Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 11/21/2008
This is the weekly bulletin of the TURI Library at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Greenlist Bulletin provides previews of recent publications and websites relevant to reducing the use of toxic chemicals by industries, businesses, communities, individuals and government. 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:
- Brooks Instrument Lead-free electronics implementation
- Green building impact report
- Endocrine disruptors in the workplace, hair spray, folate supplementation, and risk of hypospadias: case-control study
- U.S. launches wiki on nano health and safety
- Parasite-resistant peppers green alternatives to chemical pesticides
- E-stewards: activists and industry join to certify responsible electronics recyclers
- Plastic additives leach into medical experiments, research shows
1. Brooks Instrument Lead-free electronics implementation
Source: Toxics Use Reduction Institute, October 2008
The Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute has been involved for the past eight years in supporting research to help the electronics industry move towards lead-free electronics. In 2000, the Institute’s university research program funded initial research in lead-free electronics. Shortly thereafter TURI formed the New England Lead-free Electronics Consortium, which is a partnership of government, academia, and industry representatives working together to conduct lead-free electronics research. The Consortium has expanded to include up to fifteen companies throughout the electronics supply chain. The research conducted by the Consortium has been essential in helping electronics companies subject to the European Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive transition to lead-free
electronics prior to the 2006 deadline. Since 2006, the Consortium has been assisting companies that manufacture high reliability products that are exempt from the European RoHS Directive to also transition to lead-free electronics.
During 2007 and 2008, the Institute worked with representatives from Benchmark Electronics (a member of the Consortium), Brooks Instrument, and Emerson Process Management to conduct and document a lead-free electronics implementation for a high reliability electronics product that is exempt from the European RoHS Directive. The research information provided by the Consortium, as well as the information contained in this case study, is of high value to companies that need to transition to lead-free electronics for their high reliability products. The Institute’s university research program continues to fund research efforts to reduce the use of toxic chemicals in the electronics industry.
2. Green building impact report
Source: GreenerBuildings.com, November 2008
Author: Rob Watson
Green buildings, as represented by the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System of the U.S. Green Building Council, are an undisputed market success. In the eight years since the launch of LEED, green has firmly established itself among mainstream leaders in the building sector, representing tens of billions of dollars in value put in place and materials sales.
LEED was created to reduce the environmental impacts of the built environment, but so far no comprehensive evaluation of the overall impact of LEED has been conducted. Until now.
The Green Building Impact Report (GBIR) is the first integrated assessment of the land, water, energy, material and indoor environmental impacts of the LEED for New Construction (LEED NC), Core & Shell (LEED CS) and Existing Building (LEED EB) standards.
In this report we attempt to answer whether green buildings live up to their name.
3. Endocrine disruptors in the workplace, hair spray, folate supplementation, and risk of hypospadias: case-control study
Source: Environmental Health Perspectives, Online November 20, 2008
Authors: Gillian Ormond, Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen, Paul Nelson, et al.
BACKGROUND: Hypospadias is one of the commonest urogenital congenital anomalies affecting baby boys. Prevalence estimates in Europe range from 4 to 24 per 10,000 births, depending on definition with higher rates reported from the United States. Relatively little is known about potential risk factors, but a role for endocrine disrupting chemicals has been proposed.
OBJECTIVE: To elucidate risk of hypospadias associated with occupational exposure of the mother to endocrine disruptor chemicals, use of folate supplementation during pregnancy, and vegetarianism.
DESIGN: Case-control study of 471 hypospadias cases referred to surgeons, and 490 randomly selected birth controls, born 1 January 1997 to 30 September 1998, south-east England. Telephone interview of mothers, including information on folate supplementation during pregnancy and vegetarianism, and a job exposure matrix to classify occupational exposure.
RESULTS: In multiple logistic regression analysis, there were increased risks for self-reported occupational exposure to hairspray (exposed vs non exposed OR 2.39 95% CI 1.40, 4.17), and phthalate exposure obtained by a job exposure matrix (OR 3.12 95% CI 1.04, 11.46). There was a significant protective effect of folate use during the first three months of pregnancy (OR 0.64 95% CI 0.44, 0.93). Vegetarianism was not associated with hypospadias risk.
CONCLUSIONS: Excess risks of hypospadias associated with occupational exposures to phthalates and hair spray suggest that anti-androgenic endocrine disrupting chemicals may play a role in hypospadias. Folate supplementation in early pregnancy may be protective.
4. U.S. launches wiki on nano health and safety
Source: EE Times, November 18, 2008
Author: R. Colin Johnson
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is co-developing a collaborative Web site aimed at establishing standard methods for minimizing the environmental, health and safety risks of nanotechnology.
Nanoscale materials have alternatively been shown to offer promising new cancer therapies while at the same time causing cancer when not properly handled. Those concerns prompted NIST and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to create a Wikipedia-style community to establish safe nanotechnology development techniques.
