NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/sci/environm/9696

Internet Message Format | 1992-07-21 | 3.0 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!darwin.sura.net!wupost!sdd.hp.com!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!news.ysu.edu!do-not-reply-to-path
From: [e-mail] (Stewart Rowe)
Newsgroups: sci.environment
Subject: Re: How water pollutes
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 21 Jul 92 21:00:06 GMT
Sender: [e-mail] (Usenet News Admin)
Organization: Youngstown State University/Youngstown Free-Net
Lines: 49
Originator: news@news
Nntp-Posting-Host: yfn


In response to my mention of what the trade calls "resource and
environmental impact studies", Bruce Nordman ([e-mail])
states:

"The tradeoff issue is a very real one, but Product Life-Cycle Analysis
studies, such as the ones of diapers (as by ADL) are not very
useful in discussing the issues.  Many important issues, such as
variations of all kinds, and choices among alternative methods of
doing things, are nearly always left out of these studies.
Among the results of this are that erroneous conclusions are
drawn (by authors and readers), and many good methods of improving
our systems are ignored (and not quantified)."

Since I was what you might call the sponsor's project officer on several
such studies in the 70's, I am well aware of their limitations. Of
particular difficulty is the need to quantify accurately the impacts
of the many steps from growing the cotton or harvesting the trees
or extracting the natural gas for plastics manufacture through
final disposal as solid or liquid waste, and the opportunity for bias
in the assumptions that are made. We also had a concern because
the contractors wanted to be "independent" and refused to use our
consumer habits and practices data, preferring to use less accurate
but "public" data. Even knowing the average composition of a cloth
or disposable diaper requires brand and size share data available
only to the manufacturers.

 In any case, the objective must be a comparison
of _current practices_, not of theoretical possibilities.

We and the contractors recognized that products and practices vary, and
as a consequence they made every attempt to incorporate the best
"average" they could find: for example, that mothers average 9 cloth
diapers (because of double and triple diapering) but average 6 or
fewer disposables (over the average 30-month diapering life of a child).
This is just one example of the detail that must be addressed. I
have been annoyed that most sponsors of studies of this type have
been unwilling to publish the full reports. Readers could see
how much work went into them but then, opponents would search for
nits to pick. ("_I_ don't change the baby that often").

Of course one can always say that improvements in a system are possible,
and in fact active competition makes such improvements a necessity.
It is not always clear that laymen outside the industry are qualified to
say what improvements are technically feasible or acceptable to
consumers. In the instant case, the best improvement is to
have fewer children!

 -Stewart Rowe [e-mail]  [e-mail]