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Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 09/15/2006

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 in Agriculture and Food Production: Anticipated Applications
Africa Said Most at Risk to Ill-Regulated Toxics
Pollution Prevention Produces Results: Waste Reductions, Resource Conservation, and Cost Savings
Ozone-Initiated Secondary Emission Rates of Aldehydes from Indoor Surfaces in Four Homes
EPA Is Properly Addressing the Risks of Using Mercury in Rituals
Zero-Waste Publishing
Environmental accounting: A management tool for enhancing corporate environmental and economic performance
Building the Green Way
Volatile Organic Compounds and Pulmonary Function in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994
Bio-based products resin-ate

1. Nanotechnology in Agriculture and Food Production: Anticipated Applications

AUTHOR Kuzma, Jennifer; VerHage, Peter

DATE 2006

SOURCE Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

ABSTRACT Thanks to nanotechnology, tomorrow’s food will be designed by shaping molecules and atoms. Food will be wrapped in “smart” safety packaging that can detect spoilage or harmful contaminants. Future products will enhance and adjust their color, flavor, or nutrient content to accommodate each consumer’s taste or health needs. And in agriculture, nanotechnology promises to reduce pesticide use, improve plant and animal breeding, and create new nano-bioindustrial products. The Helmut Kaiser Consultancy estimates that the nanotech food market is growing rapidly and will reach over $20 billion by 2010—about three times its current size. A recent study by Cientifica found over 150 nanotechnology applications in the food industry at present, with some of the world’s biggest companies—like Altria, Nestle, Kraft, Heinz and Unilever—involved in nanotechnology research and development. The U.S. government is investing in nanotech agrifood as a part of its annual $1.2 billion nanotechnology research budget. A new report, Nanotechnology in Agriculture and Food Production: Anticipated Applications, for the first time analyzes the publicly available data on federally funded research projects in agrifood nanotechnology, supplemented with data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The report estimates possible areas and timeframes for future nanotechnology-based food and agriculture applications. It takes an early look at potential benefits and risks, and it explores possible areas and needs for environmental, health and safety oversight. Their work also resulted in creation of a searchable, online database with over 160 research projects available at: http://www.nanotechproject.org/50. Today’s nanotech food products include a new variety of canola oil containing tiny materials that can block cholesterol from entering the bloodstream, and a chocolate milkshake that supposedly tastes better and is more nutritious than conventional shakes—thanks to the unusual properties of a new ingredient that is 100,000 smaller than a grain of sand. Nanoscale droplets of a new substance have been added to pesticides so that formulations that once had to be shaken every two hours to prevent ingredients from separating now hold together for up to one year. “The number of nanotechnology food products currently being sold appears to be relatively small,” said David Rejeski, director of the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, which supported this study. “But with millions of dollars being spent globally by both government and industry to apply nanotechnologies in areas such as food processing, food safety and packaging, and agricultural production, it is the right time to start asking a number of related questions: What nano-engineered food products will appear on the market over the next year or two? What are the potential benefits and risks? Who will be affected? And how can consumers become engaged early on?”

WEB LINK http://www.nanotechproject.org/74/

2. Africa Said Most at Risk to Ill-Regulated Toxics

AUTHOR Doyle, Alister

SOURCE Reuters South Africa, September 8, 2006

ABSTRACT Africa is especially vulnerable to a growing and ill-regulated trade in hazardous waste, experts said on Thursday after a toxic dumping scandal in Ivory Coast killed three people and forced the government to quit. Poor political oversight, lack of domestic laws to restrict dumping and companies seeking to avoid clean-up costs all make Africa at risk from dumping of wastes ranging from pesticides to industrial chemicals, environmentalists say. "Africa is generally considered the most vulnerable of the continents," said Michael Williams, spokesman for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). "There are any number of cases in Africa where ships dump their cargoes or leave their entire ship and let it rot," he said. He said the United Nations lacked statistics on the numbers of people killed or made sick by waste. In Ivory Coast, waste from a Panamanian-registered ship, the Probo Koala, that was dumped around the lagoon-side city of Abidjan last month has killed three and made hundreds ill. Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny offered the resignation of his cabinet to President Laurent Gbagbo late on Wednesday. Gbagbo asked Banny to form a new cabinet on Thursday. "The amount of waste on the move is increasing rapidly," a UN report said, estimating that "between 1993 and 2001 the amount of waste criss-crossing the globe increased from 2 million tonnes to more than 8.5 million tonnes." But it said that not all countries reported shipments.

