Free Republic

Natural experiments are rare in politics, but few are as instructive as the prototype for ObamaCare that Massachusetts set in motion in 2006. The bills for "universal coverage" are now coming due, and it appears the state political class is prepared to do lasting damage to one of America's top-flight health-care systems. Last month, Democratic Governor Deval Patrick landed a neutron bomb, proposing hard price controls across almost all Massachusetts health care. State regulators already have the power to cap insurance premiums, which Mr. Patrick is activating. He also filed a bill that would give state regulators the power to...

Most Indian Plastic Toys Are 'Toxic' The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) studied a sample of Indian toys and found that all of them contained high levels of phthalates. Phthalates are chemicals used to soften plastic and the group says India has no regulations to control their use. The use of these chemicals in Europe and the US is strictly regulated. 'Most vulnerable' The CSE studied a sample of toys sold in India and found that all of them contained high levels of phthalates, Sunita Narayan, director of CSE told a press conference in Delhi. Nearly half of them...

Chemicals in plastics alter the brains of baby boys, making them "more feminine", say US researchers. Males exposed to high doses in the womb went on to be less likely to play with boys' toys like cars or to join in rough and tumble games, they found. The University of Rochester team's latest work adds to concerns about the safety of phthalates, found in vinyl flooring and PVC shower curtains. The findings are reported in the International Journal of Andrology. Plastic furniture Phthalates have the ability to disrupt hormones, and have been banned in toys in the EU for some...

Study: Chemicals in plastic can make boys act more like girlsBy Rosemary Black DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Monday, November 16th 2009, 4:09 PM Chemicals found in many plastics are causing little boys to act more like little girls, according to new research. A team at the University of Rochester studying the safety of phthalates -- chemicals in the plastic used in many household objects – found that they can actually disrupt hormones, according to BBC News. The chemicals affect the baby's developing brain by deactivating testosterone, the male sex hormone, according to the BBC. In the study, scientists tested urine...

Axion International Holdings has won a $957,000 contract to provide the U.S. Army with two bridges made from a thermoplastic composite and recycled plastic, the company announced Wednesday evening. The two bridges, which are replacing old wooden ones, will be constructed at Fort Eustis in Virginia from a proprietary Recycled Structural Composite (RSC) developed by Axion in conjunction with scientists at Rutgers University. The railroad cross-ties will be made entirely of a plastic composed of recycled materials from both consumer and industrial plastic waste. Axion asserts that its recycled plastic railroad ties are actually longer-lasting that typical creosote-treated wood railroad...

JEFFERSON CITY, MO. (KWMU) - A law taking effect this week could make criminals out of people who bring Tupperware onto many Missouri rivers. The law was intended to reduce the floating debris from discarded foam coolers. But lawmakers confused their chemistry and barred the wrong plastic. The white foam coolers commonly called "Styrofoam" are made from expanded polystyrene. But the law bars polypropylene instead. That's a plastic found dishwasher-safe plastic containers. The mix up means river floaters can use foam coolers without fear. But someone caught with a plastic container could risk up to a year in jail.

Face-lifts, tummy tucks and hair transplants could be hit with a new tax to help finance the trillion-dollar healthcare overhaul plan, according to sources familiar with the Senate talks. The Senate Finance Committee has discussed imposing a 10 percent excise tax on cosmetic surgery deemed unnecessary for medical purposes. The idea was broached in a meeting with OMB Director Orszag in mid-July, after which Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus told reporters he had heard some "interesting," "creative," and "kind of fun" ideas. The tax, which has not been officially scored, would plug some of the revenue gap senators are seeking...

Once again the cure is as bad as the illness. Remember when you went to the grocery store and brought your food home in brown paper bags. Those bags were great, they had so many uses once you brought them home, everything from trick or treating, to trash bags. Throughout my school years every text book I had was covered with one of those brown paper bags. But those bags used paper and the environmentalists wanted to save the rain forests so they switched to those thin plastic bags. The plastic could still be used for Halloween, and are perfect...

Scientists at Frankfurt University have shown that mineral water in plastic bottles is contaminated with chemicals which act like female hormones in the body. A research project in conjunction with the German Environment Ministry showed that some were as contaminated as water from sewage works for the oestrogen-like substances. Martin Wagner, who worked on the study, said in a statement, “When we started the work we did not expect to find such a massive oestrogen contamination in a foodstuff which is so strictly controlled.” The scientists examined 20 different brands of mineral waters, 12 of which displayed heightened hormone content.

