Bioaerosol

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioaerosol

Bioaerosols (short for biological aerosols) are a subcategory of particles released from terrestrial and marine ecosystems into the atmosphere. They consist of both living and non-living components, such as fungi, pollen, bacteria and viruses. Common sources of bioaerosols include soil, water, and sewage.

Bioaerosols are typically introduced into the air via wind turbulence over a surface. Once in the atmosphere, they can be transported locally or globally: common wind patterns/strengths are responsible for local dispersal, while tropical storms and dust plumes can move bioaerosols between continents. Over ocean surfaces, bioaerosols are generated via sea spray and bubbles

Bioaerosols can transmit microbial pathogens, endotoxins, and allergens to which humans are sensitive. A well-known case was the meningococcal meningitis outbreak in sub-Saharan Africa, which was linked to dust storms during dry seasons. Other outbreaks linked to dust events including Mycoplasma pneumonia and tuberculosis.

Another instance was an increase in human respiratory problems in the Caribbean that may have been caused by traces of heavy metals, microorganism bioaerosols, and pesticides transported via dust clouds passing over the Atlantic Ocean.

Common bioaerosol isolated from indoor environments

Background

Charles Darwin was the first to observe the transport of dust particles but Louis Pasteur was the first to research microbes and their activity within the air. Prior to Pasteur’s work, laboratory cultures were used to grow and isolate different bioaerosols.

Since not all microbes can be cultured, many were undetected before the development of DNA-based tools. Pasteur also developed experimental procedures for sampling bioaerosols and showed that more microbial activity occurred at lower altitudes and decreased at higher altitudes.

Types of bioaerosols

Bioaerosols include fungi, bacteria, viruses, and pollen. Their concentrations are greatest in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and decrease with altitude. Survival rate of bioaerosols depends on a number of biotic and abiotic factors which include climatic conditions, ultraviolet (UV) light, temperature and humidity, as well as resources present within dust or clouds.

Bioaerosols found over marine environments primarily consist of bacteria, while those found over terrestrial environments are rich in bacteria, fungi and pollen. The dominance of particular bacteria and their nutrient sources are subject to change according to time and location.

Bioaerosols can range in size from 10 nanometer virus particles to 100 micrometers pollen grains. Pollen grains are the largest bioaerosols and are less likely to remain suspended in the air over a long period of time due to their weight.

Consequently, pollen particle concentration decreases more rapidly with height than smaller bioaerosols such as bacteria, fungi and possibly viruses, which may be able to survive in the upper troposphere. At present, there is little research on the specific altitude tolerance of different bioaerosols. However, scientists believe that atmospheric turbulence impacts where different bioaerosols may be found.

Fungi

Fungal cells usually die when they travel through the atmosphere due to the desiccating effects of higher altitudes. However, some particularly resilient fungal bioaerosols have been shown to survive in atmospheric transport despite exposure to severe UV light conditions. Although bioaerosol levels of fungal spores increase in higher humidity conditions, they can also be active in low humidity conditions and in most temperature ranges. Certain fungal bioaerosols even increase at relatively low levels of humidity.

Bacteria

Unlike other bioaerosols, bacteria are able to complete full reproductive cycles within the days or weeks that they survive in the atmosphere, making them a major component of the air biota ecosystem. These reproductive cycles support a currently unproven theory that bacteria bioaerosols form communities in an atmospheric ecosystem. The survival of bacteria depends on water droplets from fog and clouds that provide bacteria with nutrients and protection from UV light. The four known bacterial groupings that are abundant in aeromicrobial environments around the world include Bacillota, Actinomycetota, Pseudomonadota, and Bacteroidota.

Viruses

The air transports viruses and other pathogens. Since viruses are smaller than other bioaerosols, they have the potential to travel further distances. In one simulation, a virus and a fungal spore were simultaneously released from the top of a building; the spore traveled only 150 meters while the virus traveled almost 200,000 horizontal kilometers.

In one study, aerosols (<5 μm) containing SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 were generated by an atomizer and fed into a Goldberg drum to create an aerosolized environment. The inoculum yielded cycle thresholds between 20 and 22, similar to those observed in human upper and lower respiratory tract samples. SARS-CoV-2 remained viable in aerosols for 3 hours, with a decrease in infection titre similar to SARS-CoV-1. The half-life of both viruses in aerosols was 1.1 to 1.2 hours on average. The results suggest that the transmission of both viruses by aerosols is plausible, as they can remain viable and infectious in suspended aerosols for hours and on surfaces for up to days.

Pollen

Despite being larger and heavier than other bioaerosols, some studies show that pollen can be transported thousands of kilometers. They are a major source of wind-dispersed allergens, coming particularly from seasonal releases from grasses and trees. Tracking distance, transport, resources, and deposition of pollen to terrestrial and marine environments are useful for interpreting pollen records.

Collection

The main tools used to collect bioaerosols are collection plates, electrostatic collectors, mass spectrometers, and impactors, other methods are used but are more experimental in nature. Polycarbonate (PC) filters have had the most accurate bacterial sampling success when compared to other PC filter options.

Single-stage impactors

To collect bioaerosols falling within a specific size range, impactors can be stacked to capture the variation of particulate matter (PM). For example, a PM₁₀ filter lets smaller sizes pass through. This is similar to the size of a human hair. Particulates are deposited onto the slides, agar plates, or tape at the base of the impactor. The Hirst spore trap samples at 10 liters/minute (LPM) and has a wind vane to always sample in the direction of wind flow. Collected particles are impacted onto a vertical glass slide greased with petroleum.

Variations such as the 7-day recording volumetric spore trap have been designed for continuous sampling using a slowly rotating drum that deposits impacted material onto a coated plastic tape. The airborne bacteria sampler can sample at rates up to 700 LPM, allowing for large samples to be collected in a short sampling time. Biological material is impacted and deposited onto an agar lined Petri dish, allowing cultures to develop.

Cascade impactors

Similar to single-stage impactors in collection methods, cascade impactors have multiple size cuts (PM₁₀, PM_2.5), allowing for bioaerosols to separate according to size. Separating biological material by aerodynamic diameter is useful due to size ranges being dominated by specific types of organisms (bacteria exist range from 1–20 micrometers and pollen from 10–100 micrometers). The Andersen line of cascade impactors are most widely used to test air particles.