WEB LINK http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38019/story.htm

3. Pollution Prevention Produces Results: Waste Reductions, Resource Conservation, and Cost Savings

DATE 2006

SOURCE National Pollution Prevention Roundtable (NPPR)

ABSTRACT Pollution Prevention Produces Results: Waste Reductions, Resource Conservation and Cost Savings is a collection and evaluation of the pollution prevention (P2) efforts of 29 state, regional and local governments in the United States from 2001 to 2003. The documented achievements for those three years include: over 6 billion pounds of air and water pollution as well as hazardous and solid waste that are no longer being released into the environment; a reduction in energy usage by 1.2 billion kiloWatt hours; and conservation of potable water of over 44 billion gallons. The resultant cost savings and economic benefit add up to more than $500 million. This is about 5 times the total budget for these P2 programs for the corresponding time period, and more than 25 times the federal investment. Pollution prevention is defined as any practice that avoids, eliminates or reduces waste at the source and reduces impacts to air, water and land. Prevention includes all innovative sustainability measures that do not transfer waste streams from one medium to another. P2 is any approach that focuses on reducing mankind’s ecological footprint. Command and control data, such as recycling, treatment or disposal results, are not included in this report. In this study, the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable (NPPR) collected data, mainly through surveys and follow ups, on the methods that programs use to identify P2 opportunities. These tools include Environmental Management Systems (EMS), industrial site visits, permitting, and voluntary public-private partnerships. The results summarized in this report demonstrate that P2 programs are effective in eliminating and preventing waste as well as producing significant economic savings in those programs that undertake P2 initiatives and the future hope is the expansion and continuation of such programs across the nation.

WEB LINK http://www.p2.org/assets/pdf/P2ProducesResults.pdf

4. Ozone-Initiated Secondary Emission Rates of Aldehydes from Indoor Surfaces in Four Homes

AUTHOR Wang, Hong; Morrison, Glenn C.

SOURCE Environmental Science & Technology, v40 n17 [web release July 22, 2006], pp5263-5268

ABSTRACT Field experiments were conducted in four homes during summer to quantify ozone-induced secondary emission rates (SERs) of aldehydes on indoor surfaces. Four surfaces in each house were examined: living room carpet, living room wall, kitchen floor, and kitchen counter. Upon exposure to ozone for 3 h, formaldehyde and C3-C10 saturated aldehydes, especially nonanal, were emitted as products of ozone-surface reactions. Carpet in newer homes had higher SERs than carpet in older homes. For example, the nonanal SER from the living room carpet was 80 g m-2 h-1 in a 1 year old home, but only 8-20 g m-2 h-1 in two homes that were greater than 10 years old. All kitchen countertops were very reactive and high SERs were observed, especially for nonanal. Product yields from countertops were consistent with the products of ozone reactions with oleic and linoleic esters, common in cooking oils. These findings suggest that carpet surfaces become depleted of reactants as they become oxidized over time. However, countertop surfaces, which are cleaned frequently or become covered in cooking oils, are continuously replenished with reactants. Over time, countertops may become the dominant contributor to indoor concentrations of secondary aldehydes. However, when total surface area is taken into account for the homes assessed, carpet is predicted to be the primary source of secondary emissions, even for older homes.

WEB LINK http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/esthag/2006/40/i17/abs/es060080s.html

5. EPA Is Properly Addressing the Risks of Using Mercury in Rituals

DATE 2006

SOURCE United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Inspector General

ABSTRACT Some people use mercury as part of folk remedies and religious practices to: attract luck, love, or money; protect against evil; or speed the action of spells. These uses may pose health risks because mercury vapors can cause health problems, such as damage to the nervous system. In February 2005, a representative of the Mercury Poisoning Project, a private organization that provides the public with information on the dangers of being exposed to mercury, identified concerns related to the ritual use of mercury. He asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Inspector General to evaluate EPA actions to address the problem. The representative also asked us to look into whether EPA had falsified the results of a study to measure mercury vapors, or had deliberately designed the study to fail. EPA staff and the Mercury Poisoning Project representative agree that the ritual use of mercury poses a health risk. Those who use mercury in folk remedies and religious practices, as well as others who live in buildings where such rituals are performed, may be exposed to mercury vapors. However, EPA and the representative differ in how EPA should address the risks. The representative believes EPA’s actions are insufficient and wants EPA to:; regulate the use of mercury; and; be prepared to address what he believes are many homes throughout the United States that are contaminated by the ritual use of mercury. On the other hand, EPA staff:; believe that EPA regulations are not warranted at this time, and starting the process to establish such regulations would drive the practice underground; and; have addressed the issue by providing community education and outreach, sponsoring research and environmental monitoring, and purchasing 63 portable mercury analyzers for measuring mercury levels. We agree with EPA’s assessment about regulating the ritual use of mercury, and believe the actions taken by EPA are consistent with current legal requirements. In 2002 and 2003, EPA performed a study measuring the levels of mercury vapors from “spills” of differing amounts of mercury. One experiment simulated the ritual use of mercury. According to the representative, if the experiments had been performed differently, the results may have been more realistic. However, the report details the experiments as they were performed, and identifies the related assumptions. We found no evidence that the study was inadequately designed or the results falsified. Although we are not recommending additional actions by EPA, we are reporting the results of our work to further emphasize that the ritual use of mercury poses a health risk.

