No. 240  January 2003

 STARDUST  Tinker Bell used magic stardust in Peter Pan?  Where did (s)he get it?  NASA has announced that it has been collecting stardust. The solar system was formed from a whirling dust and gas cloud that included some remnants of dead stars. Some of the stardust became part of the celestial bodies of our solar system, but some survived the formation of the solar system, remained unchanged, and became part of comets. For over 20 years, NASA’s U-2 aircraft ER-2 has been collecting interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) in Earth’s upper atmosphere. IDPs include samples of comets that have passed through Earth’s atmosphere and left stardust. “These comets contain the ingredients of the early solar system, the ingredients for which came from the remnants of early stars in the universe.” Comets are the logical place to look for preserved stardust.”  Now that science can now identify stardust grains because of their isotopic ratios. Stardust grains are very small but unique and different from anything else in the universe. The IDPs (i.e. stardust grains) have been around and unchanged for 4.5 billion years, have been collected by NASA for about 20, and now can be identified. On February 27, 2003 , NASA issued a Press Release: Bits of the Ancient Solar System Found in the Earth’s Atmosphere.  Issued as Release: 03-084, it also had a second title: NASA Finds Remnants of Ancient Stars in Earth’s Upper Atmosphere
(http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/whatsnew/pr/030227A.html) announcing the findings of Dr. Scott Messenger, et al, “Samples of Stars Beyond the Solar System: Silicate Grains in Interplanetary Dust,” Science V. 300, pages 105-108 published online February 27, 2003.  This article plus others publications on the NASA site will tell us something about stardust.

CATCH A FALLING STAR  When will the next star fall?  Sometimes when a meteor is moving through Earth’s upper atmosphere, it gets pulled down toward Earth.  As the meteor falls toward Earth it, sometimes it burns up before hitting the Earth, but if was big enough, it survives the fall and lands on Earth.  The falling star may, upon scientific examination, be identified as a part of a comet, man-made space junk, or a meteorite from Mars. There was a 1950’s song entitled “Catch a Falling Star (and Put it in your pocket)” which didn’t explain the two fold problem. First, one has to learn when a falling star is coming down. Also, when it falls, if it does not burn-up in Earth’s atmosphere, how do you catch it?  Since the technique one uses to catch a star will depend in the size of the star and the geographic location that answer cannot come from this author.  However, to watch for and locate the next falling star(s), one should contact Mr. Doug Revelle and his Los Alamos colleagues.  They operate a series of stations that listen for infrasonic signals.  Incoming meteors create infrasonic signals and the bigger the signal, the bigger the meteor. From the data provided by these infrasonic signals, Revelle’s team can determine the size and energy of the meteors. It seems the monitoring stations sight about five meteor signals a year.  This and further information will be found in the Listening for Giant Meteors INFRASOUNDSCAPES, "Laboratory helps forecast frequency of giant meteors with help of EES's Doug ReVelle" article on the Los Alamos National Laboratory website ( http://ees.lanl.gov/archive_index/revelle.shtml ).

HYPOXIA Hypoxia is defined as a lack of oxygen. In a fish aquarium, a river, an ocean, etc. hypoxia is the lack of sufficient oxygen to sustain the fish and other oxygen-breathing inhabitants.  Pet stores sell motorized air pumps for aquariums. The Hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, which is over 8,000 square miles and about the size of New Jersey, needs a big air pump. This water lacks a sufficient amount of oxygen to support the fish and marine inhabitants.  Currently there are excessive amounts of nitrogen fertilizer residues, new organisms, and organic materials delivered from the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin into the Gulf waters.  In the Gulf, the organic materials decompose and the new organisms grow, and both consume oxygen faster than it can be produced by photosynthesis and replenishment from the atmosphere. The fertilizer nitrates pollute Gulf waters and also inhibit natural oxygen regeneration and replenishment. Mobile organisms are leaving and the immobile are dying. The Gulf’s Hypoxic Zone’s result’s from of a combination of deforestation, nitrogen fertilizer use, river channelization, artificial agricultural drainage, and landscape alterations practices since 1900 in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin (which is about the size of the Louisiana Purchase ).  The current Congressional solution is the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 that calls for a plan of action to reduce, mitigate, and control hypoxia.  An Integrated Assessment of Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico, issued May 2000, by the National Science and Technology Council, Committee on Environment and Natural Resources (PREX 23.14:H 99/CORR) is 57 pages of interesting reading. It also provides about 26 references for further information and the http://www.nos.noaa.gov/products/pubs_hypox.html where you will find this report and other information on the Internet. 

