Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 08/25/2006
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:
- A Collaborative Approach to Reducing Mercury Air
Emissions: The National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program
- A community-based participatory research study of multifaceted
in-home environmental interventions for pediatric asthmatics in public housing
- Environmental Markets: Opportunities and Risks for
Business
- Rich Countires, Poor Water
- New England Lead-Free
Consortium Tests 68,000 Components
- Hearing Loss in Workers Exposed to Toluene and Noise
1. A Collaborative Approach to Reducing Mercury Air
Emissions: The National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program
DATE 2006
SOURCE United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA)
ABSTRACT “The National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery
Program is designed to remove mercury-containing switches from scrap (or
retired) vehicles. These switches were used for convenience lighting in hoods
and trunks and in some anti-lock braking systems of many vehicles manufactured
prior to 2003. The program, which will complement existing State mercury switch
reduction efforts, will help to reduce up to 75 tons of mercury emissions over
the next 15 years. It is the result of a two-year collaboration involving EPA,
States, environmental organizations, and several industry sectors. Vehicles are
the most recycled consumer goods in America. Each year, the steel
industry recycles more than 14 million tons of steel from old vehicles, the
equivalent of nearly 13.5 million new automobiles. As a result, the steel
industry is the largest consumer of recycled materials in the world. But the
same recycling that saves energy and natural resources can lead to unintended
mercury releases. When cars are retired, most are processed by automotive
dismantlers, also known as automotive recyclers. These dismantlers remove
certain valuable parts for reuse and recycling. In most cases, the
stripped-down vehicles are then flattened for shipment to scrap recyclers.
Scrap recyclers shred the vehicles and produce scrap metal. Steelmakers
purchase and melt the scrap metal to make new steel and steel products. If
mercury switches were not removed from the recycling stream, a significant
amount of that mercury can be released into the environment. The National
Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program provides incentives for dismantlers to
remove mercury-containing switches from scrap vehicles before they are shredded
and used to make new steel. Once the vehicles are crushed, it's too late. The
opportunity to remove mercury in the recycling stream is lost. While automakers
have phased out the use of mercury-containing switches, today's automobiles can
have a long street life. As such, many of these vehicles may still be on the
road. Others may be off the road and headed to scrap yards. Overall, an
estimated 67 million switches are available for recovery.”
WEB LINK http://www.epa.gov/mercury/switchfs.htm
2. A community-based participatory research study of multifaceted
in-home environmental interventions for pediatric asthmatics in public housing
AUTHOR Levy, Jonathan I.; Brugge, Doug; Peters, Junenette
L.; Clougherty, Jane E.; Saddler, Shawnette S.
SOURCE Social Science & Medicine, v63 n8, October
2006, pp2191-2203
ABSTRACT “Pest
infestation is a major problem in urban, low-income housing and may contribute
to elevated asthma prevalence and exacerbation rates in such communities.
However, there is poor understanding of the effectiveness of integrated pest
management (IPM) efforts in controlling pediatric asthma, or of the
interactions among various interventions and risk factors in these settings. As
part of the Boston-based Healthy Public Housing Initiative, we conducted a
longitudinal, single-cohort community-based participatory research intervention
study. Fifty asthmatic children aged 4–17 from three public housing
developments in Boston, Massachusetts, USA successfully completed interventions
and detailed environmental, medical, social, and health outcome data
collection. Interventions primarily consisted of IPM and related cleaning and
educational efforts, but also included limited case management and support from
trained community health advocates. In pre-post analyses, we found significant
reductions in a 2-week recall respiratory symptom score (from 2.6 to 1.5 on an
8-point scale, p ¼ 0:0002) and in the frequency of wheeze/cough, slowing down
or stopping play, and waking at night. Longitudinal analyses of asthma-related
quality of life similarly document significant improvements, with a suggestion
of some improvements prior to environmental interventions with an increased
rate of improvement subsequent to pest management activities. Analyses of
potential explanatory factors demonstrated significant between-development
differences in symptom improvements and suggested some potential contributions
of allergen reductions, increased peak flow meter usage, and improved social
support, but not medication changes. In spite of limitations with pre-post
comparisons, our results are consistent with aggressive pest management and
other allergen reduction efforts having a positive impact on clinical health
outcomes associated with asthma. Our findings reinforce the multifactorial
nature of urban asthma and suggest a need for further study of the relative
contributions of and possible synergies between environmental and social
factors in asthma intervention programs.”