Cyclones

A cyclone sampler consists of a circular chamber with the aerosol stream entering through one or more tangential nozzles. Like an impactor, a cyclone sampler depends upon the inertia of the particle to cause it to deposit on the sampler wall as the air stream curves around inside the chamber. Also like an impactor, the collection efficiency depends upon the flow rate. Cyclones are less prone to particle bounce than impactors and can collect larger quantities of material. They also may provide a more gentle collection than impactors, which can improve the recovery of viable microorganisms. However, cyclones tend to have collection efficiency curves that are less sharp than impactors, and it is simpler to design a compact cascade impactor compared to a cascade of cyclone samplers.

Impingers

Instead of collecting onto a greased substrate or agar plate, impingers have been developed to impact bioaerosols into liquids, such as deionized water or phosphate buffer solution. Collection efficiencies of impingers are shown by Ehrlich et al. (1966) to be generally higher than similar single stage impactor designs. Commercially available impingers include the AGI-30 (Ace Glass Inc.) and Biosampler (SKC, Inc).

Electrostatic precipitators

Electrostatic precipitators, ESPs, have recently gained renewed interest for bioaerosol sampling due to their highly efficient particle removal efficiencies and gentler sampling method as compared with impinging. ESPs charge and remove incoming aerosol particles from an air stream by employing a non-uniform electrostatic field between two electrodes, and a high field strength. This creates a region of high density ions, a corona discharge, which charges incoming aerosol droplets, and the electric field deposits the charges particles onto a collection surface.

Since biological particles are typically analysed using liquid-based assays (PCR, immunoassays, viability assay) it is preferable to sample directly into a liquid volume for downstream analysis. For example, Pardon et al. show sampling of aerosols down to a microfluidic air-liquid interface, and Ladhani et al., show sampling of airborne Influenza down to a small liquid droplet. The use of low-volume liquids is ideal for minimising sample dilution, and has the potential to be couple to lab-on-chip technologies for rapid point-of-care analysis.

Filters

Filters are often used to collect bioaerosols because of their simplicity and low cost. Filter collection is especially useful for personal bioaerosol sampling since they are light and unobtrusive. Filters can be preceded by a size-selective inlet, such as a cyclone or impactor, to remove larger particles and provide size-classification of the bioaerosol particles. Aerosol filters are often described using the term "pore size" or "equivalent pore diameter". Note that the filter pore size does NOT indicate the minimum particle size that will be collected by the filter; in fact, aerosol filters generally will collect particles much smaller than the nominal pore size.

Transport mechanisms

Ejection of bioaerosols into the atmosphere

Bioaerosols are typically introduced into the air via wind turbulence over a surface. Once airborne they typically remain in the planetary boundary layer (PBL), but in some cases reach the upper troposphere and stratosphere. Once in the atmosphere, they can be transported locally or globally: common wind patterns/strengths are responsible for local dispersal, while tropical storms and dust plumes can move bioaerosols between continents. Over ocean surfaces, bioaerosols are generated via sea spray and bubbles.

Small scale transport via clouds

Knowledge of bioaerosols has shaped our understanding of microorganisms and the differentiation between microbes, including airborne pathogens. In the 1970s, a breakthrough occurred in atmospheric physics and microbiology when ice nucleating bacteria were identified.

The highest concentration of bioaerosols is near the Earth’s surface in the PBL. Here wind turbulence causes vertical mixing, bringing particles from the ground into the atmosphere. Bioaerosols introduced to the atmosphere can form clouds, which are then blown to other geographic locations and precipitate out as rain, hail, or snow. Increased levels of bioaerosols have been observed in rain forests during and after rain events. Bacteria and phytoplankton from marine environments have been linked to cloud formation.

However, for this same reason, bioaerosols cannot be transported long distances in the PBL since the clouds will eventually precipitate them out. Furthermore, it would take additional turbulence or convection at the upper limits of the PBL to inject bioaerosols into the troposphere where they may transported larger distances as part of tropospheric flow. This limits the concentration of bioaerosols at these altitudes.

Cloud droplets, ice crystals, and precipitation use bioaerosols as a nucleus where water or crystals can form or hold onto their surface. These interactions show that air particles can change the hydrological cycle, weather conditions, and weathering around the world. Those changes can lead to effects such as desertification which is magnified by climate shifts. Bioaerosols also intermix when pristine air and smog meet, changing visibility and/or air quality.

Large scale transport via dust plumes

Satellite images show that storms over Australian, African, and Asian deserts create dust plumes which can carry dust to altitudes of over 5 kilometers above the Earth's surface. This mechanism transports the material thousands of kilometers away, even moving it between continents. Multiple studies have supported the theory that bioaerosols can be carried along with dust. One study concluded that a type of airborne bacteria present in a particular desert dust was found at a site 1,000 kilometers downwind.

Possible global scale highways for bioaerosols in dust include:

• Storms over Northern Africa picking up dust, which can then be blown across the Atlantic to the Americas, or north to Europe. For transatlantic transport, there is a seasonal shift in the destination of the dust: North America during the summer, and South America during the winter.
• Dust from the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts is transported to North America, mainly during the Northern Hemisphere spring.
• Dust from Australia is carried out into the Pacific Ocean, with the possibility of being deposited in New Zealand.

Community dispersal

Bioaerosol transport and distribution is not consistent around the globe. While bioaerosols may travel thousands of kilometers before deposition, their ultimate distance of travel and direction is dependent on meteorological, physical, and chemical factors. The branch of biology that studies the dispersal of these particles is called Aerobiology. One study generated an airborne bacteria/fungi map of the United States from observational measurements, resulting community profiles of these bioaerosols were connected to soil pH, mean annual precipitation, net primary productivity, and mean annual temperature, among other factors.

Biogeochemical impacts

Bioaerosols impact a variety of biogeochemical systems on earth including, but not limited to atmospheric, terrestrial, and marine ecosystems. As long-standing as these relationships are, the topic of bioaerosols is not very well-known. Bioaerosols can affect organisms in a multitude of ways including influencing the health of living organisms through allergies, disorders, and disease. Additionally, the distribution of pollen and spore bioaerosols contribute to the genetic diversity of organisms across multiple habitats.

Cloud formation

A variety of bioaerosols may contribute to cloud condensation nuclei or cloud ice nuclei, possible bioaerosol components are living or dead cells, cell fragments, hyphae, pollen, or spores. Cloud formation and precipitation are key features of many hydrologic cycles to which ecosystems are tied. In addition, global cloud cover is a significant factor in the overall radiation budget and therefore, temperature of the Earth.