LOTTERY GAMBLING Within the home page of FirstGov.gov (http://firstgov.gov) you will find a search window (in the upper left corner) which provide many federal web resources of information if you search either “gambling” or “lotteries.” Or you could do two searches using each of these terms.  But, for now, if you go to the Online Services for Citizens window, you will find Lottery Results hot link.  The Federal Government does not sponsor lotteries, However, it provides this is hot link to the North American Lotteries page, which is part of the “Links” page in the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries web site. This site contains ten main information sections that cover almost anything you can think about in regard to Lotteries (as a form of gambling). The “Links” page contains links to Lotteries in North America, Latin America, and the other countries of the world.  A page on Gambling Research identifies federal, private, and academic researchers in United States and Europe. Another History page covers a historical presentation that includes a worldwide chronology, pictures, a photo gallery, and samples. There is a Gambling Studies page which identifies research periodicals, American (Federal and Private) and foreign studies, and reports and publications. Another page shows Where the Money Goes, and Fast Facts provides some very recent ticket sales and related sales/marketing information. This is a most valuable site for both current and historical information on Lotteries, you can bet on it!

NEW CHEMICAL(S) TESTING The daily news stories of the newspapers, radio, or television frequently carry news about the Food and Drug Administration testing and approving new drug products.  This is very old and well-known process of the FDA protecting the public from drugs that are ineffective or have any unknown adverse or toxic effects. Any FDA approved drug product is issued with instructions for safe and effective use.  Per the Congressional mandate of Section 5 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/ch53.html), the Environmental Protection Agency implements regulations and procedures for reviewing all new chemicals or chemical products to be used in manufacturing. All chemicals must be reviewed for toxicity.  To quote an EPA official Notice (“Certain New Chemicals; Receipt and Status Information, Notice” Federal Register, V. 67, No. 176, September 11, 2002 pages 57598-57605; AE 2.106:67/167) “Section 5 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requires any person who intends to manufacture (defined by statue to include import) a new chemical (i.e., a chemical not found in the TSCA Inventory) to notify the EPA and comply with the statutory provisions pertaining to the manufacture of new chemicals.” The law requires the EPA to publish FR notices of the EPA’s receipt of a premanufacture notice (PMN) or an application of a test marketing exemption (TME), and to publish periodic status reports on the chemicals under review. The above Federal Register article provides a sample Notice, a full explanation of the process, how one can send comments, citations and links to sources of further information about the roles of the EPA, the manufacturer, and the public comments in the evaluation of new chemicals.  