WEB LINK www.epa.gov/oig/reports/2006/20060831-2006-P-00031.pdf

6. Zero-Waste Publishing

AUTHOR Baldwin, Margo

SOURCE Publishers Weekly, August 14, 2006, p212

ABSTRACT Rachel Donadio's recent essay in the New York Times Book Review, "Saving the Planet, One Book at a Time," misses the point. Donadio asks how much the publishing industry is willing to pay to be virtuous. The question really should be: How much is the publishing industry willing to lose by continuing in its wasteful ways? Publishing is a resource- and energy-intensive business. Books are heavy, and until e-books morph into the iTunes they aspire to be, manufacturing and transporting them is costly. Every dollar spent unnecessarily on energy is a dollar wasted. Therefore, while going to recycled paper is an essential first step toward mitigating our industry's environmental impact, real change will come only when book sales become nonreturnable. According to the AAP, global gross sales of consumer books in 2004 totaled 1.4 billion units. Thirty-one percent of them, or 442 million units, were returned. Let's assume half the returned books are shipped out again, and half go into a landfill (and that is where most of them end up). If the average weight of a book is two pounds and the average distance a book travels is 1,000 miles, then an extra 1,305 million pounds of books were shipped an extra 59 million miles using 8.4 million gallons of diesel fuel and releasing 188 million pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere. That doesn't even factor in the energy and environmental costs of 221 million excess units going to waste. Diesel fuel prices have doubled in the last two years and could double again soon. Do we as an industry really want to see our slim margins further eroded by paying an extra $25 million to ship half a million books around for no reason?

WEB LINK http://www.chelseagreen.com/about/politicsandpractice/news/agust14

7. Environmental accounting: A management tool for enhancing corporate environmental and economic performance

AUTHOR de Beer, Patrick; Friend, Francois

SOURCE Ecological Economics, v58 n3, 25 June 2006, pp548-560

ABSTRACT Industries are becoming progressively more aware of the environmental and social liabilities pertaining to their operations and products, with associated financial effects. Uncertainties in measuring these financial effects can be addressed by using environmental evaluation and accounting techniques. Environmental accounting assists in expressing environmental and social liabilities as environmental costs. While environmental accounting systems now form part of industrial decision making in first world countries, there is a lack of similar systems in South Africa. The EEGECOST model was developed to promote environmental accounting in South Africa. Implementation of the model will provide South African industries with the framework for corporate evaluation of alternative investments, projects and processes and for estimating economic and environmental performance at present and especially in the future. The model identifies, records and allocates internal and external environmental costs to five identified cost types, categorised into several environmental media groups. It also assists in the capital budgeting process for alternative investments. Applicability of the model was tested in a case study conducted on the life cycle assessment of a functional unit of one million cigarettes. The model indicated that Type V costs (external costs, with Types I to IV being different internal cost types) contributed 12% of the total production costs of a functional unit of cigarettes. As Type V costs are subjective, it is recommended that further research be conducted to structure an objective framework to evaluate and determine cost factors involved in the development of Type V costs.

