Word: sound
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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What is that strange noise in the office next door? Answer: the sound of a Tupperware party in progress. The plastic food containers, which make a slight burrrp noise when resealed, are suddenly being shown and sold in all sorts of nontraditional places: on the job, in day-care centers, even at tailgate parties. In the past Tupperware was pushed exclusively at living-room gatherings of housewives, a successful marketing strategy devised by Inventor Earl Tupper not long after he dreamed up the product in the 1940s. But as more and more women joined the work force, the party calmed...
...good. Coastal areas with dense populations and a long history of industrial discharge show the highest levels of pollution. Among the worst, according to Charles Ehler of NOAA: Boston Harbor, the Hudson River-Raritan estuary on the New Jersey coast, San Diego harbor and Washington's Puget Sound...
...fragile estuarine systems can be overtaxed in any number of ways. Dredging can stir up the bottom, throwing pollutants back into circulation. The U.S. Navy plans to build a port in Puget Sound for the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Nimitz and twelve other ships; the project will require displacement of more than 1 million cu. yds. of sediment, with unknown ecological consequences. Similarly, natural events such as hurricanes can bestir pollutants from the sediment. The estuarine environment also changes when the balance of freshwater and salt water is disturbed. Upstream dams, for example, diminish the flow of freshwater into estuaries...
Washington is one of the few states with a comprehensive cleanup program. Three years ago, the Puget Sound water-quality authority developed a master plan for cleaning up the heavily polluted, 3,200-sq.-mi. body of water. The state legislature has levied an 8 cents-a-pack surtax on cigarettes to help pay the bill; this year the tax will contribute an estimated $25 million to the cleanup. The Puget Sound authority and other state agencies closely monitor discharge of industrial waste and are working with companies on ways to reduce effluent...
...Puget Sound group has an educational program that teaches area residents everything from the history of the sound to what not to put down the kitchen sink. Controlling pollution is promoted as everyone's task. High school students take water samples, and island dwellers have been trained in what to do if they spot an oil spill. Says Seattle Water-Quality Planner Hubbard: "Bridgetenders are great at calling in with violations. They are up high, and when they see a black scum or a little slick, they let us know about...