Total quality product design—how to integrate environmental criteria into the product realization process

Recent case studies on the financial benefits of pollution prevention programs well attest to the notion that a commitment to the environment can help profitability not only by avoiding costs and potential liabilities, but also by generating environmentally-based opportunities for competitive advantage. Achieving these benefits, however, represents a complex management challenge that requires embedding environmental concerns in the day-to-day decisions and actions of a company'S employees. This article shows how the marriage of corporate environmental stewardship and TQM, better known as TQEM, is particularly well suited to the area of product design and why environmental health and safety experts can improve a product'S environmental performance.     

Aging properties of extruded high-amylose starch

The structural and mechanical properties of extruded high-amylose and normal cornstarch were studied as a function of time and humidity to determine the suitability of high-amylose cornstarch for use in biodegradable plastic materials. After extrusion at 170°C and 20–30% moisture, high-amylose starch was mostly amorphous, with small amounts of V- and A-type crystal structures. Tensile strengths for the extruded high-amylose starch ribbons were rather stable with time (65, 50, and 35 MPa at 20, 50, and 80% RH) and were higher than those for normal cornstarch (25, 40, and 15 MPa after 84 days at 20, 50, and 80% RH). Elongations at break declined gradually with time for high-amylose starch (6, 11, and 11% after 84 days at 20, 50, and 80% RH), while rapid declines were seen for normal cornstarch at higher humidities (3, 9, and 3% after 84 days at 20, 50, and 80% RH). Differential scanning calorimetry revealed that normal cornstarch aged at a high humidity had much larger sub-T _g endotherms than high-amylose cornstarch. These endotherms reflect decreases in enthalpy and free volume which occur in amorphous polymers due to structural relaxation. It appears, therefore, that plastic materials prepared from gelatinized or melted high-amylose cornstarch should have greater strength and flexibility and slower physical aging than those prepared from gelatinized normal cornstarch.Paper presented at the Bio/Environmentally Degradable Polymer Society—Second National Meeting, August 19–21, 1993, Chicago, Illinois.Product names are necessary to report factually on available data; however, the USDA neither guarantees nor warrants the standard of the product, and the use of the name by the USDA implies no approval of the product to the exclusion of others that may also be suitable.     

Viewer preference for spatial arrangement of park trees: An application of video-imaging technology

Research on perception of parks and recreation settings has examined several important tree attributes that influence people's visual preferences. This research, however, has usually not considered the spatial arrangement of the trees, partly because of the lack of adequate methods for representing tree arrangements with systematically manipulated geometries. In the study reported here, computer video-imaging techniques were used to construct simulated landscape scenes that varied on specific dimensions of the spatial configuration of trees. The simulations were rated for visual preference by three respondent groups: a university class, a bicycle club, and a women's civic group. Preference ratings were significantly influenced by the number of trees in the scene, by the number of clumps into which trees were grouped, and by the diameter of the clumps. The video-imaging technology implemented in this study offers important methodological advantages for the design of carefully controlled experiments to study human response to variation in landscape treatments.     

THE LIMNOLOGY OF LAKE WABUKAYNE,A STORM-WATER IMPOUNDMENT1

ABSTRACT The limnology of a 1.9-ha storm-water detention pond is described. The eutrophic nature of this impoundment is attributed to the nutrients in runoff from the surrounding residential area. During the summer, photosynthetic activity of the phytoplankton caused surface waters to become super-saturated with oxygen, while decomposing organic material greatly reduced dissolved oxygen concentrations in the deeper water. Sediment derived from construction activity within the drainage basin caused the impoundment to be turbid. The use of road deicing salts within the drainage basin produced high chloride concentrations and a temporary meromixis during the winter and early spring. The benthic fauna consisted primarily of oligochaetes, chironomids, and chaoborids. High densities of oligochaetes were present in the settling basin. Chaoborid larvae were abundant in the deep basin where low oxygen concentrations reduced the numbers of other benthic macroinvertebrates.     