Retailers Pull Plastic Bottles From Shelves Citing Safety Concerns Concerns about the chemical component Bisphenol-A (BPA) lead several major Canadian retailers to pull plastic bottles from their stores today. Chains including The Bay, Zellers, Canadian Tire, Sport Chek and Athlete’s World have removed conventional plastic water bottles from their stores following the lead of other retailers including Mountain Equipment Co-op, Lululemon and Aviva Natural Health Solutions. Health Canada is widely expected to officially list BPA, a chemical component frequently used in clear, moldable, polycarbonate plastics, as a potentially dangerous chemical substance as early as today. In the United States, the...

By Wiley Smith; July 24, 2008 Just saw that Los Angeles banned plastic bags and will charge 25 cents for each paper bag the store supplies to customers. Three percent of the bag fee will be returned to the retailer (0.045 cents), 3 percent (0.045 cents) will go to the state, and the rest (0.16 cents) will go back to the city to fund an education campaign. Of course, some enterprising individuals likely will be selling the bags for less, buying them at a landed cost of 0.05 cents and doubling their money for a sell price of 0.10 cents...

The problem and plague of plastic bags was eating away at Daniel Burd. So, for his science fair project he decided to find out what eats away at plastic bags. After testing various methods and reaching the formidable goal of isolating two strains of plastic-eating microorganisms (Sphingomonas and Pseudomonas), Burd found that plastic bags could be significantly decomposed in about six weeks, with total decomposition taking around three months. Scaling this to industrial applications should be easy, Burd says: "all that's needed is a fermenter, a growth medium and plastic, and the bacteria themselves provide most of the energy by...

In the 1967 film classic The Graduate, a businessman corners Benjamin Braddock at a cocktail party and gives him a bit of career advice. "Just one word…plastics." Although Benjamin didn't heed that recommendation, plenty of other young graduates did. Today, the planet is awash in products spawned by the plastics industry. Residues of plastics have become ubiquitous in the environment—and in our bodies. A federal government study now reports that bisphenol A (BPA)—the building block of one of the most widely used plastics—laces the bodies of the vast majority of U.S. residents young and old. Manufacturers link BPA molecules into...

RACINE, Wis. -- A right to life group in Racine is under fire after mailing controversial material to 44,000 people. It included an informational letter, a fundraising envelope and a small plastic fetus. Mystical Listrom said she was not happy with what she found inside when she opened a letter from Wisconsin Right to Life accompanied by a plastic fetus. "It's my right to choose to do what I want with my body. I shouldn't have people telling me what I can and can't do with my body," Listrom said. Her neighbor, Glenda Pollock, got the same package. "If...

Local moms are playing it cautious when it comes to their babies' bottles. Retailers throughout southeastern Wisconsin say they have seen a swell of interest in glass and bisphenol A-free baby bottles in the past few weeks. So much so that a store manager at USA Baby in Brookfield said manufacturers have been unable to keep up with his customers' demands. "We've really seen a surge in the last month," said Tom Blackmore, manager of USA Baby. "It's been hard to keep glass bottles in stock." A growing body of research indicates that bisphenol A - a chemical used to...

Science Daily — Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) have developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets. "The process is simple," said lead researcher and author Somenath Mitra, PhD, professor and acting chair of NJIT's Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences. "Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations." Harvesting energy directly from abundant solar radiation using solar cells is increasingly...

The Dow Chemical Company, the world’s largest producer of polyethylene, and Crystalsev, one of Brazil’s largest ethanol players, plan to form a joint venture to manufacture polyethylene from sugar cane ethanol. With production expected to start in 2011, the plant will have an annual capacity of 350,000 metric tons. The new facility will use ethanol with Dow’s proprietary technology to manufacture DOWLEXT polyethylene resins—the raw material required to make polyethylene, the world’s most widely-used plastic. At a molecular level, the joint venture’s product will be identical to the DOWLEXT polyethylene resins manufactured at other Dow facilities. The new material is...

I was trying to put some pure acetone which I just bought for 5 dollars for 32oz into my car

Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil 17:44 26 June 2007 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic A US company is taking plastics recycling to another level – turning them back into the oil they were made from, and gas. All that is needed, claims Global Resource Corporation (GRC), is a finely tuned microwave and – hey presto! – a mix of materials that were made from oil can be reduced back to oil and combustible gas (and a few leftovers). Key to GRC’s process is a machine that uses 1200 different frequencies within the microwave range, which act on specific...

