October 26, 2005
PVC Wrap Contains Harmful Chemical

CRIENGLISH.com

China's quality watchdog Tuesday announced the result of their inspection towards PVC cling film on the Chinese market, saying that some kinds of the inspected PVC product contain an already banned chemical which would do harm to human body. This warning message makes the public think more about the reason behind it, such as PVC exporters in Japan or South Korea not using the product themselves. Our Shanghai correspondent Xiaoyu finds out more.

The long-awaited inspection was first initiated by enormous public concerns when some media reported that a chemical in the wrap would lead to cancer.

During the last 2 weeks, 44 kinds of PVC cling films were checked and tested.

Inspection shows that some of the tested product contains a plasticizer called DEHA which would be released and enter human body when heated or encounter fatty food.

An earlier report quoted some researchers saying the chemical could result in breast cancer, mental problems and deficiencies in newborns.

Shanghai is one of the cities that reacted most strongly to the news. Supermarkets immediately stopped selling and using PVC wrap. And the overall turnover of plastic wrap for food has decreased by nearly 30%.

The investigation also reports that more than 80% of PVC plastic wrap in China are imported from Japan and South Korea, where such cling films have been banned for several years. Therefore citizens are wondering why the product could enter China and why it is still popular here. Zhang Jun, a professor on economy from Shanghai-based Fudan University said that some standards involved are falling behind from international ones.

"It shows that there are some weak points in our technological standards towards imports. China reacted too late to some changes in international standards."

Though China has its own standards for food wrapping products, there is no specific one for plastic wrap.

Liu Zhaobin, spokesman for the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China, said Tuesday that the administration will launch a test on each imported batch of PVC food wrapper. Those with the harmful chemical will be banned and they will soon make improvements in former standards and add testing methods of DEHA in related regulations.

Tuesday's statement also says that all the 6 PVC food wrap film plants in China are owned wholly or partly by foreign investors and 90 percent of their products go to domestic market and only 10 percent for exports. The professor Zhang Jun warned that Chinese should learn to protect themselves as soon as possible.

"China should adopt more international standards, as China will open its domestic market wider and wider under the WTO framework. It's not to protect or control the market, it's to protect our own interests."

The ban seems to bring an end to this hot topic these days. But, it's highly hoped that this event would remind people and the government of other weak points in the system of product quality.

October 25, 2005
Wal-Mart calls for minimum wage hike [and phazing out of PVC]
CEO Lee Scott tells executives he's urging congressional action in a bid to help 'working families.'
CNN/Money
Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott said he's urging Congress to consider raising the minimum wage so that Wal-Mart customers don't have to struggle paycheck to paycheck. Scott told Wal-Martdirectors and executives in a speech Monday that he believes "it is time for Congress to take a look at the minimum wage and other legislation that can help working families."

"The U.S. minimum wage of $5.15 an hour has not been raised in nearly a decade and we believe it is out of date with the times," Scott said. "We can see first-hand at Wal-Mart how many of our customers are struggling to get by. Our customers simply don't have the money to buy basic necessities between pay checks."

Given increasing gas prices and other economic pressures on Wal-Mart customers, Scott went on to say that Wal-Mart shoppers will further be challenged to "support themselves and their families."

"While it is unusual for us to take a public position on a public policy issue of this kind, we simply believe it is time for Congress to take a responsible look at the minimum wage and other legislation that may help working families," he said.

Tracy Sefl, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Watch, a group that's been highly critical of the retailer, said Scott's comments on raising minimum wage were "laughable and out of left field."

"I find it disingenuous and laughable that Lee Scott makes these remarks while the company hires lobbyist such as Lee Culpepper who oppose raising the minimum wage," Sefl said.

"We would be the first to applaud real change. But when a comment on raising minimum wage is dashed off and it flies in the face of Wal-Mart's own corporate stance, that's laughable," she added.

As the world's largest retailer and largest U.S. non-union private sector employer with more than 1.3 million "associates" in its U.S. stores, Wal-Mart has been a lightning rod for criticism about its wage and benefits policy as well as lawsuits alleging gender discrimination. It continues to draw fire for allegedly stifling small businesses and squeezing its vendors.

Wal-Mart maintains that it pays above the current $5.15 an hour minimum wage to its employees.

Scott also discussed a new health-care package with lower premiums for Wal-Mart workers.

The new "Value option" plan, which will be introduced Jan. 1 2006, offers insurance coverage of $23 a month "and kids covered for less than 50 cents per day ... no matter how many children," Scott said.

"We will offer this plan for $11 a month, with children covered for less than 30 cents per day in some markets -- and we are working to offer these savings nationally," he said.

Said Scott, "We want to drive out as much as 25 percent of the cost in the healthcare system through leading a coalition of business, government and industry leaders in applying standards and technologies for efficiency."

Scott also touted the retailer's efforts to present itself as a more environmentally friendly company.

Whether it is jobs, health care, product sourcing or environmental impact, "it is clear to me that in order to build a 21st century company, we need to view these same issues in a different light," Scott said in the speech.

"Our environmental goals at Wal-Mart are simple and straightforward," he said. "One, to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy. Two, to create zero waste. Three, to sell products that sustain our resources and environment."

In energy-saving moves that will save Wal-Mart money, Scott said the company plans to increase the fuel efficiency of its truck fleet -- among the largest in the country -- by 25 percent over the next three years and double it within ten years.

"If implemented across our entire fleet by 2015, this would amount to savings of more than $310 million a year. Compare that to doing nothing," he said.

In addition, Wal-Mart said it will show preference to factories in China that participate in a "green company program" where the company will show preference to those suppliers and their factories involved in such a program.

"We are also committed to reducing our solid waste from U.S. stores and clubs by 25 percent in the next three years," Scott said. "We're replacing PVC packaging for our private brands with alternatives that are more sustainable and recyclable within the next two years."

Scott delivered the speech on the eve of the company's annual two-day conference for analysts at its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters.

In a Q&A session with reporters Tuesday to discuss the company's new initiatives, Scott said hurricane Katrina motivated him to rethink some of the company's policies.

"As we watched and experienced how the world reacted to our efforts following Katrina, it was time for me to send a message to our associates about who we can become as company," Scott said. "Our associates need to know how we can make a difference. It's a personal thing on our part. I felt it was the right time to share a bigger picture that tells a bigger story."

Said Sefl, "We do believe Wal-Mart is at a crossroads post-Katrina and it recognizes that. But while Scott talks about improving the environment and doing better for trees and nature, what's missing from the equation is the people aspect.

October 20, 2005
POPs kill 5 million children a year. Lead causes neurological damage to millions of others
ANSA (Italian newspaper)
Rome, - Toxic pollutants kill at least five million children each year around the world and another 18 million suffer neurological damage because of lead poisoning, according to a top official with the World Health Organisation.  "An estimated 40% of the diseases in the world linked to environmental problems affect children below the age of five. Some five million young victims are felled each year," WHO's Deputy Director of Health and Environment Roberto Bertollini told Italy's Panda magazine.

 "Children are most vulnerable to dangerous pollutants," he told the magazine, published by the World Wide Fund for Nature  .

 "Lead is the deadliest pollutant, and between 15 to 18 million children in developing countries suffer permanent neurological damage because of it," the WHO officials said  .

 Bertollini said the issue was one of WHO's top priorities, urging European legislators to devote greater attention to the problem. Earlier this year, the Italian cabinet approved the ratification of an international accord, bringing the country one step closer to outlawing several of the world's most dangerous pollutants  .

 The Aarhus protocol, which Italy has said it will incorporate fully into national legislation by the end of the year, will ban 12 so-called persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which are blamed for blood, liver and kidney disorders among other problems  .

 POPs are a group of highly toxic chemicals which are extremely resistant to the natural breakdown process. Once released into the environment, they often persist for years, even decades  .

 One particular problem with POPs is that they accumulate in the fatty tissues of animals and humans, so even low environmental levels of POPs can lead to high levels in animals and humans  .

 They are transported by air, water and migratory species, making them a cross-border problem requiring coordinated international action, experts say  .

 Italy was one of 22 nations to sign the Aarhus protocol in 1998  .

 It requires reductions in pollution from the iron and steel industry, energy production, road transport and waste incineration, as well as lowering the quantities of the metals in items such as batteries, pesticides and paint  .

 It will result in an immediate ban on nine substances on the so-called "dirty dozen" list: aldrin, chlordane, chlordecone, dieldrin, endrin, hexabromobiphenyl, mirex and toxaphene  .

 A number of POPs have already been outlawed under the Stockholm Convention, which over 90 nations signed in May 2001, but according to the international environmental group Greenpeace, others have risen up to take their place  .

October 20, 2005
Wal-Mart goes more eco-friendly
The retail giant is leading a switch from petroleum-based plastic packaging to corn-based. High oil prices are at the root.
By Harold Brubaker, Inquirer Staff Writer

Wal-Mart is going green.The retail giant, which is also the nation's largest grocery seller, is beginning to switch from petroleum-based to corn-based plastic packaging.The first substitution, starting Nov. 1, involves 114 million clear-plastic clamshell containers used annually by the retailer for cut fruit, herbs, strawberries and brussels sprouts, Wal-Mart executive Matt Kistler said yesterday at a conference in Philadelphia.

"With this change to packaging made from corn, we will save the equivalent of 800,000 gallons of gasoline and reduce more than 11 million pounds of greenhouse-gas emissions," said Kistler, vice president for product development and private brands for the company's Sam's Club division.

"This is a way to make a change positive for the environment and for business," he said at the Sustainable Packaging Forum at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel.

The adoption of environmentally friendly packaging at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has an unparalleled ability to mandate change in the consumer-products world, is a huge win for NatureWorks L.L.C., a Minnesota-based division of agricultural commodity giant Cargill Inc.

It comes as high prices for oil and natural gas - the sources for most plastics - are ratcheting up the cost of plastic materials.

Kistler did not say whether the new plastic costs more or less than the materials it replaces, but he did say Wal-Mart expected the price of corn-based plastics to be less volatile than those of petroleum-based plastics.

Snehal Desai, global commercial director for NatureWorks, said the company's plastic - known as PLA, or polylactic acid - is competitively priced with petroleum-based plastic, which is commonly used for soda and water bottles.

A big difference between PLA plastic and its petroleum-based competitors - beyond its origin in an annually renewable resource - is PLA's ability to be composted in carefully regulated municipal operations. It is also recyclable, like most other plastics.

Containers and packaging accounted for 32 percent of municipal solid wastes by weight in 2003, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Tara Stewart said the company, which would feature the packaging in its 3,779 Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and Neighborhood Market stores in the United States, was just beginning to figure out the life cycle of the new plastics. "We don't have answers for everything yet," she said.

Kistler said the new plastic also would be used to make calling cards and gift cards sold at Wal-Mart for the holidays.

In addition, it will be used for the windows in cake and doughnut boxes, where it provides still another benefit: Because the corn-based plastic "breathes," condensation does not form inside the pastry boxes. Kistler said that during a test, doughnut sales increased.

Small retailers are also getting into the act. Fair Food, which operates a farm stand at Reading Terminal Market selling mostly organic products from local farms, recently switched to biodegradable cellophane bags made from a component of plants and trees.

At $95 for 1,000 bags, including shipping, that's about double the cost of the bags the nonprofit retailer used previously, said manager Ann Karlen.

But environmentally friendly packages are not always more expensive, said Margaret Papadakis, senior buyer of packaging for Starbucks Coffee Co.

The Seattle company will soon introduce new packaging for many of its chocolate candies that eliminates harmful bleached paperboard, uses half the material of the old design, and is expected to save $500,000 a year, she said.

The Philadelphia conference focused on "sustainability," a term that refers not just to a material's ability to be recycled, but also to how valuable it remains when it is reused. In plastics, for instance, the goal is to avoid the downward spiral into less-valuable products such as park benches.

"Just because a material or package is recyclable," said David Luttenberger, director of Packaging Strategies Inc., West Chester, which produced the conference, "doesn't necessarily mean it is sustainable."

October 4, 2005

State and local officials, in addition to federal environmental and occupational enforcement personnel, will perform further assessments today. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board was sending a team to launch an investigation.

SAN FRANCISCO- Babies who use plastic toys may be at risk later in life, according to a report released Wednesday that shows that many products used by babies and young children contain toxic chemicals.

Phthalates and toxic flame-retardants were present in 18 of 25 products tested by the Environment California Research and Policy Center and the U.S. PIRG Education Fund. The study, which was motivated by existing bans on six types of phthalates in Europe, was released today.

September 26, 2005

September 29, 2005
New PVC-free product line meets stringent air quality standards
C/S Press Release

October 1, 2005
Signal, Santa Clarita Valley, CAEPA Confirms Toxins at Keysor:
Groundwater and soil at site of former plastics maker found to be contaminated.
By Adam Clark Signal

After years of investigations and legal proceedings dating back to the late 1990s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finally confirmed its long-held suspicion that the soil and groundwater surrounding the old Keysor-Century Corp. site in Saugus is filled with toxins.    "We put in five groundwater-monitoring wells and took 60 samples of the soil," said Matt Mitguard, the site manager for the EPA."We found elevated levels of contamination, vinyl chloride and something called dichloroethene. In the soil we found similar kinds of things."

Vinyl chloride is a colorless, highly flammable gas that is dangerous to inhale and is a known cancer-causing agent. There is no documented case of cancer stemming from Keysor-Century's Saugus plant.

Dichloroethene is a colorless liquid with a sweet smell that has been shown to affect the liver, kidney and central nervous system.
    

From the 1950s to 2002, Keysor-Century had manufactured resins at its Springbrook Avenue plant for a variety of products including records, bottles, floor tiles and credit cards. Several chemicals are used in the manufacturing process, including vinyl chloride.
    

In August 2004, Keysor-Century pleaded guilty to seven felony charges and was ordered to pay $4.3 million in fines.
    

The bankrupt plastic materials maker admitted to knowingly releasing toxic wastewater into the Santa Clara River, emitting high levels of cancer-causing pollutants into the air and lying about its employees' over-exposure to toxic chemicals as it falsified emission reports to state and federal agencies.
    

As part of the plea agreement, the firm also pleaded guilty to conspiracy and incineration of hazardous waste.
    

The investigation by the EPA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration began on a tip from a Keysor-Century employee, Mitguard said.
   

"The EPA's criminal investigation division had initiated something with respect to illegal disposal in the late ‘90s," he said.
   

Three years later, in February 2002, agents from the FBI and the EPA raided Keysor-Century's headquarters, looking for evidence to substantiate the allegations. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a month later and vacated the property by late 2003.
    

But the extent of the pollution at the site on Springbrook Avenue in Saugus was unknown.
   

 "We suspected (there was pollution) because of the past litigation at the site," Mitguard said."That's why we came in."
   

 Though soil and groundwater contamination has been found, Mitguard said, it will be a long time before any cleanup is begun.
    

"We've got to analyze the data, assemble it into a report, and at that time we will finalize whether the site is eligible for the National Priorities List," an EPA roster of the most serious hazardous waste sites identified for possible cleanup using money from a special trust fund, known as the Superfund, Mitguard said.

 "We will also be discussing the site with the folks at (the state Department of Toxic Substances Control) with regard to the next step," he said.

Mitguard said the process will be lengthy.   "(The site) will not wind up on the NPL either this year or the next," he said.
    

Mitguard speculated that the official report would be completed by the end of November. From there, the fate of the property will be decided in quarterly meetings held by the EPA and the Department of Toxic Substances Control.
    

The EPA site assessment manager declined to speculate on any danger to the community posed by the Keysor-Century pollutants, but he said local water purveyors would know of contamination long before it became a threat.
    

"They monitor for these kinds of things routinely," he said."(We will) work with them and address the contamination accordingly."
    

Robert DiPrimio, president of the Valencia Water Co., said the water supply has not been contaminated.
    

"There is groundwater in many areas that is not connected to the water supply," he said."It's site dependent. Sometimes you have localized contamination that just needs to be cleaned up. We haven't found anything in any of our wells."
    

Also, groundwater problems are something that tend to be localized, DiPrimio said.

May 27, 2005
Common chemical may cause defects in baby boys
Elizabeth Weise, USA Today

For the first time, scientists have shown that pregnant mothers exposed to high but common levels of a widely used ingredient in cosmetics, fragrances, plastics and paints can have baby boys with smaller genitals and incomplete testicular descent.

The paper, published Friday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that the more a mother was exposed to the chemicals, called phthalates (THAL-ates), the greater the chance her boy's reproductive development would be harmed. Similar changes have led to decreased semen quality and fertility in rodents.

"We'll follow our children to see what the consequences are," says lead researcher Shanna Swan, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Rochester (N.Y.) School of Medicine.

The changes described in the federally financed study were seen at phthalate levels found in one-quarter of the female population in the USA.

The study tested levels of four kinds of phthalates in the urine of pregnant women. Researchers later examined 134 of the baby boys 2 months to 30 months old who were born to those women.

Previous work had shown that prenatal phthalate exposure in rodents can critically affect male hormones, resulting in impaired testicular descent and smaller genital size. The Swan study is the first to look at effects in humans.

While none of the boys showed clear malformation or disease, in the 25% of mothers with the highest levels of phthalate exposure, the odds were 10 times higher that their sons would have a shorter than expected distance between the anus and the base of the penis. This so-called AGD measurement is a sensitive indicator of impacts on their reproductive system.

A statement from the Cosmetic Toiletry and Fragrance Association said the "use of phthalates in cosmetics and personal care products is supported by an extensive body of scientific research and data that confirms safety."

But, Swan says, no one had ever studied phthalate exposure in infant boys.

"It's way premature to have concern," says Marian Stanley, who manages the Phthalate Esters Panel of the American Chemistry Council in Arlington, Va. "More study is needed."

