WILTON, Conn., Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Startech Environmental
Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: STHK), a fully reporting company,
announced that it has received the 15% downpayment from GlobalTech
Environmental Corporation, the Company's exclusive distributor for the
Peoples Republic of China, to start the production of the 20,000
pound-per-day Plasma Converter System to be located in
heavily-industrialized Northeast China. The downpayment does not include
the $250,000 distributor-fee paid to the Company by GlobalTech. This
first-of-its-kind Startech facility in China, scheduled to go on-line in
2007, will be processing hazardous PCBs (Polychlorinated Byphenyls) and
POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants).
"In 2050 every second human being will die from cancer due to
contamination in food, water and the environment," according to the World
Health Organization in talking about POPs.
Steve Landa, Startech VP, said, "These are very nasty industrial
materials. The Plasma Converter System destroys each and every one of these
materials totally and irreversibly. The Converter is ideally suited to
completely and safely destroy POPs, PCBs and other hazardous products no
matter how persistent and no matter what the form or the chemical
composition."
Pat Quinn, GlobalTech Chief Executive Officer, said, "In addition to
this first system on the ground in China for hazardous waste, we also have
many other important projects in contract development for which we already
have executed Letters of Intent and also Agreements in China.
"Just on Waste-to-Alternative Fuels alone, we have a 100-TPD Tires and
Refinery Tank Bottoms project in Northern China, an initial 100 TPD project
for Black Coal in Mongolia, 250 TPD for Tires in Hunan Province, and 500
TPD for Tires in Nanjing. We also have waste-to-hydrogen projects in South
Korea and hazardous waste projects in the Philippines."
Joseph F. Longo, Startech President, said, "With 20 percent of the
world's population, and the challenges of its white-hot industrialization,
China has put environmental stewardship and sustainable development very
high on its list of priorities.
China is a very important market for the Company; one we've been
working on for the past five years."
What Are POPs and Why Harmful
The 8th International Forum on Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides was
held in Sophia in late May 2005. The Forum brought together governments, UN
agencies, industrial companies, international government organizations,
non-government organizations and private sector stakeholders to develop and
to implement a solution for the threat to the world of POPs, obsolete
pesticides and hazardous chemical waste.
An immediate focus is to establish Environmentally Sound Management
(ESM) practices on cleaning up obsolete stockpiles of pesticides for
Central European and the EECCA Countries (Eastern European countries,
Caucasus and Central Asia).
POPs means Persistent Organic Pollutants. They include materials such as:
Aldrin
Chlordane
DDT
Dieldrin
Endrin
Heptachlor
Hexachlorobenzene
Mirex
Toxaphene
Every human in the world carries traces of POPs in his or her body.
They damage the nervous and immune systems, cause cancer and reproductive
disorders, and interfere with normal infant and child development.
They all share four properties:
1- they are highly toxic;
2- they are stable and persistent;
3- they evaporate and they travel long distances through the air and
through water ... and, worst of all,
4- they accumulate in the fatty tissue of humans and wildlife ...
especially in a woman's breast ... even in a mother's milk.
"In addition to producing death and sickness through direct contact,
many highly toxic chemicals and pesticides persist for years in the
environment, where they cause long-term damage to human health and to
nature", said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations
Environment Program, "These substances travel readily across international
borders to even the most remote region, making this a global problem that
requires a global solution."
He also said, "A growing body of scientific evidence indicates that
exposure to very low doses of certain POPs -- which are among the most
toxic substances ever created -- can lead to cancer, damage to the central
and peripheral nervous systems, diseases of the immune system, reproductive
disorders and interference with normal infant and child development.
Another concern behind the initiative is the growing accumulation of
unwanted and obsolete stockpiles of pesticides and toxic chemicals,
particularly in developing countries. Dump sites and toxic drums from the
1950s, 1960s and 1970s are now decaying and leaching chemicals into the
soil and poisoning water resources, wildlife and people.
These highly stable compounds can last for years or decades before
breaking down. They circulate globally through a process known as the
"grasshopper effect." POPs released in one part of the world can, through a
repeated (and often seasonal) process of evaporation, deposit, evaporation,
deposit, be transported through the atmosphere to regions far away from the
original source.
In addition, POPs concentrate in living organisms through another
process called bioaccumulation. Though not soluble in water, POPs are
readily absorbed in fatty tissue, where concentrations can become magnified
up to 70,000 times the background levels. Fish, predatory birds, mammals
and humans are high up the food chain and therefore absorb the greatest
concentrations. When they travel, the POPs travel with them. As a result of
these two processes, POPs can be found in people and animals living in
regions such as the Arctic, thousands of kilometers from any major POP
source.
What are PCBs
PCB is the abbreviation for a family of manufactured industrial
products called polychlorinated biphenyls, and PCBs come in many forms.
They are complex 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 biomagnifications concentrations
have even been found accumulated in "mother's milk."
Why Are PCBs So 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.
About Startech -- an Environment and Energy Company
Startech Environmental is an environment and energy industry company
engaged in the production and sale of its innovative, proprietary plasma
processing equipment known as the Plasma Converter System(TM).
The Plasma Converter System safely and economically destroys wastes, no
matter how hazardous or lethal, and turns them into useful and valuable
products. In doing so, the System protects the environment and helps to
improve the public health and safety. The System achieves closed-loop
elemental recycling to safely and irreversibly destroy Municipal Solid
Waste, organics and inorganics, solids, liquids and gases, hazardous and
non- hazardous waste, industrial by-products and also items such as
"e-waste," medical waste, chemical industry waste and other specialty
wastes while converting many of them into useful commodity products that
can include metals and a synthesis-gas called Plasma Converted Gas
(PCG)(TM).
Among the many commercial uses for PCG, it can, for example, be used to
produce "green power," and Alternative Fuels such as ethanol and other
alcohol fuels, synthetic diesel fuels and also hydrogen for use and for
sale.
The Startech Plasma Converter is essentially a manufacturing system
producing commodity products from feedstocks that were previously regarded
as wastes. Startech regards all wastes, hazardous and non-hazardous, as
valuable renewable resources.
For further information, please visit http://www.startech.net or contact Steve
Landa at (888) 807-9443, (203) 762-2499 EXT 7 or sales@startech.net
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements
This press 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,
failure of the customer to obtain appropriate financing for the project,
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 Corporation
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Related links:
http://www.startech.net
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CONTACT:
Joseph F. Longo, President, Startech
Environmental Corp., +1-203-762-2499
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