Every morning on his way to the Concord, Calif., high school where he teaches physical education and health, John Nunan buys his breakfast. After he swipes his card through the reader, his bank debits the purchase from his account. He often repeats the process for lunch and dinner. The amounts are small. For example, his usual breakfast of coffee and a Western omelet bagel from a coffee shop comes to $5.35. He said he debits his bank account “pretty much for every meal that I eat out.” Mr. Nunan, 25, is part of a group that some major credit card...

Researchers have developed a new material that can fill in its own surface cracks.Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have made a polymer material that can heal itself repeatedly when it cracks. It's a significant advance toward self-healing medical implants and self-repairing materials for use in airplanes and spacecraft. It could also be used for cooling microprocessors and electronic circuits, and it could pave the way toward plastic coatings that regenerate themselves. The first self-healing material was reported by the UIUC researchers six years ago, and other research groups have created different versions of such materials since...

Artificial blood made up of plastic molecules has been created by researchers at Sheffield University in the UK. The artificial blood is light to carry and, unlike blood plasma, does not need to be refrigerated. It also has a longer shelf life. The new artificial blood consists of plastic molecules with an iron atom at their core; this allows it to simulate the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin in real red blood cells. Hemoglobin is the metalloprotein in red blood cells that transports oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body - like the muscles - where it releases its oxygen...

Scientists worldwide are struggling to make motor fuel from waste, but Richard Gross has taken an unusual approach: making a “fuel-latent plastic,” designed for conversion. It can be used like ordinary plastic, for packaging or other purposes, but when it is waste, can easily be turned into a substitute diesel fuel. The process does not yet work well enough to be commercial, but the Pentagon was impressed enough to give $2.34 million for more research. The technique could reduce the amount of material that the military has to ship to soldiers at remote bases, because the plastic would do double...

Would you favor a ban on plastic grocery bags in your community? Yes No

SAN FRANCISCO- San Francisco took another step toward becoming the first U.S. city to ban plastic grocery bags Thursday, after a legislative committee indicated it was likely to endorse the measure. The three-member committee of the city Board of Supervisors was forced to postpone voting on the environmentally friendly legislation after two members amended it to apply to pharmacies with five or more retail stores in addition to grocery stores. But the two supervisors who approved the amendments said they would vote on Tuesday to send it on to the full board, where eight of the 11 members have signed...

FORMERBaywatch babe Pamela Anderson has taken the shears to her ugg boots. The Hollywood pin-up credited with turning the Australian boots into a global fashion phenomenon denounced the footwear on her website. In a truly blonde moment, the actress has suddenly realised that the boots are made from shaved sheepskin.

WASHINGTON: Star Wars-style ray guns and plastic ice-slicks could be the future of weaponry, according to the U.S. Department of Defence. DARPA, the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, envisions fleeing Iraqi insurgents slipping on artificial ice sprayed on the road and an angry mob in Afghanistan dispersed by non-lethal ray gun blasts. The agency sponsors research into numerous aspects of military operations, particularly technology, it claims, "where risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions." The artificial black ice is one of its newest projects. DARPA recently...

In 2000 Plastic Logic, a Cambridge-based start-up company, announced it was attempting to commercialise a form of plastic electronics that had developed from research at the laboratory. By using a cheap and simple set of processing operations to build up layers of circuitry on plastic “substrates” – the material on which circuits are formed – rather than silicon wafers used in conventional microchips, the developments promised to slash the cost of making semiconductors. What has given the science behind the company more substance is today’s announcement that Plastic Logic has attracted $100m (£51m) of investment that will fund a plant...

WASHINGTON — Old toothbrushes, beach toys and used condoms are part of a vast vortex of plastic trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, threatening sea creatures that get tangled in it, eat it or ride on it, a new report says. Because plastic doesn't break down the way organic material does, ocean currents and tides have carried it thousands of miles to an area between Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast, according to the study by the international environmental group Greenpeace. This swirling vortex, which can grow to be about the size of Texas, is not far from...

Britons travelling abroad are likely to be flying in plastic planes in the future, says the chief of Boeing. All 737 planes would be made from non-metal materials, or composites, said president Alan Mulally. Ahead of the Farnborough Air Show, the US plane giant boss said "all future planes will be made out of composites", because it does not corrode. Millions of tourists fly in 737 planes each year. The Farnborough Air Show begins on Monday. Composite are formed when two or more materials with differing properties are combined. Such materials are already used in items such as tennis rackets...