Andrea Dunaif, chief of endocrinology at Northwestern University, called the findings "strong evidence in humans that this endocrine-disrupting chemical is associated with changes in boys."

The changes are subtle, but male infertility rates appear to be rising, she said, and it's hard to know if the problem is environmental or just diagnosed more often. "The public health implications are enormous."

June 13, 2005
Steelcase Announces Decision to go PVC-Free
Steelcase Chicago, IL – June 13, 2005 – Steelcase Inc. (NYSE: SCS), a global office environments manufacturer, today revealed the company’s environmental accomplishments over the past year.  As a result of the company’s ongoing collaboration with McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) to assess the environmental impact of its materials and products, Steelcase is also updating its wood practices and is formulating a strategy to be “PVC-free” by 2012.  Furthermore, Steelcase established a strategic relationship with the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems, demonstrating the company’s continued commitment to the development and improvement of sustainable design. Over the past year, Steelcase continued its extensive work MBDC to identify the potential human and environmental impacts of its materials and products.  Specifically, Steelcase worked with MBDC to conduct an in-depth examination into the chemistry of the materials Steelcase utilizes in its products and systems.  Through this materials assessment process, Steelcase was able to develop strategies and policies to lessen its environmental impact.  

Steelcase’s relationship with MBDC dates back to 1993 when Steelcase collaborated with the firm to create Designtex’s McDonough Collection.  This line was the industry’s first collection of contract fabrics with no human or environmental health impacts. Since then, Steelcase has continued to work with MBDC to expand its assessment to furniture products, most recently collaborating to assess and produce the Thinkâ chair. Steelcase will continue to work with MBDC protocols to develop cradle-to-cradle products.

Wood Purchasing Policy

Steelcase has developed a wood purchasing policy, giving preference to forests independently certified as sustainable.  As part of this policy, Steelcase monitors endangered species lists and use only woods that are not endangered or considered questionable.  Also, by sourcing the majority of the company’s veneers and solids from forests in North America, Steelcase can use domestic suppliers and reduce the distance materials must be shipped, lessening the environmental impact of transportation.     

When the trees are harvested, they are cut into veneers and solids.  Natural veneers offer the same look as solid wood but require fewer trees to produce and are more durable than composite veneers.  Furthermore, Steelcase uses a particleboard made of 100% recycled wood fiber content in its products and offers wheatboard as an option. 

Eliminating PVC from Edge Banding

Steelcase’s goal to eliminate Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) from edge banding is another direct result from its ongoing collaboration with MBDC.  Steelcase committed to a PVC exit strategy and is working with its suppliers to find viable substitutes.  Eliminating PVC from edge banding, a critical component to the worksurfaces of most systems products, is the first step of the company’s journey to be PVC-free by its 100^th anniversary in 2012.  Steelcase has also made a commitment to eliminate PVC from all future products.

“We’ve made significant progress over the past year identifying how the materials we use impact our environment,” explained Allan Smith, Director of Environmental Strategy at Steelcase.  “The extensive knowledge we’ve uncovered from this process has enabled Steelcase to adopt policies and implement strategies that will minimize or eliminate the long-term environmental impact.  These policies underscore Steelcase’s ongoing commitment and support for cradle-to-cradle sustainable design.” 

University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems  

In addition to the new policies implemented, Steelcase established a relationship with the University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems.  Through this partnership, Steelcase will be armed with the research and knowledge to continue its work on lifecycle assessment and understand the company’s total environmental impact.

The University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems is an interdisciplinary research and education center that develops life cycle based models for improving systems that meet societal needs in a more sustainable manner.  This past year, Bernhard A. Dietz conducted the industry’s most comprehensive life cycle assessment to date as part of his examination on the environmental impacts of commonly used office furniture products. 

Dietz studied lateral files, work surfaces and panel products across five environmental impact categories:  energy resource consumption, global warming potential, acidification potential, criteria pollutants, and solid waste.  The study reflected nearly 250 manufacturing steps, 75 preliminary and secondary materials and 250 tonkilometers in transportation.  Environmental impacts for all three office furniture product systems were calculated using ISO 14040 series standards. 

The study was designed to establish a benchmark and identify opportunities for environmental improvements at the company.  This research arms Steelcase with deep knowledge that can be applied toward design improvements and more informed decisions on choices for sustainable product development and manufacturing. 

About Steelcase Inc.  

Steelcase, the global leader in the office furniture industry, helps people have a better work experience by providing products, services and insights into the ways people work. The company designs and manufactures architecture, furniture and technology products. Founded in 1912 and headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Steelcase (NYSE:SCS) serves customers through a network of more than 800 independent dealers and approximately 14,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2005 revenue was $2.6 billion.

Contact: Sara Whitman,   212.931.6121   swhitman@peppercom.com

July 22, 2005
Dozens of Chemicals Found in Most Americans' Bodies
Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times

In the largest study of chemical exposure ever conducted on human beings, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that most American children and adults were carrying in their bodies dozens of pesticides and toxic compounds used in consumer products, many of them linked to potential health threats.

The report documented bigger doses in children than in adults of many chemicals, including some pyrethroids, which are in virtually every household pesticide, and phthalates, which are found in nail polish and other beauty products as well as in soft plastics.

The CDC's director, Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, called the national exposure report — the third in an assessment that is released biennially — a breakthrough that would help public health officials home in on the most important compounds to which Americans are routinely exposed.

The latest installment, which looked for 148 toxic compounds in the urine and blood of about 2,400 people age 6 and older in 2000 and 2001, is "the largest and most comprehensive report of its kind ever released anywhere by anyone," Gerberding said. Findings were broken down by age group and race.

At Thursday's news conference, CDC officials emphasized the good news: Steep declines were found in children's exposure to lead and secondhand cigarette smoke.

Lead levels in children have dropped significantly over several years, which Gerberding called an "astonishing public health achievement" attributable largely to its removal from gasoline and paint.

About 1.6% of young children tested from 1999 to 2002 had elevated levels of lead, which could lower their intelligence and damage their brains, compared with 88.2% in the late 1970s and 4.4% in the early 1990s.

But the discovery of more than 100 other substances in humans, particularly children, distressed environmental health experts.

"The report in general shows that people — kids and adults — are exposed to things that aren't intended to be in their body," said Dr. Jerome A. Paulson, an associate professor of pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences who specializes in children's environmental health. "In and of itself, that is a concern. Whether it's harmful or not we can't tell from this particular study."

The new data in the 475-page report reveal how "we have fouled our own nest," Paulson said. "We contaminated the environment sufficiently that there are measurable amounts of potentially toxic substances in people — kids and adults."

The CDC did not try to gauge the health threat the chemicals might pose. A measurable amount of a compound in a person's body does not mean it causes disease or other damage, the agency noted.

For many compounds in the report, experts have little information on what amounts may be harmful or what they may do in combination.

"We are really at the beginning of a very complicated journey to understand the thousands of substances we are exposed to," said Thomas Burke, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The discovery of pyrethroids in most people is especially important, as no one had looked for them in the human body before. Pyrethroids are synthetic versions of natural compounds found in flowers, and they have been considered safer than older pesticides, such as DDT and chlordane, that build up in the environment and have been banned in the United States.

But in high doses, pyrethroids are toxic to the nervous system. They are the second most common class of pesticides that result in poisoning. At low doses, they might alter hormones. The compounds are used in large volumes in farm and household pesticides and are sprayed by public agencies to kill mosquitoes.

Pyrethroids "were a step forward [from DDT and other banned pesticides], but now we're beginning to understand that while they don't persist in the environment, many of us are exposed," Burke said. "We don't quite know what those levels mean."

Eleven of 12 phthalates tested were higher in children than adults. All of the phthalates but one are used in fragrances. In animal tests, and in one recent study of human babies, some of the compounds have been shown to alter male reproductive organs or to feminize hormones.

Representatives of the chemical and pesticide industries praised the study, saying that human biomonitoring is the best available tool to measure exposure. They echoed the CDC in saying that discovery of the chemicals in the human body did not automatically mean they posed a threat.

The report demonstrates "that exposure to these man-made and natural substances is extremely low," said American Chemistry Council spokesman Chris VandenHeuvel.

The CDC's Gerberding said that "for the vast majority" of the 148 chemicals in the report, "we have no evidence of health effects."

Many toxicologists and environmental scientists disagree.

Studies of animals, and in some cases people, suggest that most of the compounds can affect the brain, hormones, reproductive system or the immune system, or that they are linked to cancer. "These are some bad actors," Burke said.

Many of the compounds have not been studied sufficiently to know what happens with chronic exposure to low doses. "No evidence of health effects does not imply that they are not harmful," Paulson said. "It just means we don't know one way or another."

Environmental groups have called for U.S. law to require chemical companies to test industrial compounds more comprehensively, a proposal similar to one that the European Parliament is to debate in the fall.

The evidence that many contaminants amass in children more than in adults could mean that they are exposed to larger amounts — perhaps from crawling, breathing more rapidly or putting items in their mouths — or that their bodies are less able to cope with or metabolize them.

In the womb and in the first two years after birth, children undergo extraordinary cell growth, from brain neurons to immune cells, so there are more opportunities for toxic compounds to disrupt the cells, Paulson said. Animal tests show that fetuses and newborns are the most susceptible to harm from many chemicals.

In the CDC study, one of every 18 women of childbearing age, or 5.7%, had mercury that exceeded the level that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deemed safe to a developing fetus.

Tests on schoolchildren show that mercury exposure in the womb can lower IQs, with memory and vocabulary particularly impaired.

The CDC plans to expand the national chemical report to more than 300 compounds in two years and about 500 in four years. An estimated 80,000 chemicals are in commercial use today.

August 3, 2005
Vinyl siding backers lobby county officials
Bryan Brooks, Gwinnett Daily Post

LAWRENCEVILLE — How many homes are built in Gwinnett County?
Enough that when local officials frown on a particular building material, that industry will fly someone down from Washington, D.C., to sing the praises of their product.

On Monday, the Vinyl Siding Institute did just that. It took at least two county planning commissioners on a tour of vinyl-clad homes in the Lawrenceville area. The visit and phone calls to county officials were prompted by proposed development rules that would prohibit vinyl siding in conservation subdivisions, but for years, planning commissioners and county commissioners have often nixed vinyl siding during rezonings.

When rezoning land, the commission usually attaches conditions that govern the homes’ appearance, and a common mandate is that the dwellings have brick fronts with the remaining sides made of fiber-cement siding. By default, vinyl siding is not permissible, which is something the vinyl boosters want to change.

They say vinyl siding is burdened by misconceptions, and any bad encounters probably stemmed from shoddy installation and not the product itself. If nothing else, high-end vinyl siding deserves to be among the allowed items when commissioners dictate building materials, they said.

Planning Commissioner Teresa Cantrell, who took the home tour, said she will take the Vinyl Siding Institutes’ comments into consideration, but she didn’t sound any more friendly toward the siding.

She said there have been past instances in Gwinnett subdivision of vinyl siding warping and sagging and having “just a general appearance of neglect.” And since the county can control what building materials are used, but cannot control their installation, she was unsure she would take a chance with vinyl siding.

“We don’t have a role in installation, so that is still a concern — that there is the potential for misuse and we could still end up with complaints,” said Cantrell, who lives in the Dacula area.

County Planning Commissioner Chuck Warbington, who did not take the tour, but did field phone calls from the vinyl backers, said one reason certain building materials are mandated is to ensure the selling price of new homes is comparable to those in existing subdivisions.

Warbington, who lives in the Hog Mountain area, said past problems with vinyl siding color his perception of it.

“Some of the stuff that has been built in vinyl in the county in the past — there are some very bad examples,” he said.  “I’m not saying every vinyl project is bad, but there are some bad examples.”

Vinyl siding is the No. 1 choice for home exteriors in the country and is the most affordable siding, according to the Vinyl Siding Institute, which also has a program to train and certify installers.

Matt Dobson, director of code and regulatory enforcement for the Vinyl Siding Institute, said the industry wants to be on the same footing as other building materials like brick and fiber-cement siding.

That way, consumers can make the choice.

“Vinyl siding has been around 30 to 40 years now. It has evolved and a lot of the misperceptions weren’t accurate to begin with,” Dobson said. “Just like any building product, if it isn’t installed properly it can have performance issues, just like brick or stucco.”

September 8, 2005
Phthalates in human breast milk affect reproductive hormones in baby boys
Sue Mueller, Foodconsumer.org

Phthalates, widely used in cosmetics and soft vinyl toys, has been known to affect reproductive system in animals. A new study published in the September 7 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives found that phthalates in human breast milk affect reproductive hormones in baby boys.

The study, conducted by Katharina M. Main and colleagues from Denmark and Finland, involved 130 infants with 62 cryptorchid and 68 healthy boys, who participated in a prospective Danish-Finnish cohort study on cryptorchidism during 1997 to 2001.

For the study, breast milk samples collected as additive aliquots 1-3 months postnatally, were analyzed for phthalate monoesters including mMP-mono-methyl phthalate, mEP - mono-ethyl phthalate, mBP-mono-n-butyl phthalate, mBzP-mono-benzyl phthalate, mEHP-mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate, and miNP- mono-isononyl phthalate. Serum samples obtained from 74 percent of all boys were analyzed for gonadotropins, sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG), testosterone and inhibin B.

The study found that all phthalates were present in breast milk with large variations. Phthalate monoester levels were not associated with cryptorchidism. However, mEP and mBP showed positive correlations with SHBG. mMP, mEP and mBP were positively correlated with LH/free testosterone ratio and miNP with LH. mBP was negatively correlated with free testosterone.

The authors concluded that "our data on reproductive hormone profiles and phthalate exposure in newborn boys are in accordance with previous rodent data, and suggest that also human Leydig cell development and function may be vulnerable to perinatal exposure to some phthalates. Our findings are also in line with other recent human data showing incomplete virilization in infant boys exposed to phthalates prenatally."

September 12, 2005
An unsavory addition to kids' lunchboxes: lead
Shari Roan, LA Times  

Along with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and juice boxes, some schoolchildren may be carrying something unexpected — and potentially hazardous — in their lunchboxes this fall.

A study by an Oakland-based environmental group found harmful levels of lead in some lunchboxes made of soft vinyl. The Center for Environmental Health filed lawsuits late last month against several lunchbox manufacturers and various retailers who sell the products.

The environmental group found that 27 lunchboxes — one-quarter of the products tested — had high levels of lead when tested with an at-home detection kit. The group then sent those 27 products to an independent laboratory for more rigorous testing; that study found that 17 of the lunchboxes contained lead in excess of federal safety standards.

One lunchbox, made by Targus Group International Inc. and featuring the children's character Angela Anaconda, was found to contain more than 90 times the legal limit for lead in paint in children's products. The Center for Environmental Health has advised parents to avoid vinyl lunchboxes or to purchase a home test kit to check for lead. Such kits sell for about $3 and can be found on the Internet and in hardware stores.

Michael V. Ward, vice president and general counsel for Targus, said last week that the Anaheim-based company had only recently become aware of the potential hazard and was checking with its supplier to determine if the product was tested for lead.

"I'm not certain it does or doesn't contain lead," Ward said of the lunchboxes.

Lara Cushing, research director for the Center for Environmental Health, said the study found the lead was not contained within the vinyl material itself but rather on the surface of the lunchboxes.

"It's not bound up in the plastic," she said. "It's sloughing off. It can come off on your hand. It can rub off on your food."

The Oakland environmental group in recent years has reported on studies that found unsafe levels of lead in some imported Mexican candies and in children's jewelry. The private, nonprofit group specializes in identifying hazardous sources of lead in the environment.

Lead is considered unsafe at any level. Even small amounts can build up in the body and cause lifelong problems, according to the California Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch.

Fetuses and children younger than 6 are at greatest risk for lead poisoning because their brains and nervous systems are still forming.

Lead poisoning can result in anemia and problems in learning and behavior. Very high levels can damage the nervous system, kidneys and major organs and can even result in seizures or death. Children with very high levels require treatments to remove the lead. For children with lower levels, authorities recommend finding the source of the lead and removing it to prevent further exposure.

"The more we study lead, the more effects we find at smaller and smaller doses," said Dr. Herbert L. Needleman, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh.

The major sources of lead poisoning in the United States have been lead-based paint, which was restricted in 1978, and leaded gasoline, which was phased out in the early 1990s. However, lead is still found in paint manufactured before 1978; in soil and dust (particularly next to busy roads or factories); in some imported or handmade pottery and tableware; and in imported home remedies and cosmetics.

Last year California's attorney general sued dozens of companies that make or sell imported candies containing lead. Manufacturers looking for low-cost materials may either knowingly or inadvertently use products that contain hazardous amounts of accessible lead, said Dr. Bruce P. Lanphear, a professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Typically, testing for lead requires an extra step in the manufacturing process that some companies may choose to skip.

"It's to be expected, depending on how vigilant we are, that lead from a variety of sources would creep into other products," said Lanphear.

Officials for the Consumer Product Safety Commission said last week that the agency was investigating the Center for Environmental Health's findings on lead in lunchboxes. A spokesperson for the California Department of Health Services also said the agency was aware of the lunchbox study and is looking into the findings.

Other lunchboxes found high in lead featured characters such as Superman, Tweety Bird, the Powerpuff Girls and Hamtaro. The Center for Environmental Health has displayed photos of the lunchboxes on its website, www.cehca.org.

July 6, 2005
Six Chemicals in Soft Plastic Toys Banned Across Europe
ENS
BRUSSELS, Belgium, - The European Parliament voted Tuesday to impose a permanent ban on six chemicals used in plastic toys and childcare articles to soften the plastics. Young children can ingest the toxic chemicals when they suck or chew on the soft plastic items.Known as phthalates, since 1999 the six chemicals have been temporarily banned across the EU in the manufacture of toys and other items intended for children under the age of three because of their carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic effects.