DUI offenders' perceptions and misperceptions of basic alcohol information

This paper describes the perceptions and misperceptions of basic alcohol and DUI-related information held by two groups of subjects: first-time DUI offenders and multiple-DUI offenders. The results revealed that both samples of subjects were well informed regarding some basic information (e.g., tolerance, elimination of alcohol from the body by the liver, effect of several drinks on increased likelihood of accident) and that the multiple-DUI offenders appeared more knowledgeable on several items (e.g., penalty for refusing breath test, beverage equivalency). These results tend to discredit the knowledge-deficit model of DUI prevention/education/rehabilitation, and an alternative coping skills model is proposed.     

Can progress in reducing alcohol-impaired driving fatalities be resumed? Results of a workshop sponsored by the Transportation Research Board,Alcohol, Other Drugs,and Transportation Committee (ANB50)

Objective: Despite successes in the 1980s and early 1990s, progress in reducing impaired driving fatalities in the United States has stagnated in recent years. Since 1997, the percentage of drivers involved in fatal crashes with illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels has remained at approximately 20 to 22%. Many experts believe that public complacency, competing social and public health issues, and the lack of political fortitude have all contributed to this stagnation. The number of alcohol-related crashes, injuries, and fatalities is still unacceptable, and most are preventable. The public needs to be aware that the problem presented by drinking drivers has not been solved. Political leaders need guidance on which measures will affect the problem, and stakeholders need to be motivated once again to implement effective strategies.

Methods: The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Transportation Research Board (TRB), Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Transportation Committee (ANB50) sponsored a workshop held at the NAS facility in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on August 24–25, 2015, to discuss the lack of progress in reducing impaired driving and to make recommendations for future progress. A total of 26 experts in research and policy related to alcohol-impaired driving participated in the workshop. The workshop began by examining the static situation in the rate of alcohol-impaired driving fatal crashes to determine what factors may be inhibiting further progress. The workshop then discussed 8 effective strategies that have not been fully implemented in the United States. Workshop participants (16 of the 26) rated their top 3 strategies.

Results: 3 strategies received the most support: 1. Impose administrative sanctions for drivers with BACs = 0.05 to 0.08 g/dL.

2. Require alcohol ignition interlocks for all alcohol-impaired driving offenders.

3. Increase the frequency of sobriety checkpoints, including enacting legislation to allow them in the 11 states that currently prohibit them.

5 other important strategies included the following: (1) increase alcohol taxes to raise the price and reduce alcohol consumption; (2) reengage the public and raise the priority of impaired driving; (3) lower the illegal per se BAC limit to 0.05 for a criminal offense; (4) develop and implement in-vehicle alcohol detection systems; and (5) expand the use of screening and brief interventions in medical facilities.

Conclusions: Each of these strategies is proven to be effective, yet all are substantially underutilized. Each is used in some jurisdictions in the United States or Canada, but none is used extensively. Any one of the 3 strategies implemented on a widespread basis would decrease impaired driving crashes, injuries, and fatalities. Based on the research, all 3 together would have a substantial impact on the problem.     

An assessment of toxicity in profundal lake sediment due to deposition of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants from the atmosphere

A Tier I Sediment Ecological Risk Assessment of profundal lake sediment contaminated by diffuse pollution of heavy metals and POPs deposited from the atmosphere was completed. The concentrations of seven heavy metals and four groups of POPs (OCs, PCBs, PAHs, PBDEs) were determined in the profundal sediment of ten lakes in the United Kingdom and two sediment toxicity tests completed (chironomid survival and emergence and cladoceran survival and reproduction). The results showed that around half the lakes are at least moderately contaminated by Pb, Zn, Cd, As and PAHs deposited from the atmosphere and the toxicity quotient suggests that the contaminants of concern are Pb, As and PAHs, and not the other metals nor OCs and PCBs. There was toxicity in the sediment of four of the lakes. The Probable Effect Concentration Quotient values indicated that metals in the sediments of Scoat Tarn, Agden Reservoir and Llyn Llagi were likely to be responsible for the laboratory toxicity found in these lakes, with PAHs also contributing in Agden Reservoir.