WHAT IS THE TSCA INVENTORY?  Since the Toxic Substances Control Act was passed in 1976, the EPA has been reviewing commercially used chemicals to determine the nature and extent of their toxicity to people and nature. Per the information on the EPA Inventory “there are approximately 75,700 chemical substances, as defined in Section 3 of the TSCA, on the Inventory at this time.” Per the EPA only those chemical substances either “exist” because they are already in the Inventory, or they are “new” because they are not in the Inventory. As the FDA must approve all Drugs, all commercial chemicals must be reviewed and approved by the EPA New Chemical Program.  Part of the chemical manufacturer’s task is to consult the EPA’s Toxic Substances Control Act Chemical Substance Inventory (commonly referred to as the TSCA Inventory or just the Inventory).”  The EPA maintains a web site for locating information about the EPA New Chemical Program’s operations and a second site for information about the procedures for maintaining and providing access to the TSCA Inventory. “The TSCA Inventory is available in paper form as well as on computer tape, diskettes, or CD-ROM. The TSCA Inventory in paper form was updated in 1990 and does not reflect additions to the Inventory since then. The electronic-medium Inventories are updated every six months. EPA does not provide searches of the non-confidential TSCA Inventory, but there are a number of ways you can research whether a chemical is listed on the non-confidential portion of the TSCA Inventory.” For any information about old toxic chemicals, the EPA Inventory web page What is theTSCA Substance Inventory? (http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/newchems/invntory.htm) is the place to start, and the EPA New Chemicals Program home page http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/newchems/index.htm is the starting point for information about new toxic chemical substances.

NIOSH RTECS  Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances is the full name of RTECS, a database of toxic data about the toxic effect of chemicals. When chemicals, which have toxic qualities, are not used per directions, use guidelines, or when accidents occur, toxic effects can range from a minor skin irritation to a fatality. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) created the RTECS database to provide unified source of chemical toxicity data for the entire nation. RTECS is a database of toxicological information compiled, maintained, and updated by NIOSH from June 28, 1971 through December 2001.  RTECS was created by Section 20(a)(6) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (PL 91-596) and the original edition, known as the Toxic Substances List.  The first edition included toxicological data for approximately 5,000 chemicals.  This edition continuously grew and updated, and its name changed to the current title. As January 2001, the last update by NIOSH, RTECS contained 152,970 chemicals. RTECS is a compendium of data extracted from the open scientific literature. The data are recorded in the format developed by the RTECS staff and arranged in alphabetical order by prime chemical name. Six types of toxicity data are included in the file: (1) primary irritation; (2) mutagenic effects; (3) reproductive effects; (4) tumorigenic effects; (5) acute toxicity; and (6) other multiple dose toxicity.  As of January 2001, RTECS was privatized and is no longer under NIOSH.  It is operated under a “non-exclusive licensing agreement by MDL Information Systems, Inc.  The NIOSH RTECS web page http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/rtecs.html provides more current information and details about a RTECS Users Guide, MDL Information Systems, Inc., and the latter’s vendors for those interested in obtaining some of the on-line, CD-ROM, and Computer Tape (versions of the) information in the current RTECS Database. 

WATCH THE BIRDS CONSERVATION Did you ever see an Auk? Do you know what this bird looks like?  Did you see a passenger pigeon?  They are currently seen only in pictures, because they are extinct.   The last Auk died in 1844 and the last passenger pigeon died in Cincinnati in 1914 (A Passing in Cincinnati, September 1, 1914 (September, 1976, I 1.102: C49)). These species of birds are extinct because there was not enough effort to keep them from becoming extinct.  Congress mandated that the Fish and Wildlife Service, through the 1980 amendment (Title VIII) of the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act (P.L. 100-653), “identify species, subspecies, and populations of nonmigratory and nongame birds that, without additional conservation actions, are likely to become candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.”  For the conservationist bird lover, this means the issuance of a publication.  “The species that appear in Birds of Conservation Concern 2002 are deemed to be the highest priority for conservation actions.” This edition differs from the 1995 edition, since it identifies the birds at three different scales: Bird Conservation Regions, Fish and Wildlife Service Regions, and National.” This 2003 bird identification and conservation guide can be obtained by writing to: Chief, Division of Migratory and Bird Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, Mail Stop 4107, Arlington, VA. 22203-1610, ATTN: BCC-2002. With a computer you can download the PDF http://migratorybirds.fws.gov/reports/BCC02/BCC2002.pdf version of Birds of Conservation Concern 2002.This December 2002, 105-page publication is listed in the FWS Migratory Bird Management web page at http://migratorybirds.fws.gov    .        

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July 14, 2003

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