As the female owner of a small company who attends many trade shows over the year, I appreciated the Dec. 6 Perspective by Clare Goldsberry. I will make it a point to avoid a booth that has ``booth bimbos.'' If that company makes it, someone else will make a comparable product and my business will go to that vendor.
Perhaps it is time that a large number of women make themselves heard. Please make it known to any company that cares to ask that you received at least one letter expressing support for Ms. Goldsberry's article.
Jennifer Strachan
Jennifer Strachan Associates
Park City, Utah
Opinion shared by many
I appreciate that a trade magazine has voiced the opinion of so many regarding the use of scantily clad females at trade shows.
Perhaps a gentleman would only understand the embarrassment of such situations if he were faced with a male person in a G-string with a group of gawking women.
You have said it all very well - thank you!
MDBO¯Connie Alford
Hunt Wesson Inc.
Fullerton, Calif.
Don't knock booth bimbos
Regarding Clare Goldsberry's Dec. 6 Perspective ``Sex doesn't sell with women execs.''
Ms. Goldsberry, imagine the unimaginable! You are not a member of the elite women exec world, you don't have a college degree, you aren't the glib, highly intelligent reporter for Plastics News, but ... you are incredibly beautiful and well endowed.
What options are open to you to support yourself and maybe, your family? You turn to that horrible profession of, ``booth bimbography!'' Yes, Clare. You, a booth bimbo!
Recently, a sales representative from a leading manufacturer of plastics called on my company for a sales presentation. This person was well groomed, attractive, a chemical engineer from a leading engineering school and had the greatest legs I've had the privilege to observe in the past five or 10 years. I know, because she exposed about 95 percent of them. Not exactly Sharon Stone, but close enough.
Boy! I remember the days when female Chem-E's smelled like H2SO4 and could eat an apple through a picket fence! What a pleasant surprise!
You have chosen to do what so many women like you are doing. Criticizing men for being men, and criticizing other women who don't think the same as you.
Did it ever occur to you that the booth bimbos are just as proud of their work as you are proud of being a member of the plastics industry-whatever that is? Did it occur to you that you were harassing these women?
You mentioned, ``booth bimbos'' five times in your article. You jumped from, ``beautiful showgirls'' to booth bimbos in almost one sentence. Can a booth bimbo be a showgirl? Can a showgirl be a booth bimbo? Or are all women, except women execs, bimbos?
I'll bet that somewhere in that very professional closet is at least one provocative dress of clothes.
Shame on you, Ms. Coldsberry.
R.F. Wagner
Reading, Pa.
Clarifying ASTM's D-20
This letter is to correct some misunderstandings about standards developed by ASTM which you published in your Nov. 8 article by Jonathan Gardner titled: ``IAPD begins work on stock shape standards.''
Apparently both Mr. Gardner and Mr. Mark Grusin are unfamiliar with the activities of ASTM Committee D-20 on plastics.
To begin with, the scope of Committee D-20 is:
The development of test methods, specifications, practices, nomenclature, definitions, and the stimulation of research related to plastics, their raw materials, components, and compounding ingredients, and to finished products made from plastics such as sheets, rods, tubes, pipes, cellular materials, and molded and fabricated articles.
Note that the part of the scope relating to the International Association of Plastics Distributors' concerns is italicized.
Following are just three examples of the many ASTM plastics standards concerned with products, the resins used to make them, their dimensions, shapes, tolerances and physical properties:
D 1710 PTFE Basic Shapes, Rods, and Heavy-Walled Tubing.
D 2911 Dimensions and Tolerances for Plastic Bottles.
D 3917 Dimensional Tolerances for Thermosetting Glass-Reinforced Plastics Pultruded Shapes.
While we may not now have standards specific to polycarbonate plate or nylon and acetal rod and sheet, which appear to be IAPD's top priority, ASTM Committee D-20 certainly does possess the experience and expertise to assist IAPD in the timely development of specifications that meet their needs.
We in ASTM Committee D-20 invite IAPD to our next meeting, to be held in Montreal during the week of March 21. In fact, we invite any organization or individual concerned with plastics and interested in the development of standards pertaining to plastics to come to our meetings or to contact ASTM at 1916 Race St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19103, (215) 299-5400, or to contact me directly at (706) 771-3342.
Paul Graboff
ASTM
Philadelphia
Defining hospital's motive
I'd like to add some comments to Bill Bregar's Page 23 story in the Nov. 29 issue that discussed the move away from PVC in Vienna, Austria's hospitals.
I think it would be helpful for your readers to know that the hospital official cited, Mr. Bruno Klausbruckner, is an active member of Greenpeace in addition to holding the position as the official in charge of hospital matters for the city of Vienna. Given this fact, it becomes a little easier to understand the motivation behind the move away from vinyl.
But I think it's even more important for your readers to know that this move is not being copied elsewhere in Europe. Quite the contrary. In fact, there are some hospitals there that have made a special effort to include more vinyl, not less.
One example is the 800-bed Polyclinic of the Free University of Amsterdam, a new hospital that includes large volumes of vinyl in several applications.
Most interesting is Mr. Klausbruckner's admission that his office conducted no life-cycle analysis of replacement materials before making this decision, and ignored the cost premium involved. In light of his stated interest in the environment, and the global concern for rising health-care costs, neither decision seems prudent.
Robert H. Burnett
Vinyl Institute
Wayne, N.J.
Phenolic recycling a fact
I read with interest Clare Goldsberry's Page 1 article on thermoset recycling in the Dec. 13 issue.
I would like to make you aware that, to my knowledge, Plaslok is the only North American phenolic manufacturer who actually has an in-place, functioning, phenolic recycling program accepting scrap from molders in large quantities.
We have been accepting phenolic scrap from our customers for over six months and the program has been met with great enthusiasm and cooperation.
In future articles let readers know that thermoset recycling is now a reality.
Tacks Call
Plaslok Corp.
Buffalo, N.Y.