Technology disappearing due to environmental concerns
or the fear of being sued

Burning brown coal in city apartments was a mss and good riddance to that. But some technology has been banished due to environmental or safety concerns, and the replacement is not what the original used to be. Here are some examples.

Chemistry sets
The old classical sets contained such chemicals as potassium permanganate, sulfur, powdered zinc, corrosive acids and bases, some even potassium chlorate. One could learn a lot about chemistry, its dangers and take an eye our of burn a hole in the floor in the process. Concerns over the safety of chemistry sets these day omit flammable chemicals, or contain them in such small amounts that they pose relatively little danger. The sets   may also lack heat sources, breakable glass, and strong acids and bases. There has also been concern over the possibility of chemistry sets being used to create illegal drugs or things that go puff, i.e., explosives. Many experts claim that these efforts "remove the fun and interest" from chemistry, rendering the sets bland and ineffectual. Truth be told, for the same fears I do not do demonstrations in general chemistry that involve smoke, flame and sound; the only experiments I still remember from elementary schools and which, possibly, made me interested in chemistry.

Light bulbs
The bulbs with the heated element are inefficient in generating light. It is smart to replace them with something more efficient. In 2008 there are many fluorescent replacements that screw into the existing fixtures and work just fine. But some still generate light of unpleasant or even harsh hue. Some come in instantly, but the several reflector types (PAR 38) that I tried, take several minutes to reach full intensity. As a result, I leave this light bulb on all the time, negating all the energy savings. Also, the ridge on the fluorescent PAS 38 is not as well defined and the tube falls out of a track light fixture. The tubes also contain traces of mercury, another environmental issue. It is likely that the energy saving light bulb of near future will not be the fluorescent version, but the light emitting diode version. 100-W lightbulbs - as of January 1, 2012 they will not be available. Incoming years the same will be true for the lower wattage units.

Light bulbs in automobile headlights
Ever wondered why some cars have really blinding headlights and whether they are legal? They probably are. For the most part the existing laws state that the headlight input power cannot exceed 55 W. With filament headlights and associated reflector this produced adequate road illumination, but at low beam was still fine for the other drivers. The filament bulb has low efficiency. If high efficiency sources are used and 55 W of input is converted with 100 % efficiency into a light beam, one could burn the retina of the oncoming traffic drivers. Right now, such headlight would be still legal.

Mercury batteries
They contained mercury, which ended in landfill, certainly not a good thing, as mercy is poisonous. But the cells based on the mercury chemistry had one excellent property - they had constant potential throughout the life of the cell. Such cells were used in instruments as a calibration source or in cameras and exposure meters. For instrument calibration, electronic circuits have been developed that work better that this cell. Likewise, in modern cameras, electronics stabilizes any fluctuation of the batteries. However, some nice cameras, such as Minolta SRT 101, without any electronics, hit the dust. True, there is a replacement zinc battery, but it is not what it used to be.

Mercury
Very interesting technological material. It is metal, therefore conductive, and yet liquid at room temperature. Many interesting devices were made using mercury. Much of its use, including electric switches and thermometers was relegated to history. The problem of course is that mercury from these devices eventually finds its way into environment and it is poison in that context.

Lead
Sale of house paint containing lead has been banned so many years ago in the US (1978) it really makes me wonder what is the deal these days (2008) with children exposed to lead in their backyards. The issue has been recognized thirty years ago, so how come it was not remedied yet. Lead should not be in household paints as chronic exposure to it, in particularly in children, is not healthy. It is the dust that comes out from the aging chalking paint. Children eating flaking chips of poisoned paint is probably poetic license. Any child doing that probably eats other equally unhealthy stuff and has it coming. There is good exterior and interior paint that does not have to contain lead. However, from chemistry point of view, lead based primer for steel and iron, discovered many many years ago, was indeed superior material for corrosion protection. Plumbers (Latin for lead: plumbum)  used lead for water pipes, in modern times lined with tin. This of course causes some leaching of lead into water. Because the water pipes coat inside with scale from water hardness, the exposure to lead is minimal. It certainly makes sense to replace lead pipes with safer materials while doing repairs or reconstruction, but there is some indication that during targeted removal of lead pipes by municipalities the lead contents in water goes up as the pipes are disturbed and fresh metal is exposed to water. There is still a lead battery in each automobile. There is no economical alternative, so it cannot be banned. Lead in some materials still makes it to the USA in imported products. Lately, it seems that toys have been found with lead in them. In one case, the toy had three times as much lead in it as the EPA permits. Sure, it makes it illegal to be sold. However, this level will not make it deadly on contact. The true concern would be toys made from lead. There was an acute poisoning leading to death when a 4 year old boy swallowed metallic charm that was mostly made from lead.

Asbestos
It was cheap, very useful material, as it is not flammable, has filament structure and can be nicely bond with concrete. It was used a lot in construction. The filaments, when they turn into dust, retain needle like structure and the dust collects in the lungs and over period of time causes irreparable damage. Mining and processing of asbestos causes many early deaths.

Scepter Jerry Cans
Excellent tough plastic can for fuel and also for water. Probably the best can to carry extra fuel without being concerned about a spill during transport. Manufactured in Canada, made to military specifications, sold to military and also, up to December 31, 2007, to the private sector in the USA. The problem in the USA is that the original spout did not meet regulations of several states regarding gasoline emission from the can, during filling. Scepter developed a spout for this can, but ultimately, as it was becoming difficult and expensive to discern which state required which spout, Scepter decided not to supply the cans to the general public in the USA at all. The paradox is that the various available gasoline plastic cans for gasoline do not travel well in a trunk of a car and often leak and the vapor leak proof spouts, while viable on paper, trap vapor, but because they are awkward to use, lead to spills.

21 March 2008, note added 30 January 2011