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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (14462)	1/12/1998 1:54:00 PM
From: Gottfried	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 70976

Brian, from the article... The industry also has a toxic past. In California's Silicon Valley, at least 18 of 29 federal Superfund sites - the nation's most polluted sites - are tied to the chip industry. Covering miles of aquifers, most of the sites are tainted with trichloroethylene (TCE), a solvent once widely used to clean chips. Regulators now suspect it might cause cancer. TCE is still used at some plants. IBM, for example, has switched to water for cleaning semi chips and circuit boards. For over 10 years they have cleaned the aquifers under their San Jose site, to the point where the water is completely safe. I remember one official drinking a glass of that water to demonstrate safety, years ago. Some of the EPA regs are unreallistically strict. I don't deny there were abuses in the past, but reaction by the public and the EPA has bordered on hysterical. The former Fairchild site in San Jose was polluted and stood abandoned for over a decade. Now a promoter wants to build a shopping center there (guess it must be clean now). Some of these sites are clean now, but nobody wants them for fear of law suits. GM