Bioaerosols make up a small fraction of the total cloud condensation nuclei in the atmosphere (between 0.001% and 0.01%) so their global impact (i.e. radiation budget) is questionable. However, there are specific cases where bioaerosols may form a significant fraction of the clouds in an area. These include:

• Areas where there is cloud formation at temperatures over -15 °C since some bacteria have developed proteins which allow them to nucleate ice at higher temperatures.
• Areas over vegetated regions or under remote conditions where the air is less impacted by anthropogenic activity.
• Near surface air in remote marine regions like the Southern Ocean where sea spray may be more prevalent than dust transported from continents.

The collection of bioaerosol particles on a surface is called deposition. The removal of these particles from the atmosphere affects human health in regard to air quality and respiratory systems.

Alpine lakes in Spain

Alpine lakes located in the Central Pyrenees region of northeast Spain are unaffected by anthropogenic factors making these oligotrophic lakes ideal indicators for sediment input and environmental change. Dissolved organic matter and nutrients from dust transport can aid bacteria with growth and production in low nutrient waters. Within the collected samples of one study, a high diversity of airborne microorganisms were detected and had strong similarities to Mauritian soils despite Saharan dust storms occurring at the time of detection.

Affected ocean species

The types and sizes of bioaerosols vary in marine environments and occur largely because of wet-discharges caused by changes in osmotic pressure or surface tension. Some types of marine originated bioaerosols excrete dry-discharges of fungal spores that are transported by the wind.

One instance of impact on marine species was the 1983 die off of Caribbean sea fans and sea urchins that correlated with dust storms originating in Africa. This correlation was determined by the work of microbiologists and a Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer, which identified bacteria, viral, and fungal bioaerosols in the dust clouds that were tracked over the Atlantic Ocean. Another instance in of this occurred in 1997 when El Niño possibly impacted seasonal trade wind patterns from Africa to Barbados, resulting in similar die offs. Modeling instances like these can contribute to more accurate predictions of future events.

Spread of diseases

The aerosolization of bacteria in dust contributes heavily to the transport of bacterial pathogens. A well-known case of disease outbreak by bioaerosol was the meningococcal meningitis outbreak in sub-Saharan Africa, which was linked to dust storms during dry seasons.

Other outbreaks have been reportedly linked to dust events including Mycoplasma pneumonia and tuberculosis. Another instance of bioaerosol-spread health issues was an increase in human respiratory problems for Caribbean-region residents that may have been caused by traces of heavy metals, microorganism bioaerosols, and pesticides transported via dust clouds passing over the Atlantic Ocean.

Common sources of bioaerosols include soil, water, and sewage. Bioaerosols can transmit microbial pathogens, endotoxins, and allergens and can excrete both endotoxins and exotoxins. Exotoxins can be particularly dangerous when transported through the air and distribute pathogens to which humans are sensitive. Cyanobacteria are particularly prolific in their pathogen distribution and are abundant in both terrestrial and aquatic environments.

Future research

The potential role of bioaerosols in climate change offers an abundance of research opportunities. Specific areas of study include monitoring bioaerosol impacts on different ecosystems and using meteorological data to forecast ecosystem changes. Determining global interactions is possible through methods like collecting air samples, DNA extraction from bioaerosols, and PCR amplification.

Developing more efficient modelling systems will reduce the spread of human disease and benefit economic and ecologic factors. An atmospheric modeling tool called the Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling System (ADMS 3) is currently in use for this purpose. The ADMS 3 uses computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to locate potential problem areas, minimizing the spread of harmful bioaerosol pathogens include tracking occurrences.

Agroecosystems have an array of potential future research avenues within bioaerosols. Identification of deteriorated soils may identify sources of plant or animal pathogens.

Elliptic geometry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_geometry 

Elliptic geometry is an example of a geometry in which Euclid's parallel postulate does not hold. Instead, as in spherical geometry, there are no parallel lines since any two lines must intersect. However, unlike in spherical geometry, two lines are usually assumed to intersect at a single point (rather than two). Because of this, the elliptic geometry described in this article is sometimes referred to as single elliptic geometry whereas spherical geometry is sometimes referred to as double elliptic geometry.

The appearance of this geometry in the nineteenth century stimulated the development of non-Euclidean geometry generally, including hyperbolic geometry.

Elliptic geometry has a variety of properties that differ from those of classical Euclidean plane geometry. For example, the sum of the interior angles of any triangle is always greater than 180°.

Definitions

In elliptic geometry, two lines perpendicular to a given line must intersect. In fact, the perpendiculars on one side all intersect at a single point called the absolute pole of that line. The perpendiculars on the other side also intersect at a point. However, unlike in spherical geometry, the poles on either side are the same. This is because there are no antipodal points in elliptic geometry. For example, this is achieved in the hyperspherical model (described below) by making the "points" in our geometry actually be pairs of opposite points on a sphere. The reason for doing this is that it allows elliptic geometry to satisfy the axiom that there is a unique line passing through any two points.

Every point corresponds to an absolute polar line of which it is the absolute pole. Any point on this polar line forms an absolute conjugate pair with the pole. Such a pair of points is orthogonal, and the distance between them is a quadrant.

The distance between a pair of points is proportional to the angle between their absolute polars.

As explained by H. S. M. Coxeter:

The name "elliptic" is possibly misleading. It does not imply any direct connection with the curve called an ellipse, but only a rather far-fetched analogy. A central conic is called an ellipse or a hyperbola according as it has no asymptote or two asymptotes. Analogously, a non-Euclidean plane is said to be elliptic or hyperbolic according as each of its lines contains no point at infinity or two points at infinity.

Two dimensions

Elliptic plane

The elliptic plane is the real projective plane provided with a metric. Kepler and Desargues used the gnomonic projection to relate a plane σ to points on a hemisphere tangent to it. With O the center of the hemisphere, a point P in σ determines a line OP intersecting the hemisphere, and any line L ⊂ σ determines a plane OL which intersects the hemisphere in half of a great circle. The hemisphere is bounded by a plane through O and parallel to σ. No ordinary line of σ corresponds to this plane; instead a line at infinity is appended to σ. As any line in this extension of σ corresponds to a plane through O, and since any pair of such planes intersects in a line through O, one can conclude that any pair of lines in the extension intersect: the point of intersection lies where the plane intersection meets σ or the line at infinity. Thus the axiom of projective geometry, requiring all pairs of lines in a plane to intersect, is confirmed.

Given P and Q in σ, the elliptic distance between them is the measure of the angle POQ, usually taken in radians. Arthur Cayley initiated the study of elliptic geometry when he wrote "On the definition of distance". This venture into abstraction in geometry was followed by Felix Klein and Bernhard Riemann leading to non-Euclidean geometry and Riemannian geometry.

