Posted on 10/29/2014 6:50:04 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE
This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “noble” cause corruption. Documentation follows.
From IceAgeNow - the American EPA has stunned observers, with a list of inert additives for pesticide formulations they intend to ban, which includes the noble gas Argon.
Its hard to imagine a more inoffensive substance than Argon. As a noble gas, Argon is chemically inert – it participates in no chemical reactions whatsoever, except under exotic conditions – there are no known chemical compounds which can survive at room temperature which include Argon. Argon is not a greenhouse gas. But Argon is incredibly useful to industry – among other things, is used as a “shield” gas. Anyone who welds Aluminium or Stainless Steel will be familiar with Argon, which is used with MIG and TIG welders, to blow oxygen away from the electric welding arc, to prevent oxidative damage to the weld joint. Any effort to regulate the use of this harmless substance would do incalculable damage to American industrial competitiveness, for no benefit whatsoever. See details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argon
So why on Earth would the EPA plan to ban something as inoffensive as Argon? IceAgeNow has a theory – they think Argon is part of a list supplied by a scientifically illiterate NGO, which the EPA plans to rubber stamp.
If anyone with any real scientific training whatsoever had seen this silly list before it was published, or had taken the trouble to do 5 minutes of research on each entry in the list, to discover how ridiculous and ignorant the inclusion of Argon on a list of dangerous chemicals to be banned really is, then the EPA would not be facing their current very public embarrassment.
A spoof?
No, the EPA even has a press release about it:
EPA Proposes to Remove 72 Chemicals from Approved Pesticide Inert Ingredient List
Release Date: 10/23/2014 Contact Information: Cathy Milbourn Milbourn.cathy@epa.gov 202-564- 4355 202-564-4355
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is requesting public comment on a proposal to remove 72 chemicals from its list of substances approved for use as inert ingredients in pesticide products.
“We are taking action to ensure that these ingredients are not added to any pesticide products unless they have been fully vetted by EPA,” said Jim Jones, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “This is the first major step in our strategy to reduce risks from pesticides containing potentially hazardous inert ingredients.”
EPA is taking this action in response to petitions by the Center for Environmental Health, Beyond Pesticides, Physicians for Social Responsibility and others. These groups asked the agency to issue a rule requiring disclosure of 371 inert ingredients found in pesticide products. EPA developed an alternative strategy designed to reduce the risks posed by hazardous inert ingredients in pesticide products more effectively than by disclosure rulemaking.
EPA outlined its strategy in a May 22, 2014 letter: http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2014-0558-0003 to the petitioners.
Many of the 72 inert ingredients targeted for removal, are on the list of 371 inert ingredients identified by the petitioners as hazardous. The 72 chemicals are not currently being used as inert ingredients in any pesticide product. Chemicals such as, turpentine oil and nitrous oxide are listed as candidates for removal.
Most pesticide products contain a mixture of different ingredients. Ingredients that are directly responsible for controlling pests such as insects or weeds are called active ingredients. An inert ingredient is any substance that is intentionally included in a pesticide that is not an active ingredient.
For the list of 72 chemical substances and to receive information on how to provide comments, see the Federal Register Notice in docket # EPA-HQ-OPP-2014-0558. To access this notice, copy and paste the docket number into the search box at: http://regulations.gov. Comments are due November 21, 2014.
General information on inert ingredients can be found at: http://www2.epa.gov/pesticide-registration/inert-ingredients-overview-and-guidance.
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Here is the GovSpeak document outlining the removal of 72 items:
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/10/22/2014-24586/proposed-removal-of-certain-inert-ingredients-from-approved-chemical-substance-list-for-pesticide
And here is the list:
Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Pesticide Programs
Supporting document to docket# EPA-HQ-OPP-2014-0558
Listing of 72 chemical substances proposed for removal from the currently approved inert ingredient list.