From now on, three phthalates - DEHP, DBP and BBP - are totally banned for use in any toys or childcare articles where their concentration exceeds 0.1 percent by mass of the plasticized material. Before 1999, concentrations of up to 30 percent sometimes occurred.

The three other phthalates - DINP, DIDP and DNOP - are banned, for the same concentrations, in toys and childcare articles which children could put in their mouths whether or not they are intended for this use.

Besides toys and childcare articles, Parliament also calls on the European Commission to look at other types of material containing these phthalates, especially in the field of healthcare.

In the debate before the vote, Rapporteur Antonios Trakatellis of Greece, a medical doctor, called for the application of the precautionary principle in this case, given that "the risk assessment is not yet complete."

On behalf of the European Commission, Vice-President Guenter Verheugen said, “This decision will put an end to several years of uncertainty during which this issue was debated at length and different national policies emerged."

Since 1999, the temporary ban has been prolonged by the Commission on a regular basis. Member states have implemented national measures banning the use of phthalates in toys.

Said Verheugen, who is responsible for enterprise and industry policy, "There is now a more stable legal situation which will enable industry to plan in conditions of certainty."

Verheugen said that the Commission will now examine the question of fragrances, which Parliament had raised in first reading, as part of the next revision of the directive, or law, on toys.

Members of the European Parliament fear that manufacturers' use of aromatic products to mask the naturally unpleasant odour of phthalates encourages children to put the articles into their mouths, where the toxic substances can leach into their saliva and be swallowed.

Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection Markos Kyprianou of Cyprus, said, “Europe’s citizens expect all products sold on the EU’s internal market to be safe, but this is particularly the case for toys and childcare products."

"Toxic chemicals have no place in children’s toys," said Kyprianou. "Our action on phthalates shows that when a risk is identified, the EU can act effectively to protect the health of its children.”

Greenpeace, which first called attention to the toxic effects of phthalates in 1997, said it has taken too long for these toxics to be removed from children's immediate environment.

"The case of the toxic toys shows how slow the current process for regulating chemicals is, and the urgent need for a much stronger law," Greenpeace said in a statement Tuesday.

"The chemical and toy industries fought hard to prevent today's decision - but the forces of good have finally won out," Greenpeace said.

Mattel said in 1998 that the company was committed to begin a phase out of phthalates in plastic teething toys for children under the age of three. "The company plans to begin shipment of phthalate-free teethers and other toys intended for the mouth in the first quarter of 1999 on a worldwide basis," Mattel said in a statement.

In December 1999 Mattel announced that it was bringing together "a consortium of the world's most innovative materials developers and consultants to identify materials that are derived from organic and renewable sources while maintaining the safety and structural integrity of the company's products." But the company has made no further announcement about this effort.

Following the vote in Parliament, the industry association European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers (ECVM), expressed its "serious concern" that "political decisions are taken which are totally opposite to the outcome of the EU risk assessments."

“We would like to stress on this occasion that the PVC industry has always put on the market safe products, which have been used for more than 50 years, without any measurable impact on health or the environment," said ECVM Executive Director Jean-Pierre De Grève.

"There is absolutely no reason to limit the use of PVC in any application," said De Grève.

DINP is by far the most common phthalate used in toys, the industry group said. "DINP has undergone an EU Scientific Risk Assessment and the outcome was clearly that children are not at risk from the use of DINP in any toys. DINP has also been investigated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission in the United States and it also confirmed that there is no health risk from its use in toys."

The European Union is currently preparing a new chemicals law called REACH, which aims to ban or control a wide range of dangerous chemicals used in all EU products.

For different reasons, both Greenpeace and the vinyl manufacturers view the new ban as a demonstration that the REACH process, still in the draft stage, is flawed.

The PVC industry group says, "Not applying the outcome of the risk assessments in such a process also puts under consideration the credibility of the REACH approach, which is based on risk assessments."

Greenpeace says the REACH process will be too slow, and "the chemical industry has already succeeded in getting most of the 100,000 chemicals currently in use excluded from the rules."

"Europe is the world's largest chemical producer and yet the majority of chemicals manufactured and used every day have never been properly tested," Greenpeace said Tuesday. "For those that have been tested and found to be toxic, it can take years for them to be controlled; and even then they can still sometimes be used in consumer products."

As their medical treatments intensified, the sick infants were exposed to progressively higher exposures of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP.

DEHP is a reproductive toxicant that alters development of the male reproductive system in laboratory animal studies. The phthalate is used to soften vinyl plastic medical devices such as IV bags and tubing, and it leaches out of the plastic and into patients' bodies.

The peer-reviewed study, published in the National Institute of Environmental Health journal "Environmental Health Perspectives," also found significantly lower phthalate levels in the babies who received care at the hospital that had switched to DEHP-free medical devices for some applications.

March 31, 2005
Healthy Building Network
The Healthy Building Network applauds the decision by the City of Seattle to substitute 34,000 feet of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe with high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The HDPE pipe will be used for drainage in a sports park.

January 5, 2005
Occidental to close plant
Evan Brandt , The Mercury
LOWER POTTSGROVE -- In a move that stunned employees and local officials alike, Occidental Chemical Corp. announced abruptly Tuesday that "for strategic and economic reasons" it will close its Armand Hammer plant "effective immediately." The closing, which will put as many as 220 employees out of work, is being driven by the age of the plant and competition from abroad, said Sam Morris, the plant’s manager."The dedication and hard work of our employees to improve the efficiency of this operation was unable to offset the harsh reality of a nearly 60-year-old facility using old technology to compete in a mature business in an increasingly competitive global market," Morris said.

However, a glimmer of hope was offered by a spokesman for the union that represents the majority of the workers at the site, who said it may investigate whether the workers can purchase the plant to keep it going and save those jobs.

The feasibility of such a move was unclear at this early stage, however it is probably significant to note that OxyChem is completely abandoning the business of producing the poly-vinyl resin, which is the plant’s main product.

OxyChem, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dallas-based petrochemical giant Occidental Petroleum, "will exit the vinyl specialty resins business" entirely, according to a press release issued Tuesday afternoon by the plant.

The plant has an annual capacity of 220 million pounds of various specialty resins used in floor and wall coverings and is OxyChem’s only vinyl specialty manufacturing plant.

Calls to the company’s corporate headquarters in Dallas were referred to Morris, who said the plant has "some domestic and overseas competitors who will no doubt pick up our customers."

Morris said, "We sincerely regret the disruption this decision will cause our employees and their families."

Scott Levengood, president of Local 9455-6 of the United Steelworkers union, which represents 172 of the plant’s employees, said news of the plant’s closing came as a surprise.

"We were only informed this morning, so we haven’t even been able to go over what’s in the contract regarding this," Levengood said.

He said union officials were notified by OxyChem at 9 a.m., and the employees were told at 10 a.m. "And since then, the phone has been ringing off the hook," said Levengood.

"This is a typical Oxy ploy, they always spring things on us. I mean we’ve been hearing the rumblings for a couple years that they weren’t making any money, but this came as a complete surprise," he said.

Morris said the decision to close the plant was made "at the corporate level. I only learned about it on Thursday (Dec. 30) and Thursday and Friday were holidays for us, so we needed a little time to get organized."

Morris, who spent much of the day meeting with groups of employees, said, "I have been the bearer of bad news, and I have seen the full range of emotions. These are good people, and it’s difficult to bring bad news to good people."

He said while there had been one or two expressions of interest in buying the property in the past, "none of them panned out and currently, there is no buyer that I am aware of."

Morris said he had not heard about any plan by the employees to buy the plant. "This is the first I’ve heard of that," he said Tuesday afternoon.

"We’re going to try to maintain the jobs at the plant and look into maybe the employees purchasing it," said Levengood. "At this point, nothing is off the table."

For the next 10 days, the plant will run, but not at full capacity, in order to "run out some of the raw materials we have in the plant right now," Morris said.

Then, the next 60 days will be spent "de-commissioning" the plant, which Morris explained is the process of "removing all chemicals from the site, making it chemical-free."

Both Morris and Levengood said the union and company will sit down to negotiate the closing of the plant and the benefits and severance to be provided to the employees.

But it is not just the pocketbooks of plant employees that will be affected.

Coffers in Lower Pottsgrove will lose a large source of income, income that its taxpayers will have to make up, said Township Manager Rod Hawthorne.

"This is definitely not good news for the new year," Hawthorne said.

He said a preliminary review of the impact showed that when property taxes, earned income taxes, occupational privilege taxes, fire taxes, school taxes, county taxes and sewer fees are totaled, the overall annual financial impact amounts to about $584,000.

The biggest impact will be through the township’s sewer authority, which budgeted an annual income of $370,000 from the OxyChem plant.

Although property taxes will presumably be paid whether the plant is operating or not, Hawthorne conceded that a subsequent challenge to property assessment on the 250-acre site is not out of the question.

If that happens, the Pottsgrove School District could lose a chunk of the $156,000 it received this year from property taxes on the OxyChem site, Hawthorne said.

"That’s a tremendous hit to us, and it will all have to be made up," said Hawthorne.

Noting this year’s $4.1 million budget did not raise taxes, he said a financial impact like this will make that unlikely to reoccur next year. "You can almost bank on it," he said of a tax hike in 2006.

Pottstown Finance Director Joseph A. Schulcz Jr., calculated the impact in lost water and sewer fees paid to the Pottstown Borough Authority will be in the neighborhood of $130,000,

"The impact throughout this community is going to be huge," said Dale Mahle, executive director of the TriCounty Area Chamber of Commerce.

"Those are big salaries there, it’s a huge payroll, and that’s all money that’s not going to be spent around here any more, and the earned income tax paid in municipalities all over will be lost," she said.

"And people need to realize it’s not just the employees who are going to take this hit. All that money lost by Lower Pottsgrove and the school district and the borough authority isn’t really lost, it gets passed along to the average taxpayer, so the community takes a hit," said Mahle.

She said the plant now follows in the footsteps of other industrial giants -- Bethlehem Steel, Firestone, Mrs. Smith’s Pies, Doehler-Jarvis and Stanley Flagg -- that have closed their doors forever in the past three decades, marking the end of Pottstown’s heyday as an industrial center.

"I really feel horrible about it," she said."It’s the end of an era."

February 23, 2005
Toyota scores highest in use of "green' plastics
 DETROIT (AP) -- Toyota Motor Corp. was tops in a new study of leading automakers' use of safe, recyclable plastics in their vehicles, though no one scored better than average.  The study by the Ecology Center, a nonprofit activist organization based in Ann Arbor, graded the six top-selling automakers in the United States on their commitment to using environmentally friendly, sustainable plastics.

But as a result of the closure, other than the fines, the remainder of the agreement becomes moot as the plant will now emit no vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, and obviously will require no equipment upgrades.

"We put the EPA settlement behind us," said Morris. "This is really an economic decision."

One issue that might have affected the plant’s economy, and on which ACE opposition played a very public role, was a controversial proposal to build a pipeline between Pottstown Landfill and the plant to transport flammable landfill gas as fuel for OxyChem’s boilers.

In 2002, after five years of hearings and battles that resulted in the state granting permission for the construction of the pipeline, the Texas company making the proposal backed out.

Morris said he is not sure whether that project, had it been successful, would have saved the plant enough money to stay open. "I haven’t run the numbers on that, so it would be difficult to tell," he said.

Some can’t help but feel that ACE’s constant scrutiny played a role in the company’s decision to close the plant, which will put 220 people out of work.

"You had a local environmental group that was not supportive," said Dale Mahle, executive director of the TriCounty Chamber of Commerce, who said Tuesday that the plant’s closing will have a wide-ranging, negative effect on the local economy.

"Hey, Oxy has plenty of plants in Texas and they’re going to end up going where they’re wanted," she said.

What ACE wanted, said President Lewis Cuthbert, was not for the plant to close but for it to change what product it produces so jobs could be preserved and the community wouldn’t be put at risk. "While ACE is relieved that Oxy will no longer poison our air with vinyl chloride and other harmful chemicals, we never wanted Occidental’s employees to lose their jobs," he said.

Since 1991, ACE has been urging the company to pursue "the safer alternatives to Occidental’s current product, PVC, also known as the poison plastic," said Cuthbert.

Its most recent letter came Dec. 7, when ACE wrote OxyChem President James M. Lienert "to urge you to begin a process to transition to more sustainable, safer alternatives to PVC.

"Occidental Chemical’s transition to safer PVC alternatives in Pottstown would prevent unnecessary health risks to your workers, our toxic damaged community, consumers and those who live around landfills and incinerators where PVC is disposed," wrote Donna Cuthbert, vice president of ACE, in the letter.

"We have long been concerned about what our investigation has led us to see as Occidental’s disregard for employee health and welfare," Lewis Cuthbert said. "This closure, instead of transition, is just one more example."

Scott Levengood, president of Local 9455-6 of the United Steelworkers union, which represents 172 of the plant’s 220 employees, said he, too, is worried about health risks. "My biggest concern is the health and safety of our workers," said Levengood. "When we sit down to negotiate the benefits to the workers from the closure, getting health benefits for our people who are sick is my first priority.

"I’ve got people who are sick, or have been sick from working there, and (Oxy) is trying to say it’s not because of the workplace," Levengood said. "I have to make sure they don’t walk away without taking care of these people." While the future of the 250-acre site, surrounded on three sides by the Schuylkill River, remains unclear, Lewis Cuthbert said he believes the plant’s closure may have some heretofore unmentioned positive effects."ACE believes cleaner, safer air will attract new residents and non-polluting businesses," he said. "ACE believes revitalization will be aided by Oxy’s closing and that property values may even rise."

Noting that "for many years Occidental has been the No. 1 and 2 emitter of cancer-causing vinyl chloride air pollution in the nation," Lewis Cuthbert said by far the best outcome of the plant’s closing is it "will dramatically improve the health and quality of life for tens of thousands of people living and working around Occidental."

December 21, 2004
War on Plastic - Rejecting the toxic plague
Jan Lundberg , Northern Californians Against Plastic
Plastic as toxic trash is barely an issue with health advocates, environmentalists, and even those of us looking toward the post-petroleum world. Instead, "recycling" and future "bioplastics" distract people from keeping plastic out of their lives. As the evidence from our trashed oceans and damage to human health mounts, plastic can no longer be conveniently ignored. The days of naive trust and denial need to be put behind us, and a war on plastics declared now.

If this sounds unreasonable, decide after reading this report. One recently discovered principle about exposure to toxic chemicals is that very low concentrations can trigger worse damage in many individuals than larger exposures, in part due to the sensitivity of our genes. Also, potency is not possible to predict when various plastics' chemicals combine in our bodies and cause synergistic reactions later on.

One must acknowledge today's extreme dependence on plastics. They are pervasive, cheap, effective, and even "essential." The list of plastic types goes far beyond what we can start listing off the top of our heads. If a product or solid synthetic material is not clearly wood or metal, chances are it is plastic -- almost entirely from petroleum. Computers, telephones, cars, boats, teflon cookery, toys, packaging, kitchen appliances and tools, and imitations of a multitude of natural items, are but part of the world of plastics. Living without them would seem unthinkable. However, these plastics are essential to what? Answer: essential to a lifestyle that is fleeting -- historically speaking.

There are people who say they cannot live without something, and those who yearn to do so. People think it is a matter of choice. However, when the coming petroleum supply crunch hits and cannot be alleviated by more production -- world extraction is soon passing its peak -- a combination of factors will deprive global consumers of the constant flow of new products now taken for granted. Therefore, we will not have a choice when we must do without.

Secondly, but not less critically, the ongoing use and "disposal" of plastics is a health disaster, because we are never rid of the stuff. All the plastic that's ever been produced is still with us today... unless, of course, it has been incinerated which spews a plethora of toxic substances into the air. But wait, hasn't there been progress? Plastic grocery sacks are 40 per cent lighter today than they were in 1976, and plastic trash bags are 50 per cent lighter today than in the 1970's. However, growth of the market cancels out any gains, and plastics' pollution just accumulates whether in the air, water or soil -- or our bodies. In the case of the picture at right, paradise is clearly trashed by modern "convenience" [source: cawrecycles.org]

Most North Americans urinate plastics. Sperm counts are at an historic per capita low. Cancer is an epidemic. Birth deformities, sex organ abnormalities and eventual cancers are becoming more common -- all traceable to certain chemical exposures to the fetus. If the human race is not driven extinct by nuclear holocaust or complete distortion of the climate, it may happen through wonderful plastic and other petrochemicals. The foregoing is an "unscientific" assertion, but later in this report we provide some evidence to give everyone pause.

The movement's first U.S. battle

The current, high-profile battleground is San Francisco. Following the example of Ireland and other countries that have put a fee on plastic bags, the grocery shoppers of San Francisco may soon start paying a fee of 17 cents per bag. That figure is the cost that the citizenry is already paying in general taxes for some of the costs of plastic-bag trash, such as cleaning up the litter and unclogging the waste system.

The American Plastics Council claims that the bag fee is a crazy idea, saying in the San Francisco Chronicle that "this will hurt those who can least afford it." Just the opposite is true.

Northern Californians Against Plastic presented figures to show that if each of the 347,000+ households in San Francisco were to purchase a couple of cotton or canvas bags, over the approximate 10-year life of those bags the total amount saved -- compared to everyone using eight bags each week at 17 cents each -- by consumers would collectively be over $300 million. And, the bag fee would mean revenue to fund programs for the poor such as free reusable natural-fiber bags. The Chronicle and the Commission on Environment (the San Francisco body putting the bag fee proposal to the Supervisors for an ordinance) have this new information.