Comparison with Euclidean geometry

Comparison of elliptic, Euclidean and hyperbolic geometries in two dimensions

In Euclidean geometry, a figure can be scaled up or scaled down indefinitely, and the resulting figures are similar, i.e., they have the same angles and the same internal proportions. In elliptic geometry, this is not the case. For example, in the spherical model we can see that the distance between any two points must be strictly less than half the circumference of the sphere (because antipodal points are identified). A line segment therefore cannot be scaled up indefinitely. A geometer measuring the geometrical properties of the space he or she inhabits can detect, via measurements, that there is a certain distance scale that is a property of the space. On scales much smaller than this one, the space is approximately flat, geometry is approximately Euclidean, and figures can be scaled up and down while remaining approximately similar.

A great deal of Euclidean geometry carries over directly to elliptic geometry. For example, the first and fourth of Euclid's postulates, that there is a unique line between any two points and that all right angles are equal, hold in elliptic geometry. Postulate 3, that one can construct a circle with any given center and radius, fails if "any radius" is taken to mean "any real number", but holds if it is taken to mean "the length of any given line segment". Therefore any result in Euclidean geometry that follows from these three postulates will hold in elliptic geometry, such as proposition 1 from book I of the Elements, which states that given any line segment, an equilateral triangle can be constructed with the segment as its base.

Elliptic geometry is also like Euclidean geometry in that space is continuous, homogeneous, isotropic, and without boundaries. Isotropy is guaranteed by the fourth postulate, that all right angles are equal. For an example of homogeneity, note that Euclid's proposition I.1 implies that the same equilateral triangle can be constructed at any location, not just in locations that are special in some way. The lack of boundaries follows from the second postulate, extensibility of a line segment.

One way in which elliptic geometry differs from Euclidean geometry is that the sum of the interior angles of a triangle is greater than 180 degrees. In the spherical model, for example, a triangle can be constructed with vertices at the locations where the three positive Cartesian coordinate axes intersect the sphere, and all three of its internal angles are 90 degrees, summing to 270 degrees. For sufficiently small triangles, the excess over 180 degrees can be made arbitrarily small.

The Pythagorean theorem fails in elliptic geometry. In the 90°–90°–90° triangle described above, all three sides have the same length, and consequently do not satisfy ${\displaystyle a^2+b^2=c^2}$. The Pythagorean result is recovered in the limit of small triangles.

The ratio of a circle's circumference to its area is smaller than in Euclidean geometry. In general, area and volume do not scale as the second and third powers of linear dimensions.

Elliptic space (the 3D case)

Note: This section uses the term "elliptic space" to refer specifically to 3-dimensional elliptic geometry. This is in contrast to the previous section, which was about 2-dimensional elliptic geometry. The quaternions are used to elucidate this space.

Elliptic space can be constructed in a way similar to the construction of three-dimensional vector space: with equivalence classes. One uses directed arcs on great circles of the sphere. As directed line segments are equipollent when they are parallel, of the same length, and similarly oriented, so directed arcs found on great circles are equipollent when they are of the same length, orientation, and great circle. These relations of equipollence produce 3D vector space and elliptic space, respectively.

Access to elliptic space structure is provided through the vector algebra of William Rowan Hamilton: he envisioned a sphere as a domain of square roots of minus one. Then Euler's formula ${\displaystyle \exp (\theta r)=\cos \theta +r\sin \theta }$ (where r is on the sphere) represents the great circle in the plane containing 1 and r. Opposite points r and –r correspond to oppositely directed circles. An arc between θ and φ is equipollent with one between 0 and φ – θ. In elliptic space, arc length is less than π, so arcs may be parametrized with θ in [0, π) or (–π/2, π/2].

For ${\displaystyle z=\exp (\theta r),z^{\ast }=\exp (-\theta r)⟹z{z}^{\ast }=1.}$ It is said that the modulus or norm of z is one (Hamilton called it the tensor of z). But since r ranges over a sphere in 3-space, exp(θ r) ranges over a sphere in 4-space, now called the 3-sphere, as its surface has three dimensions. Hamilton called his algebra quaternions and it quickly became a useful and celebrated tool of mathematics. Its space of four dimensions is evolved in polar co-ordinates ${\displaystyle t\exp (\theta r),}$ with t in the positive real numbers.

When doing trigonometry on Earth or the celestial sphere, the sides of the triangles are great circle arcs. The first success of quaternions was a rendering of spherical trigonometry to algebra. Hamilton called a quaternion of norm one a versor, and these are the points of elliptic space.

With r fixed, the versors

${\displaystyle e^{ar},0\le a<\pi }$

form an elliptic line. The distance from ${\displaystyle e^{ar}}$ to 1 is a. For an arbitrary versor u, the distance will be that θ for which cos θ = (u + u^∗)/2 since this is the formula for the scalar part of any quaternion.

An elliptic motion is described by the quaternion mapping

${\displaystyle q\mapsto uqv,}$ where u and v are fixed versors.

Distances between points are the same as between image points of an elliptic motion. In the case that u and v are quaternion conjugates of one another, the motion is a spatial rotation, and their vector part is the axis of rotation. In the case u = 1 the elliptic motion is called a right Clifford translation, or a parataxy. The case v = 1 corresponds to left Clifford translation.

Elliptic lines through versor u may be of the form

${\displaystyle \{u{e}^{ar}:0\le a<\pi \}}$ or ${\displaystyle \{e^{ar}u:0\le a<\pi \}}$ for a fixed r.

They are the right and left Clifford translations of u along an elliptic line through 1. The elliptic space is formed from S³ by identifying antipodal points.

Elliptic space has special structures called Clifford parallels and Clifford surfaces.

The versor points of elliptic space are mapped by the Cayley transform to ℝ³ for an alternative representation of the space.

Higher-dimensional spaces

Hyperspherical model

The hyperspherical model is the generalization of the spherical model to higher dimensions. The points of n-dimensional elliptic space are the pairs of unit vectors (x, −x) in Rⁿ⁺¹, that is, pairs of antipodal points on the surface of the unit ball in (n + 1)-dimensional space (the n-dimensional hypersphere). Lines in this model are great circles, i.e., intersections of the hypersphere with flat hypersurfaces of dimension n passing through the origin.

Projective elliptic geometry

In the projective model of elliptic geometry, the points of n-dimensional real projective space are used as points of the model. This models an abstract elliptic geometry that is also known as projective geometry.