3. Environmental Markets: Opportunities and Risks for
Business
DATE 2006
SOURCE Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)
ABSTRACT “Over the past five years, 1,300 scientists the
world over have undertaken the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, a comprehensive
global assessment of the health of the “services” provided to mankind by the
natural environment—the world’s “environmental services.” These are society’s
life support systems, and they provide critical functions such as flood
control, climate regulation and water purification. The scientific findings,
published last year from this work, conclude that 60 to 70 percent of these
functions are being degraded faster than they can recover. How much are
healthy, well-functioning environmental systems worth to your company’s bottom
line? Most of these services are currently provided free of charge and would be
prohibitively expensive or impossible to replicate with technology. If they are
worth so much in their natural state, how should companies invest in
environmental services to assure their continuity for sustained business
operations now and into the future? The work here provides a guide to how
companies can and are beginning to think about the environmental services
issues critical to business success.”
WEB LINK
http://www.resourcesaver.org/file/toolmanager/CustomO16C45F69754.pdf
4. Rich Countires, Poor Water
AUTHOR Dickie, Phil
DATE 2006
SOURCE WWF Freshwater Program
ABSTRACT “Water crises, long seen as a problem of only
the poorest, are increasingly affecting some of the world's wealthiest nations.
The report, Rich Countries, Poor Water is the most up-to-date overview of water
issues in the developed world. It shows that a combination of climate change,
drought and loss of wetlands, along with poorly thought out water
infrastructure and resource mismanagement, is creating a truly global crisis.
It documents water problems beyond the situation in the UK, in other countries such as Australia, Spain,
USA and Japan.
"Economic riches don't translate to plentiful water," said Jamie
Pittock, Director of WWF's Global Freshwater Programme. "Water must be
used more efficiently throughout the world - scarcity and pollution are
becoming more common and responsibility for finding solutions rests with both
rich and poor nations." Fresh water can no longer be considered to be a
limitless resource. In Europe, countries along the Atlantic are suffering
recurring droughts, while water-intensive tourism and irrigated agriculture are
endangering water resources in the Mediterranean.
In Australia,
the world's driest continent, salinity is a major threat to a large proportion
of its key agricultural areas. Despite high rainfall in Japan,
contamination of water supplies is a serious issue in many areas. In the United States,
large areas are already using substantially more water than can be naturally
replenished. This situation will only be exacerbated as climate change is
predicted to bring lower rainfall, increased evaporation and changed snowmelt
patterns. Some of the world's thirstiest cities such as Houston and Sydney are
using more water than can be replenished. It is notable that large cities with
less severe water issues such as New
York, with a population of eight million, tend to
have a longer tradition of conserving areas important for water management such
as catchment areas and expansive green areas within their boundaries. In Brazil, despite
leading the world with its national water resources plan, concerns remain over
some existing dam proposals. In India
much of its agriculture is under threat from rampant overexploitation of water
resources. Elsewhere, China
has raised international concerns over the scale and possible ecological and
human costs of some of its massive water infrastructure plans. "The crisis
in rich nations is proof that wealth and infrastructure are no substitute for
protecting rivers and wetlands, and restoring floodplain areas," added
Pittock.”
