WILTON, Conn., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Startech Environmental
Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: STHK), a fully reporting company, today
announced that it has received an additional $250,000 progress payment for its
$1,250,000 contract with Mihama, Inc. to modify the existing Plasma Converter
System(TM) in Japan to safely and irreversibly destroy PCBs and PCB
contaminated materials. Mihama is a Startech distributor for Japan. This
payment brings the total of the program's payments received to $1,000,000.
The PCB modification program is scheduled for completion in about two
months. The $250,000 balance of the contract will be paid in an additional
progress payment. Besides processing PCBs, the Converter can still be used to
process hazardous incinerator ash.
Karl N. Hale, Startech VP of Engineering, said, "The program is right on
track, and as a matter of fact, we're even ahead of schedule."
What are PCBs
PCBs is the abbreviation for a family of manufactured industrial products
called polychlorinated biphenyls and PCBs come in many forms. They are
molecular products comprised principally of chlorine and carbon atoms.
The major use of PCBs has been in industrial electric equipment especially
in transformers, capacitors, voltage regulators and electromagnets. In
operation, these devices produce undesirable heat and PCBs help to remove that
heat while operating as an effective non-flammable dielectric (an electrical
insulator). PCBs have also been used in hydraulic systems, as plasticizers
and as additives in lubricants. Among PCBs' important industrial
characteristics are its chemical stability and its resistance to degradation.
It is these very robust characteristics that make PCBs so persistent and
troublesome in the environment.
PCBs are dangerous and harmful, and PCB concentrations have been found in
water, soil, animals, plants and the food chain all over the world, even in
the polar ice caps...a testament to the atmospheric transport of global
contamination. Concentrations have also been detected in the fatty tissue of
humans, animals and fish. PCB biomagnification concentrations have even been
found accumulated in "mother's milk."
Why are PCBs harmful
PCBs are pernicious materials that enter the body through the lungs,
digestive system and even through the skin, and tend to accumulate in the
fatty tissues of the body. The World Wildlife Fund reports that, "PCBs
interfere with many biological functions, including the immune system, the
nervous system and several endocrine systems, and fetuses appear to be
particularly vulnerable to these actions. Chronic low level PCB exposures can
cause liver damage, reproductive abnormalities, immune suppression,
neurological and endocrine system disorders, retarded infant development, and
stunted intellectual function.
Of the estimated 3.4 billion pounds of PCBs manufactured worldwide (not
including the PCBs in the former Soviet Union) by 1989, up to two-thirds
remain in use or in the environment."
About Incinerator Ash
Joseph F. Longo, Startech Chief Operating Officer, said, "Ninety percent
of the waste incinerators in Japan fail to meet the environmental standards
according to a Japanese news report of the Ministry of the Environment survey.
Incinerator ash is extremely hazardous and is recognized as such in many
environmentally enlightened societies around the world. The practice of
depositing ash in or on the ground is a primitive and injurious environmental
practice. Rain water and melted snow draining down through the ash can result
in a soupy leachate that corrupts the aquifers in the vicinity and the
down-stream waters fed by the aquifers. The Plasma Converter modified for PCBs
will still be able to process ash and turn it into a safe and inert glassy
material that has commercial uses in the construction and abrasives industry.
No matter how robust, stabile or resistant, the Plasma Converter destroys
hazardous PCBs and incinerator ash completely, irreversibly and safely."
About Startech Environmental Corp
Startech is an environmental technology company engaged in the production
and sale of its innovative, proprietary plasma processing equipment known as
the Plasma Converter System. This ruggedly built system achieves closed-loop
elemental recycling to safely and irreversibly destroy hazardous and non-
hazardous waste, solids, liquids, gases, and industrial by-products while
converting them into useful commercial products that can include chemical
feed-stocks, synthesis gas, hydrogen and energy for use and for sale.
The system is available for demonstration, by appointment, at the
Company's facilities in Technology Park in Bristol, Connecticut.
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains
forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the Company's plans
and expectations regarding the development and commercialization of its Plasma
Converter(TM) technology. All forward-looking statements are subject to risk
and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from
those projected. Factors that could cause such a difference include, without
limitation, general risks associated with product development, manufacturing,
rapid technological change and competition as well as other risks set forth in
the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The
forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this
press release. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking
to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect
any change in the Company's expectations or any change in events, conditions
or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
SOURCE Startech Environmental
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Related links:
http://www.startech.net
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/113537.html
CONTACT:
Joseph F. Longo, of Startech, +888-807-9443,
or +1-203-210-0141, jlongo@startech.net; or David Resnic, or
Lorra Gosselin, of Schwartz Communications, +1-781-684-0770,
Startech@schwartz-pr.com
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