The points of n-dimensional projective space can be identified with lines through the origin in (n + 1)-dimensional space, and can be represented non-uniquely by nonzero vectors in Rⁿ⁺¹, with the understanding that u and λu, for any non-zero scalar λ, represent the same point. Distance is defined using the metric

${\displaystyle d(u,v)=\arccos \left(\frac{|u\cdot v|}{\Vert u\Vert \Vert v\Vert }\right);}$

that is, the distance between two points is the angle between their corresponding lines in Rⁿ⁺¹. The distance formula is homogeneous in each variable, with d(λu, μv) = d(u, v) if λ and μ are non-zero scalars, so it does define a distance on the points of projective space.

A notable property of the projective elliptic geometry is that for even dimensions, such as the plane, the geometry is non-orientable. It erases the distinction between clockwise and counterclockwise rotation by identifying them.

Stereographic model

A model representing the same space as the hyperspherical model can be obtained by means of stereographic projection. Let Eⁿ represent Rⁿ ∪ {∞}, that is, n-dimensional real space extended by a single point at infinity. We may define a metric, the chordal metric, on Eⁿ by

${\displaystyle \delta (u,v)=\frac{2\Vert u-v\Vert }{\sqrt{(1+\Vert u{\Vert }^2)(1+\Vert v{\Vert }^2)}}}$

where u and v are any two vectors in Rⁿ and ${\displaystyle \Vert \cdot \Vert }$ is the usual Euclidean norm. We also define

${\displaystyle \delta (u,\mathrm{\infty })=\delta (\mathrm{\infty },u)=\frac{2}{\sqrt{1+\Vert u{\Vert }^2}}.}$

The result is a metric space on Eⁿ, which represents the distance along a chord of the corresponding points on the hyperspherical model, to which it maps bijectively by stereographic projection. We obtain a model of spherical geometry if we use the metric

${\displaystyle d(u,v)=2\arcsin \left(\frac{\delta (u,v)}{2}\right).}$

Elliptic geometry is obtained from this by identifying the antipodal points u and −u / ‖u‖², and taking the distance from v to this pair to be the minimum of the distances from v to each of these two points.

Self-consistency

Because spherical elliptic geometry can be modeled as, for example, a spherical subspace of a Euclidean space, it follows that if Euclidean geometry is self-consistent, so is spherical elliptic geometry. Therefore it is not possible to prove the parallel postulate based on the other four postulates of Euclidean geometry.

Tarski proved that elementary Euclidean geometry is complete: there is an algorithm which, for every proposition, can show it to be either true or false. (This does not violate Gödel's theorem, because Euclidean geometry cannot describe a sufficient amount of arithmetic for the theorem to apply.) It therefore follows that elementary elliptic geometry is also self-consistent and complete.

Native American Church

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_Church

 

Native American Church
Native American Church's symbol
Type	Syncretic, Religious syncretic
Classification	Native American
Founder	Quanah Parker
Origin	19th century United States
Separations	Big moon peyotism
Members	250,000

The Native American Church (NAC), also known as Peyotism and Peyote Religion, is a Native American religion that teaches a combination of traditional Native American beliefs and elements of Christianity especially the ten commandments, with sacramental use of the entheogen peyote. The religion originated in the Oklahoma Territory (1890–1907) in the late nineteenth century, after peyote was introduced to the southern Great Plains from Mexico. Today it is the most widespread indigenous religion among Native Americans in the United States (except Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians), Canada (specifically First Nations people in Saskatchewan and Alberta), and Mexico, with an estimated 250,000 adherents as of the late twentieth century.

History

Peyote road

A peyote set such as this is used by the medicine man during the peyote ritual.

Peyote ceremony tipi

Historically, many denominations of mainstream Christianity made attempts to convert Native Americans to Christianity in the Western Hemisphere. These efforts were partially successful, for the religious practices, including those of the Native American Church, of many Native American tribes reflect Christian creeds. Although conversion to Christianity was a slow process, the tenets of the Native American Church were more readily accepted.

Originally formed in the Oklahoma Territory, the Native American Church is monotheistic, believing in a supreme being, called the Great Spirit. The tenets of the Native American Church regard peyote as a sacred and holy sacrament and use it as a means to communicate with the Great Spirit (God), also referred to as the Creator.

Beliefs of the church

Disease and death are believed to be a result of an imbalance in the individual. Besides peyote, other sacred plants, prayer, and fasting are used to cure this imbalance. Use of peyote is never for recreational purposes and the hallucinogenic effects of the plant are considered spiritual visions. To most Native Americans, visions are a communion with the metaphysical. However, not every member experiences hallucinogenic effects during peyote rituals. The plant is meant to heal or fix social, personal, and communal problems. Members believe the plant is safe for children and pregnant women.

Relationship to Christianity

Some American Natives dislike the beliefs of Christianity because of the history between natives and European Christian groups. Missionaries' attempts to alter or remove aspects of American Natives' heritage and culture has left many unable to reconcile with Christianity. On the other hand, some members are comfortable with a syncretic spiritual way that combines their Indigenous ways with some aspects of Christianity. The church included Protestant characteristics in its formation.

Different fireplaces

In the Native American Church, there are two main umbrella fireplaces (ceremonial peyote altars passed down generationally from family) that are conducted: the Half-Moon fireplace and the Cross-Fire fireplace.

Half-Moon fireplace:

• Uses a half-moon shaped sand altar, the color of sand and size used varying between tribes
• Uses tobacco and corn-shucks during main sections of the service
• Coal design patterns differ from tribe to tribe during the service
• Staff is passed around the tipi during singing sections
• Main four ceremonial songs sung

Cross-Fire fireplace:

• Uses a horseshoe shaped sand altar, with a corresponding mound outside of the tipi parallel to the firepit – to represent the "grave of Jesus Christ"
• No tobacco used
• Staff is placed upright in the ground and does not get passed around the ceremony during singing sections
• Bible sections are recited and used according to the family's prayer for the particular service
• Cross design within the coals to represent certain elements of Jesus Christ
• Mainly Christian peyote songs sung, with the main four ceremonial songs appended to the Cross-fire

There are many variations of each fireplace, and they depends greatly on tribe and environment. There are also special fireplaces that do not exactly fit into the mold of either main style, so the above list is by no means authoritative.

National organizational structure

Within the United States, there are two main umbrella chapters of the Native American Church:

• Native American Church of the United States – the original 1913 charter enabled in Oklahoma territory. All chapters with this designation have no blood quantum requirements to attend ceremonies and all races, generally, are welcome. Most tribes that adopted the NAC early have an original chapter enacted with this charter.
• Native American Church of North America – an offshoot that originates from the late 1960s, the NAC of North America only allows Native Americans with a blood quantum of 1/4 or more to attend. This is enforced by tribal police via checking Certificates of Degree of Indian or Alaska Native Blood (CDIBs) and NAC membership cards. While in the minority nationally, major community figures in the peyote world are actively involved and defend its decision to only allow Native Americans to attend.