A movement to spearhead the fight against plastics is forming now. While there have been municipal bans of polystyrene (styrofoam), the plastics/petroleum industry has had a free ride at the expense of the health of the planet and our bodies. While endocrine disruptors and estrogen imitators have been targeted by researchers and public-spirited writers and health organizations, government has done next to nothing as it bows down to industry interests. The War On Plastic will encompass not just a few "problem chemicals" or "the worst plastics," because they are all bad in at least some single way. We must reject the entire toxic petroleum plague to our fullest capability, beginning now.

In California, to complement the fledgling Campaign Against the Plastic Plague formed this year in southern California, we at Culture Change have joined with Mindfully.org's Paul Goettlich to form Northern Californians Against Plastic. One of our first projects is to support the San Francisco bag fee. We are visiting more Californian communities as you read this, promoting bag fees and bans on certain plastics. Next, the whole state. We will face increasing opposition. But when our rationale and data are considered, almost no one will be able to turn away and ignore the issues.

Waiting for technology to save the lifestyle of using unlimited plastics, by having bioplastics replace the petroleum, is no help. We find that after studying the problems with plant-based replacements (see end section), and seeing the examples of other environmental problems saddled with non-solutions, fundamental change is the only reasonable approach. Such change will address the whole -- our social system, the ecosystem and the economy -- instead of spinning our wheels on the ineffectual reforms of mere symptoms of our extremely wasteful society.

Science misleads in the cancer game

The ubiquitous presence of plastics is already killing us. Exactly "how" is never going to be completely isolated. Eighty per cent of cancers are environmentally derived. When we wonder where the epidemic of cancer is coming from, can we say that plastics gave Ms. Jane Doe cancer? Perhaps, but cancer is coming from not only plastics and their associated toxins as well as from radiation sources, smog, the modern chemically tainted diet, household and workplace chemicals, etc. To say cancer is "genetic" is to put the onus on our intrinsic humanity, so as to ignore the 80% environmental-source principle.

The absolute proof that a case of cancer came from a particular cause or chemical is usually lacking, except in the case of certain rare cancers from identifiable chemicals. Or, a massive exposure can be blamed for specific cancers when it assaults a community such as Union Carbide's mass poisoning of Bhopal, India. The lack of exact, causal evidence clearly pointing to plastics, for example, when considering cancer, is most convenient for the status quo. This points up the faulty approach of focusing on a certain chemical villain, or set of bad chemicals -- as if the rest are safe and the technocratic bureaucracy will save us. The public is encouraged by industry to think a certain cancer is caused by overexposure to a certain chemical not yet regulated, so corporate profits can roll along in the context of technological progress that the public has been trained not to question. In reality, thousands of marketed chemicals and their combinations have not been tested to see if they are harmful.

Whether or not scientists can measure a substance should not be the point. What we don't see or detect can be lethal enough. Migration and release of plastics' chemicals into our food, water and skin is of little interest to the government and its corporate friends. But certain principles won't go away:. For example, polymerizing does not perfectly bind the petroleum chemicals together, especially when substances such as carcinogenic plasticizers are added after polymerization. Did you think that cute "rubber" duckie in the bath tub was harmless? Think again.

The U.S. public is thus treated every bit as shabbily as the Third World victims of plastic pollution. In India, where much of Americans' plastic "recycling" (mostly trash) is sent, the authorities dismiss the sad public health impact there by asking, "How can you prove that these plastic and lead recycling factories are causing these problems?" [source: Plastic Task Force, Berkeley Ecology Center] In a land like India where biotech crops and corporate fast-food outlets have been sabotaged, it is possible that folks there may intensify their destroying whatever is destroying them.

When the environmental movement holds back forthright judgment, and the environment and our health are not protected, people do need to take on plastics and other threats personally. This is because the mainstream movement to protect the environment and public health is going practically nowhere. This is exactly what industry and its scientists want. It's as if industry is funding the environmental movement; in large part it is.

Your War on Plastics

We all need to be awakened, as if a "Pearl Harbor" event suddenly was telling us that plastics threaten us. However, the prevailing attitude by those already concerned about plastics is that we must just focus on reducing the use of one or two key plastics while continuing to push recycling. This philosophy of compromise, without stating the whole truth that plastics must be eliminated as much and as fast as possible, is a deadly mistake. The funded environmental movement and public health officials are needlessly resigned to accepting a plastic world just because ignorant consumers have habits. The approach of promoting only the bringing of one's own bag for shopping, along with the recycling con game and waiting for bioplastics, has failed and needs to be abandoned publicly.

Paul Goettlich is the director of Mindfully.org, a nonprofit dedicated to exposing the effects and costs of technology on our bodies and society. The plastics section on Mindfully.org is the most extensive wholistic set of documents and scientific data that exists on plastics. "There are no safe plastics," Goettlich says. "The tendency of environmental organizations is to proclaim what the worst or the best plastics are, so we can go on using them. It is ill conceived and does not address the relevant issues. All plastics migrate toxins into whatever they contact at all times. It does not matter if it is water- or oil-based; hot or cold; solid or liquid," says Goettlich.

Analogy:: When war is used as a solution in reacting to an alleged threat or terror, etc., (Saddam, Noriega, ad infinitum) we fail to focus on the real problem -- the cause of the war, which is usually corporate America. We are distracted by one alarm after another, while war profiteers and jingoistic politicians bleed us dry. It’s the same with plastics -- the chemicals are the battles but the war is really about plastic and petroleum dependence. The focus of environmental organizations is the individual chemical, while refusing to promote real solutions such as reusable nontoxic, nonplastic replacement of containers and bags. Instead of wondering what plastic might be safer to microwave, we say "None. And don't microwave anyway. It creates free radicals -- the precursors to cancer -- in your food." This is war, and we've already been critically damaged. Join us!

As discussed in "Plastics your formidable enemy," published last August in this column, the supply of petroleum products such as plastics will dry up thanks to the extreme market response that we can anticipate as soon as geologic reality triggers panic. The peak of oil extraction is imminent, with natural gas to follow soon after. Most plastic bags are made from natural gas (methane).

A host of poisonous chemicals are imbedded in plastic that are unstable, causing genetic damage and resultant disease. To reiterate, as it is not possible to attribute most environmental diseases to specific chemicals or products, industry gets a free ride in killing people and the planet for profit. The reductionist approach of science, and the domination of research by corporations and corrupt government agencies, tricks citizens into ceding their power to specialists wedded to the economic/academic system and its inherent flaws.

Here are a few of the critical, insurmountable challenges from plastic's production and disposal:

= Clear plastic food wrap contains up to 30% DEHP [di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate]. This substance is also in intravenous blood bags. This poison was identified by the State of California for its Proposition 65 list of carcinogens and mutagens, but industry pressure got the listing weakened.

= In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it was found that 1,000,000 times more toxins are concentrated on the plastic debris and plastic particles than in ambient sea water;

= Six times as much plastic per weight than zooplankton is in any given amount of sea water taken from the middle of the Pacific Ocean;

= Triclosan, in plastics as well as antibacterial soaps, deodorants, toothpastes, cosmetics, and fabrics, is shown to cause health and environmental effects and compound antibiotic resistance. Researchers found that when sunlight is shined on triclosan in water and on fabric, a portion of triclosan is transformed into dioxin.

= Migration from all seven categories of plastic designated with numerals on packaging, including the recyclable types 1 and 2, are (partial list): Acetaldehde, antioxidants, BHT, Chimassorb 81, Irganox (PS 800, 1076, 1010), lead, cadmium, mercury, phthatlates, and the acknowledged carcinogen diethyl hexyphosphate.

= Many more such additives are often present, creating in our bodies synergisms that can be 1,600 times as strong as an estrogen imitator/endocrine disruptor/single chemical may be.

= The main issue surrounding the use of polyvinylchloride (PVC) is the impact of toxic pollutants generated throughout its life cycle. A Greenpeace (UK) study from October 2001 stated in its headline, "UK Government report on PVC misses the point, but still condemns PVC windows and floors." Unfortunately, Greepeace did not quite get it either when it advocated for plastic replacements seemingly less poisonous: "PVC should be phased out and replaced with non chlorinated materials - timber, linoleum, polyethylene, PET, polypropylene and others." Will Greenpeace declare War on Plastic?

Who is the enemy in this war on plastic, besides you and me? At the December 1, 2004 meeting of the Campaign Against the Plastic Plague, a spy from Dart packaging was present and kept entirely to himself. Dart touts its "single-use foodservice products worldwide." Another adversary is the American Plastics Council (APC) which has sent its "suits" to interfere in the city of San Francisco's process of cleaning up the plastic bag mess. APC has a website that promises to answer all your questions about plastics. But its search engine comes up empty for "migration", "endocrine disruptors" and "estrogen."

Bioplastics?


"A lot of bio-engineered row crops, using petroleum fertilizers and plasticizers to make the throw away society perpetuate itself, is not appropriate. A mess of slowly degrading rubbish on our fences and shores could be worse than non-degradables." - Captain Charles Moore, plastics pollution researcher.

Because of our huge population size and high consumption levels, there would not be much arable land or species-diversity left over if the consumer demand for plastics, for example, were to come from agriculture (no matter if it were organic or GMO-maximum pesticide), even if it were possible to do this to the Earth and our communities. We cannot imagine a plant-based approach only for plastics and not expect that other fossil fuel needs would not be part of the same approach of agricultural strip-mining. There would be competition for land from many pressures and interests, trying in vain to replicate the petroleum economy with a plant-based one..

That is another reason the real solution comes down to just cutting consumption of petroleum to the max. How about no plastics -- not using plastics to the extent we can manage doing so. We will be forced to deal with virtually total shortage of plastic production due to imminent petroleum crash. So there goes bioplastics and other technofixes right out the window, because they will not be in place to ramp up. Better not to dream about them, but rather get on with preparing for a sustainable future based on reality.

The promise of the technofix (bioplastics in this case) gives the consumer the idea that tomorrow and for some years one will probably do just what one did today as to consuming. The rationalization is that although we are doing wrong and it can't go on long, "human ingenuity" and "science" will "solve our problems" some day; as "they" will "think of something."

As we've seen with energy issues, this mindset of the technofix and "clean" energy down the road just puts off facing the fact that consumption must be slashed immediately, particularly when the infrastructure for the "green" Utopia for energy consumption would rely on the present petroleum-based infrastructure. The critical context is vast overpopulation, already achieved thanks to petroleum dependence.

I would predict that plant-based plastics will be niche products and used very locally, similar to alcohol fuels which are only realistic for meeting very local, limited needs possibly, in certain parts of the world.

Bioplastics would also attract toxins in the ambient sea water, as petroleum plastics do. All the more reason to declare War on Plastics. Period!


The following is from a government analyst friendly to the campaign against plastics:

"Biodegradable plastics are often (not always) made from soy and corn. Making plastics from agricultural products will encourage a massive shift of production from petroleum-based products to products that rely on petroleum-based pesticides, insecticides, and fertilizers. So, we are not moving away from reliance on petroleum products, rather we would be encouraging the use of more toxic forms of them. Mass agriculture on the scale that would be necessary to produce the plastics to feed our consumer society will significantly increase the degradation already caused by industrial-style agriculture -- that is, the use of water, energy, the use of pesticides, the depletion of top soil, and the resulting sedimentation of rivers and nearby waterways caused by soil erosion.

"If additional criteria were added to plastics that are biodegradable or compostable that made them sustainable, then I might feel more comfortable with the shift away from plastics made from hydrocarbons. Specifically, sustainable agricultural practices should be used with the development of any agricultural materials grown for plastic production (i.e. no GMOs, no pesticide/insecticide/ fungicide use, and other principles of sustainable agriculture that prevent soil erosion). Use of waste agricultural materials, such as byproducts from growing sugar cane, should be given a higher priority since it closes the loop on production.

"Another concern is that the ASTM standards for biodegradable and compostable plastics do not address the issue of plastic additives. So, there is no reason to believe that the plasticizing additives that cause cancer and hormone disruption will not be used in these new plastics. Prohibition on the use of harmful chemicals additives should be added to the criteria for sustainable plastics. For example, Dupont is marketing "Greenpla." When you check their website about biodegradable plastics and see Dupont's "Biomax," we see its generic name is "Polybutylenesuccinate/terephthalate" [Note that the last phrase, phthalate, is in a class of highly toxic compounds. - ed.]

From Paul Goettlich, whose comments were directed, as were the above comments in this section, to the Campaign Against the Plastic Plague participants in early December 2004:



"The concept of "biodegradable plastic" is at best a ploy by industry meant to divert our focus away from the real problem: single-use containers and packaging.

"The concept that something can take on the properties required for containers to then be composted into its original components -- just as found in nature -- is a stretch at best. Engineers and scientists may come up with any number of standards that attempt to define nature, but what it conforms to is a reductionist model that does not work when applied to whole systems.

"I am completely against promoting biodegradable products. They are the happy alternative that allows people to continue consuming without regard to many associated issues. PLA plastics utilize corn grown on corporate monoculture farms and will be some variety genetically engineered corn that will be resistant to Monsanto's Roundup.

"This type of farming will never be sustainable. It uses more pesticides than normal conventional farming, and nearly 100% more than sustainable organic farming. Conventional farming uses pesticides because it is a monoculture -- one crop is grown on thousands of acres. That fact alone is the very reason why pesticides must be used. Monoculture farming's lack of diversity is the chief cause of the pestilence require pesticides.

"In genetically engineered crops such as Roundup Ready corn -- as opposed to normal conventional corn -- pesticide use is actually increased rather than decreased. Crop output is also reduced rather than increased. And it is impossible to contain the pollen from genetically engineered crops, making organic agriculture a doomed concept at best. Everything that the industry claims about its GMO crops is categorically false.

"Industrial farms also destroy communities they are in. Unions are busted. Communication between farmers is destroyed. An adversarial mood is instilled in the community. The farmer is rapidly being disappeared by the likes of Monsanto. It will do anything and say anything to make a buck. Percy Schmeiser [sued by Monsanto for having Round-Up-ready plants inadvertently growing on his farm) is a perfect example. It is not wise to ignore the consequences of dealing with Monsanto, Cargill, and any of the other agribusiness giants.

"Consolidation of farms is having an enormous effect on farmers. So many farmers have left farming that it is no longer a category in the US Census -- disappeared on paper. And the ones that remain generally need to supplement their income with one or more extra jobs, meaning that farming is almost considered a hobby rather than a profession.

"The message I'd like to leave everyone with is "watch the doughnut not the hole." In other words, watch the real issues and don't be distracted by corporate smoke and mirrors. The hole is the allure of being able to maintain our current lifestyles while not causing environmental and social harm. But there is no easy way out. Consumption is consumption no matter what pretty picture is painted of it. Corporate America has many millions of dollars to invest in promoting products.

"At first look, the concept of biodegradable seems admirable. But follow the links out in all directions until you think there are no more, and then dig deeper. It is not enough to merely see that a plastic degrades. What we don't see amounts to so much more and must be considered before any new technology is accepted."

"Alternatives to (petroleum) plastics," according to the Berkeley Ecology Center's Plastic Task Force do not include bioplastics:

Reduce the use – source reduction.
Reuse containers.
Require producers to take back resins.
Legislatively require recycled content.
Standardize labeling and inform the public.

Could it be that the solid waste nightmare precludes their embracing bioplastics? The Berkeley Ecology Center is the oldest and one of the most thorough recycling operations in the U.S.

December 23, 2004
Residents seek protection from toxic gifts
Saugus Briefs
BOSTON - As last-minute shoppers crowded into malls and stores on Monday, a coalition of health, environmental and scientific groups called on Gov. Mitt Romney to mandate safer ingredients in consumer products.    The Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, a coalition of more than 140 groups, held a press conference Monday to draw attention to toxic chemicals in popular holiday presents including children's toys made from PVC (vinyl) plastic, holiday fragrance gift sets and cosmetics. Some of these popular gifts can contain toxic chemicals such as lead, cadmium, phthalates, formaldehyde and others that are linked to cancer, birth defects, liver and kidney damage, reproductive abnormalities and learning disabilities.

     "As a new mother, I'm particularly concerned about the safety of products my daughter plays with and that my family uses on our bodies daily," said Sarah Isenberg, a Belmont resident and Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition board member who was diagnosed with breast cancer at an early age. "I'm outraged that chemicals that are restricted in Europe can be found in products that are on the shelves of any corner store in Massachusetts. Since safer alternatives are available, why hasn't our government already taken action to require that only poison-free products be sold in Massachusetts?"

     A national study released in 2003 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that analyzed the body fluids of more than 10,000 U.S. residents confirmed that average Americans are carrying multiple toxic chemicals in their bodies. Levels of phthalates found in PVC plastic products were higher in children tested, while the levels of phthalates found in cosmetics were higher in adults.

     State Rep. Anne Paulsen, D-Belmont, has cosponsored legislation to protect adults and children from toxins in commonly-used products. Paulsen said, "If we could expedite this through action taken by the governor, I hope it can happen."

December 22, 2004
South Korea imposes anti-dumping duties on Japanese PVC firms
SEOUL: South Korea said it has imposed anti-dumping duties of up to 40 percent on Japanese polyvinyl chloride (PVC) makers while an investigation into dumping charges proceed. The finance and economy ministry said the tariffs took effect Monday for four months until investigations into anti-dumping charges against Japanese firms are completed.

"Anti-dumping duties are effective tentatively from December 20 through April 19," ministry spokeswoman Song Kyung-Jin said.
"The rate of duties will be readjusted afterward." Seoul has imposed 40.20 percent anti-dumping duties on Takiron Co.'s PVC plates while slapping other Japanese firms' with tariffs ranging from 35.23 percent to 38.60 percent, according to the ministry.

Japan supplies more than 30 percent of South Korea's demand for PVC plates, which are extensively used in semiconductors, liquid crystal displays and plasma display panels. South Korean trade authorities have looked into the dumping charges since May at the request of a local manufacturer, Crown Inc. The probes usually take one year, Song said.

