Osaka Global Vinyl Conference October 8, 1997 (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

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  Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 14:14:51 -0700
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  Subject: Osaka Global Vinyl Conference October 8, 1997
  
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  TO BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:
  
        Joint Communique of the Global Vinyl Conference (GVC '97) October 8, 1997
  
        OSAKA, Japan, Oct. 8 -/E-Wire/-- The sixth Global Vinyl Conference (GVC '97) was held in Osaka, Japan, from October 6-8, 1997, with 131 participants from 15 countries attending.
  
       Candid exchange of opinion was made at the conference on the progress of vinyl recycling technologies, considerations for human health and environment protection in vinyl production and use, and public outreach activities of the industry.  The conference made an important contribution to further progress of the vinyl industry throughout the world.
  
        1. The participants are proud of the contributions made by vinyl products to the improvement and progress of people's lives and to society through applications in almost all segments of life over the past half a century.  The participants agreed that the vinyl industry will continue to contribute to the protection of our environment and move toward sustainability of society.
  
        2. The participants acknowledged their responsibilities for technical developments and system implementations to minimize the load to the environment in the production, use, recycling and treatment of their products, and for active promotion of waste reduction and enhanced recycling.
  
        3. The participants agreed to make best efforts for deploying active public outreach in society to let people know more about the benefits of vinyl, including its resources/energy saving characteristics, to win increased understanding of the importance of vinyl products.
  
        4. The participants agreed to intensify efforts to provide correct information and documents to all interested people on how vinyl is an environment friendly material in order to stop deselection based on non- scientific and irrational hypotheses put forward by some activists.
  
        5. The participants committed themselves to make correct and straight- forward announcements on the production and use of vinyl and to help the media recognize the importance of correct information in their coverage of the vinyl industry.
  
        6. The participants reconfirmed that the following points of correlation between vinyl and dioxins have been proved scientifically:
  
        a) Dioxins are generated in trace amounts as unintended products in all thermal and chemical reactions in manufacturing and incineration processes. Dioxin generation sources are numerous, from wood-burning fires to automobiles.
  
       b) In the incineration of waste, there is no correlation between the generated dioxins and the chlorine contained in waste.  Research proves that incinerator operating conditions are the primary factor in dioxin generation.
  
       c) Accordingly, the amount of generated dioxins is not reduced, even if PVC is totally eliminated from waste.  Reduction of dioxin generation is attainable only through improvement of incinerator conditions (high temperature combustion, complete combustion).
  
        7. The participants acknowledged the industry's continuing efforts to characterize dioxin generation in the production process and to work toward continued elimination of dioxin.
  
        8. The participants decided to hold the next Global Vinyl Conference October 14-16, 1998, in Mexico.  SOURCE  Global Vinyl Conference
  
       -0-         10/08/97
  
       /CONTACT:  David Meeker, 330-376-6500, or Nora Jacobs, of Edward Howard & Co., 216-781-2400, both for the Global Vinyl Conference/  
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