Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 09/01/2006 / Greenlist Bulletin Archives: 2006 Issues / Greenlist(tm) Bulletin / Library / TURI - TURI

Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 09/01/2006

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:

The Chemical Quality of Self-Supplied Domestic Well Water in the United States
Nanoparticles: Health Effects -- Pros and Cons
Exposure of Hairdressing Apprentices to Airborne Hazardous Substances
The Car and Fuel of the Future
Federal Biobased Products Preferred Procurement Program [Web Site]
Rising to the Challenge: Six Steps to Cut Global Warming Pollution in the United States
EU to Streamline Pesticide Authorization
The Green Line: Welcome to the World of Hazardous Waste Inventories
Ammunition is the Principal Source of Lead Accumulated by California Condors Re-Introduced to the Wild

1. The Chemical Quality of Self-Supplied Domestic Well Water in the United States

AUTHOR Focazio, Michael J.; Tipton, Deborah; Shapiro, Stephanie Dunkle; Geiger, Linda H.

SOURCE Ground Water Monitoring and Remediation, v26 n3, Summer 2006, pp92-104

ABSTRACT Existing water quality data collected from domestic wells were summarized to develop the first national-scale retrospective of self-supplied drinking water sources. The contaminants evaluated represent a range of inorganic and organic compounds, and although the data set was not originally designed to be a statistical representation of national occurrence, it encompasses large parts of the United States including at least some wells sampled in every state and Puerto Rico. Inorganic contaminants were detected in many of the wells, and concentrations exceeded the U.S. EPA maximum contaminant levels (MCLs; federal drinking water standards used to regulate public drinking water quality) more often than organic contaminants. Of the inorganic constituents evaluated, arsenic concentrations exceeded the MCL (10 lg/L) in ~11% of the 7580 wells evaluated, nitrate exceeded the MCL (10 mg/L) in ~8% of the 3465 wells evaluated, uranium-238 exceeded the MCL (30 lg/L) in ~4% of the wells, and radon-222 exceeded 300 and 4000 pCi/L (potential drinking water standards currently under review by the U.S. EPA) in ~75% and 9% of the wells, respectively. The MCLs for total mercury and fluoride were each exceeded in <1% of the wells evaluated. The MCL was exceeded in <1% of all wells for all anthropogenically derived organic contaminants evaluated and was not exceeded for many contaminants. In addition, 10 contaminants evaluated do not currently have an MCL. Atrazine, however, was detected in 24% of the wells evaluated and was the most frequently detected organic contaminant of the 28 organic contaminants evaluated in this study. Simazine and metolachlor each were detected in ~9% of all wells and tied for second in frequency of detection for organic contaminants. The third and fourth most frequently detected organic contaminants were methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) (6%) and chloroform (5%), respectively. Because the water quality of domestic wells is not federally regulated or nationally monitored, this study provides a unique, previously nonexistent, perspective on the quality of the self-supplied drinking water resources used by ~45 million Americans in the United States.

WEB LINK http://health.usgs.gov/dw_contaminants/domestic_wells/
focazio_and_others_2006.pdf

2. Nanoparticles: Health Effects -- Pros and Cons

AUTHOR Gwinn, Maureen R.; Vallyathan, Val

SOURCE Environmental Health Perspectives, Online 18 August 2006

ABSTRACT With the advent of nanotechnology, the prospects for engineered nanomaterials of 1-100 nm in industrial applications, medical imaging, disease diagnoses, drug delivery, cancer treatment, gene therapy, and other areas of use have progressed rapidly. The potential of nanoparticles (NPs) in these innumerable uses are infinite with novel new applications explored in a dynamic world. The potential toxic health effects of these NPs associated with human exposure is unknown. Many fine particles generally considered as “nuisance dusts”, are likely to acquire unique surface properties when engineered to nanosize and may exhibit toxic biological effects. The nuisance dust thereby may become transported to distant sites and induce potentially adverse health effects. In addition, the beneficial uses of NPs in drug delivery, cancer treatment and gene therapy may cause unintentional human exposure. Due to the lack of knowledge associated with health effects of NP exposure, we have an ethical duty to take precautionary measures in their use. In this review, an attempt is made to rationally highlight the potential toxic human health effects of ultrafine particles (UFPs) generated by anthropogenic activities and to their cardiopulmonary outcomes. The comparability of engineered NPs suggests that the human health effects are likely to be similar to that of UFPs. Therefore, it is prudent to elucidate their toxicological effect to minimize occupational and environmental exposure. Highlighting the human health outcomes potentially caused by UFPs is not intended to give a lesser importance to either the unprecedented technological and industrial rewards of the nanotechnology or their beneficial human uses.