The Korean Trade Commission in October decided to impose preliminary anti-dumping duties against the Japanese firms after on-site investigations. South Korea's PVC plate market is growing fast at home and abroad thanks to the booming information and technology industry.

- AFP

December 17, 2004
Pataki vetoes bill that would have banned use of plastic pipe
Builders can save money on plumbing
By Tom Precious, News Albany Bureau
ALBANY - Gov. George Pataki vetoed legislation, which had passed overwhelmingly in the Legislature, that would have banned the use of plastic plumbing pipes in commercial and larger residential construction. As a result, builders will be able to use the less expensive plastic in commercial buildings.

The governor, who three years ago approved the ban over the objections of construction, development and the plastics industries, on Thursday knocked down the legislation that critics maintained adds sharply to the costs of new buildings.

Pushing for a continuation of the three-year old ban was a statewide coalition of plumbers unions representing 30,000 workers, who builders say could lose some work because plastic is easier to work with than the currently mandated cast iron or copper.

"It's a sad day for workers and residents of this state. We are now at the mercy of corporate interests who will expose us to toxins," said Jimmy Hart, the statewide representative of the organization of plumbers unions.

The plumbers, some environmental groups and some firefighter organizations maintain that the plastic piping is dangerous when burned in building fires or in incinerators.

Business groups, as well as some other firefighter organizations, said the science is mixed on the matter, and that the state already permits plastic piping in new home construction.

The bill's critics said it also violated the goals of a statewide building code that is trying to fit into a national standard on such issues as piping materials.

"We are thrilled with the governor's recognition about how important this issue is to growth and development in this state," said Phil LaRocque of the New York State Builders Association, which joined upstate mayors, including Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello, and business groups in pressing for the veto.

While the two sides fought an intense campaign over claims and counter-claims about the safety of the plastic piping, Pataki's veto message was silent on any of the controversies. Pataki called the bill "well-intentioned," but said it had "serious technical defects that could hinder compliance and enforcement efforts." He said the bill also had several provisions that "could result in confusion among builders, architects and enforcement officials."

The state's ban on plastic piping was considered the nation's most strict; only California's code comes close when it comes to restricting plastic in commercial and larger residential buildings.

Among the biggest beneficiaries of the veto will be the plastics industry, which will now have a huge new market opened up. "For our industry, this means there is a recognition that plastic pipe is a material that is (cost) competitive, that is safe and can be used in commercial and residential settings. All we've been asking for is a level playing field," said Stephen Rosario, Northeast regional director of the American Plastics Council.

A developer in the Buffalo Niagara region hailed Pataki's action as a step toward strengthening the local economy by lowering the cost of building. Using plastic pipes could save up to $150,000 on a 255,000-square-foot building, said Laura Zaepfel, of Uniland Development Co.

Critics of the ban said the requirement to use only cast iron rather than plastic, for instance, adds 6 percent onto the overall cost of an apartment complex. Developers say it can drive up a project's labor costs for plumbing by 25 percent. Builders say cast iron can cost $4 a linear foot, compared to $1 for plastic.

Environmentalists, who have often backed Pataki on issues over the years, were harshly critical of the governor on Thursday. "We feel this is a major setback to protect New Yorkers from toxic chemical exposure," said Mike Schade, Western New York coordinator of the Citizens' Environmental Coalition. "The governor had a golden opportunity to protect New Yorkers from exposure to PVC, the poison plastic. By caving in to special interests, the governor has failed in his obligation to ensure a safe and healthy environment for millions of workers, firefighters and residents across the state."

December 19, 2004
Recent study warns of toxins
By Jennifer Mitchell, The News-Herald
Canadian trash imports may be a treasure to local landfill owners, but it and trash generated here in Michigan likely contain a source of dangerous toxins, according to a recently released study. Polyvinyl chloride, more commonly known as PVC, is in everything from blood bags to barrier sheets.

It's in the pipes below our houses; the things inside them, such as toys, computers and cellphones; and on the siding that covers the outside.

PVC is everywhere and eventually it ends up in the trash.

The Center for Environment, Health and Justice worked with the Environmental Health Strategy Center to release: "PVC, Bad News Come in Threes: The Poison Plastic, Health Hazards and the Looming Waste Crisis."

The report says Michigan comes in sixth in the nation for the amount of PVC tossed into its landfills — more than 96,000 tons every year.

The concern over PVC is threefold: It creates contamination during manufacturing, product use and disposal.

"Burn PVC waste in backyard burn barrels or incinerators and it changes to cancer-causing dioxin," said Tracey Easthope, environmental health director for Ann Arbor's Ecology Center.

"Bury it in landfills and it can pollute groundwater. Recycle PVC products and they contaminate the recycling process. This is a 'worst-in-class' toxic plastic."

PVC contains 57 percent chlorine. It also contains heavy metals such as lead and cadmium. When it is burned, it forms dioxins.

Dioxins are any number of hundreds of chemical compounds formed during commercial or municipal waste incineration.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says studies have shown that exposure to dioxins at high enough doses can cause several health issues, including acnelike lesions on the face and upper body, skin rashes, reproductive problems and cancer.

However, there is controversy over the effects of dioxins in humans, even at the EPA.

In 1996, the agency's own Scientific Advisory Board, rejected a draft report prepared by the EPA that said dioxins' risks were worse than feared, as some headlines claimed.

An interagency group working on dioxins has described the subject as "complex and confusing." And still other environmental reports have said dioxins are not as toxic as some believe.

But, Brad van Guilder of the Ecology Center contends that all burning of PVC results in contamination spewing "into the air we breathe, and onto farm fields and (in) water where it builds up in the food chain."

"The Detroit incinerator is one of the largest in the country, located in the middle of a densely populated area burning about 700,000 tons of trash per year," van Guilder said.

He also said Michigan's status as an out-of-state waste importer puts more toxic plastic waste in the ground here than in other places.

The concern is that toxins in the PVC might someday leach through landfill liners and into the soil, contaminating the groundwater.

Van Guilder cites Carleton Farms Landfill in Sumpter Township, which buried more than 2.4 million tons of trash in 2003, as a major cause for concern.

The report says PVC is difficult to recycle because of the numerous additives used to make such wide-ranging products. The toxic byproducts, such as dioxins, undermine its recycling.

"PVC wastes will live beyond the lifetime of everybody on this planet — a terrible legacy to leave for future generations," report contributor Lois Gibbs said. "We can't bury it, burn it or recycle it."

Gibbs, also the director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, said the only solution is for PVC manufacturing to stop.

Already some companies, such as Nike and Firestone, are phasing it out.

In the interim, authors of the study suggest that a burning ban on the product could help. They also say manufacturers should label PVC products with warnings.

Plastic pipes and construction use accounts for 75 percent of PVC consumption in North America, but several alternative products exist.

December 15, 2004
Ukraine Dioxin Poisoning A Reminder of U.S. Delay
BushGreenwatch
News that Ukranian presidential candidate Victor Yushchenko was apparently poisoned by a tiny dose of dioxin serves as a timely reminder that this ubiquitous substance is still in wide circulation and still poses a serious public health threat.

Dioxin is formed primarily by the incineration of hospital and municipal waste. Lesser sources include chlorine bleaching of pulp and paper, and certain types of chemical manufacturing. Released into the air, dioxin eventually floats down into water or land, where it is ingested by fish or animals, and into the food supply.

In 2001, a long-awaited study on the potential dangers of dioxin began working its way through the Bush administration, where industry groups pressed hard to delay its release. Called the Dioxin Reassessment, the study passed through an EPA review. It is now being reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences.

Coincidentally, the NAS review panel includes many of the same reviewers who participated in the EPA review, which some environmental groups say will lead to the same conclusions by the panels.

The exceptionally slow process to regulate this carcinogenic substance has greatly frustrated health advocates. "They've done nothing in regulations, and I don't see anything on dioxin moving on the federal level in the next four years," Lois Gibbs, executive director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, told BushGreenwatch.

Dioxin is so harmful to health that it has long been classified as a Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP). Indeed it is one of 12 POPs designated by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organice Pollutants to be banned or severely restricted worldwide.

The U.S. is a signatory to the Stockholm Convention. Unfortunately, however, the Bush Administration has designed implementing legislation that negates a key part of the treaty [BushGreenwatch, July 12]. The Bush legislation opposes the "adding mechanism" of the Convention, a provision that is essential for adding new chemicals to be banned or restricted at the domestic level.[l].

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) explains that the Bush Administration supported the initial terms in the Stockholm Convention, "...in part because none of the so-called 'dirty dozen' is manufactured or used in the United States anymore, and because the U.S. chemical industry believes banning these first-generation pesticides and chemicals will 'level the playing field' for export of more modern, profitable chemicals to foreign markets, especially in the developing world."

It is possible that when other chemicals are added to the Stockholm Convention, they may still be on the market in the U.S. Public health and environmental groups fear that without the "adding mechanism," corporate influences may override concerns for public health. [2]

December 16, 2004
Massachusetts ranks third in nation on PVC products incinerated
Saugus Advertizer

     The Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow released a national report today documenting the health and environmental hazards posed by PVC (the "poison plastic") during manufacturing, product use and disposal.    Massachusetts incinerates a higher percentage of PVC waste than all but two states in the nation, topping 28,145 tons every year according to estimates in the report.
  PVC is widely used in plastic pipes, building materials (such as vinyl siding), consumer products (such as toys or tablecloths) and disposable packaging. PVC disposal is the largest source of dioxin-forming chlorine and hazardous phthalates in solid waste, as well as major source of lead, and cadmium.
     "PVC, Bad News Come in Threes: The Poison Plastic, Health Hazards, and the Looming Waste Crisis" concludes that billions of pounds of PVC are being thrown away in the U.S. - but there is no "away" as PVC waste poses perpetual hazards.
      "Burn PVC waste in incinerators as Massachusetts does in high volume and it changes to cancer-causing dioxin," said Cindy Luppi, Clean Water Action Organizing Director. "Bury it in landfills and it pollutes groundwater. Recycle PVC products and they contaminate the recycling process."
     Disposing of PVC in incinerators and landfills poses long-term problems, including the emission of highly toxic dioxin emissions and leaching of toxic additives such as cadmium and lead into groundwater.
     Communities are increasingly concerned about the PVC-generated chemical emissions from incinerators and landfills in Massachusetts, which hosts seven operating incinerators including the Wheelabrator incinerator in Saugus.
     The Saugus facility burns over 1,500 tons of trash per day, or approximately 15 percent of all waste incinerated in Massachusetts. Pollutants captured by emission controls are concentrated in the incinerator ash sent to local landfills.
      "Saugus and neighboring communities deserve relief from this toxic cocktail of pollution caused by the incineration of PVC products," said Fae Saulenas, co-president of SAVE. "Dioxin causes cancer, and harms our reproductive and immune systems - we must stop its build-up in the food we eat and in our water supplies."
     Health damage associated with these toxic chemicals include Dioxins, a family of chemicals formed as a by-product of PVC incineration, are known to cause cancer, reproductive developmental and immune problems. Dioxins are hazardous in minute quantities, are very persistent and accumulate in the food chain, particularly in animal fat cells.
      Phthalates have been shown to cause developmental and reproductive damage in animals, and have been linked to the development of respiratory problems in children. Lead is a well-known cause of neurodevelopmental problems. Cadmium causes cancer and kidney damage.
     The report estimates that 70 billion pounds of PVC plastic are slated for disposal in the next decade. And, the problem is going to get worse. Disposal rates are expected to sharply increase as an estimated 125 billion pounds of PVC installed in the last 40 years in construction and other long lasting uses will need to be disposed of as it reaches the end of its useful life.
    A growing number of corporations are phasing out PVC, including Nike, Samsung and Firestone. The Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow joined with the report authors, Center for Health, Environment & Justice and the Environmental Health Strategy Center, in sending a letter to Johnson & Johnson and Microsoft Corporation to urge them to phase out PVC use.

     These corporate targets are large users of PVC packaging such as Microsoft's blister packs on computer software products and Johnson and Johnson's Kids Detangling Shampoo bottles.

     AHT urged consumers to check for a "3" or "v" and avoid PVC products, noting "bad things come in three's - pollution, health hazards and the looming waste crisis."

     AHT is also backing legislation in Massachusetts, which targets the chemicals emitted during the PVC lifecycle, including dioxin emitted during incineration of PVC and lead and phthalates that can escape from PVC products during their use. The "Safer Alternatives" legislation, re-filed last week, would promote the use of safer alternatives to these chemicals whenever feasible.

     "Some major medical device manufacturers are switching from using PVC to avoid direct patient exposure to phthalates, as well as the public and environmental health impacts of PVC throughout its life cycle, said Ted Schettler MD, MPH of the Science and Environmental Health Network. "Companies realize that protecting the public health and the environment is the right thing to do and makes good business sense."

     "Given that there are viable alternatives for virtually every use of PVC, the common sense solution to the PVC disposal crisis is not to make it in the first place," said Paul Bogart, spokesperson for the Healthy Buildings Network. "Innovative companies like Firestone are shifting the market towards more environmentally friendly plastics - large users like Microsoft and Johnson & Johnsons should follow their lead."

     Goods with a relatively short-useful life make up 71 percent of the PVC found in solid waste. Blister packs (hard plastic packaging often used for toys or computer supplies) and other vinyl packaging account for the largest portion of short-lived PVC products (Pg. 11 Report). More than 14 billion pounds of vinyl are produced annually in North America (Vinyl Institute).

December 13, 2004
Environmental group warns of health risks, hazards posed by PVC plastic
Pittstown, PA
NEPA CREED, a Pittston Township environmental group, has released a report by two other groups that warns of health and environmental hazards posed by PVC plastic.

According to NEPA CREED (Northeast PA Citizens for Responsible Environmental & Economic Development), burning PVC waste in incinerators creates cancer-causing dioxin and burying the material in landfills pollutes groundwater.

But Allen Blakey, a spokesman for the Vinyl Institute, Arlington, Va., contends the environmental groups' assertions are wrong.

"It's a smaller source of dioxin than many other sources," Blakey said in a telephone interview "Dioxin emissions have been going down from our industry, as well as some other sources."

He said it is safe to incinerate PVC plastic in waste-to-energy incinerators and medical incinerators, because those facilities are highly regulated and produce little pollution, and safe to bury it.
The report estimates that 70 billion pounds of PVC plastic are slated for disposal in the next decade.

December 10, 2004
New York pipe-ban bill up for renewal
By Angie DeRosa, PLASTICS NEWS  

ALBANY, NY. -- A coalition of building associations, plastics industry trade groups and pipe manufacturers is playing beat-the-clock as New York Gov. George Pataki holds veto power on a bill that would place further restrictions on the use of plastic pipe in commercial development. A three-year ban, signed by Pataki in 2001, is scheduled to expire Dec. 31. Under that legislation, the use of plastic pipe was not permitted in residential buildings larger than six stories and commercial construction. A new bill awaiting Pataki´s approval would extend the ban through 2007, and also ban the use of the product in residential buildings larger than two stories.

Pataki is scheduled to make his decision the week of Dec. 13. "We are working with a coalition of builders, architects, other building professionals, the National Association of Home Builders, to convince the governor to veto the legislation," said Steve Rosario, Albany-based northeast regional director for the American Plastics Council.

The battle has been going on for years, at least since Pataki signed the earlier legislation in 2001. In June, the New York State Builder's Association filed a memorandum in opposition of the bill.

"This legislation circumvents the Uniform Building and Fire prevention code to enact a specific statutory scheme to prohibit the use of plastic piping in structures other than one or two family dwellings or in certain limited cases, dwellings that do not exceed six stories," the association's lawyers said in that filing. "This bill perpetuates the prohibition against usage of plastic pipe, placing New York state in the same unenviable situation as the only state in the nation not permitting such uses of plastic pipe."

The coalition is fighting the bill by arguing it is a pocketbook issue:

Members claim the bill would increase the cost of construction for multifamily residential buildings and commercial projects.

On the other side, for groups such the Citizens Environmental Coalition, it's a matter of health. Groups rallying for the bill's passage want to make New York an example for the rest of the country.

"This is a major effort to protect health and well being of New Yorkers," said Mike Schade, western New York director of CEC. "This really places New York state on the cutting edge of the green building movement across the country.

"PVC is one of the most toxic products out there," Schade said in a Dec. 9 telephone interview.

At this point, It's hard to tell what the governor's decision will be, or how effective the coalition will be in persuading Pataki to veto the bill. Pataki's office did not return a call seeking comment before deadline. "We've been working very hard," Rosario said by telephone Dec. 9. "We've done everything we can."

Those who are pushing for the bill's veto say that the plumbers' union is behind it. "This bill discriminates against PVC, against the PVC pipe industry, against our business in New York and against our employees," said Dave Culbertson, president of National Pipe & Plastics Inc., in Vestal, N.Y.

"This is very political," Culbertson said by telephone Dec. 9. "We have people in the country who are trying to degrade PVC unfairly. So basically, this bill is just unfairly attacking one product solely because of the selfish interests of the plumbers' union. There's no bearing in fact or evidential support of anything wrong with our product."

Still, the plumbers' union insists it's a health issue and not a pocketbook issue.

Larry Bulman, business manager of the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 773 in Glens Falls, N.Y., said the union represents more than 20,000 workers. When it comes to residential dwellings, those workers install more PVC pipe than steel pipe.

"We put in a lot of PVC pipe, both water supply and ventilating [pipe]; however, we also know that there are places where it should be restricted," Bulman said. "Some people say in New York, we're getting too strict. But we have a lot bigger buildings in our state than [other places]. Pipe is pipe as far as installation is concerned. Our fight is not about jobs. "Everyone's looking to save money, even if it means going backward with safety, and that's a very unfortunate problem. People are putting dollars ahead of life."

But Culbertson said complaints about the toxicity of PVC can be made about any material. "Everything emits toxic fumes when it burns. PVC is no more dangerous than any other materials in a fire. The most toxic item in a fire is wood, because it has the most volume," he said.