From food-storage containers to disposable silverware, plastic products are such a part of our lives that it's easy to forget they contain chemicals that could harm us. But last month, San Francisco banned a type of sturdy, hard plastic made with a molecule known as bisphenol A , or BPA. Any toys, bottles and pacifiers made with BPA must be replaced, according to the law the mayor signed in June. Why did the city take such drastic action? BPA, like many other man-made chemicals, is now detectable in most people's bloodstreams and could cause dangerous hormonal changes in children. BPA...

The CHEEBA Club's celebration of marijuana is 'part entertainment (free food and dodge ball), but it's also about social justice.' So, like, check this out. These dudes at Macalester College are throwing this righteous party Thursday. They're calling it CHEEBAdanza — "the Twin Cities premier marijuana festival." Says so right on the green flier. This isn't one of those mediocre pot fests — it's A-grade all the way. Excellent. First of all, OK, you have the date, right? Thursday, April 20. That's 4/20. And you know the party starts at 4:20 p.m. That's the legendary tokin' hour, my friends. So...

Plastic problems Smooth, shiny plastic covers may make our mobiles look good - but they last for hundreds of years in landfill sites. Producing plastics creates a lot of nasty waste and products that can be difficult to get rid of or recycle. But Kerry Kirwan, an engineer at Warwick University, may have come up with an answer to our plastic problems. Plant power Kerry has been working with plastics manufacturer PVAXX Research to develop a new type of phone cover made from biodegradable plastics. These covers are created from a mixture of plastics and minerals. They break down into...

Dozens of donated plastic models are available for deployed service members to assemble in their free time. U.S. Army photo U.S. Soldier Starts Tikrit Chapter of Hobby Club The Tikrit chapter of the International Plastic Models Society has fifty members and that number is growing. By U.S. Army Spc. William Jones 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment TIKRIT, Iraq, March 2, 2006 — Some U.S. soldiers assigned to the 101st Airborne Division are passing the time during their deployment by doing something they enjoyed doing as kids – building plastic models. “It is something that totally immerses you in to...

Beyond Bar Codes: Tuning up plastic radio labels Peter Weiss Electronic labels made from plastic semiconductors can now pick up and respond to radio signals at a frequency suitable for use on products. At an electronics conference in San Francisco this week, two European industrial-research teams described plastic radiofrequency-identification (RFID) prototypes with those advanced capabilities. Although silicon-based RFID tags are already in wide use—for instance, in so-called smart cards used to pay mass-transit fares—the new developments bring closer the prospect of RFID tags becoming as common as bar codes, or perhaps even more so, the researchers say. Besides labeling consumer...

Diabetes from a Plastic? Estrogen mimic provokes insulin resistance Ben Harder Exposure to small amounts of an ingredient in polycarbonate plastic may increase a person's risk of diabetes, according to a new study in mice. The synthetic chemical called bisphenol-A is used to make dental sealants, sturdy microwavable plastics, linings for metal food-and-beverage containers, baby bottles, and numerous other products. When consumed, the chemical can mimic the effects of estrogen. Previous tests had found that bisphenol-A can leach into food and water and that it's widely prevalent in human blood. The newfound contribution of the chemical to insulin resistance, a...

NEW YORK: Huge amounts of high-tech explosives, including 67 kgs of commerical plastic explosives, which could be used to make numerous bombs, have been stolen from a private storage facility in the southwestern US state of New Mexico, officials said on Tuesday. The thieves used blowtorches to cut through the thick steel walls of a bunker where the explosives were stored, ABC news said quoting the officials. The missing 400 pounds of explosives includes 150 pounds of what is known as C-4 plastic, or 'sheet explosive,' which can be shaped and moulded and is often used by terrorists and military...

Plastic toys may have subtle effects on the male reproductive system, as chemicals found in products ranging from plastics to cosmetics may slowly reduce testosterone production in newborn boys, a new study has found. Danish paediatric endocrinologist Professor Niels Skakkebfk, of the Rigs hospitalet in Copenhagen, and team report their study of newborn exposure to phthalates in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. "It gives a small piece of information that the newborn testis may be fragile to such toxins," Skakkebfk, was quoted by ABC Online, as saying. "Whether the effects will persist we can't tell but we were quite surprised...

