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SAN FRANCISCO -- The 1.3-billion-dollar expansion of a computer chip plant near Phoenix, Arizona, heralds a new era in environmental regulation, according to company and U.S. government officials.

The impact of technology on employment in all industrial nations has been dramatic and severe for the last two decades, but by the mid-1990s it was clear that what had been happening was evidence not of ''a transitional or temporary or cyclical problem,'' as Stephen Roach, the chief economist of Morgan Stanley, has put it, but of ''a lasting and structural problem.'' The problem is technology.

Ryoichi Terada, Professor of the Environment, Tsuru University, Tokyo confronts the high tech industry's ground water contamination in Japan.

High-tech electronics industry representatives in the Silicon Valley are finally admitting that their facilities pose significant risks to surrounding communities (of course, they admitted this for liability and permit renewal purposes). A recent article in the San Jose Mercury News (6/18/96) described the struggle between LSI Logic and a neighboring Muslim school.

Here you will also find information about Asian Immigrant Women Advocates (AIWA), a group organizing for the health and safety of high tech employees.

Here are some of the environmental impacts of plastics used in the manufacturing of computers.

The cathode ray tubes of monitors have four major components: glass panel (faceplate), shadow mask (aperture), electron gun (mount) and gas funnel. Along with producing electromagnetic fields, they produce the following pollutants.

Printed circuit boards are the physical structures on which electronics components are mounted. Manufacturing is divided into five steps: board preparation, application of conductive coatings, soldering, fabrication and assembly. These steps produce the following wastes.

Computer chips are made of a solid crystalline material, usually silicon. Semiconductor manufacturing is complex and may require several steps to complete the process, including design, crystal processing, wafer fabrication, final layering and cleaning, and assembly.

Here are the Silicon Principles developed by Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition and Campaign for Responsible Technology providing a clear definition of a just and sustainable industry.

WASHINGTON -- So you have a secret craving for Little Debbie peanut butter bars and a penchant for Kendall-Jackson merlot? While that customer loyalty card at the supermarket might perceivably save you a few pennies at the checkout counter, your buying habits could end up in the hands of government agents.

The Internet's status as an open forum for ideas will come under attack if cable companies aren't forced to open up their broadband networks to rivals, civil liberties and consumer advocacy groups said Monday.

BUENOS AIRES -- Afraid that Peru may adopt a bill decreeing the use of open-source software in all government systems, Microsoft apparently enlisted the American ambassador in Lima to help try to convince the Peruvians to kill the legislation.

The companies making new homeland security devices, such as bomb detectors and biological weapon alarms, want the government to pick up the tab if their products fail and they are sued.

WASHINGTON -- With talk of preemptive war all the rage on Capitol Hill, it seems that such posturing has extended into the world of digital copyright law.

FRANKFURT -- U.S. computer giant Hewlett-Packard said on Wednesday it plans to cut 5,900 jobs in Europe from a total of 15,000 already announced worldwide, as part of its merger with Compaq Computer Corp.