8. Building the Green Way

AUTHOR Lockwood, Charles

SOURCE Harvard Business Review, v84 n6, June 2006, pp129-137

ABSTRACT The dramatic, 647,000-square-foot PNC Firstside Center in downtown Pittsburgh boasts a magnificent facade of curving glass, steel, and stone overlooking the Monongahela River. The winner of several design awards, the building rises from a large plaza graced with waterfalls and fountains. Its airy, light-filled interior has 11-foot ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, an atrium, an open floor plan, and all the latest building system technologies, including individual climate controls. What most observers don't realize is that this is a "green," or environmentally and economically sustainable, work-place -- and that it costs 20% less per square foot to operate than its comparably sized "standard" sister building in Philadelphia. Green buildings, as many know, have less negative impact on the environment than standard buildings. Their construction minimizes on-site grading, saves natural resources by using alternative building materials, and recycles construction waste rather than sending truck after truck to landfills. A majority of a green building's interior spaces have natural lighting and outdoor views, while highly efficient HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning) systems and low-VOC (volatile organic compound) materials like paint, flooring, and furniture create a superior indoor air quality. Just five or six years ago, the term "green building" evoked visions of tie-dyed, granola-munching denizens walking around barefoot on straw mats as wind chimes tinkled near open windows. Today, the term suggests lower overhead costs, greater employee productivity, less absenteeism, and stronger employee attraction and retention. Companies as diverse as Bank of America, Genzyme, IBM, and Toyota are constructing or have already moved into green buildings. Green is not simply getting more respect; it is rapidly becoming a necessity as corporations -- as well as home builders, retailers, health care institutions, governments, and others -- push green buildings fully into the mainstream over the next five to ten years. In fact, the owners of standard buildings face massive obsolescence. They must act now to protect their investments. "Building owners are starting to do reviews of their portfolios to see how green their buildings are and what they need to do to meet growing market demand," says Ché Wall, chair of the World Green Building Council. Citigroup, for example, has already begun looking at how its 100 largest buildings stack up against accepted green standards. Based on those findings, the company will then review its worldwide real estate portfolio and create a green road map to help improve the efficiency of its buildings. Soon, financial institutions and investors will use new valuation methodologies to quantify important green building factors like productivity and long-term life cycle costs when determining real estate values. Building green is no longer a pricey experiment; just about any company can do it on a standard budget.

9. Volatile Organic Compounds and Pulmonary Function in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994

AUTHOR Elliott, Leslie; Longnecker, Matthew P.; Kissling, Grace E.; London, Stephanie J.

SOURCE Environmental Health Perspectives, v114 n8, August 2006, pp1210-1214

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are present in much higher concentrations indoors, where people spend most of their time, than outdoors and may have adverse health effects. VOCs have been associated with respiratory symptoms, but few studies address objective respiratory end points such as pulmonary function. Blood levels of VOCs may be more indicative of personal exposures than are air concentrations; no studies have addressed their relationship with respiratory outcomes. OBJECTIVE: We examined whether concentrations of 11 VOCs that were commonly identified in blood from a sample of the U.S. population were associated with pulmonary function. METHODS: We used data from 953 adult participants (20–59 years of age) in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988–1994) who had VOC blood measures as well as pulmonary function measures. Linear regression models were used to evaluate the relationship between 11 VOCs and measures of pulmonary function. RESULTS: After adjustment for smoking, only 1,4-dichlorobenzene (1,4-DCB) was associated with reduced pulmonary function. Participants in the highest decile of 1,4-DCB concentration had decrements of -153 mL [95% confidence interval (CI), -297 to -8] in forced expiratory volume in 1 sec and -346 mL/sec (95% CI, -667 to -24) in maximum mid-expiratory flow rate, compared with participants in the lowest decile. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to 1,4-DCB, a VOC related to the use of air fresheners, toilet bowl deodorants, and mothballs, at levels found in the U.S. general population, may result in reduced pulmonary function. This common exposure may have long-term adverse effects on respiratory health.

WEB LINK http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2006/9019/abstract.html

10. Bio-based products resin-ate

AUTHOR Blanchfield, Lindsay

SOURCE Chemical Market Reporter, v270 n7, 28 August - 3 September 2006, pp22-23

ABSTRACT The bio-based resins market is a fairly new and fast-growing segment that is gaining increasing attention from resin manufacturers, the US government and even consumers. "There's a significant amount of growing interest in this market," says Steve Mojo, executive director of the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI). "That interest has increased as the cost of petroleum-based materials has gone up and properties have improved." In January, the USDA announced the availability of funding of more than $19 million in grants to support the development of renewable energy projects and value-added agricultural business ventures. The USDA's Federal Bio-based Products Preferred Procurement Program (FB4P) gained a significant boost when the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act (FSRIA) was signed into law, which provides for development of a preferred procurement program for bio-based products, under which federal agencies are required to purchase bio-based products and increase awareness of bio-based products among manufacturers and vendors, federal agencies and public consumers. Biodegradable or compostable resins have already begun to attract new investors and companies into the market, according to Mojo. However, he notes that companies entering the market need to specify if the product will biodegrade during composting, will biodegrade in a marine environment, will biodegrade in the soil, etc. Just saying it is biodegradable leaves the expectation that somehow, somewhere it will just disappear, and that can be misleading, according to Mojo.

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 October 06 2006

TURI - Toxics Use Reduction Institute

Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 09/15/2006