December 13, 2004
Use of PVC pipes in construction draws debates
By Jennifer Jones, The Gazette
Is it, or is it not, safe? Pipes made of polyvinyl chloride or PVC are in the middle of a debate between business advocates and environmental advocates, as legislation banning the use of the pipe in commercial development is on Gov. George E. Pataki's desk awaiting his signature. According to a study released last week by the Citizens' Environmental Coalition, as much as 7 billion pounds of PVC are discarded every year. Harmful chemicals such lead, cadmium, chlorine, and phthalates could be leached into the groundwater, or if burned, hydrochloric acid is released.

However business advocates such as National Pipe and Plastic Inc. President David Culbertson thinks PVC is not harmful. He claims PVC is slow to ignite and does not sustain a fire. "I believe PVC is being discriminated against," Culbertson said. "It's a political issue. It's driven by organizations that want to selfishly allow themselves more of a market.

Culbertson aimed that comment at the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union. Most PVC piping is installed by members of the union. "That stuff's not good for our people," said Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 112 Union Treasurer Jim Rounds. "That stuff is nasty."

Rounds specifically spoke about the glue and primer used in the installation of the pipe which could be harmful, especially in an enclosed room.

Business advocates point to a study by the Vinyl Institute that claims that there is no health impacts."Opponents hide behind the safety argument - that when plastic burns it emits more and deadly toxin than other materials," said Richard Church, executive director of Plastic Pipes and Fitting Association. "Plastic is no more or less dangerous when burning than any other material in a fire, whether it is carbon monoxide, or another element."

Companies such as Firestone and Samsung are beginning to phase out the use of PVC because of the potential harmful affects. "Burn PVC waste in incinerators and it creates cancer-causing dioxin," said Kathy Curtis, executive director of Citizens' Environmental Coalition. "Bury it in landfills and it pollutes groundwater. Recycle PVC products and they contaminate the recycling process. The only solution is to phase out the PVC in the products we purchase." The ban on PVC use in commercial development expires at the end of the year. The bill sent to the governor would extend the ban for another three years.

December 14, 2004
Business groups, union lobbying in Albany over use of plastic pipe
By Tom Precious, News Albany Bureau

ALBANY - The issue of whether plastic piping should be allowed in new commercial and large residential buildings in New York state has received little notice from the public. But behind the scenes at the Capitol, a furious lobbying war is under way. Business groups are going up against a single union over a measure that, depending on which side is talking, will do everything from shape the state's real estate development future to cause more people to die.

The matter will be decided by Wednesday, the deadline for Gov. George Pataki to act on legislation to continue the state's current three-year ban on the use of plastic pipe in all new construction except single-family and two-family houses and, in limited cases under a new provision, dwellings under three stories.

At stake, business groups say, are huge costs that can determine whether some projects get off the ground. Those costs are driven by a requirement, believed to be the nation's strictest, that requires only metal piping, such as cast iron, be used in commercial and large residential projects.

The requirement boosts costs for private projects, like office parks in the suburbs, to public projects, such as the Erie County Public Safety Complex under construction on Elm Street. With margins tight in real estate, especially the often lackluster upstate market, the law can add as much as 6 percent to the cost, for example, of an overall apartment building project, industry officials maintain.

"We need jobs in this region, and this legislation on many levels would further inhibit that objective," said Laura Zaepfel, corporate relations manager at Uniland Development Co. in Amherst. She said iron pipes can drive a project's plumbing costs up by 38 percent.

Critics of the ban say it is the result of an election-year gift to organized labor, in this case a group of plumbers unions that has, over the past year according to state election records, pumped more than $100,000 in donations to Albany's various political interests.

Plastic is not only a far less expensive material than cast iron or copper, but the ban's opponents say, its use can sharply cut down on labor costs because it can be cheaper to install and repair.

But officials with plumbers' unions, which represent about 30,000 members across New York, insist it is not a jobs issue, but a safety one. They claim that substances are formed, including hydrogen chloride gas and dioxin, when plastic burns in a structure fire that can be extremely dangerous to both occupants and firefighters. Beyond cancer, exposure to the toxins can affect the body's nervous system, liver, lungs and immune system.

"It's a matter of living longer," said Jimmy Hart, the state representative for a statewide umbrella group of plumbers and pipefitters. "What they're saying is it's OK to be unsafe. Let's make some more money for developers at the expense of safety of the consumer."

The issue, though, is raising questions about a state that says it is too dangerous to use plastic in commercial and large residential buildings but apparently safe in single family homes. Critics of the ban say that sends a twisted signal.

Why not, then, ban the substance in new house construction? "That's a good question. It should be banned," Hart said.

That would be foolhardy, critics say, and not backed up by science. Indeed, groups representing firefighters and fire marshals are split themselves over the bill. Some unionized firefighter groups say plastic is dangerous, and the state should keep the ban in place for the safety of firefighters, while others note they are given special masks to protect firefighters from such toxins.

While some professional firefighter groups support the ban, an organization representing volunteer firefighters want a veto. "We would probably be opposed to the use of plastic pipe if we knew for sure there is a real element of toxicity there in an emergency situation, but we don't know that," said Kirby Hannan, legislative advocate at the Firemen's Association of New York State, which represents volunteer firefighters.

Critics of the ban say it sets a dangerous precedent by violating the state's own rigorous building code standards, a group of mandates set by a state panel, not by what opponents say are the political whims of the Legislature. The legislation pending before Pataki would apply statewide except New York City, which has its own building code.

Pataki's own agency that oversees the building code in New York, the Department of State, three years ago unsuccessfully urged him to veto the measure, saying it undermined the effort by New York to join with other states in moving to a uniform set of national building code standards for things like plumbing. The agency declined to comment on its current recommendations that it has given Pataki about extending the ban.

In a city such as Buffalo, the ban will make it more expensive for developers to construct mixed-used commercial and residential buildings that officials want to help rejuvenate downtown, officials say. "It's just another item that makes us less competitive and more costly. It doesn't make sense," Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello said of the plastics ban. "Why do we have to lag behind the rest of the country and make it more expensive to do development?"

The bill is being backed by environmental groups, which say the state should be moving to limit plastics, not encourage more of it. They noted a report released last week by two groups, including one founded by Lois Gibbs, the Love Canal environmental advocate, that found New York ranks second in the burning of polyvinylchloride, or PVC, and third in the amount of PVC dumped in landfills. The groups say the plastic pipes pose not only a risk to the environment when discarded, but also a danger to humans by the release of toxins during the lifetime of a piece of plastic.

"This bill on the governor's plate has the opportunity to place New York as a leader in the national green building movement, moving towards safer products that aren't harmful to the public health or the environment," said Mike Schade, Western New York coordinator of the Citizens' Environmental Coalition.

Plumbers insist a ban wouldn't save much in salary costs because some aspects of plastic pipe installation take more time than metal pipe work. Builders say that claim is ridiculous, insisting that plastic is easier to work with - it's glued rather than soldered, for instance - that can make labor costs alone 25 percent lower than with cast iron.

Sean Edwards, business agent with Local 22 of the plumbers union in Buffalo, which represents 1,500 workers in Western New York, said builders could hire less skilled - and less expensive - plumbers because it would not be as expensive if mistakes are made with plastic piping as now with metal piping.

"But that's not it," he said of the plumbers' concerns. "It's a safety issue."

Philip LaRocque of the New York State Builders Association said it costs about $4 for a linear foot of cast iron, compared to about $1 for the same length of plastic pipe. The difference adds up in a big project. A two-bedroom unit in an apartment building with three or more units would cost about $3,000 more to build - because of materials and labor - with cast iron than plastic.

"We want the choice," LaRocque said, not a mandate from the state. He said no other state has the kind of prohibition against plastic as New York, which he called "the classic Empire State exclusion."

December 8, 2004
Mass. listed among major burners of PVC
By Jon Chesto, The Patriot Ledger
ROCHESTER - Massachusetts ranks third in the amount of PVC plastic that's burned up in incinerators, according to a report by environmental activists. The state received the high ranking, behind Florida and New York, because more trash, in general, is incinerated here -- as opposed to being shipped to landfills -- than in other states.

But Cindy Luppi, an activist with Clean Water Action, said Massachusetts residents should still be concerned about the hazardous effects of polyvinyl chloride, a material that can release cancer-causing chemicals known as dioxins when it's burned.

The report yesterday from the Environmental Health Strategy Center and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice estimates that some 70 billion pounds of PVC plastic are slated for disposal in the next decade. The two environmental advocacy groups, along with others, are asking a wide range of companies, including Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson, to stop using the material in their products.

Ed Coletta, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, said state rules put in place by the end of 2000 helped dramatically reduce harmful pollutants from the state's seven incinerators.

And, at least at the SEMASS incinerator in Rochester, dioxins caught in the ash byproduct from those pollution controls are safely disposed of in a double-lined landfill in Carver, said Andrew Szurgot, environmental affairs director for the incinerator's owner, American Ref-Fuel Co.

The SEMASS plant, which burns municipal waste from Southeastern Massachusetts communities and turns it into electric power, is the largest incinerator in the state.

Szurgot said new federal and state regulations in the plast 10 years have all but completely eliminated dioxin emissions at incinerators.

"It's definitely an improvement to have these controls on incinerators," said Luppi of Clean Water Action. "But it's far better to have a less toxic waste stream."

December 12, 2004
Yushchenko poison identified

By Matthew Schofield, Inquirer Foreign Staff
BERLIN - The mystery illness that has left Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko's formerly handsome face scarred and pitted is the result of dioxin poisoning, his Austrian doctors said yesterday.

Citing new blood tests, the doctors confirmed what had long been suspected - that Yushchenko's sudden illness in September was the result of poisoning during a controversial presidential campaign plagued with allegations of fraud and manipulation.

The doctors said they could not say how Yushchenko was exposed to the dioxin.

"We'll leave that to the legal authorities," said Michael Zimpfer, head physician at the Rudolfinerhos Clinic in Vienna.

But the dioxin was "most likely... orally administered," he said.

"There is no doubt of the fact that the disease has been a case of poisoning by dioxin," Zimpfer said. "There were high concentrations of dioxins found." He said tests showed Yushchenko had dioxin levels in his blood 1,000 times the norm.

"We suspect involvement of an external party, but we cannot answer as to who cooked what or who was with him while he ate," Zimpfer said.

Yushchenko was in satisfactory condition and was expected to be released from the private clinic today or tomorrow to return to the campaign trail in Ukraine, Zimpfer said.

The poisoning diagnosis is sure to add fuel to the already tense situation in Ukraine, where Yushchenko faces former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych on Dec. 26 in a rerun of a runoff for the presidency. The first runoff between the two men on Nov. 21 was called in Yanukovych's favor, then was declared fraudulent by the country's Supreme Court, which ordered the new vote after tens of thousands of Yushchenko supporters occupied streets for days in the country's capital, Kiev.

Immediate reaction to the news of the poisoning was muted. Several politicians and analysts said yesterday's announcement was not the first time they had heard reports that the mystery illness was poisoning, but that twice such statements had been retracted.

Yushchenko repeated allegations he made earlier this year that the poisoning was an attempted political assassination.

Yanukovych acknowledged only that Yushchenko was ill and wished him a full recovery. Yanukovych has repeatedly denied attempting to harm Yushchenko since the source of the illness became a public debate in October.

Yushchenko's supporters expressed little surprise over the doctors' conclusion.

"Everybody knew he was poisoned, so we didn't really need official tests," said Anatoly Klotchyk, 19, standing in the sleet outside his tent near Kiev's Independence Square, where supporters have blockaded government buildings since the election dispute flared.

International medical experts concurred with the diagnosis, though some questioned whether dioxin, generally seen as an environmental hazard linked to cancer and other ailments, would be an effective assassination tool.

"All the signs look like the last deliberate poisoning I saw," said Arnold Schecter, a dioxin specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. "It's perfectly consistent."

Unlike the immediate reactions caused by more common poisons such as arsenic or cyanide, dioxin's symptoms are delayed from two days to two weeks after exposure, no matter what the dosage, Schecter said. A single drop on food would be enough to have sickened Yushchenko, he said.

Another expert, Olaf Pepke, a chemist in Hamburg, Germany, who has studied thousands of cases of dioxin poisoning, said he knows of no one who has died of dioxin poisoning itself.

"People will die as a result of dioxin, but this may be years later of a cancer," he said. "Until this day, we don't have a single instance where we can say that dioxin contamination resulted in an immediate death."

Still, Schecter and others predicted that Yushchenko would be disabled for years from his exposure. There is no treatment for dioxin poisoning; the body gradually eliminates the substance largely through excrement, Schecter said.

Dioxin is a highly toxic by-product of chemical processes involving chlorine and is generally discussed as an environmental hazard. Sources of dioxin in the environment include paper and pulp mills, hazardous waste incineration, and the manufacturing of PVC plastics and some pesticides.

Dioxin is one of the agents thought to have caused long-term problems for Vietnam veterans exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange, and its presence was one reason for the evacuation of contamination sites in Times Beach, Mo., and the Love Canal area of Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Human health effects from exposure to dioxin include cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, inflammation of the uterus, infertility, suppressed immune functions, reduced IQs, and hyperactive behavior in children.

As a poison, it can cause ulcers of the intestinal tract, chloracne, and damage to other organs.

Recovery is possible. Pepke noted the case of five Viennese women who were deliberately poisoned in 1997 - a case both he and Schecter consulted on - and said the victims are now in "relatively good shape." Schecter said that the most seriously affected was ill for two years, however.

Yushchenko reportedly still suffers great pain and had a catheter inserted into his spinal column, through which painkillers were administered during the presidential campaign.

December 8, 2004
Groups to seek voluntary halt to companies’ PVC use
Foster's Daily Democrat, NH
A report released Tuesday says Maine incinerates too much plastic PVC waste, presenting health and environmental risks.The report released by the Environmental Health Strategy Center estimates that a larger percentage of PVC waste is burned in Maine than in any other state. The group joined another advocacy group in a new campaign to persuade major PVC users to phase out its use and get consumers to stop buying products that use PVC.

Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, is widely used in plastic pipes, building materials like vinyl siding, toys, tablecloths and disposable packaging.

But the health strategy center’s Michael Belliveau said that when that material is burned in waste incinerators, backyard barrels or on construction job sites, deadly dioxin, toxic air emissions and hazardous ash are formed.

The report from the Environmental Health Strategy Center and Center for Health Environment and Justice says PVC leaches toxic chlorine into the ground when it’s put into landfills, and that PVC is not practical for recycling.

The report says the United States will face an environmental crisis when the first generations of vinyl siding and construction products introduced in the 1970s reach the end of their useful lives. It says as many as 7 billion pounds of PVC are discarded each year.

The plastics industry plays down the risks associated with PVC and claims the materials can be recycled. Its supporters say the environmental and health groups are using scare tactics.

The president of the American Council of Science and Health, Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, said there is "no evidence that these chemicals pose any risk to humans."

In addition to challenging companies to voluntarily halt the use of PVC in their products, the advocates urged consumers to stop buying the products, which can be recognized by the "Number 3" recycling code on the bottom of the package.

Maine hospitals, among the biggest users of vinyl products, have pledged to phase out the use of PVC products.

December 8, 2004
Report: Disposal of vinyl unsafe
70 billion pounds of PVC plastic nearing end of life expectancy
KnoxsNews, TN
The United States faces a looming waste crisis, with an estimated 70 billion pounds of vinyl plastic facing the end of its useful life and no safe means for disposal available, according to a report released Tuesday by public health advocates.

Over the last 40 years, about 300 billion pounds of polyvinyl chloride - also known as PVC plastic or simply vinyl - have been installed in construction and other long-lasting uses, more than a third of it in the United States, according to the report.

Much of that plastic, which has a life expectancy of 30 to 40 years, will reach the end of its useful life in the next decade, said the report by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, in Falls Church, Va., and the Environmental Health Strategy Center, in Portland, Maine.

But the two most common means of disposal - incineration and landfills - present health hazards, the report said. Incineration of PVC plastics releases dioxins, an exceptionally toxic group of chemicals that persist in the environment, accumulate in the fatty tissue of people and animals and have been associated with cancer, developmental disorders and other health effects, the report said.

Landfills are also a problem because although the plastic doesn't deteriorate, a group of plastic softeners called phthalates often added to vinyl products and packaging can be released over time and leach into groundwater, the report said.

Phthalates can mimic the female hormone estrogen and are suspected of causing infertility in men, early puberty in girls and birth defects involving male reproductive organs.

Also, an average of 8,400 landfill fires a year are reported in the United States, a further source of dioxin pollution, the report said.

Recycling PVC plastic is also problematic because of the wide variety of formulations and additives, the report said. Less than 3 percent of vinyl is recycled.

"We need to try to figure out what to do with this stuff," said Lois Gibbs, executive director of the Virginia group and the homeowner-turned-activist who led the campaign against toxic pollution at Love Canal in the 1970s.

"We as a society can now see what is going to happen and there is a realization there is no 'away' for this - we can't bury it, we can't burn it and we can't recycle it," Gibbs said.

In the meantime, annual consumption of PVC plastic is continuing to increase, adding to the reservoir of plastics that will eventually require disposal, the report said.

First developed for military applications in World War II, commercial use of PVC plastic began to take off in the 1960s. Its largest use is to make white plastic pipes for plumbing, but it is also used in other construction materials, including doors, windows, gutters and vinyl siding.

PVC plastic is also widely used in hospitals for IV bags and tubing and in consumer products from toys to tablecloths. What people smell when they open a new shower curtain or get into a new car are the phthalates in the vinyl plastic, Gibbs said.

Allen Blakey, a spokesman for the Vinyl Institute, which represents the PVC-plastics industry, said vinyl plastics are neither a health hazard nor a waste-disposal problem. He noted that PVC plastic currently accounts for only 1 percent of municipal solid waste.