EPA-argon-list
The full list: http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2014-0558
From Wikipedia: Industrial
Argon is produced industrially by the fractional distillation of liquid air in a cryogenic air separation unit; a process that separates liquid nitrogen, which boils at 77.3 K, from argon, which boils at 87.3 K, and liquid oxygen, which boils at 90.2 K. About 700,000 tonnes of argon are produced worldwide every year.
Yes, you do need energy to compress and super-cool the liquid air down towards -200 C, but other than that, it is a simple enough process.
Will the EPA regulate the CO2 fire extinguishers next? After all, they DID all but ban the more effective commercial fire-fighting gasses – even on Navy ships where “winning in combat” by fighting fires and explosions is evidently less important than preventing the hole in the ozone layer.
From the original article and its EPA quotes ...
Many of the 72 inert ingredients targeted for removal, are on the list of 371 inert ingredients identified by the petitioners as hazardous. The 72 chemicals are not currently being used as inert ingredients in any pesticide product. Chemicals such as, turpentine oil and nitrous oxide are listed as candidates for removal.
Never mind the bureaucratic gobble-de-gook about “inert chemicals” being simultaneously “inert” AND “hazardous to your health” …. (I do understand the use of “inert” in pesticide mixes of active and inactive of course.)
But, look at the partial list above: Each of the chemicals listed is commercially, has 6 to 8 PAGES of MSDS safety sheets that MUST BE PROVIDED by OSHA “law” EVERY time the chemical is shipped to a job site or is used at a jobsite. Why does the EPA think the chemical – especially when it used in used as a INERT ingredient in a physical mixture that is not chemically reacting when used properly? (Even sand, wood chips, Argon, NO3, NO2, even N2 will kill if used improperly!)
Oh, by the way – The Ar is probably originally added as an “inert ingredient” in a pesticide list as a joke by some fed-up and disgusted chemist in the pesticide company: “Nobody could be that stupid. But the lawyer said we have to include everything. OK, fine. I’ll include Ar, N2, and O2 and water in this list – that the fed’s will never read anyway – because Ar is a naturally-occurring mixture in air, and we have air mixed i our product ,,,, Yuck, yuck,”
Inexpensive
Effective
Easily maintained
And best of all - easy to clean up.
They should ban DHMO while they’re at it (dihydrogen monoxide).
Someone should put nitrogen on the list.
Isn’t argon used in most double and triple-paned glass windows? And in the vaccuum tubes still used in some electric guitar amps?
I don't know if it's still used in today's windows, but that still leaves tens of millions of windows out there that some busybody bureaucrat will eventually getting around to mandating they be replaced.
Probably with, wait for iiiiiiiiiiit, single-pane windows!
The real problem is PROTONS, NEUTRONS, and ELECTRONS.
WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO BAN THESE DEADLY THINGS????
Argon is used in neon lighting too.
Next they will outlaw dihydrogen monoxide
Most TIG welding will be “outlawed”.
So what. The EPA is banning Kryptonite too!
They are simply twisted Mother Effers! Seriously.
We are governed by religious zealots who believe that mankind
is destroying the earth.They can and will do just about anything.
The bubbles in your beer, soda and champagne are pure CO2 and of course should be banned as well as bread which uses CO2 from the yeast to rise. Beans and certain legumes create the greenhouse gas methane in the human gut which of course gets expelled into the atmosphere in flatus ...ban them too. However banning argon which is totally inert and is already in the atmosphere and just being recycled back to the atmosphere when used industrially is even more ludicrous.
I imagine, if nobama keeps this up, the ban will be NO windows.
You’ll be fine. Just don’t sniff your windows and guitar amp.
The population control crowd wants NOTHING that improves farm productivity!
Well, Obola does represent a religion that is mired in the Stone Age.
Currently using compressed nitrogen (at this very moment)to operate a bladder pump for sampling groundwater. Pumping water out of a monitoring well at a client site that manufactures and distributes fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.
So. No more TIG and MIG welding, or argon-filled”green” windows, EPA? You guys are abysmally ignorant.
TC
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