NCI recently began demonstrating a prototype Wiki aimed at creating and sharing technical details about nanotechnology safety. Clayton Teague, director of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office, called the Web site "very promising" as a means of enabling sustained cooperation among researchers.
5. Parasite-resistant peppers green alternatives to chemical pesticides
Source: Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science, November 9, 2008
Root-knot nematodes are extreme parasites. These microscopic, omnipresent worms cause major damage to horticultural and field crops in sub-tropical regions, resulting in significant financial losses to growers and gardeners.
Until recently, fumigation of the soil with methyl bromide before planting was the primary method for controlling root-knot nematodes in valuable vegetable crops. Methyl bromide (MeBr) is an odorless, colorless gas that has been widely used as a plant pesticide. Since the discovery that the substance has severe negative effects on the environment—it depletes the stratospheric ozone layer—the use of methyl bromide has been phased out in the U.S.
To combat parasites like root-knot nematodes without the use of chemical pesticides, scientists are focusing more research on developing new, parasite-resistant varieties of vegetables. Dr. Judy Thies, a research plant pathologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, was part of a team of scientists who developed the Charleston Belle variety of bell pepper, the first nematode-resistant bell pepper.
In a study published in the February issue of the American Society for Horticultural Science's journal HortScience, Dr. Thies and her colleagues tested the stability of two types of bell peppers, Charleston Belle and Carolina Wonder. Thies explained, "These two types of pepper cultivars are the only nematode-resistant varieties available to commercial growers and home gardeners. Since a large percentage of bell pepper production in the U.S. occurs in the Southeastern U.S., and in particular Florida, we tested the peppers for resistance to nematodes in sub-tropical climates to determine if the cultivars were stable when grown in Florida under high soil temperatures. It is important to know whether the peppers' resistance to parasites breaks down when peppers are grown in hot climates."
Good news for growers and gardeners: study results showed that nematode-resistant varieties such as Charleston Belle and Carolina Wonder are viable alternatives to methyl bromide for managing southern root-knot nematode in bell pepper in sub-tropical environments. To increase the availability of parasite-resistant vegetables, commercial seed companies are currently developing nematode-resistant hybrid bell peppers using both Charleston Belle and Carolina Wonder.
6. Plastic additives leach into medical experiments, research shows
Source: University of Alberta, November 7, 2008
Researchers in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry have shown that using plastic lab equipment can skew or ruin the results of medical experiments.
The researchers identified two classes of chemical compounds in commonly-used plastic lab ware that could leach into solutions. They further demonstrated that the compounds interacted biologically with, and changed the behaviour of, human enzymes and brain receptors in different experiments.
Using mass spectrometry to analyze the solutions at the molecular level, lead researcher of the study and professor of pharmacology, Andy Holt, and his colleagues identified the presence of two families of compounds from the plastic that had contaminated their experiments and produced biological effects: quaternary ammonium biocides-anti-bacterial agents that manufacturers add to plastics-and oleamide, as well as related chemicals compounds used to improve the properties of plastics.
Holt's lab conducts basic research into how human enzymes work at the molecular level. With a greater understanding of how enzymes work, scientists can design drugs that will regulate enzyme behaviour in order to treat medical conditions.
But the effects of the contaminants were, "so potent on our enzymes there was quite a significant effect on our results," Holt said. They traced the source of the problem back to plastic tubes they had been using to prepare reaction solutions.
Holt and his colleagues tested pipette tips, Eppendorf tubes and Multiwell plates from several manufacturers. The contaminants leached from all of these items in the majority of cases. But the specific contaminants, and the degree to which they leached out, was different in different products.
7. E-stewards: activists and industry join to certify responsible electronics recyclers
Source: Basel Action Network, November 10, 2008
The Basel Action Network and the Electronics TakeBack Coalition joined today with 32 electronics recyclers in the United States and Canada to announce that the e-Stewards program, which identifies the most responsible recyclers in North America, is soon to be fully accredited and certified.
The e-Steward Certification will be the continent’s first independently audited and accredited electronic waste recycler certification program. It will forbid the dumping of toxic e-waste in developing countries, local landfills and incinerators; the use of prison labor to process e-waste; and the unauthorized release of private data contained in discarded computers.
“Unfortunately today, most of those companies calling themselves electronics recyclers are scammers,†said Sarah Westervelt, e-Stewards project coordinator at the Basel Action Network (BAN.) “They simply load up containers of old computers and ship them off to China or Africa. By choosing an e-Steward recycler, consumers and large businesses are assured that their old computers and TVs will be safely managed and not simply tossed into a local landfill, processed unsafely by prison laborers, or exported to developing countries.â€
Given that plastics are in common use in research laboratories, scientists everywhere will likely be interested in these findings. "If you are testing whether a drug has an effect on an enzyme and the results are inconsistent-one day there's an apparent effect and the next day there's not -where does that leave you?" Holt said. "The time and money that is wasted; there are implications for the public interest."
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://library.turi.org for greater topic coverage.
This page updated Friday November 21 2008