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Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 08/04/2006

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:

EPA Proposes Carbofuran Limits
CU-Boulder Team May Have Solved Mystery of Carcinogenic Mothballs
Aquatic Effects of Aerial Spraying for Mosquito Control over an Urban Area
When Crop Transgenes Wander in California, Should We Worry?
2006 Pacific Sustainability Index Scores: Motor Vehicles and Parts Sector
The Effect of Providing On-site Technical Assistance for Toxics Use Reduction: A Program Evaluation Utilizing Toxics Use Reduction Act Data

1. EPA Proposes Carbofuran Limits

SOURCE United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), August 3, 2006

ABSTRACT “EPA is proposing to cancel all uses of the pesticide carbofuran and to revoke the associated tolerances (legal residue limits on food). The agency announced today its conclusion that there are considerable risks associated with carbofuran in food and drinking water, risks to pesticide applicators and risks to birds that are exposed in treated fields. EPA is proposing to immediately cancel the majority of carbofuran uses. A four-year phase-out is being proposed for six, minor agricultural uses, which will provide time to find effective alternatives.”

WEB LINK http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/e987e762f557727d852570bc0042cc90/1cbb1b3bd0c3947f852571bf0066fbf7!OpenDocument

2. CU-Boulder Team May Have Solved Mystery of Carcinogenic Mothballs

DATE 2006

SOURCE University of Colorado News Center, June 20, 2006

ABSTRACT “Chemical compounds in household products like mothballs and air fresheners can cause cancer by blocking the normal process of "cell suicide" in living organisms, according to a new study spearheaded by the University of Colorado at Boulder. Naphthalene in mothballs and para-dichlorobenzene, or PDCB, found in some air fresheners, were shown to block enzymes that initiate programmed cell death, or apoptosis, said Associate Professor Ding Xue of CU-Boulder's molecular, cellular and developmental biology department. Apoptosis is a normal function of certain cell groups that acts as a "brake" to prevent unchecked cellular proliferation similar to the process that triggers the formation of cancerous tumors, said Xue. While naphthalene and PDCB have been shown to cause cancer in rodents and are classified by the National Toxicology Program and the International Association for Research on Carcinogens as potential human carcinogens, their biochemistry has not been well understood, said Xue. But using a common, eyelash-sized worm known as C. elegans, the research team has shown that naphthalene can cause the inactivation of a group of enzymes known as caspases -- which control cell suicide -- by oxidizing them.”

WEB LINK http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2006/216.html

3. Aquatic Effects of Aerial Spraying for Mosquito Control over an Urban Area

AUTHOR Weston, Donald P.; Amweg, Erin L.; Mekebri, Abdou; Ogle, R. Scott; Lydy, Michael J.

SOURCE Environmental Science & Technology Research ASAP, July 26, 2006

ABSTRACT “In an effort to combat West Nile Virus, planes dispersed insecticide over Sacramento, CA, treating nearly 50,000 hectares with pyrethrins and the synergist piperonyl butoxide (PBO). Widespread dispersal of insecticide over a metropolitan area, coupled with extensive pretreatment data on the area’s urban creeks, provided a unique opportunity to study effects of mosquito control agents on aquatic habitats within an urban setting. There was no evidence of aquatic toxicity from the two active ingredients in the product applied. However, PBO concentrations were high enough to enhance toxicity of pyrethroids already existing in creek sediments from general urban pesticide use. PBO concentrations of 2-4 íg/L were high enough to nearly double the toxicity of sediments to the amphipod Hyalella azteca. Though the increase in toxicity was modest, it was unexpected to find environmental synergy at all. Risk assessments for mosquito control agents have focused on the active ingredients but have failed to recognize the potential for interactions with pesticides previously existing in the environment, which in this case appeared to represent a risk to aquatic life greater than that of the active ingredients themselves.”

WEB LINK http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/asap.cgi/esthag/asap/pdf/es0601540.pdf

4. When Crop Transgenes Wander in California, Should We Worry?

AUTHOR Ellstrand, Norman C.

DATE 2006

SOURCE California Agriculture, v60 n3, July-September, 2006 pp116-125

ABSTRACT “The movement of transgenes into populations for which they are not intended remains a primary concern for genetically engineered crops. Such gene flow in itself is not a risk. However, we know that the transfer of genes from traditionally improved crops into wild populations has already resulted, on occasion, in the evolution of weeds more difficult to control, as well as an increased extinction risk for rare species. Just like traditional crops, genetically engineered crops could occasionally create the same problems. Currently in California, the movement of transgenes from most commercialized transgenic crops into wild plant populations is unlikely — the exception being canola. However, other transgenic plants have been field-tested in California, and if these become commercialized, in certain cases, transgenes are likely to move into the wild or into other crops of the same species. Such gene flow could result in various problems. The best containment for transgenes may involve risk assessment decisions by scientists embarking on projects to determine whether the proposed combination of organism and trait will pose any problems and if so, to determine how to create a safe product.”