There are other tribal specific offshoots of both umbrella chapters, notably the Navajo, with major chapters in both states representing both the original charter and the NAC of North America.

Ceremony and roles

Followers of the Native American Church have differing ceremonies, celebrations, and ways of practicing their religion. For example, among the Lakota, the Cross Fire group uses the Bible for sermons, which are rejected by the Half Moon followers, though they each teach a similar Christian morality. Ceremonies commonly last all night, beginning Saturday evening and ending early Sunday morning. Scripture reading, prayer, singing, and drumming are included. In general, the Native American Church believes in one supreme God, the Great Spirit.

Ceremonies are generally held in a tipi and require a priest, pastor, or elder to conduct the service. The conductor is referred to as the Roadman. The Roadman is assisted by a Fireman, whose task is to care for the holy fireplace, making sure that it burns consistently all night. The Roadman may use a prayer staff, a beaded and feathered gourd, a small drum, cedar, and his eagle feather as a means for conducting services. The Roadman's wife or other female relative prepares four sacramental foods and the "second breakfast" that are part of the church services. Her part takes place very early, between 4:30 and 5:00 in the morning. The four sacramental foods are water, shredded beef or "sweet meat", corn mush, and some variety of berry. To counterbalance the bitterness of the peyote consumed during the services, the sweet foods were added later. The second breakfast is like a typical American breakfast. It generally includes boiled eggs, toast, hash brown potatoes, coffee, and juice. This meal is served well after sunrise and just prior to the closing of the church services.

Church services are not regular Sunday occurrences but are held in accordance with special requests by a family for celebrating a birthday, or for a memorial or funeral service. Services begin at sundown on either a Friday or Saturday evening and end at sunrise. Thus, a participant "sits up" all night, giving up a full night's rest as part of a small sacrifice to the Holy Spirit and Jesus.

The church services culminate in a feast for the whole community the following day. Because peyote is a stimulant, all of the participating members are wide awake, so they, too, attend the feast. The need for sleep is generally felt in the late afternoon, particularly after the feast. Gifts are given to the Roadman and all his helpers by the sponsoring family at the feast to show deep appreciation for all his hard work.

Common reasons for holding a service include the desire to cure illness, birthday celebrations, Christian holidays, school graduations, and other significant life events.

Music

Music during prayer services consists of the singer with his gourd rattle staff and the water-drummer with his water-drum. The singer sings four songs, concludes his set, and passes the staff, gourd and drum along to the next relative to sing.

There are only two musical instruments used in an authentic Native American Church prayer service:

• Peyote gourd rattle – a gourd rattle made of wood (beaded and non-beaded), raw gourd shell, and sea stones used to sing peyote songs throughout the service. The wood is usually strong, hard-wood like Gabon ebony and Bodark to produce the appropriate tune for the rattle.
• Water drum – a metal drum (usually cast-iron, brass or aluminum) filled with water and tied down with marbles/stones with an appropriate animal hide. When tied correctly, it produces a deep tone that can be manipulated with the thumb on the hide to change the sound as a relative is singing.

Peyote songs of the Native American Church are in the peyote language. This language makes up all peyote songs sung around all fireplaces, no matter what tribe or denomination nationally. The language was introduced by the Carrizo and Coahuiltecan people of South Texas and is what people consider "straight" peyote songs.

That being said, many tribes incorporate their own language into peyote songs, which will assign that particular song to one particular tribe, instead of it being represented in an intertribal way as a "straight" song.

Artwork

Along with the founding of the Native American Church came new artwork and art techniques. European trade materials such as beads and metal were incorporated into artwork. Therefore, the category of "peyote art" includes traditional and contemporary styles. Many art pieces are ritual instruments or for ceremonial settings. These objects of art include gourd rattles made of hardwoods, glass beads, leather fringe, and dyed horsehair. Furthermore, most objects, if they are associated with the church, are produced by men. There are also feather fans that can be made from hawk, golden eagle, mascot or other birds' feathers. These fans are one of the most important objects related to the church because they represent the bird symbolism in the religion. Moreover, there are also drum sticks and ritual staffs that have carvings of tipis, birds, stars, sun patterns, and other symbols important to the church. However, there are also non-instrumental art pieces such as paintings and jewelry.

Persecution and law

As the United States government became more involved in the control of drugs, the Native American Church faced possible legal issues regarding their use of peyote. The Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, also called the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, was passed to provide legal protection for the Church's use of the plant.

The controversy over peyote resulted in its legal classification as a controlled drug in the United States. However, as a result of US v. Boyll (1991) and other federal rulings, members of the Native American Church are allowed to transport, possess, and use peyote for religious purposes. While such use has been declared legal without regard to race or tribal status in all US states other than Idaho and Texas, which have outlawed use by non-natives, the purchase of peyote from licensed distributors can only be made via permit by enrolled tribal members, who also must intend to use it for religious purposes only. These distributors, located in Texas near the Mexican border, sell wild peyote gathered in its native range by licensed collectors. Cultivation of peyote is legal under the same circumstances as possession, where the cultivator must be able to prove that plants are for use in Native American Church ceremonies, or depending on the state, for general religious ceremonies.

The Neo-American Church tried to claim LSD and marijuana as sacraments, seeking protection similar to that afforded to peyote use by the Native American Church. The courts ruled against them. The Peyote Way Church of God's failed federal lawsuit was rendered partially successful when Arizona expanded permitted use of peyote to general bona fide religious purposes, as well as spiritual intent. Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Oregon also allow for general religious use.

Influential people

Prominent figures in the church's development include Chevato, Jim Aton, John Wilson, and Jonathan Koshiway. These people, and many others, played important roles in the introduction and adoption of the Native American Church.

Victor Griffin, known as the last chief of the Quapaw tribe, was noted for facilitating the incorporation of the Native American Church under Oklahoma law in 1911. He also helped spread the religion to some other related tribes in the region.

Led by James Mooney, a first generation of anthropologists brought their help to Peyotists, providing testimonies before legislative bodies, and later encouraged the movement's leaders to consolidate peyote use into an established religion whose practice would be protected by law.

The Native American novelist N. Scott Momaday gives a highly accurate portrayal of the peyote service in his book House Made of Dawn.

Reuben Snake was a Ho-Chunk roadman and worked towards the establishment of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, which passed after his death in 1994 in order to legalize the use of ceremonial peyote.

Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Product_Safety_Improvement_Act

 

Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

Long title	Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008
Acronyms (colloquial)	CPSIA
Nicknames	Consumer Act
Enacted by	the 110th United States Congress
Effective	August 14, 2008

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008 is a United States law signed on August 14, 2008 by President George W. Bush. The legislative bill was known as HR 4040, sponsored by Congressman Bobby Rush (D-Ill.). On December 19, 2007, the U.S. House approved the bill 407-0. On March 6, 2008, the U.S. Senate approved the bill 79-13. The law—public law 110-314—increases the budget of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), imposes new testing and documentation requirements, and sets new acceptable levels of several substances. It imposes new requirements on manufacturers of apparel, shoes, personal care products, accessories and jewelry, home furnishings, bedding, toys, electronics and video games, books, school supplies, educational materials and science kits. The Act also increases fines and specifies jail time for some violations.

This act was seen in part as controversial because of its impact to many types of businesses.

A previous, less sweeping bill, the Lead-Free Toys Act (H.R. 3473, sponsored by Representative Henry Waxman), was incorporated into this act. The earlier bill was prompted by various scandals over high lead content in toys, including a December 2006 report at Waxman's behest showing high lead levels in items sold in U.S. Capitol gift shops.

Budget authorization

The law increases the CPSC budget authorization from $80 million in 2008 to $136 million in 2014. It also increases staffing to at least 500 personnel by 2013.

Targeted industries

It is targeted mostly toward "children's products", which are defined as any consumer product designed or intended primarily for children 12 years of age or younger.

There are also new rules governing all-terrain vehicles (ATVs).

It also affects any product that is subject to anything the CPSC regulates by requiring certificates of conformance which state that the product was tested to conform to the regulations it is subject to.

Definition of a children's product

The law defines a "children's product" as a consumer product designed or intended primarily for children 12 years of age or younger. In determining whether a consumer product is primarily intended for a child 12 years of age or younger, the following factors will be considered:

1. A statement by the manufacturer about the intended use of the product, including a label on the product, if such statement is reasonable.
2. Whether the product is represented in its packaging, display, promotion, or advertising as appropriate for use by children 12 years of age or younger.
3. Whether the product is commonly recognized by consumers as being intended for use by a child 12 years of age or younger.
4. The Age Determination Guidelines issued by the Commission staff in September 2002, and any successor to such guidelines.

See 15 USC 2052 See also 16 CFR 1200.2(a) For the CPSC's detailed analysis about the four factors, see 16 CFR 1200.2(c)

Testing and exposure levels

Lead

The legislation reduces the limit of lead allowed in surface coatings or paint to 90 ppm (from the current limit of 600 ppm) effective on August 14, 2009.

The legislation reduces the amount of total lead content in children's product substrates to:

• 600 ppm by February 10, 2009.
• 300 ppm by August 14, 2009.
• 100 ppm by August 14, 2011.

The Falvey Opinion (named for Cheryl Falvey, General Counsel for the CPSC) issued on September 12, 2008 stated that these limits would be retroactively applied to products on retailer's shelves on the dates indicated.

Phthalates

As of February 10, 2009, it shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture for sale, distribute in commerce, or import any children's toy or childcare article that contains the phthalates DEHP, DBP, or BBP at levels higher than 0.1 percent.

The legislation bans from any children's toy that can be put in a child's mouth or childcare articles phthalates DINP, DIDP, and DnOP at levels higher than 0.1% on an interim basis until a report from the Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel (CHAP) is received, after which the CPSC can continue the prohibition by rule.

CPSC General Counsel Falvey provided an advisory opinion on October 17, 2008 that the phthalate ban does not apply to children's footwear. Falvey provided an additional opinion on November 17, 2008 that the ban does not apply to wearing apparel, but does apply to toy costumes, bibs, sleepwear. Notably in its distinction from the lead ruling of September 12, 2008, the phthalate ban will apply to articles manufactured on or after February 10, 2009. However, the decision was challenged by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Public Citizen in the New York Southern District Court and set aside by Judge Paul Gardephe on February 5, 2009.

Mandatory testing

The legislation requires that every manufacturer of a product subject to a consumer product safety rule will provide a "General Conformity Certificate" (GCC) to certify, based on unit testing or a reasonable testing program, that the product complies with all safety rules. This requirement was imposed on every product manufactured on or after November 12, 2008. The certificate must:

1. Be in English.
2. List the name, address, and phone number of the manufacturer, importer, and/or private labeler issuing the certificate and any third party testing facility.
3. List the date and place of manufacture and date and place of testing.
4. List the contact information of the records keeper.
5. List each applicable rule, standard, and ban.

These certificates must accompany the product through the distribution chain through the retailer. They must be available to the CPSC during any inspection.

Children's products are singled out for third party testing by this Act. A schedule for testing is found in Section 102(a)(3)(B) and shows:

Test standard	Publication of accreditation procedure	Third party testing required
Lead paint	September 22, 2008	December 21, 2008
Cribs and pacifiers	October 22, 2008	January 20, 2009
Small parts	November 17, 2008	February 15, 2009
Metal jewelry	December 2008	March 2009
Baby bouncers, walkers, and jumpers	March 2009	June 2009
300 ppm lead content	May 2009	August 2009 (stayed until 2/10/11)
CPSC children's product safety rules	June 2009	September 2009

The third party testing requirement for lead content was originally set by the CPSIA at 600 ppm, but dropped to 300 ppm in August, 2009. However, these lead content testing requirements were stayed by the CPSC in January 2009 until February 10, 2010. In December 2009, this stay of enforcement was further extended until February 10, 2011. In both cases, the CPSC cited a need to implement further rulemaking and to give manufacturers more time to comply. On October 9, 2011 CSPC passed final regulations requiring third-party safety testing for children's products. These new regulations go into effect 15 months after publication in the Federal Register. The actual date for compliance as publish for compliance will be February 8, 2013 for their own Product Testing and Certification Program.

In a section of the Act known as the Danny Keysar Child Product Safety Notification Act, mandatory standards are required for infant and toddler durable products, cribs cannot be sold that don't meet current standards and all infant and toddler durable products must have product registration cards. Beginning August 14, 2009, children's products must be marked by a permanent distinguishing mark or label that indicates the manufacturer, cohort (batch), and any other mark necessary to trace the product.

Whistleblower protections

The purpose of the Act's whistleblower provision is to protect employees who do the right thing by speaking up when they believe their employer has violated a consumer product safety law. Specifically, if employees of a manufacturer, private labeler, distributor, or retailer of consumer products, may not have their employer retaliate against them for reporting potential violations of consumer product safety laws.