WEB LINK http://www.ehponline.org/members/2006/8871/
8871.pdf#search=%22%22nanoparticles%20health%20effects%22%22

3. Exposure of Hairdressing Apprentices to Airborne Hazardous Substances

AUTHOR Mounier-Geyssant, Estelle; Oury, Veronique; Mouchot, Lory; Paris, Christophe; Zmirou-Navier, Denis

SOURCE Environmental Health: A Global Access Science Source, v5 n23, 7 August 2006

ABSTRACT Few studies have investigated exposure of hairdressing apprentices to airborne irritants. This study describes exposure levels of apprentices to chemical products used in hairdressing salons in relation with their activity. Following a two stages study design, a group of 300 students completed a questionnaire on their work activities and environment. Among these, a group of 28 subjects volunteered to undergo personal exposure and workplace concentrations measurements over a work shift, during a cold and a hot season, with the agreement of the salon owners. Three chemical substances were studied (ammonia, hydrogen peroxide and persulfates) because they are respiratory tract irritants and because their concentrations could be quantified within a 5 to 8 hour shift period. Personal exposure values for H2O2 and NH3 (averages [standard deviations] are 0.05 [0.04] and 0.90 [0.76] mg.m-3, respectively) were greater than workplace ambient air concentrations (corresponding values of 0.04 [0.03] and 0.68 [0.42] mg.m-3) for H2O2 and NH3, with no significant seasonal variation. By contrast, workplace concentrations of persulfates (0.019 [0.018] mg.m-3) were greater than personal exposure (0.016 [0.021] mg.m-3, a finding that is consistent with the fact that bleaching is more often undertaken by senior hairdressers. However, all exposure values were lower than the current TLV TWA values. This study also shows that over half of technical spaces where chemical substances used for dying, permanenting or bleaching are manipulated, have no ventilation system, and not even a door or a window opening outside. The study hairdressing salons, on average, were small, the most probable reason why occupational hygiene measures such as appropriate ventilation were too seldom implemented. As a consequence, young apprentices and senior hairdressers experience substantial exposure to known airways irritants. Key-words: Personal exposure, chemical products, airway irritants, hairdressing apprentices.

WEB LINK http://www.ehjournal.net/content/pdf/1476-069x-5-23.pdf

4. The Car and Fuel of the Future

AUTHOR Romm, Joseph

SOURCE Energy Policy, v34 n17, November 2006, pp2609-2614

ABSTRACT This paper is based on a review of the technical literature on alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) and discussions with experts in vehicle technology and energy analysis. It is derived from analysis provided to the bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy. The urgent need to reverse the business-as-usual growth path in global warming pollution in the next two decades to avoid serious if not catastrophic climate change necessitates action to make our vehicles far less polluting. In the near-term, by far the most cost-effective strategy for reducing emissions and fuel use is efficiency. The car of the near future is the hybrid gasoline–electric vehicle, because it can reduce gasoline consumption and greenhouse gas emissions 30 to 50% with no change in vehicle class and hence no loss of jobs or compromise on safety or performance. It will likely become the dominant vehicle platform by the year 2020. Ultimately, we will need to replace gasoline with a zero-carbon fuel. All AFV pathways require technology advances and strong government action to succeed. Hydrogen is the most challenging of all alternative fuels, particularly because of the enormous effort needed to change our existing gasoline infrastructure. The most promising AFV pathway is a hybrid that can be connected to the electric grid. These so-called plug-in hybrids or ehybrids will likely travel three to four times as far on a kilowatt-hour of renewable electricity as fuel cell vehicles. Ideally these advanced hybrids would also be a flexible fuel vehicle capable of running on a blend of biofuels and gasoline. Such a car could travel 500 miles on 1 gal of gasoline (and 5 gal of cellulosic ethanol) and have under one-tenth the greenhouse gas emissions of current hybrids.

5. Federal Biobased Products Preferred Procurement Program [Web Site]

DATE 2006

SOURCE United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

ABSTRACT This Web site is intended to provide a gateway to USDA Federal Biobased Products Preferred Procurement Program (FB4P) Resources. Section 9002 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (FSRIA) (Public Law 107-17) directed USDA to develop and implement a comprehensive preference program for Designated Biobased Products. It also directed all Federal agencies to establish a preference for the procurement of Designated Biobased Products as defined in final regulations. As part of this mandate, USDA has developed "Guidelines to Designate Biobased Items" and is in the process of establishing a "U.S.D.A. Certified Biobased Product" label. The goal of the procurement program is to increase the Government’s purchase and use of biobased products. A biobased product, as defined by Section 9002 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (FSRIA), is a product determined by the Secretary of Agriculture to be a commercial or industrial product (other than food or feed) that is composed, in whole or in significant part, of biological products or renewable domestic agricultural materials (including plant, animal, and marine materials) or forestry materials. USDA is responsible for designating the biobased products that will require a procurement preference. The process involved in designating "items" (which are generic groupings of products) is very complex and takes a considerable amount of time to accomplish. As a result, the designation process has a bearing on the timeframes within which Government agencies implement their biobased product preference procurement programs. No items have yet been designated by final regulation.