WEB LINK http://californiaagriculture.ucop.edu/0603JAS/pdfs/BiotechTransgenes.pdf

5. 2006 Pacific Sustainability Index Scores: Motor Vehicles and Parts Sector

DATE 2006

SOURCE Claremont McKenna College, Roberts Environmental Center

ABSTRACT “During the past decade, large corporations have begun to report voluntarily on the environmental issues affecting their companies and on how they deal with them. The addition of social issues to these reports has resulted in some firms designating them sustainability reports. Some firms produce these reports yearly, others only occasionally, and some not at all. We obtain these reports and any additional information exclusively from corporate web sites. This report covers the largest 30 companies in the Motor Vehicles and Parts sector of the 2005 Fortune Global 500 lists, whether or not they produced formal environmental or sustainability reports. It is based on all environmental and social information available on their web sites during the period of our analysis. After we finished analyzing the companies' reports, we provided a draft sector report online to allow companies to review their score and provide comments. The quality of the environmental and social reporting was characterized by students at the Claremont Colleges using the Roberts Environmental Center’s Pacific Sustainability Index (PSI).”

WEB LINK http://www.roberts.cmc.edu/PSI/pdf/MotorVehicle&Parts2006.pdf

6. The Effect of Providing On-site Technical Assistance for Toxics Use Reduction: A Program Evaluation Utilizing Toxics Use Reduction Act Data

DATE 2006

SOURCE Massachusetts Office of Technical Assistance for Toxics Use Reduction (OTA)

ABSTRACT “In 2005, the Massachusetts Office of Technical Assistance (OTA) conducted a study of Toxics Use Reduction Act (TURA) data to assess whether its technical assistance services have been effective in helping companies reduce their use of toxics. Approximately half the companies OTA visited are covered by TURA and publicly report their chemical input or use, output or chemical waste, and a production index. OTA developed measures using this data to assess its historical effectiveness. The Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act (TURA) established OTA to provide assistance to companies that may need help finding ways to reduce their use of chemicals. OTA engineers and specialists are available to visit companies and view production operations and other information, and make specific suggestions and observations that will inform toxics users of their options. No company is required to implement OTA’s recommendations. Because of the voluntary nature of the program, any performance improvements are the accomplishment of the visited company. OTA can only at best share credit for any toxics use reduction found to have occurred. Since its inception OTA has visited more than 1,300 companies. TURA data can be used to track trends in toxics use relative to production and waste byproduct per pound of chemical use input. These are uniquely precise measurements of a company’s ability to accomplish the form of pollution prevention known as toxics use reduction. Only the state of New Jersey has similar data. Four basic measures were developed: 1. Average changes in pounds used relative to production. 2. The percentage reductions achieved, compared to what was expected. 3. The amount of waste (byproduct) per pound of chemical input. 4. The ratio of companies who reduced toxics use (advancers) to those who increased toxics use (decliners). The study examined whether companies visited through OTA’s technical assistance program had greater reductions in toxics use after being visited, than before. The changes by visited companies were also compared to companies not visited by OTA. The methodology of using all four measurements has produced a picture of program effectiveness confirmed by the application of completely different methods – including an unpublished econometric analysis by Boston University that also found strong indications of program effectiveness. An in-house study of those who dropped out of the program also supports the thesis of program effectiveness. Two very different methods of estimating how much has been reduced have produced similar results: our in-house methods, and Boston University’s study, corroborating the findings of a statistically significant association of substantial reductions with OTA visits. The estimates do not take account of several years of visits during which reductions were also made, but not measured in this study, and reductions by companies that do not report under TURA. The reductions were the accomplishments of the companies that implemented them, along with the vendors and consultants that were hired. OTA’s role was to help each company to understand its options, and to facilitate the process of change. That visited companies performed better after being visited, and had more progress than those not visited, shows that OTA assistance was helpful, but credit belongs to the companies themselves. OTA will use the four measures in annual tracking to understand the effect it is having on visited companies, in order to improve its service delivery. The analysis will help OTA to better understand where it is and is not having success and where it needs to devote more resources. OTA is interested in communicating with interested parties on methods of calculating the economic benefits of the identified reductions in toxics use.”

WEB LINK http://www.mass.gov/envir/ota/publications/pdf/effectiveness_study_executive_summary.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://greenlist.turi.org/ for greater topic coverage.

Compiled by the TURI Library, University of Massachusetts Lowell

This page updated Friday August 11 2006

TURI - Toxics Use Reduction Institute

Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 08/04/2006