Foam

Several foam manufacturers have agreed to pay $30 million to settle lawsuits brought by survivors and family members of those who died in a 2003 fire at a rock concert in Rhode Island that killed 100 people and hurt more than 200. The settlement offers were disclosed in court papers filed Monday. More than $101 million has now been offered to victims of the Feb. 20, 2003, fire at the Station nightclub in West Warwick from several companies, including Home Depot and a maker of fireworks.

Well into his 70s, Terry Martin could be found most days in his Dana Point workshop sanding blocks of polyurethane foam into precision-shaped surfboards. With his big white beard and barrel chest, Martin looked like Santa riding out a blizzard of swirling white dust. Over a nearly six-decade career, Martin is said to have shaped more surfboards than anyone - some 80,000 - although the exact number is unknowable. Martin himself once said he stopped counting after 50,000. Martin's output and perfectionism made him an icon among the tight-knit fraternity of surfing's best shapers, one of a dwindling number of craftsmen who earn a living making surfboards by hand.

A light-brown foam that blanketed Santa Monica Bay beaches for more than a month--prompting scores of complaints to local officials--has disappeared, local lifeguards said. The unsightly foam, which looked like dirty laundry suds, was caused by a large plankton bloom, marine biologists and botanists said. The bloom caused a massive discharge of protein, which created foam when it came in contact with the air, and eventually was deposited on local beaches by waves, they said.

Coastal cities can't keep plastic foam out of the ocean by themselves. The tiny bits of polystyrene from food takeout containers float from inland areas through storm water channels along with the rest of the urban runoff. So it's heartening that legislation to ban most use of such containers managed to pass the state Senate in July despite strong opposition. The bill (SB 568) faces a more formidable hurdle in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, but it's been improved with provisions that allow a slower phase-out of the foam, and it should be passed.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter Wednesday proposed a citywide ban on foam packaging used by the food industry, and the elimination of at least half of other non-biodegradable food packing materials. Saying the lack of landfills in the city has created crisis conditions, Galanter pushed for a one-year voluntary reduction on the use of polystyrene foam used to insulate food. Under the terms of Galanter's motion, a mandatory ban on the material would follow the voluntary reduction.

Thousands of gallons of firefighting foam were accidentally released Thursday in a Long Beach airport hangar, covering a police helicopter and other vehicles with fizzy bubbles. A technician inadvertently set off the firefighting system, and minutes later the hangar was filled to the ceiling with foam, Long Beach Fire Battalion Chief Frank Hayes said.

Mike Wiltshire, dragging a bundle of hoses across a sweltering roof, explains some basics: Move smoothly, maintain your equipment; a heavy wind is your worst enemy. He is enveloped in a paper-thin safety suit, dark glasses, a baseball hat and crusty tennis shoes wrapped in duct tape. The outside temperature is approaching 100 degrees. He lowers his spray gun into firing position and squeezes the trigger. A chemical batter hisses out, rising like a pancake on a hot skillet when it hits the roof.

When Gordon "Grubby" Clark said this month that he was going out of business, fear rippled through the surf industry. In a blink, the main source of surfboard blanks -- the polyurethane foam cores that big producers and individual artisans alike shape into finished boards -- had disappeared. And Harold Walker, at 73, had finally gotten lucky. The telephones at his Wilmington company, Walker Foam Inc., went crazy as surfboard makers scrambled to replenish their supplies.

Crocs were born of the economic boom. The colorful foam clogs appeared in 2002, just as the country was recovering from a recession. Brash and bright, they were a cheap investment (about $30) that felt good and promised to last forever. Former President George W. Bush wore them. Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler wore them. Your grandma wore them. They were mocked by the fashion world, but 100 million pairs were sold in seven years.

Reporting from Sacramento -- Restaurants in California would have to stop using food containers made of polystyrene foam under legislation approved Thursday by the state Senate to address environmental worries. Lawmakers also moved forward with tougher penalties for those who smuggle or possess cellphones in state prisons and expanded a state ban on workplace smoking. Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) proposed the prohibition on polystyrene containers, saying they do not decompose quickly and thus can linger for years in landfills, storm drains and ocean waters.