It is also unreasonable to suggest that PVC plastic is a major source of dioxin when dioxin levels in the environment have been declining at the same time vinyl production has been increasing, Blakey said.

"This report sounds more like a political manifesto than a legitimate environmental report," Blakey said.

However, Michael Belliveau, co-author of the report, said the billions of pounds of PVC plastic that has not yet been disposed of would be a major source of dioxin when it is burned.

December 07, 2004
PVC plastic by the numbers
By JOAN LOWY Scripps Howard News Service

- Polychlorinated vinyl at a glance:
- Annual U.S. consumption of PVC plastic rose from about 2 billion pounds in 1966 to almost 13 billion pounds in 2000, and is forecast to reach 15 billion pounds in 2007.

- An estimated 7 billion pounds of PVC plastic is discarded every year in municipal solid waste, medical waste and construction debris.

- Over the last 40 years, an estimated 125 billion pounds of PVC plastic has been installed in construction and other long-lasting uses in the United States and 300 billion pounds worldwide.

- Burning PVC plastic forms dioxins, a highly toxic group of chemicals that work their way up the food chain, accumulating in fatty tissue in people and animals around the world.

- About 45 percent of PVC plastic is used to make pipes and another 30 percent is used in other construction applications, such as gutters, fencing, decking, vinyl siding, windows and doors.

- PVC plastics are also used in thousands of consumer products, including toys, shower curtains, tablecloths, shampoo bottles and cars.

- More than 100 municipal waste incinerators in the United States burn 500 million to 600 million pounds of PVC waste a year, releasing highly toxic dioxins to the air and in ash disposed of on land.

- Florida burns more PVC waste in municipal incinerators than any other state (an estimated 45,000 tons a year), followed by New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

(Sources: Center for Health, Environment and Justice; Environmental Health Strategy Center)

December 8, 2004
Campaign blasts certain plastics as threat

A coalition of environmental groups kicked off a new campaign Tuesday that calls polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics an environmental threat -- a charge disputed by the vinyl industry. The Center for Health, Environment and Justice in Falls Church, Va., released a 100-page report that says there's no safe way to dispose of PVC. It called for phasing out its use and switching to safer alternatives.

Joining in the announcement were the Ohio Environmental Council, the Ohio Public Interest Research Group and the Buckeye Environmental Network. PVC is widely used in plastic pipes, building materials such as vinyl siding, consumer products and disposable packaging.

The report ranked Ohio fourth in the country -- behind California, Texas and New York -- for putting such waste into landfills with 100,509 tons in 2002.

But that's not safe disposal and could create a human health threat, said the Virginia group, founded by Lois Gibbs of New York's Love Canal.

That's because toxic additives in PVC -- phthalates, lead and cadmium -- can leach from landfills into the ground water and can form toxic emissions in landfill gases. PVC can create cancer-causing dioxins during landfill fires or if it is burned in incinerators.

But the Vinyl Institute in Arlington, Va., strongly disagreed with the claims.

``It's just all wrong,'' said spokesman Allen Blakey of the national trade group.

He called the claim that PVC creates health threats in landfills ``bogus'' and said very little PVC is burned or incinerated.

PVC does not create environmental problems and can be recycled, he said.

The report estimated that as much as 7 billion pounds of PVC is discarded annually in the United States. And the problem will get worse because as much as 300 billion pounds of PVC around the world will soon need to be replaced and require disposal, it said.

Consumers are asked to avoid packaging marked with a No. 3 or the letter V and to pressure companies that use PVC packaging.

Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com

December 8, 2004
Enviro and public health groups launch campaign against PVC
Greenwire
Toxic-infused polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics -- used in pipes, siding and packaging -- should be phased out because there is no environmentally safe way to dispose of them, according to a report released yesterday by a coalition of environment and public health groups in West Virginia and Ohio.

PVC contains phthalates, lead and cadmium that can leach from landfills to groundwater or form carcinogen dioxin fumes when incinerated.

California, New York, Ohio and Texas dumped the largest volume of PVCs into landfills during 2002, and the entire nation throws away up to 7 billion pounds of PVC annually, according to the report.

Most of the PVC currently in use will reach the end of its 30 to 40-year life expectancy in the next decade, states the report. "We as a society can now see what is going to happen and there is a realization there is no 'away' for this -- we can't buy it, we can't burn it and we can't recycle it," said Lois Gibbs, executive director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. Gibbs spearheaded the fight against toxic pollution at Love Canal, N.Y., in the 1970s.

The coalition's claims are "bogus," according to Vinyl Institute spokesman Allen Blakey. The material is rarely burned and can be recycled, said Blakey.

The Center for Health, Environment and Justice, the Ohio Environmental Council, Ohio Public Interested Research Group and the Buckeye Environmental Network released the report during the launch of an education campaign yesterday.

Click here to download a copy of the report. -- TE

December 9, 2004
Maine faulted for PVC incineration
Bangor Daily News
Polyvinyl chlorides surround daily life. From shower curtains, pipes, toys and house siding to that frustrating bubble packaging that encases products, and the credit cards that most people use to buy them, PVC is ubiquitous. In 2001, Americans threw away more than 1.4 million tons of the stuff. But this plastic culture needs to change or America could face a "waste management crisis," according to a study released Tuesday by a coalition of environmental groups.

Mike Belliveau, spokesman for the Maine-based Environmental Health Strategy Center, Tuesday called PVC a "poison plastic."

Vinyl, which is marked with a No. 3 in the triangular recycling symbol, is recycled less than 1 percent of the time. No Maine municipalities accept PVC as part of their recycling programs.

When it is burned - whether in municipal and medical incinerators or in backyard piles - PVC releases harmful dioxins into the atmosphere, he said.

"Most people don't think about plastics, or they think about it as a benign material," Belliveau said Tuesday. "The level of public awareness about PVC is remarkably low."

Here in Maine, 70 percent of the plastic (of all types) that goes through municipal waste systems is incinerated - more than 107,000 tons in 1999, according to State Planning Office figures.

The Environmental Health Strategy Center's study stated that Maine incinerated more than 5,000 tons of PVC alone in 2002, burning a higher percentage of its vinyl than any state in the nation.A 1997 Maine Department of Environmental Protection study revealed that backyard burn barrels are an even more significant source of dioxin because they lack all the modern pollution controls that incinerators are required to install.

While it's clear that dioxin is often produced by burning garbage, some plastic industry groups argue that PVC gets too much blame, citing a federal study in which dioxin emissions did not rise as the amount of vinyl burned increased.

Vinyl is just one of many sources of dioxin in the waste stream, Allen Blakey of The Vinyl Institute, based in Arlington, Va., said Tuesday.

"You can get dioxin without having any vinyl in what you're burning," he said.

However, Maine has taken a strong stand on the issue, codifying in law that PVC is defined as a dioxin-forming product - particularly when burned. DEP also has listed PVC in its definition of "household hazardous wastes" that should be disposed of with care.

"It's an issue of continued importance to us," Paula Clark, director of DEP's Division of Solid Waste, said Tuesday.

Dioxins do not exist in nature. Rather, they result from the chlorine compounds that go into the making of PVC. Chlorine is also used in other industries, like paper bleaching and copper smelting, which result in dioxin pollution.

When released into the air, dioxins fall onto bodies of water, where the fat-soluble chemicals are taken up by fish and other organisms. Maine currently has dioxin advisories telling people to limit their consumption of many freshwater species, as well as lobster tomalley. The chemicals can also fall on to crops to enter the food supply, either directly or via livestock.

Once in the body, dioxins have been linked to cancers, learning disabilities and birth defects. There is evidence to suggest that they may serve as endocrine disrupters, interfering with the normal activities of hormones, Belliveau said.

Belliveau also worries about the health impacts of PVC outgassing in our cars, offices and homes, polluting the air as some of the chemicals in vinyl evaporate.

That "new car smell" is the surest sign that plastics are releasing their chemical components. The same process can occur after PVC is buried in landfills, contaminating the environment, he said.

The smell arises because chemicals known as "plasticizers" are used to ensure that vinyl products remain soft and pliable. Different chemicals are used as plasticizers, some of which are known or suspected to be carcinogens, and others which are known to be safe, according to Ed Vignealut, who works on hazardous waste issues at the DEP.

But many of the chemicals used have not been studied, he said.

"There's a large range of plasticizers," Vigneault said. "Some of these compounds are harmful and some are pretty innocuous."

Blakey, the vinyl industry spokesman, argued that the distinctive smell of a new car, or shower curtain for that matter, comes from other materials, such as glues and dyes, that go into production, not plasticizers.

The American Chemistry Council goes so far as to say that the category of plasticizers that most concern environmentalists, called phthalates, "do not evaporate" and even if they did, would not be a health hazard.

Yet the federal Food and Drug Administration is concerned enough that it issued a national safety warning about phthalates in soft vinyl medical equipment like medicine bags and tubes. Here in Maine hospitals are phasing out the use of PVC.

A number of leading manufacturers, including General Motors, Mattel, Nike and several other toy and cosmetics companies, have agreed in recent years to phase out the use of all polyvinyl chlorides. Tuesday, the Environmental Health Strategy Center called on several more major corporations to do the same.

Belliveau hopes that the state's planned household hazardous waste program can receive funding to start helping to divert products like PVC away from incinerators to landfills.

But the best solution, he said Tuesday, is to watch out for and avoid the plastic product with the No. 3 symbol or a letter V, indicating vinyl. Substitutes made from glass, wood, metal or recyclable plastic are readily available for nearly every PVC product on the market, he said.

"Leave it on the shelf to protect your health," Belliveau said. The full report, called "PVC: Bad News Comes in 3's" is available online at www.preventharm.org

December 8, 2004
Study: Area burns 'poisonous plastic'
By Tim Wacker, EagleTribune
The Merrimack Valley is one of the nation's biggest burners of a "poisonous plastic" called polyvinyl chloride, according to a study released yesterday by a pair of environmental groups seeking to end the practice nationwide.

Massachusetts is ranked third in the nation in the amount of trash it burns, and that includes some 28,000 tons of PVC each year, the study found. A third of those emissions come from two incinerators in the Merrimack Valley, local backers of the study said yesterday.

The problem with PVC smoke is that it includes high levels of chlorine, a primary ingredient in a highly toxic chemical called dioxin. That translates into more dioxin in the air, soil and water anywhere garbage is burned, said Michael Belliveau, executive director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center based in Maine, one of the study's authors.

"That makes the Merrimack Valley a major source of dioxin contamination in the state," he said. "The Merrimack Valley contributes to the dubious distinction that Massachusetts has as one of the nation's leaders in dioxin emissions in the air."

That can spell all kinds of health problems for people exposed to dioxin for extended periods of time, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Dioxin is a carcinogen which has been linked to human immune and endocrine system ailments.

PVCs most often end up in garbage as the discarded clear plastic shells used regularly in packaging called blister wrap. Massachusetts burns 54.6 percent of the garbage it produces -- third behind Connecticut and then Maine.

There are seven garbage incinerators in the state. The two that serve the Merrimack Valley -- Wheelabrator in North Andover and Coventa Energy in Haverhill -- burn garbage to produce electricity for communities that have waste disposal contracts with them.

Wheelabrator plant manager Scott Emerson said his company has done what it can to clean its emissions. State-mandated upgrades to emission controls have removed much of the noxious chemicals from the trash it burns.

"We test for dioxin," Emerson said, "and the (state) has said that waste-to-energy plants produce electricity with less environmental impact than other power plants."

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection said there isn't much the state can do. In 1998, the state passed those new mandates and there's no law against throwing out PVCs.

"When we promulgated the new regulations all the (incinerators) were onboard with the new technologies," said agency spokesman Edmund Coletta. "These technologies do a great job of reducing dioxin. We know that there are state-of-the-art controls on these combustors ... and PVCs are not a banned material."

That's one thing Belliveau and some supporters of the study would like to see changed. The study calls on corporate giants Johnson & Johnson and Microsoft to stop using PVC packaging to reduce the amount that gets burned nationwide.

"We'd like to see them demonstrate corporate responsibility and consider the environmental cost of the disposal of the packaging that they are using," said Brent Baeslack, head of the Haverhill Environmental League. "They don't have to bear the costs we, who are in close proximity to the incinerators, have to bear -- costs of increased risks to our health."

A call to Microsoft's Waltham, Mass., office was not returned, but Belliveau said Johnson & Johnson has shown interest in cutting back its use of PVC packaging. PVCs are not recyclable, but there are plenty of plastic alternatives that are, Belliveau and others said.

"When I go to use my nice Gillette turbo razor, it's in a nice PVC package," said Baeslack. "I'd just as well it came in a nice cardboard package with a picture on it."

The study was conducted over the past year by Belliveau group and the Center for Heath and Environmental Justice, a group that was founded in 1981 in response to the Love Canal disaster in New York.

Neither group could say how much the study cost, but Stephen Lester, science director for the center, said it involved paid and volunteer efforts from about a dozen groups that wanted to model similar studies done in Europe.

December 9, 2004
Limiting burning of PVC is urged
Local incinerator is among targets
By Steven Rosenberg, Boston Globe
A national report issued this week identified Massachusetts as the third-largest incinerator of polyvinyl chloride waste in the United States. Of the state's seven incinerators, two of the top three are in Saugus and Haverhill, and burn more than 30 percent of the state's waste. The report, issued by the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow -- a Boston-based nonprofit environmental organization -- was written by two nonprofit groups: the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, based in Virginia, and the Environmental Health Strategy Center, based in Maine.

December 8, 2004
Group asks area firm to end PVC use
By John F. Bonfatti, Buffalo News Staff Reporter
New York burns the second highest amount of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) waste in the country, according to a report that calls the material "the poison plastic." The report, released Tuesday by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice and the Environmental Health Strategy Center, notes that more than 37,000 pounds of PVC is incinerated annually in New York.

The state ranks third in the country in the amount of PVC waste in landfills, with more than 116,000 tons disposed annually. "Burn PVC waste in incinerators and it creates cancer-causing dioxin," said Mike Schade of the Citizens Environmental Coalition, which announced the study locally at a soon-to-be-completed plant on the Buffalo waterfront that turns PVC into plastic fencing. "Bury it in landfills and it pollutes groundwater," he said. "Recycle PVC and they contaminate the recycling process." Schade and a number of other local activists used the report to press the company that will operate the new plant, CertainTeed, to phase out PVC use in its products.

"We are also joining groups in over 20 cities across the country . . . to kick off a national campaign to encourage Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson to phase out PVC packing in their products," Schade said. CertainTeed is relocating its fence manufacturing plant from Cheektowaga to the new Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park, at the old Union Ship Canal site.

Company officials in the past have said their fence fabrication is an environmentally friendly process and that there will be no harmful emissions into the air, water or soil from the new plant. But Schade said it's not so much the fabrication that's the problem, "it's the life cycle of the product." The complete report is available at www.cectoxic.org. email: jbonfatti@buffnews.com

December 8, 2004
Report warns of a looming waste crisis
Birmingham Post Herald
The United States faces a looming waste crisis, with an estimated 70 billion pounds of vinyl plastic facing the end of its useful life and no safe means for disposal available, according to a report released Tuesday by public health advocates.

During the last 40 years, about 300 billion pounds of polyvinyl chloride — also known as PVC plastic or simply vinyl — has been installed in construction and other long-lasting uses, more than a third of it in the United States, according to the report.

Much of that plastic, which has a life expectancy of 30 to 40 years, will reach the end of its useful life in the next decade, said the report by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice in Falls Church, Va., and the Environmental Health Strategy Center in Portland, Maine.

But the two most common means of disposal — incineration and landfills— present health hazards, the report said. Incineration of PVC plastics releases dioxins, an exceptionally toxic group of chemicals that persist in the environment, accumulate in the fatty tissue of people and animals and have been associated with cancer, developmental disorders and other health effects, the report said.

Landfills also are a problem because although the plastic doesn't deteriorate, a group of plastic softeners called phthalates often added to vinyl products and packaging can be released over time and filter into groundwater, the report said.

Phthalates can mimic estrogen and are suspected of causing infertility in men, early puberty in girls and birth defects involving male reproductive organs.

Also, an average of 8,400 landfill fires a year are reported in the United States, a further source of dioxin pollution, the report said.

Recycling PVC plastic also is problematic because of the wide variety of formulations and additives, the report said. Less than 3 percent of vinyl is currently recycled.

"We need to try to figure out what to do with this stuff," said Lois Gibbs, executive director of the Virginia group and the homeowner-turned-activist who led the campaign against toxic pollution at Love Canal in the 1970s.

"We as a society can now see what is going to happen and there is a realization there is no 'away' for this — we can't bury it, we can't burn it and we can't recycle it," Gibbs said.

Annual consumption of PVC plastic is continuing to increase, adding to the reservoir of plastics that will eventually require disposal, the report said.

First developed for military applications in World War II, commercial use of PVC plastic began to take off in the 1960s. Its largest use is to make white plastic pipes for plumbing, but it also is used in doors, windows, gutters and vinyl siding.

PVC plastic is also widely used in hospitals for IV bags and tubing and in products from toys to tablecloths. What people smell when they open a new shower curtain or get into a new car are the phthalates in the vinyl, Gibbs said.

Allen Blakey, a spokesman for the Vinyl Institute, which represents the PVC-plastics industry, said vinyl plastics are neither a health hazard nor a waste-disposal problem. He noted that PVC plastic currently accounts for only 1 percent of municipal solid waste.

It is also unreasonable to suggest that PVC plastic is a major source of dioxin when dioxin levels in the environment have been declining while vinyl production has been increasing, Blakey said.

"This report sounds more like a political manifesto than a legitimate environmental report," Blakey said.