Additionally, under the Act a Publicly Available Consumer Product Safety Information Database where consumers can directly report harm or merely a risk of harm officially launched on March 11, 2011.

Penalties

The Act imposes or increases both fines and jail time penalties, and mandates coordination with the CPSC when effecting a manufacturer's product recall. The law:

• Increases civil penalties for failure to report possible product hazards to the CPSC in a timely manner from $5,000 per violation (with a cap of $1,825,000) to $100,000 per violation (with a cap of $15 million).
• Increases criminal penalties for various prohibited acts to include forfeiture of assets and imprisonment for up to five years, and eliminates the requirement that the CPSC first notify a company of noncompliance before seeking criminal penalties.
• Requires CPSC approval of the remedy offered in a product recall, rather than giving the recalling party its choice of repair, replace, or refund.

Criticism

At the time of passage in 2008, manufacturers, both large and small, protested the extremely short timelines for implementation, the failure to take into account manufacturing processes, and the failure to take into account the breadth of the impact.

Congress passed this legislation in the wake of several high profile recalls in 2007 and 2008 of toys manufactured in China. Though many of these later turned out to be problems with design rather than manufacture, public pressure was increased as the result of at least one case of lead poisoning and subsequent issues with tainted pet food and other products shipped from China. The legislation, HR 4040, was passed in July 2008 and signed into law by President Bush in August 2008. The first deadline came up in September 2008, and several major deadlines came up in February 2009.

Manufacturers pointed out that many of the products to be impacted were already making their way through the supply chain. As a result, much inventory that was legal prior to the signing of the law and was manufactured shortly thereafter were probably already on shelves as the deadlines approached. The Natural Resources Defense Council and Public Citizen apparently agreed that these products were already in distribution, but believed that manufacturers should still be held liable. The problem was not the lead or phthalate content, as they imply, but the fact that the products must be tested to make sure they comply. There was also confusion of what products need a GCC and which do not. They had not been tested because the items generally do not contain hazardous materials; CPSC had been slow to define some of the accreditation or testing criteria; some of the low volume, low value items were not economical to test; and lot tracking methods would not allow some of the items to be tracked.

Manufacturers also point out that even if they attempted to comply, there are logistical problems. Companies with large varieties of products will have difficulty selecting several samples of every item. Even if they can, there are not enough testing facilities to handle the volume in time to meet the schedules.

Manufacturers also note both the difficulty and the apparently contradictory mandate to perform unit testing. An apparel manufacturer, for example, might use a single mill product such as organic cotton cloth coupled with a few organic dyes and a few pieces of hardware such as zippers or buttons. Those can be combined in limitless ways and in various sizes. Testing all of the final products generally provides no more information than would testing the individual inputs (or "components"), but is vastly more expensive. In response to this criticism, the CPSC added Rule 1109, known as the "Component Part Testing Rule", that allows U.S. importers to rely on suppliers to meet testing requirements, so long as “due care” is used to make sure that the supplier has in fact complied with requirements.

Final product testing may actually be counterproductive if, for example, a solid lead button is tested as part of a larger product. When tested separately, the button would fail, but when mixed together with the other inputs, the final total lead content may fall below the standard. Thus, unit testing would result in certifying the safety of a product which has unsafe components that could be swallowed by a child.

Other manufacturers point out the problem of defining "children's products." Electronic products such as video games could be considered children's products, and are therefore subject to that testing. Electronics products contain lead as a component of solder; whereas the European Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive standards have long attempted to phase out lead solder, the tin solder is known to suffer from a defect known as tin whiskers. This means that entire classes of products may become unavailable as manufacturers withdraw from the markets, banned as they are unable to pass tests, or defective as they substitute inferior components.

Additionally, products such as “regular Children’s books”, that have never been a health problem, are being included in the products that must be tested and certified.

The law requires some rulings from the CPSC on a predetermined schedule, and allows for other rulings as necessary. Manufacturers must wait until a final ruling is made before they can perform the required testing or gather the required documentation. Many times this ruling isn't available until after the item is already required. For example, the law required the issuance of a GCC for products manufactured "on and after November 12, 2008", but the GCC ruling was not published in the Federal Register until November 18, 2008.

These criticisms have been leveled by large and small manufacturers alike. According to 2002 business census data, 99% of the apparel manufacturers in the United States are small businesses, using the Small Business Administration's definition of "less than 500 employees." Many of them believe that they will not be able to manage or afford the mandated testing and will go out of business. This has resulted in an online petition campaign by small manufacturers of children's apparel.

Larger manufacturers are faced with problems stemming from their leverage, from aspects of Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, from their visibility, and from the logistics of managing the testing of large varieties of products. Large manufacturers tend to be very leveraged, and use their eligible inventory as their borrowing base. Because the inventory is going to become unsalable on February 10, 2009, there will be an abrupt change in their borrowing base. This raises the question of whether corporate officers can legitimately claim inventory in their current borrowing base. Because many of these loan agreements and all publicly traded companies require audited financial statements at the end of the year, inventories will be tested. This will result in a negative change in valuation and a sharp reduction or termination of available credit. For public companies, it raises the issue of whether those officers are making false representations, introducing the specter of criminal liability under Sarbanes-Oxley.

In early 2009, local media reported that children's clothes, books, toys, and other items were being removed from shelves at local stores - and in some of these cases even to the point of causing the entire store to close - in Wichita, Kansas, Ionia, Michigan, Conway, Arkansas, Goldsboro, North Carolina, Lincoln, Nebraska, New York City, New York (NYC), Rochester, New York, Marshall, Minnesota, Kailua, Hawaii, New Port Richey, Florida, and Tucson, Arizona.

According to Walter Olson's report 'The New Book Banning' in 'City Journal' (NYC), the CPSIA has problems because due to economics, some stores destroyed books, and some used book sellers removed many books. One small bookstore owner interviewee criticized the CPSC and referenced the book Fahrenheit 451, where the destruction of books at government behest was a plot point. Olson also claims that there has never been any known case of a child receiving lead poisoning from a book. In his closing paragraph, Olson writes "... ours will be a poorer world...".

The enactment of the CPSIA banned the sale of youth motorcycles and ATVs because of the lead content of battery terminals and tire valve stems. The law has a provision for exceptions to be made by the CPSC, but it has not done so for these products as of March 2009. The ban has left many motorsports retailers with unsalable products, and motorcycle industry leaders suggest that the ban may cost the US economy $1 billion. However, on 08/12/11, an amendment was signed by President Obama, which exempts youth ATVs and motorcycles from the CPSIA.