WEB LINK http://www.usda.gov/procurement/biobased/

6. Rising to the Challenge: Six Steps to Cut Global Warming Pollution in the United States

AUTHOR Dutzik, Tony; Figdor, Emily

DATE 2006

SOURCE U.S. PIRG Education Fund

ABSTRACT Extensive scientific evidence demonstrates that global warming is real, that it is affecting us now, and that human activities—particularly the burning of fossil fuels—are the primary cause. Science is also clear about what we need to do to address the problem: immediately and significantly reduce emissions of the pollutants that cause global warming. Avoiding the worst consequences of global warming will require the United States and other industrialized countries to stabilize emissions within the next decade and reduce them by about 80 percent by midcentury. Achieving those reductions won’t be easy, but it can be done. By improving the efficiency with which we use fossil fuels and increasing our use of clean, renewable energy, the United States can reduce its global warming emissions in the near future, while putting America on a path toward dramatically lower global warming emissions in the decades to come. This report lists six challenging but feasible strategies that, if implemented, could achieve these reductions, while improving America’s environment and our energy security.

WEB LINK http://uspirg.org/reports/rising.pdf

7. EU to Streamline Pesticide Authorization

AUTHOR Sapp, Meghan

SOURCE Chemical Market Reporter, v270 n2, 17-23 July 2006, p16

ABSTRACT The European Union has proposed regulations that would streamline and simplify pesticide authorization procedures between member states. The new regulations need to be approved by the council of environmental ministers as well as the European Parliament, with implementation expected in 2008. In line with the EU's overall strategy for the sustainable use of pesticides, the proposed regulations promote comparative assessment and substitution of certain plant protection products with other substances identified as safer and viable alternatives.

8. The Green Line: Welcome to the World of Hazardous Waste Inventories

AUTHOR Nauman, Talli

SOURCE The Herald Mexico via El Universal, 28 August 2006

ABSTRACT Without striking even a single chord of “Pomp and Circumstance,” Mexico graduated this month to become part of the world that guarantees public information about hazardous releases from industrial sites. More than a decade of campaigns by citizen groups supported by multi-lateral agencies and media harangues was necessary to reach the point on Aug. 18, at which environmental officials could declare: Now Mexico has lived up to its international commitments, becoming the first Latin American country to achieve a mandatory Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR). Aug. 18 is the date the authorities notified stakeholders that the essential elements of the register were compiled and on the Internet. The significance of this achievement is paramount for advocates of community right-to-know, seeing as how access to environmental data bases is a vital building block of participatory democracy in Latin America. Just what exactly is the instrument that does all this and how does it work? See for yourself. Go to the internet site of the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (Semarnat) at http://www.semarnat.gob, and at the very bottom of the home page you will find the Spanish language equivalent of “Links of Interest”. There, you can choose from the list “Informe Preliminar del RETC.” That’s Spanish for “Preliminary PRTR Report.” Probably only about one-third of the locations that should have reported to the new registry actually complied with the federal requirement. Those that took part risked airing their dirty laundry, while those that didn’t covered up theirs. Obviously, the representatives of the former category must insist that those in the latter step up to the plate. Enforcement and sanctions would help convince the laggards. But heightened awareness and corporate social responsibility will ultimately be the elements to assure full and accurate reporting.

WEB LINK http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=34174&tabla=articulos

9. Ammunition is the Principal Source of Lead Accumulated by California Condors Re-Introduced to the Wild

AUTHOR Church, Molly E.; Gwiazda, Roberto; Risebrough, Robert W.; Sorenson, Kelly; Chamberlain, C. Page; Farry, Sean; Heinrich, William; Rideout, Bruce; Smith, Donald R.

SOURCE Environmental Science & Technology Research ASAP, August 30, 2006

ABSTRACT The endangered California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) was reduced to a total population of 22 birds by the end of 1982. Their captive-bred descendants are now being released back into the wild in California, Arizona, and Baja California, where monitoring indicates they may accumulate lead to toxic levels. Fragments of ammunition in the carcasses of game animals such as deer, elk, and feral pigs not retrieved by hunters or in gut piles left in the field have been considered a plausible source of the lead, though little direct evidence is available to support this hypothesis. Here, we measured lead concentrations and isotope ratios in blood from 18 condors living in the wild in central California, in 8 pre-release birds, and in diet and ammunition samples to determine the importance of ammunition as a source of exposure. Blood lead levels in pre-release condors were low (average 27.7 ng/mL, SD 4.9 ng/mL) and isotopically similar to dietary and background environmental lead in California. In contrast, blood lead levels in free-flying condors were substantially higher (average 246 ng/mL, SD 229 ng/mL) with lead isotopic compositions that approached or matched those of the lead ammunition. A two-endmember mixing model defined by the background 207Pb/206Pb ratio of representative condor diet samples (0.8346) and the upper 207Pb/206Pb ratio of the ammunition samples (0.8184) was able to account for the blood lead isotopic compositions in 20 out of the 26 live condors sampled in this study (i.e., 77%). Finally, lead in tissues and in a serially sampled growing feather recovered post-mortem from a lead-poisoned condor in Arizona evidence acute exposure from an isotopically distinct lead source. Together, these data indicate that incidental ingestion of ammunition in carcasses of animals killed by hunters is the principal source of elevated lead exposure that threatens the recovery in the wild of this endangered species.

WEB LINK http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/esthag/asap/abs/es060765s.html

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 08 2006

TURI - Toxics Use Reduction Institute

Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 09/01/2006