However, Michael Belliveau, co-author of the report, said the billions of pounds of PVC plastic that has not yet been disposed of would be a major source of dioxin when it is burned.

December 7, 2004
Public health group warns about impending plastic problem
By Joan Lowy, Scripps Howard News Service,
The United States faces a looming waste crisis, with an estimated 70 billion pounds of vinyl plastic facing the end of its useful life and no safe means for disposal available, according to a report released Tuesday by public health advocates.

Over the last 40 years, about 300 billion pounds of polyvinyl chloride - also known as PVC plastic or simply vinyl - has been installed in construction and other long-lasting uses, more than a third of it in the United States, according to the report.

Much of that plastic, which has a life expectancy of 30 to 40 years, will reach the end of its useful life in the next decade, said the report by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, in Falls Church, Va., and the Environmental Health Strategy Center, in Portland, Maine.

But the two most common means of disposal - incineration and landfills- present health hazards, the report said. Incineration of PVC plastics releases dioxins, an exceptionally toxic group of chemicals that persist in the environment, accumulate in the fatty tissue of people and animals and have been associated with cancer, developmental disorders and other health effects, the report said.

Landfills are also a problem because although the plastic doesn't deteriorate, a group of plastic softeners called phthalates often added to vinyl products and packaging can be released over time and leach into groundwater, the report said.

Phthalates can mimic the female hormone estrogen and are suspected of causing infertility in men, early puberty in girls and birth defects involving male reproductive organs.

Also, an average of 8,400 landfill fires a year are reported in the United States, a further source of dioxin pollution, the report said.

Recycling PVC plastic is also problematic because of the wide variety of formulations and additives, the report said. Less than 3 percent of vinyl is currently recycled.

"We need to try to figure out what to do with this stuff," said Lois Gibbs, executive director of the Virginia group and the homeowner-turned-activist who led the campaign against toxic pollution at Love Canal in the 1970s.

"We as a society can now see what is going to happen and there is a realization there is no 'away' for this - we can't bury it, we can't burn it and we can't recycle it," Gibbs said.

In the meantime, annual consumption of PVC plastic is continuing to increase, adding to the reservoir of plastics that will eventually require disposal, the report said.

First developed for military applications in World War II, commercial use of PVC plastic began to take off in the 1960s. Its largest use is to make white plastic pipes for plumbing, but it is also used in other construction materials, including doors, windows, gutters and vinyl siding.

PVC plastic is also widely used in hospitals for IV bags and tubing and in consumer products from toys to tablecloths. What people smell when they open a new shower curtain or get into a new car are the phthalates in the vinyl plastic, Gibbs said.

Allen Blakey, a spokesman for the Vinyl Institute, which represents the PVC-plastics industry, said vinyl plastics are neither a health hazard nor a waste-disposal problem He noted that PVC plastic currently accounts for only 1 percent of municipal solid waste.

It is also unreasonable to suggest that PVC plastic is a major source of dioxin when dioxin levels in the environment have been declining at the same time vinyl production has been increasing, Blakey said.

"This report sounds more like a political manifesto than a legitimate environmental report," Blakey said.

However, Michael Belliveau, co-author of the report, said the billions of pounds of PVC plastic that has not yet been disposed of would be a major source of dioxin when it is burned. On the Net: www.besafenet.com

December 8, 2004
Report: Disposal of vinyl unsafe
70 billion pounds of PVC plastic nearing end of life expectancy
By Joan Lowy, Scripps Howard News Service

The United States faces a looming waste crisis, with an estimated 70 billion pounds of vinyl plastic facing the end of its useful life and no safe means for disposal available, according to a report released Tuesday by public health advocates. Over the last 40 years, about 300 billion pounds of polyvinyl chloride - also known as PVC plastic or simply vinyl - have been installed in construction and other long-lasting uses, more than a third of it in the United States, according to the report.

Much of that plastic, which has a life expectancy of 30 to 40 years, will reach the end of its useful life in the next decade, said the report by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, in Falls Church, Va., and the Environmental Health Strategy Center, in Portland, Maine.

But the two most common means of disposal - incineration and landfills - present health hazards, the report said. Incineration of PVC plastics releases dioxins, an exceptionally toxic group of chemicals that persist in the environment, accumulate in the fatty tissue of people and animals and have been associated with cancer, developmental disorders and other health effects, the report said.

Landfills are also a problem because although the plastic doesn't deteriorate, a group of plastic softeners called phthalates often added to vinyl products and packaging can be released over time and leach into groundwater, the report said.

Phthalates can mimic the female hormone estrogen and are suspected of causing infertility in men, early puberty in girls and birth defects involving male reproductive organs.

Also, an average of 8,400 landfill fires a year are reported in the United States, a further source of dioxin pollution, the report said.

Recycling PVC plastic is also problematic because of the wide variety of formulations and additives, the report said. Less than 3 percent of vinyl is recycled.

"We need to try to figure out what to do with this stuff," said Lois Gibbs, executive director of the Virginia group and the homeowner-turned-activist who led the campaign against toxic pollution at Love Canal in the 1970s.

"We as a society can now see what is going to happen and there is a realization there is no 'away' for this - we can't bury it, we can't burn it and we can't recycle it," Gibbs said.

In the meantime, annual consumption of PVC plastic is continuing to increase, adding to the reservoir of plastics that will eventually require disposal, the report said.

First developed for military applications in World War II, commercial use of PVC plastic began to take off in the 1960s. Its largest use is to make white plastic pipes for plumbing, but it is also used in other construction materials, including doors, windows, gutters and vinyl siding.

PVC plastic is also widely used in hospitals for IV bags and tubing and in consumer products from toys to tablecloths. What people smell when they open a new shower curtain or get into a new car are the phthalates in the vinyl plastic, Gibbs said.

Allen Blakey, a spokesman for the Vinyl Institute, which represents the PVC-plastics industry, said vinyl plastics are neither a health hazard nor a waste-disposal problem. He noted that PVC plastic currently accounts for only 1 percent of municipal solid waste.

It is also unreasonable to suggest that PVC plastic is a major source of dioxin when dioxin levels in the environment have been declining at the same time vinyl production has been increasing, Blakey said.

"This report sounds more like a political manifesto than a legitimate environmental report," Blakey said.

However, Michael Belliveau, co-author of the report, said the billions of pounds of PVC plastic that has not yet been disposed of would be a major source of dioxin when it is burned.

Copyright 2004, KnoxNews. All Rights Reserved.

December 8, 2004
Groups to seek voluntary halt to companies’ PVC use
Foster's Online
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A report released Tuesday says Maine incinerates too much plastic PVC waste, presenting health and environmental risks. The report released by the Environmental Health Strategy Center estimates that a larger percentage of PVC waste is burned in Maine than in any other state. The group joined another advocacy group in a new campaign to persuade major PVC users to phase out its use and get consumers to stop buying products that use PVC.

Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, is widely used in plastic pipes, building materials like vinyl siding, toys, tablecloths and disposable packaging.

But the health strategy center’s Michael Belliveau said that when that material is burned in waste incinerators, backyard barrels or on construction job sites, deadly dioxin, toxic air emissions and hazardous ash are formed.

The report from the Environmental Health Strategy Center and Center for Health Environment and Justice says PVC leaches toxic chlorine into the ground when it’s put into landfills, and that PVC is not practical for recycling.

The report says the United States will face an environmental crisis when the first generations of vinyl siding and construction products introduced in the 1970s reach the end of their useful lives. It says as many as 7 billion pounds of PVC are discarded each year.

The plastics industry plays down the risks associated with PVC and claims the materials can be recycled. Its supporters say the environmental and health groups are using scare tactics.

The president of the American Council of Science and Health, Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, said there is "no evidence that these chemicals pose any risk to humans."

In addition to challenging companies to voluntarily halt the use of PVC in their products, the advocates urged consumers to stop buying the products, which can be recognized by the "Number 3" recycling code on the bottom of the package.

December 8, 2004
Report: Beware of 'poison plastic'
By David Liscio, The Daily Item

BOSTON - An environmental health advocacy group Tuesday released a national report on the hazards posed by incinerators that burn PVC, the plasticmaterial commonly used in plumbing pipes and packaging.

     Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow asserted that PVC is a "poison plastic" and that Massachusetts incinerates a higher percentage of it than all but two other states.

     Cindy Luppi, a spokesman for Clean Water Action, another advocacy group, said the report is especially alarming for Greater Lynn residents because of the proximity of the RESCO trash incinerator on Route 107 in Saugus.

     "RESCO burns about 15 percent of all solid waste in Massachusetts," she said, noting that PVC is often contained in that waste stream.

     Disposing of PVC in incinerators and landfills poses long-term problems caused by the emission of highly-toxic dioxin gasses and leaching of toxic additives such as cadmium and lead into groundwater, Luppi said.

     Communities are increasingly concerned about the PVC content, considering Massachusetts is home to seven operating incinerators.

     "The Saugus facility burns over 1,500 tons of trash per day," said Luppi, adding that the pollutants that don't escape the smokestack are captured and concentrated in the incinerator ash, which is later buried in a local landfill.

     "Saugus and neighboring communities deserve relief from this toxic cocktail of pollution caused by the incineration of PVC products," said Fae Saulenas, co-president of SAVE (Saugus Action Volunteers for the Environment), an advocacy group.

     "Dioxin causes cancer, and harms our reproductive and immune systems - we must stop its build-up in the food we eat and in our water supplies."

     PVC is widely used in plastic pipes, in building materials such as vinyl siding, in consumer products like toys and tablecloths, and in disposable packaging. PVC disposal is the largest source of dioxin-forming chlorine and hazardous phthalates in solid waste, as well as major source of lead, and cadmium, according to the national report, "PVC, Bad News Come in Threes: The Poison Plastic, Health Hazards, and the Looming Waste Crisis."

     Each year, Massachusetts burns more than 28,145 tons of PVC.

     The report concludes that billions of pounds of PVC are being thrown away in the U.S.but there is no 'away' as the plastic waste poses perpetual hazards."Burn PVC waste in incinerators as Massachusetts does in high volume and it changes to cancer-causing dioxin," said Luppi."Bury it in landfills and it pollutes groundwater. Recycle PVC products and they contaminate the recycling process."

     A growing number of corporations are phasing out PVC, including Nike, Samsung, and Firestone, according to the report. A bill in the state Legislature advocating a switch to "safer alternatives" has been filed.

December 8, 2004
Campaign blasts certain plastics as threat
Environmental alliance calls polyvinyl chloride a menace; industry denies it
By Bob Downing, Beacon Journal

A coalition of environmental groups kicked off a new campaign Tuesday that calls polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics an environmental threat -- a charge disputed by the vinyl industry. The Center for Health, Environment and Justice in Falls Church, Va., released a 100-page report that says there's no safe way to dispose of PVC. It called for phasing out its use and switching to safer alternatives.

Joining in the announcement were the Ohio Environmental Council, the Ohio Public Interest Research Group and the Buckeye Environmental Network.

PVC is widely used in plastic pipes, building materials such as vinyl siding, consumer products and disposable packaging.

The report ranked Ohio fourth in the country -- behind California, Texas and New York -- for putting such waste into landfills with 100,509 tons in 2002.

But that's not safe disposal and could create a human health threat, said the Virginia group, founded by Lois Gibbs of New York's Love Canal.

That's because toxic additives in PVC -- phthalates, lead and cadmium -- can leach from landfills into the ground water and can form toxic emissions in landfill gases. PVC can create cancer-causing dioxins during landfill fires or if it is burned in incinerators.

But the Vinyl Institute in Arlington, Va., strongly disagreed with the claims.

``It's just all wrong,'' said spokesman Allen Blakey of the national trade group.

He called the claim that PVC creates health threats in landfills ``bogus'' and said very little PVC is burned or incinerated.

PVC does not create environmental problems and can be recycled, he said.

The report estimated that as much as 7 billion pounds of PVC is discarded annually in the United States. And the problem will get worse because as much as 300 billion pounds of PVC around the world will soon need to be replaced and require disposal, it said.

Consumers are asked to avoid packaging marked with a No. 3 or the letter V and to pressure companies that use PVC packaging.

Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com

December 8, 2004
Buyers urged to avoid 'poison plastics'
By Gregory D. Kesich, Portland Press Herald
Environmental and public health advocates called on consumers Tuesday to stop buying PVC, a plastic used in a wide array of products, from vinyl siding to Saran Wrap.

Citing a report from the Environmental Health Strategy Center and the Center for Health Environment and Justice, Maine advocates said that PVC, polyvinyl chloride, leaches toxic chlorine into the ground when it is put into landfills, forms dioxins when burned, and is not practical for recycling.

The groups call PVC "poison plastics" and the top source of dioxin, which is considered one of the most toxic substances on the planet.

The plastics industry downplays the risks associated with PVC and claims the materials can be recycled. Its supporters say the environmental and health groups are using scare tactics.

Maine has already taken steps to reduce pollution from PVC. In 2001, the Legislature outlawed backyard trash burning.

The state's hospitals, among the biggest users of vinyl products, have pledged to phase out their use.

Tuesday's event focused on consumer products, such as some clear plastic bottles used for shampoo and other products, and blister packs often used to package computer accessories.

Advocates urged people to stop buying the products, which can be recognized by the "Number 3" recycling code on the bottom of the package.

According to the report issued Tuesday, the United States will face an environmental crisis when the first generations of vinyl siding and construction products, introduced in the 1970s, reach the end of their useful lives.

The report said that as much as 7 billion pounds of PVC is discarded each year. But there is as much as 300 billion pounds of building materials in use and eventually headed for disposal, it said.

Amanda Sears of the Environmental Health Strategy Center said Maine is particularly vulnerable to dioxin poisoning because the state incinerates two-thirds of its municipal trash, the highest rate in the country.

The building industry has raised questions about the criticism of the products. So have some scientists, including the American Council of Science and Health, a consumer group that often clashes with environmentalists on issues of the health risks posed by pollution.

"There is no evidence that these chemicals pose any risk to humans," said Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, president of the ACSH. Whelan said environmental pollution causes far fewer premature deaths than smoking and obesity.

The advocates are not proposing any additional government control. They are encouraging consumers to refuse to buy vinyl products, and to write protest letters to companies that use vinyl packaging.

December 7, 2004
Environmentalists Release Report on PVC Disposal in New York
By Joyce Kryszak, WFBO.News

BUFFALO, NY Environmental activists released a report in Buffalo today showing New York is one of the top contributors to the nation's PVC disposal crisis. The state ranks second in PVC waste. The report says seven billion pounds of toxic polyvinyl chloride must be incinerated or put in landfills each year. But the findings also show the popular manufacturing product is never safe. Environmentalists say PVC releases dangerous chemicals, including dioxin, throughout production, use and, finally, disposal.

The report was unveiled at the new Certain Teed PVC plant on Buffalo's waterfront. Mike Schade heads the Citizens Environmental Coalition. He says Certain Teed is bucking the trend to produce safer alternatives -- and at the public's expense.

"Given that the Great Lakes have seen so many environmental problems, I think it's outrageous that Certain-Teed is coming in and siting a PVC fabrication plant right on the waterfront," Schade said.

The company received millions of dollars in government incentives to build at the redeveloped brownfield site. The report documents increased health risks, including cancer, in areas around the country where Certain Teed operates other PVC plants.

December 7, 2004 
Report: PVC piling up
AP
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A report released Tuesday warned that PVC, a plastic used in building materials, toys and other items, is poised to create a major waste crisis.

The report by the Environmental Health Strategy Center and Center for Health, Environment and Justice estimated that 70 billion pounds of polyvinyl chloride would require disposal in the next decade and that the numbers would grow as billions of pounds of the plastic used in the last 40 years wore out.

The CHEJ's Be Safe network is lobbying major manufacturers, including Johnson & Johnson and Microsoft, to switch to non-PVC materials for products and packaging, saying the chlorine- and lead-containing plastic causes health and environmental risks during production and when incinerated. Burning PVC produces dioxin, a known carcinogen, according to the report.

Samsung and Firestone have announced plans to phase out the use of PVC in 2005.

The report was being released in several cities Tuesday, including Buffalo, where 30 environmental groups are fighting construction of a 270,000-square-foot plant which will make fencing out of PVC.

The owners of the plant, CertainTeed, have said the new plant will feature state-of-the-art technology to capture any harmful air or water emissions.

December 4, 2004
OxyChem investigating vinyl chloride gas leak
Pottstown Mercury, Evan Brandt, ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
LOWER POTTSGROVE -- About 360 pounds of vinyl chloride gas escaped from a containment vessel at the Occidental Chemical plant on Armand Hammer Boulevard early Thursday morning. Plant Manager Sam Morris confirmed the leak from a PVC reactor occurred at about 5:30 a.m.

The plant, a former Firestone Tire plant, makes polyvinyl chloride resin, used for the formation of the popular plastic commonly known as PVC.

Morris said the operators working at the building detected the leak immediately and transferred the deadly gas from one tank to another, but not before the 360 pounds of the material leaked into the air.

"There were no injuries and there was no off-site impact," Morris said.

He said OxyChem officials immediately notified the state and federal agencies, as required by law.

The leak occurred in a gasket for a "man-head," an opening in the tank through which workers or equipment can be lowered, said Morris.

The cause of the leak is unknown and the investigation is continuing, he said.

Although the building in which the leak occurred was evacuated, it was not necessary to evacuate the plant, Morris said.

Operations began again shortly after the shutdown and the leak was stopped, he said.

Sanatoga Fire Company Chief Dennis Miller confirmed his trucks were called in as a backup, but their services were not needed.

"It was very minor," Miller said.

Vinyl chloride has been linked to cancer among workers, it is considered a carcinogen and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration lists it among the "ten most toxic and hazardous substances" whose handling it regulates.

Morris said once the investigation into the leak is complete, OxyChem will issue a follow-up report to state and federal agencies.