"Gasoline contains a mixture of BTEX hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes). Prolonged exposure to toluene can cause permanent damage to the central nervous system, and chlorinated solvents can cause liver and kidney problems.
Benzene in particular causes leukemia and is associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma. People who work in filling stations, live near them, or attend school close to them are exposed to fumes and are at increased lifetime risk of cancer, with risk increased if there are multiple stations nearby.
There is some evidence that living near a filling station is a risk for childhood leukemia.
In addition to long-term exposure, there are bursts of short-term exposures to benzene when tanker trucks deliver fuel.
High levels of benzene have been detected near stations across urban, suburban, and rural environments, though the causes (such as road traffic or congestion) can vary by location.
Gas station attendants have suffered adverse health consequences depending on the type of fuel used,
exposure to vehicle exhaust, and types of personal protective equipment (PPE) offered. Studies have noted higher levels of chromosomal deletions and higher rates of miscarriage, and workers have reported headaches, fatigue, throat irritation and depression.
Exposure to exhaust and fumes has been associated with eye irritation, nausea, dizziness, and cough.
"Total's leadership had been aware of the deleterious effects of global warming since at least 1971; The company nevertheless openly denied the findings of climate science until the 1990s; Total also pursued a number of strategies to cover up the threat and contribution to the climate crisis."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filling_station
"In many North American jurisdictions, tobacco products comprise the greatest portion of
gross sales at convenience stores, between 25% and 35%."
"Boasting more than 10,000 convenience stores in an area of 35,980 km2 and a population of 23 million, Taiwan has Asia Pacific's and the world's second highest density of convenience stores per person after South Korea: one store per 2,065 people.
With 4,665 7-Eleven stores, Taiwan also has the world's highest density of 7-Elevens per person: one store per 4,930 people.
In Taipei, it is not unusual to see two 7-Elevens across the street or several of them within a few hundred meters of each other."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convenience_store
"In-store convenience store sales grew 2.4%, reaching a record $195.0 billion in 2011.
Combined with $486.9 billion in motor fuels sales, total convenience store sales in 2011 were $681.9 billion, or
one out of every 22 dollars
of the overall $15.04 trillion U.S. gross domestic product. "
"In 2011, there were approximately 47,195 gas stations with convenience stores that generated $326 billion in revenue.
Of the 150,000 convenience stores in the country, 120,000[inconsistent] of them are located at fuel stations, which
sell approximately 80 percent of the fuels purchased in the country."
"Policies regarding the sale of adult magazines vary, but generally larger chains (such as 7-Eleven and Casey's General Stores) do not sell these items, while smaller independent stores may do so.
One notable exception is fast-growing regional chain Sheetz, which until the late 2010s sold some soft-core pornographic material such as Playboy, Penthouse, and Playgirl. Sheetz ended this practice as part of a broader decision to
end sales of all print media.
Because the laws regarding the sale of alcoholic beverages vary from state to state in the US, the availability of beer, wine, and liquor varies greatly. For example, while convenience stores in Alaska, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey cannot sell any kind of alcohol at all, stores in Nevada, New Mexico, and California may sell alcoholic beverages of any sort, while stores in Virginia, Idaho, or Oregon can sell beer and wine, but not liquor. "
"The UK has 8,385 filling stations
As of 2019, down from about 18,000 in 1992 and a peak of around 40,000 in the mid-1960s.
The US had 114,474 stations in 2012,
according to the US Census Bureau, down from 118,756 in 2007 and 121,446 in 2002.
In Canada, the number is on the decline. As of December 2008, 12,684
were in operation, significantly down from about 20,000 stations recorded in 1989.
In Japan, the number dropped from a peak of 60,421 in 1994 to 40,357 at the end of 2009.
In Germany, the number dropped down to 14,300 in 2011.
In China, according to different reports, the total number of gas/oil stations (at the end of 2018) is about 106,000.
India—60,799 (as of November 2017)
Russia—there were about 25,000 stations in the Russian Federation (2011)
In Argentina, as of 2021, there are more than 5,000 stations."
Numbers.
The largest filling station networks in Europe (2017)
TotalEnergies—8,200 stations
(Revenue S$237.1 billion (2023)
Total assets US$283.6 billion (2023)
"After Total's takeover of Petrofina of Belgium in 1999, it became known as Total Fina. Afterwards, it also acquired Elf Aquitaine. First named TotalFinaElf after the merger in 2000, its name reverted to Total in 2003."
Shell—7,800 stations
BP—7,000 stations
Esso—6,100 stations
Eni—5,500 stations
Repsol—4,700 stations
Q8—4,600 stations
Avia—3,000 stations
PKN Orlen—2,800 stations
Circle K—2,700 stations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TotalEnergies
"In 2006, Saudi Aramco and Total signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the Jubail Refinery and Petrochemical project in Saudi Arabia which targeted 400,000 barrels per day (bpd). Two years later, the two companies officially established a joint venture called
Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (SATORP)
- in which a 62.5% stake was held by Saudi Aramco and the balance 37.5% held by Total"
"Total withdrew in 2006 from all Iranian development work because of United Nations concerns that resulted in sanctions over possible weaponization of the Nuclear program of Iran.
During the 2009–2010 Iraqi oil services contracts tender, a consortium led by CNPC (37.5%), which also included TOTAL (18.75%) and Petronas (18.75%) was awarded a production contract for the "Halfaya field" in the south of Iraq, which contains an estimated 4.1 billion barrels (650,000,000 m3) of oil."