Homeowners who decorate their yards with life-sized plastic deer are complaining the sculptures are being damaged by those stalking real deer during Duluth's special season for bowhunters. "My decorative doe, Felicity, had an arrow sticking out of her hind quarter," Orval Pussywillow of Hunter's Park complained yesterday. "This has got to stop. We paid good money for our beautiful deer." Pussywillow said his four plastic pink flamingos and a lawn ornament depicting the posterior of a fat woman bending over were unmolested.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian scientists have developed a technique to use waste plastic in steel making, a process that could have implications for recycling scrap metal that accounts for 40 percent of steel production. Professor Veena Sahajwalla of the University of New South Wales has won a prestigious Australian science award for what she calls "the hottest research in town," which she hopes will turn an environmental headache into a valuable resource. Under the process, waste plastics are fed into electric steel-making furnaces as an alternative source of carbon and heated to super-hot temperatures of 1,600 degrees Celsius (2,912 Fahrenheit)....

Mounting evidence suggests a plastic additive common in baby and sports bottles and used to line the inside of soda and tin cans is accumulating in our bodies at levels far beyond those known to cause considerable health problems in lab animals. At least that's the conclusion in research underwritten by the government or an independent source such as a university, a new review of 115 peer-reviewed publications has found. Industry-sponsored research has so far found no problem with the additive, bisphenol-A. And that, say the authors of a report published in the current edition of Environmental Health Perspectives, contributes...

Sorry for the shameless vanity, but...plastic rifle ammo? I just bought a few boxes of NATEC polymer-cased ammunition. I'm extremely impressed.

Plastic grocery bags: environmental curse or cure? Unlike paper products that come from trees, a renewable resource, plastic items are a petroleum-derived material and almost never are biodegradable. That would seem to give the environmental advantage to paper bags -- except that harmful chemicals and pollutants also are involved in the manufacture of paper. The debate remains a standoff, with the choice in most places ultimately up to consumers. However, a number of countries and locales have chosen, or are considering, taxing both kinds of disposable bags and using the money for research and education.

Did anyone catch this moment last night?

In a paper published on the Nature Materials Web site on January 9, senior author and Professor Ted Sargent, Nortel Networks -- Canada Research Chair in Emerging Technologies at the University of Toronto's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his team report on their achievement in tailoring matter to harvest the sun's invisible, infrared rays. "We made particles from semiconductor crystals which were exactly two, three or four nanometres in size," Sargent said. "The nanoparticles were so small they remained dispersed in everyday solvents just like the particles in paint," explains Sargent. Sargent's team then tuned the tiny nanocrystals...

Nobody wants to be pushing up daisies. But you kind of like to think that when you one day find yourself doing it, at least the daisies will be real. But not if you're six feet under Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Apple Valley, Calif. The Associated Press reported yesterday that the famous cemetery is giving up grass in favor of artificial turf. The owners of Sunset Hills Memorial Park say the switch will save as much as $180,000 in water and maintenance costs over the next three years. "I actually believe it will revolutionize the cemetery industry eventually," said...

info needed on letter I'm writing...

Several dozen Polish companies are interested in cooperation with Zbigniew Tokarz, inventor of a peculiar machine that is able to produce petrol out of plastic joghurt cups, car bumpers or foil. One machine can produce 500 liters of petrol per hour, which means that 360 tones of waste could be recycled this way each month by a single unit. Since Monday, when Gazeta Wyborcza's advertisement of the machine was published, the editor's office received hundreds of thousands calls. Association of Plastic Products Producers (Stowarzyszenie Przetwórców Tworzyw Sztucznych) and many other companies that are flooded with tones of plastic waste have...

Has anybody else heard about this? I couldn't find how close it is to passing. Hopefully the President won't sign this! TERRORIST FIREARMS DETECTION ACT OF 2003 -- (Senate - October 24, 2003) [Page: S13206] GPO's PDF --- Mr. LEVIN. Madam President, I express my support for the Terrorist Firearms Detection Act, a bill introduced earlier this week by Senator KENNEDY. Originally passed in 1988, and sometimes called the ``plastic gun'' law, this Federal law makes it illegal for any person to manufacture, import, ship, deliver, possess, transfer or receive any firearm that is not detectable by walk-through metal detectors...

SYRACUSE -- The state's new building code allows plastic plumbing in commercial buildings, but state labor law requires metal, and that's causing problems in Onondaga County. The state Labor Department wants 22 developers in the county to rip plastic plumbing out of 27 new buildings, even though it complies with the state building code. Of the 28 buildings cited statewide, 27 are in Onondaga County. The state's new building code, which builders were allowed to use starting in July 2002 and which took full effect at the start of the year, says plastic pipe can be installed in commercial buildings....