizations, has itself prevented the sale of particular products. In short, environment- related regulations can prevent products from reaching the market, or require that they be recalled. Environment- related public opinion can prevent products from being sold.

6. A Robust Strategy for Sustainable Energy

AUTHOR Lackner, Klaus S.; Sachs, Jeffrey D.

SOURCE Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Issue 2, 2005, pp215-269

ABSTRACT The known energy resource base is more than sufficient to provide a growing world population with energy on the scale to which the industrial countries have grown accustomed and to which the developing countries aspire. Environmental constraints exist but have promising solutions, provided farsighted policies are adopted in timely fashion. We illustrate the scale of the problem using a simple numerical scenario of world energy demand over the next century and calculating the implied increase in carbon emissions and atmospheric carbon concentrations. We conclude that action is needed soon to keep carbon concentrations below 500 parts per million as of 2050 and that the cost of mitigation will be less than 1 percent of gross world product as of 2050, assuming today’s promising technologies prove successful, but also that additional novel mitigation technologies will need to be developed and adopted after 2050.

7. A simple and "green" method for the synthesis of Au, Ag, and Au–Ag alloy nanoparticles

AUTHOR Poovathinthodiyil, Raveendran; Fu, Jie; Wallen, Scott L.

SOURCE Green Chemistry, v8 n1, 2006, pp34-38

ABSTRACT Integration of green chemistry principles into nanotechnology is one of the key issues in nanoscience research today. In this work, we report an environmentally benign method for the preparation of Au, Ag, and Au–Ag nanoparticles in water, using glucose as the reducing agent and starch as the protecting agent. The alloy nanoparticles prepared in this way appears to be homogeneous and their sizes are well within the quantum size domain (<10 nm), where they are more amenable to size-dependent changes in electronic properties.

8. Sandia researchers develop low-density, environmentally friendly foam that may also be the answer to surf industry crisis

SOURCE Sandia National Laboratories, February 13, 2006

ABSTRACT Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif., have developed a low-density, energy-absorbing foam that, among other potential applications, could help avoid a complete wipeout for the nation’s $200 million surfboard manufacturing market. TufFoam™ was originally conceived by Sandia materials scientists for NNSA as an encapsulant material to protect sensitive electronic and mechanical structures from harsh weapons environments. It is a water-blown, closed-cell, rigid polyurethane foam that features formulations as low as 2 lbs.-per-cubic foot density. But beyond its use as a structural material, the foam likely has other applications. “It can be used for thermal and electrical insulation, and as a core material for the automobile and aerospace industries,” said Scott Vaupen, a business associate at Sandia, which is actively pursuing licensing and commercialization partners. “TufFoam™ might not only be ideal for surfboards, but also for car bumpers and airplane wings. The potential market could be staggering.” Clark Foam, the leading manufacturer of foam for surfboard construction, unexpectedly closed its doors late last year because of the impact of ever-tightening environmental regulations on the manufacturing of their polyurethane surfboard blanks. The move has led to near-panic, particularly in California, by manufacturers and sellers of surfboards who fear they will not be able to find the high strength-to-weight ratio surfboard blanks necessary to make the boards. Surf historian Matt Warshaw, in an article in the Santa Barbara NewsPress, said “it’s the equivalent of removing lumber from the housing industry.” Largely due to its low (2 pcf) density, Sandia’s TufFoam™ might very well fit the bill as a drop-in replacement material. A key feature of TufFoam™ is that it does not contain toluene diisocyanate (TDI), the chemical used in the production of the polyurethane foam surfboard blanks that is most problematic with respect to environment regulations. Another attractive feature of the Sandia product is that all of the chemicals used to make TufFoam™ are commercially available in commodity quantities. The material is currently formulated to be processed in a batch mode, but the processing schedule can be modified for machine mixing or injection molding.

9. Oxide nanoparticle uptake in human lung fibroblasts: effects of particle size, agglomeration, and diffusion at low concentrations

AUTHOR Limbach, Ludwig K.; Li, Yuchun; Grass, Robert N.; Brunner, Tobias J.; Hintermann, Marcel A.; Muller, Martin; Gunther, Detlef; Stark, Wendelin J.

SOURCE Environmental Science & Technology, December 1, 2005, v39 n23, pp9370-9376

ABSTRACT Quantitative studies on the uptake of nanoparticles into biological systems should consider simultaneous agglomeration, sedimentation, and diffusion at physiologically relevant concentrations to assess the corresponding risks of nanomaterials to human health. In this paper, the transport and uptake of industrially important cerium oxide nanoparticles, into human lung fibroblasts is measured in vitro after exposing thoroughly characterized particle suspensions to a fibroblast cell culture for particles of four separate size fractions and concentrations ranging from 100 ng g(-1) to 100 microg g(-1) of fluid (100 ppb to 100 ppm). The unexpected findings at such low but physiologically relevant concentrations reveal a strong dependence of the amount of incorporated ceria on particle size, while nanoparticle number density or total particle surface area are of minor importance. These findings can be explained on the basis of a purely physical model. The rapid formation of agglomerates in the liquid is strongly favored for small particles due to a high number density while larger ones stay mainly unagglomerated. Diffusion (size fraction 25-50 nm) or sedimentation (size fraction 250-500 nm) limits the transport of nanoparticles to the fibroblast cells. The biological uptake processes on the surface of the cell are faster than the physical transport to the cell at such low concentrations. Comparison of the colloid stability of a series of oxide nanoparticles reveals that untreated oxide suspensions rapidly agglomerate in biological fluids and allows the conclusion that the presented transport and uptake kinetics at low concentrations may be extended to other industrially relevant materials.

10. Export Case Information: Lead-Free Electronics Industry

SOURCE Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI), March 2006

ABSTRACT The electronics industry is a fast growing, highly varied, high innovation industry with an extensive international supply chain. Spending on research and development (R&D) in 2003 was equal to 4-7% of annual sales. Exports account for over 70 % of electronics production in the USA. The value of US electronics imports is 1.5 times the value of US electronics exports, with The US acting as both supplier of components and producer of consumer products. Attention to international regulatory frameworks and market preferences is thus critical to state and national industry competitiveness.

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.

Compiled by the TURI Library, University of Massachusetts Lowell

This page updated Thursday April 13 2006

TURI - Toxics Use Reduction Institute

Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 04/07/2006