WEB LINK
http://www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/richcountriespoorwater.pdf
5. New England Lead-Free
Consortium Tests 68,000 Components
DATE 2006
SOURCE Northeast Assistance & Pollution Prevention
News, v16 n1, Spring 2006
ABSTRACT “The Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI) and
the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) have been providing training,
information, and research to help the New England Lead-Free Consortium find new
lead-free technologies. Consortium members contribute time, materials,
facilities, funding, and expertise to jointly develop and implement testing of
lead-free alternatives. Companies from outside Massachusetts have joined the Consortium as
the European Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) regulation deadline
has drawn closer. The Consortium has proven to be a successful working
partnership between industry, academia, and government. With the assistance of
the EPA, the Consortium broadened its geographic scope to the New
England region for Phase III, the testing of production printed
wiring board. The Phase III testing of lead-free printed wire boards (PWB)
closely resembling real world production boards was a monumental effort that
involved examining the manufacturing issues of implementing lead-free
electronics. Each of the 40 double-sided boards had 20 layers with a 16 x 18
inch footprint that contained approximately 1,700 components. The 68,000 total
components were supplied by 8 consortium members, Raytheon, Textron, Teradyne,
Skyworks Solutions, Benchmark Electronics, American Power Conversion, Texas
Instruments, and M/A-COM. The Consortium selected the following materials and
processes for the Phase III lead-free testing: Solder paste: These are two
suppliers of tin/lead and leadfree solder paste. The lead-free solder paste
from both suppliers contains the SAC 305 (tin/silver/copper) alloy and no-clean
fl ux. Component finishes: A variety of lead-free component finishes are being
used on the boards. They include: nickel/palladium/gold, palladium silver,
gold, nickel/gold, tin/nickel, tin/silver/copper, tin/bismuth, tin/copper, and
tin. Board surface finishes: Three lead-free board surface finishes are being
evaluated:; Electroless nickel immersion
gold (ENIG); Immersion silver; Organic solderability preservative (OSP) The
printed wiring boards were designed by Benchmark Electronics and manufactured
by Dynamic Details, Inc. Stentech manufactured the two stencils. The wiring
board visual inspection was conducted at Benchmark Electronics; visual
inspectors conducted 100 percent visual tests on all solder joints. The boards
then went through accelerated reliability testing to simulate the thermal and
other environmental stresses that a printed wire board would need to endure
throughout a typical product life. The reliability tests were divided evenly:
half of the PWBs went to thermal cycling at Raytheon’s facilities in Andover,
MA, and the other half went to highly accelerated life testing (HALT) at
Teradyne’s facilities in North Reading, MA. To measure solder joint strength,
pull tests were performed prior to and after the thermal cycling and HALT
testing. The pull tests were conducted at the University of Massachusetts
Lowell. The results were mixed but encouraging.
Lead-free electronics assembly and solder joint strength were comparable to
lead, but the through-hole assembly did not perform as well. The next steps for
the Consortium include developing control strategies for potential lead-free
electronics failure modes and conducting further testing for through-hole
components.”
WEB LINK http://www.newmoa.org/prevention/newsletters/16_1/Vol16_1.pdf
6. Hearing Loss in Workers Exposed to Toluene and Noise
AUTHOR Chang, Shu-Ju; Chen, Chiou-Jong; Lien, Chih-Hui;
Sung, Fung-Chang
SOURCE Environmental Health Perspectives, v114, n8,
August 2006, pp1283-1286
ABSTRACT “In this study we investigated the risk of
hearing loss among workers exposed to both toluene and noise. We recruited 58
workers at an adhesive materials manufacturing plant who were exposed to both
toluene and noise [78.6–87.1 A-weighted decibels; dB(A)], 58 workers exposed to
noise only [83.5–90.1 dB(A)], and 58 administrative clerks [67.9–72.6 dB(A)] at
the same company. We interviewed participants to obtain sociodemographic and
employment information and performed physical examinations, including pure-tone
audiometry tests between 0.5 and 6 kHz. A contracted laboratory certified by
the Council of Labor in Taiwan
conducted on-site toluene and noise exposure measurements. The prevalence of
hearing loss of = 25 dB in the toluene plus noise group (86.2%) was much
greater than that in the noise-only group (44.8%) and the administrative clerks
(5.0%) (p < 0.001). The prevalence rates were 67.2,
32.8, and 8.3% (p
< 0.001), respectively, when 0.5 kHz was excluded from the estimation.
Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the toluene plus noise
group had an estimated risk for hearing loss = 25 dB, 10.9 times higher than
that of the noise–only group. The risk ratio dropped to 5.8 when 0.5 kHz was
excluded from the risk estimation. Hearing impairment was greater for the
pure-tone frequency of 1 kHz than for that of 2 kHz. However, the mean hearing
threshold was the poorest for 6 kHz, and the least effect was observed for 2
kHz. Our results suggest that toluene exacerbates hearing loss in a noisy
environment, with the main impact on the lower frequencies.”
WEB LINK http://www.ehponline.org/members/2006/8959/8959.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 September 01 2006
