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Introduction to Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

Randall D. Watkins  and
Barry Granoff
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Extract

Pollution prevention and the preservation of environmental quality are issues that can no longer be ignored. For years, environmental organizations have struggled, somewhat unsuccessfully, with U.S. industry and congressional legislators, focusing on local, national, and worldwide issues relating to environmental quality. Meanwhile, global pollutants such as acid rain (from sulfur oxide emissions), carbon dioxide, volatile organics (such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and benzene), metals (such as chromium, cadmium, mercury, and lead), dioxins, and pesticides continue to be introduced into the environment. Many consider global environmental effects potentially serious due to “partitioning,” a phenomenon where pollutants migrate to the media where they are most stable. The result is contamination in the air, water, and soil, creating a high potential for exposure to pollutants. Consider, for example, the depletion of the earth's stratospheric ozone layer, promoted by the annual emission of various CFCs equivalent to the emission of over 100 million pounds of equivalent CFC-11 worldwide (CFC-11 has an ozone depleting potential of 1.0 with other CFCs having ozone depleting potentials between zero and one). Consider also the heavily debated global warming/greenhouse effect, caused to a large degree by CO2 emissions from spent fossil fuels, one-fourth of which are consumed in the U.S. Many examples can be cited regarding the presence of toxic substances in remote lakes and streams throughout the world. Now, as the ill effects of our past and present actions are becoming visible and finally better understood, the pressure on U.S. manufacturers is increasing to take responsibility for products and processes contributing to the world's environmental degradation. This pressure will continue to rise until real solutions to these problems are developed and implemented.

Type
Materials and the Environment
Information
MRS Bulletin , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , March 1992 , pp. 34 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1992

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