As of 2010, Total had over 96,000 employees and operated in more than 130 countries.
Between 2013 and 2017, Total organized the ARGOS Challenge, a robotic competition with the aim to
develop robots for their oil and gas production sites.
It was won by an Austrian-German team using a variant of the taurob tracker robot.
In 2017, Total signed a deal for a total amount of $4.8b with Iran for the development and production of South Pars, the world's largest gas field.
The deal was the first foreign investment in Iran since in the 2015 sanctions
In 2021, Total left the American Petroleum Institute lobby, due to
differences in the common vision
of how to tackle the fight
against climate change"
"As of 11 March 2022, Total was one of the only Western oil companies to continue operating in Russia after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.
In July 2023, Iraq signed a $27 billion energy agreement with TotalEnergies to develop the country’s energy sector and boost output of oil, gas and renewables. "
____
"The company was incorporated in 1956 as American Petrofina Inc. It had $10 million capitalization and headquarters in Dallas.
Belgian parent company Petrofina owned the majority of American Petrofina's stock—but an American, Harry A. Jackson Jr., served as its first president.
It purchased the small petroleum companies Panhandle Oil Co. in 1956 and the American Liberty Co. of Dallas in 1957, in order to begin actual operations In June 2000, Fina Oil & Chemical Co. was renamed Atofina Petrochemicals Inc. and the headquarters moved to Houston Texas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Petrochemicals_USA
"In 1984, it acquired ARCO's polypropylene plant in La Porte, Texas.
In 1985, the company changed the name of American Petrofina Co. of Texas, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Petrofina Inc., to Fina Oil and Chemical Co. In 1991, that name was changed to FINA Inc.
The La Porte Plant was expanded in 1995, becoming the largest single-site polypropylene plant in the world. In 1996, the other plant owned by FINA, the Carville Polystyrene Plant, took this position after its expansion. In 1997 FINA formed a joint venture with BASF to build
world's largest naphtha steam cracker facility, opened in 2001. "
___
Polystyrene (PS) /ˌpɒliˈstaɪriːn/ is a synthetic polymer made from monomers of the aromatic hydrocarbon styrene.
Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and brittle. It is an inexpensive resin per unit weight. It is a poor barrier to air and water vapor and has a relatively low melting point.
Polystyrene is one of the most widely used plastics, with the scale of its production being
several million tonnes per year.
Polystyrene is naturally transparent, but can be colored with colorants. Uses include protective packaging (such as packing peanuts and in the jewel cases used for storage of optical discs such as CDs and occasionally DVDs),
containers, lids, bottles, trays, tumblers,
disposable cutlery,
in the making of models, and as an alternative material for phonograph records. "
Convenience.
Under ASTM standards, polystyrene is regarded as not biodegradable. It is accumulating as a form of litter in the outside environment, particularly along shores and waterways, especially in its foam form, and in the Pacific Ocean.
"Bottom of a vacuum-formed cup; fine details such as the glass and fork food contact materials symbol and the resin identification code symbol are easily molded"
"Polystyrene was discovered in 1839 by Eduard Simon, an apothecary from Berlin.
From storax, the resin of the Oriental sweetgum tree Liquidambar orientalis, he distilled an oily substance, that he named styrol, now called styrene. Several days later, Simon found that it had thickened into a jelly, now known to have been a polymer, that he dubbed styrol oxide ("Styroloxyd") because he presumed that it had resulted from oxidation (styrene oxide is a distinct compound). "
"The company I. G. Farben
began manufacturing polystyrene in Ludwigshafen, about 1931, hoping it would be a suitable replacement for die-cast zinc in many applications"
'1918–1996), a chemical engineer of Dow Chemical, rediscovered a process first patented in early 1930s by Swedish inventor Carl Munters.
According to the Science History Institute, "Dow bought the rights to Munters's method and began producing a lightweight, water-resistant, and buoyant material that
seemed perfectly suited
for building docks and watercraft
and for insulating homes, offices, and chicken sheds."
In 1944, Styrofoam was patented."
'1960, Dart Container, the largest manufacturer of foam cups, shipped their first order."
"In 2015, researchers discovered that mealworms, the larvae form of the darkling beetle Tenebrio molitor, could digest and subsist healthily on a diet of EPS.
About 100 mealworms
could consume between 34 and 39 milligrams of this white foam in a day. The droppings of mealworm were found to be
safe for use as soil
for crops"
"Extruded polystyrene is usually made with hydrofluorocarbons (HFC-134a),which have
global warming potentials of approximately
1000–1300 times that of carbon dioxide.
Packaging, particularly expanded polystyrene, is a contributor of microplastics from both land and maritime activities."
"In 1987, Berkeley, California, banned CFC food containers. The following year, Suffolk County, New York, became the first U.S. jurisdiction to ban polystyrene in general.
However, legal challenges by the Society of the Plastics Industry
kept the ban from going into effect until at last it was delayed when the
Republican and Conservative parties gained the majority of the county legislature.
In the meantime, Berkeley became the first city to ban all foam food containers.
As of 2006, about one hundred localities in the United States, including Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco had some sort of ban on polystyrene foam in restaurants"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene
"Without plankton, the modern ocean ecosystem – the very idea of the ocean as we understand it – would collapse. Earth would have no complex life of any kind"
No comments:
Post a Comment