The rap on polystyrene foam — better known by the trade name Styrofoam — used to be that it hung around in landfills without decomposing and couldn't be recycled. But these days, practically nothing breaks down in landfills because they are regularly compacted and covered. And the foam now can be recycled in dozens of California cities, though many of them offer only limited service. So has the foam cup become an upstanding citizen in a more green-conscious world? Not quite. It's been fingered as one of the major culprits, along with plastic carryout bags, of plastic pollution in the oceans and other waters.

It is the "signature wound" of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars: traumatic brain injury from the blast of the enemy's improvised explosive devices. Now two researchers say that minor changes in the military's combat helmet could reduce the incidence and severity of these injuries. Using complex computer modeling to determine the impact of such blasts on helmets, physicist Willy Moss and mechanical engineer Michael King of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Northern California concluded that soldiers and Marines would be better protected by wearing a slightly larger helmet with 1/8 inch more foam padding.

First the Republicans took over the House. Now it's the cafeterias. Republicans say the use of "compostable" cups and utensils, a key part of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Green the Capitol initiative, was "neither cost-effective nor energy-efficient. " So they brought back plastic utensils and foam cups, ditching the eco-friendly dining wares of the Democratic era. The replacement spoons, knives, forks and cups are creating quite a stir, dividing lawmakers largely along party lines.

Taking what could be the first step toward a far wider ban, Los Angeles County supervisors voted this week to restrict foam food containers from most county offices and concessions. The ban approved Tuesday will cover restaurants, catering trucks and snack shops from the county's massive public hospital system to beach concessions, golf courses and even food delivery to senior citizens. At the same time, supervisors requested a study examining a more extensive ban. Department of Public Works officials and the county counsel will report back in a year on the potential implications of banning foam food containers in private restaurants and other businesses in L.A. County's vast unincorporated areas, which cover 2,600 square miles and more than a million residents.

Reporting from Herzogenaurach, Germany -- Walk the sprawling 285-acre Adidas campus here and you won't get far before you're stopped by an iron fence, a locked gate or a security guard. Many buildings are simple barracks-like structures, giving the whole place the feel of a military camp — which, in fact, it was. Built in the 1930s as a secret air base for Hitler's war machine, it's where the Luftwaffe trained its fighter pilots. After the war, the U.S. used it as a radar base to eavesdrop on the Eastern Bloc.

Re "NASA Is Still Puzzled by Discovery's Foam Loss," Nov. 23 The humid Florida weather is a suspect. Moisture penetrates under the foam, into cracks and onto the surface. Then super-cooled oxygen fills the tanks under the foam, freezing the moisture, expanding it as ice and adding weight and pressure to loosen the foam. Rain delays are common, so more ice builds on the foam and in cracks. The shuttle launches need to be moved to California's high desert, where weather conditions are so much better.

Investigators have found evidence of a "foreign object" made of foam rubber inside one engine of a Piper Aerostar that crashed on a Newport Beach tennis court moments after taking off from John Wayne Airport. A Canadian family of five died aboard the twin-engine plane, which plowed into a court at the Newport Beach Tennis Club and exploded in flames. Gary Mucho, regional manager of the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators found evidence of the foam-rubber object in the turbocharger of the Aerostar's right engine.

Flame-retardant chemicals found in many household consumer products may reduce fertility in women, researchers reported Tuesday. Their study joins several other papers published in the last two years suggesting that the chemicals, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, affect human health. PBDEs have been used as flame retardants for four decades and are found in foam furniture, electronics, fabrics, carpets and plastics. The chemicals are being phased out nationwide, and certain PBDEs have been banned for use in California.

I'm not going to take it personally that the day the mayor of Los Angeles couldn't make time for me because he was too busy on flood watch, he had time to tape a segment for the soap opera "All My Children." Antonio Villaraigosa and I may get together as early as this week, I'm told. Unless of course "Days of Our Lives" calls. In the meantime, I've got other news to report out of City Hall. Let's start with a sign of progress. Jaime de la Vega, the mayor's transportation deputy, is no longer commuting to work in a Hummer.