Greenlist Bulletin
From the Toxics Use Reduction Institute
at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
July 20, 2012
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This is the weekly bulletin of the TURI Library at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Greenlist Bulletin provide s 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 mary@turi.org if you would like more information on any of the articles listed here, or if this email is not displaying properly.
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F.D.A. Makes It Official: BPA Can't Be Used in Baby Bottles and Cups
| Source: New York Times, July 17, 2012
Author: Sabrina Tavernise
WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that baby bottles and children's drinking cups could no longer contain bisphenol A, or BPA, an estrogen-mimicking industrial chemical used in some plastic bottles and food packaging.
Manufacturers have already stopped using the chemical in baby bottles and sippy cups, and the F.D.A. said that its decision was a response to a request by the American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry's main trade association, that rules allowing BPA in those products be phased out, in part to boost consumer confidence.
But the new prohibition does not apply more broadly to the use of BPA in other containers, said an F.D.A. spokesman, Steven Immergut. He said the decision did not amount to a reversal of the agency's position on the chemical. The F.D.A. declared BPA safe in 2008, but began expressing concerns about possible health risks in 2010.
Read more...
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| Widespread exposure to BPA substitute is occurring from cash register receipts, other paper | Source: American Chemical Society, July 11, 2012
People are being exposed to higher levels of the substitute for BPA in cash register thermal paper receipts and many of the other products that engendered concerns about the health effects of bisphenol A, according to a new study. Believed to be the first analysis of occurrence of bisphenol S (BPS) in thermal and recycled paper and paper currency, the report appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Kurunthachalam Kannan and colleagues point out that growing evidence of the potentially toxic effects of BPA has led some manufacturers to replace it with BPS in thermal paper and other products. BPS is closely related to BPA, with some of the same estrogen-mimicking effects, and unanswered questions exist about whether it is safer. Nevertheless, very little is known about BPS occurrence in the environment, the scientists noted. To fill that knowledge gap, they analyzed 16 types of paper from the U.S., Japan, Korea and Vietnam.
The study detected BPS in all the receipt paper they tested, 87 percent of the samples of paper currency and 52 percent of recycled paper. The researchers estimate that people may be absorbing BPS through their skin in larger doses than they absorbed BPA when it was more widely used - 19 times more BPS than BPA. People who handle thermal paper in their jobs may be absorbing much more BPS.
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NIOSH: Automotive Repair and Maintenance Services - Advancing priorities through research and partnerships
| Source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, July 19, 2012
The National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) is a partnership program to promote innovative research and improve workplace practices. Unveiled in 1996, NORA is a framework for guiding occupational safety and health research and interventions throughout the nation. NORA stakeholders collaborate to identify critical workplace issues in industry sectors. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) convened a number of these partners to develop the National Services Agenda, which includes safety and health goals for the Automotive Repair industry. Groups such as employers, employee organizations, government agencies, and automotive repair/maintenance associations can build partnerships to implement these goals and help ensure that automotive repair and maintenance work environments are safe for all employees.
Access publication here.
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Paternal occupation and birth defects: findings from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study
| Source: British Medical Journal, July 17, 2012
Artists, photographers, landscapers, petrol and gas workers among those in the frame
Several types of job carried out by future fathers may be linked to an increased risk of birth defects in their babies, suggests research published online in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Previous research has linked certain occupations with a higher risk of birth defects in offspring. But it has tended to lump together very different types of defects and occupations, in order to achieve large sample sizes, with the attendant potential to skew the results, say the authors.
They base their findings on data from the ongoing US National Birth Defects Prevention Study, which is investigating a range of potential risk factors for major birth defects in a large population sample.
Read more...
Also in this journal: 'Workplace exposure to organic solvents linked to heart defects at birth'
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How Dell Turned Bamboo and Mushrooms Into Environmental-Friendly Packaging
| Source: M.I.T. Sloan Management Review, July 17, 2012
Author(s): John Pflueger (Dell), interviewed by Nina Kruschwitz
At Dell, the sustainability team, working with suppliers and recyclers, has developed new compostable packaging materials made from bamboo and mushrooms. As John Pflueger, Principal Environmental Strategist, says, "It's absolutely amazing."
Sustainability as a domain is moving in the direction of "materiality" - information that is relevant or "material" from the point of view of stakeholders and investors. And Dell, the computer and technology company, is working to make itself well-positioned to make the link between its initiatives and outcomes.
"We report into the global marketing organization," says John Pflueger, principal environmental strategist for Dell. "That may sound weird to some people, but I actually think it's a fantastic place for a sustainability organization to sit."
Read more...
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| Please send a message to mary@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.
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Greenlist Bulletin is compiled by:
Mary Butow
TURA Program Research Assistant
Toxics Use Reduction Institute
University of Massachusetts Lowell
600 Suffolk St., Wannalancit Mills
Lowell MA 01854
978-934-4365
978-934-3050 (fax)
mary@turi.org
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