Greenlist Bulletin
From the Toxics Use Reduction Institute
at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
August 3, 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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EPA Identifies Substitutes for Toxic Flame Retardant Chemical
| Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, July 30, 2012
WASHINGTON -- In its quest to identify possible substitutes for a toxic flame retardant chemical known as decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a draft report on alternatives. This comprehensive assessment, developed with public participation under EPA's Design for the Environment (DfE) program, profiles the environmental and human health hazards on 30 alternatives to decaBDE, which will be phased out of production by December 2013.
DecaBDE is a common flame retardant used in electronics, vehicles, and building materials. It can cause adverse developmental effects, can persist in the environment and can bioaccumulate in people and animals. This technical assessment can help manufacturers identify alternatives to decaBDE. In addition, EPA will continue to work with manufacturers to investigate both chemical and non-chemical alternatives for flame retardants.
Read more...
Access report here.
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BPA Alternatives in Thermal Paper Available for Public Comment
| Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, July 31, 2012
This draft report is an assessment of 19 chemical alternatives that may substitute for BPA, which is used as a developer in thermal paper. EPA conducted the alternatives assessment through the Design for the Environment (DfE) Alternatives Assessment Program to help identify safer substitutes to BPA and to inform and encourage safer chemical formulations. In addition to the hazard profiles for 19 alternatives to BPA in thermal paper, this report provides background information about how thermal paper is made, and considerations for choosing an alternative. A chemical's inclusion in the report does not constitute EPA endorsement.
Read more...
Access draft report here.
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Artificial butter flavoring ingredient linked to key Alzheimer's disease process
| Source: American Chemical Society, August 1, 2012
A new study raises concern about chronic exposure of workers in industry to a food flavoring ingredient used to produce the distinctive buttery flavor and aroma of microwave popcorn, margarines, snack foods, candy, baked goods, pet foods and other products. It found evidence that the ingredient, diacetyl (DA), intensifies the damaging effects of an abnormal brain protein linked to Alzheimer's disease. The study appears in ACS' journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.
Robert Vince and colleagues Swati More and Ashish Vartak explain that DA has been the focus of much research recently because it is linked to respiratory and other problems in workers at microwave popcorn and food-flavoring factories. DA gives microwave popcorn its distinctive buttery taste and aroma. DA also forms naturally in fermented beverages such as beer, and gives some chardonnay wines a buttery taste. Vince's team realized that DA has an architecture similar to a substance that makes beta-amyloid proteins clump together in the brain - clumping being a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. So they tested whether DA also could clump those proteins.
Read more...
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PPG Chromate-Free Primer, Pretreatment Standard on Boeing 737s
| Source: Products Finishing, April 2012, Vol. 76 No. 7
Two chromate-free products from PPG Industries' aerospace coatings group, a metal pretreatment and an exterior decorative primer, are now standard on Boeing Next-Generation 737 production airplanes. Desogel EAP-9 metal pretreatment and Desoprime CF/CA 7502 epoxy primer can be used with virtually any qualified topcoats.
For more information visit www.ppg.com.
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Message Received: The Multi-Stakeholder Effort to Green Mobile Phones
| Source: E-Scrap News, June 2011
Author: Bill Hoffman
It's no secret that mobile phones and electronics are some of the fastest growing sectors of the consumer electronics industry. But until recently there have been few, if any, best practices in place for green design or recycling of those items.
In 2010, UL Environment approached the mobile phone industry to help develop a new sustainability standard for mobile phones and the industry responded enthusiastically. Demonstrating considerable interest in this standard, which relied on input from a broad spectrum of technical experts, the first draft was submitted to a UL Environment Standards Technical Panel and subsequently opened to a 60 day open comment period (as per ANSI process). The 280 comments received were the most UL Environment received to date on a single standard, which became known as UL 110.
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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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