Cymer Qualifies and Ships New Argon Fluoride Light Source

San Diego, California, February 20, 2018 – Cymer, an industry leader in developing lithography light sources used by chipmakers to pattern advanced semiconductor chips, today announced the first shipment of the newly qualified XLR 800ix light source that improves performance and productivity, as well as lowers cost-of-ownership for leading-edge argon fluoride (ArF) immersion lithography systems. […]

Protesters rally to mark third anniversary of explosion at Torrance refinery

A coalition of sign-wielding environmental activists on Saturday marked the third anniversary of the Feb. 18, 2015, explosion at the Torrance refinery that federal officials said nearly caused a catastrophic release of highly toxic hydrofluoric acid that could have killed and injured thousands. Led by grass-roots group the Torrance Refinery Action Alliance, hundreds of protesters […]

Free speech is free after all for refinery protesters in Torrance

The city of Torrance has backed off from requiring the organizers of a Saturday rally at Columbia Park to pay a $1-per-person fee for the privilege, blaming a “miscommunication” for a mix-up that local activists initially said undermined their right to free speech. The fee actually is one that, since the mid-1990s, has applied to […]

“California Clean Environment” Initiative would ban fluoridation

Activists in California can now move forward collecting signatures for an expansive ballot initiative that encompasses a world of non-evidence-based and fringe notions, according to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla. The initiative would eliminate vaccination requirements for schools and daycares, banish genetically modified organisms, and prohibit basic water treatments with fluoride and chlorine. The […]

Delving into the atomic realm

Models and schematic diagrams are powerful tools for studying the fundamental workings of chemistry, but they’re not enough for Wilson Ho. “Atoms, molecules and the bonds that hold them together – I want to see these things as they actually appear in nature,” says Ho, UCI’s Donald Bren Professor of Physics & Astronomy and Chemistry. […]

Surviving Wonder Valley well water with filtration units

High fluoride levels are not the only reason to avoid drinking Wonder Valley well water. It contains 1,100 parts per million (ppm) of total dissolved solids, which is mostly calcium carbonate. That’s the white stuff that collects in your plumbing fixtures and evaporative cooler. The same thing happens in the body. … When the wife […]

Court order sought to require refineries to advise public about accidental chemical releases

A coalition of environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Thursday in an effort to win a court order forcing the federal agency that oversees safety in the oil and chemical industries to require the public disclosure of accidental releases of hazardous materials. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, which is probing the February 2015 […]