[DRAFT] Ban on Microparticles

[Anuit Antesaria]

At the suggestion of Bears Armed, this proposal has been removed from the General Assembly and has been redrafted for consideration and critique by this forum. All assistance is greatly appreciated.
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Ban on Microparticles
Category: Environmental
Industry Affected: Manufacturing
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The World Assembly,

Honoring its commitment to protecting its constituents, extending this to mean their respective environments with consideration of the world in general;

Alarmed by the inherent dangers of the use, manufacturing, or trade of Microparticles, specifically in their abilities to bypass standard methods of water decontamination, their overwhelming presence in common commercial products, and the extreme difficulty associated with their proper disposal;

Hereby,

I. Defines for the purpose of this legislation the term "Microparticles" to mean nonbiodegradable and toxic particles, commonly comprised of plastics or other substances related to the aforementioned description, measuring at a length of 100 micrometers or smaller that have been produced via machine use or by standard factory production.

II. Prohibits the manufacturing, use, or trade involving Microparticles in any capacity.
A) Products containing Microparticles are to adjust their production to remove them.
B) Organic Microparticles, defined as Microparticles that are nontoxic and biodegradable, are exempt from Section II.

III. Calls Upon the World Assembly Trade Commission to enforce the stipulations in Section II.

IV. Calls Upon the World Assembly Scientific Program to research methods of proper disposal of Microparticles and to immediantly implement those methods.

V. Grants funding to World Assembly member states who cannot readily afford to cease production of Microparticles without support, and to memeber states who assist with the efforts identified in Section IV.

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Edit 1: Added Nontoxic and Biodegradeable clause in Section II at the suggestion of Serrus.

Edit 2: Corrected "Frightened" to "Alarmed" at the suggestion of The New California Republic

Edit 3: Major edit to entire draft.

[Serrus]

At the suggestion of Bears Armed, this proposal has been removed from the General Assembly and has been redrafted for consideration and critique by this forum. All assistance is greatly appreciated.
-snip-

OOC: Good on ya for posting a draft. Maybe add a clause about organic/biodegradable/nontoxic/whathaveyou microparticle manufacture? Those are a thing.

[Anuit Antesaria]

At the suggestion of Bears Armed, this proposal has been removed from the General Assembly and has been redrafted for consideration and critique by this forum. All assistance is greatly appreciated.
-snip-

OOC: Good on ya for posting a draft. Maybe add a clause about organic/biodegradable/nontoxic/whathaveyou microparticle manufacture? Those are a thing.

OOC: Oh, great idea! It has been added into the draft. Thank you!

[The New California Republic]

Frightened by the inherent dangers of the use, manufacturing, or trade of Microparticles, specifically in their abilities to bypass standard methods of water decontamination, their overwhelming presence in common commercial products, and the extreme difficulty associated with their proper disposal;

OOC: I really don't like words like "frightened" being in the language of WA legislation, it just seems unprofessional.

III. Establishes the World Assembly Manufacturing Association (WAMA) for the purposes of this legislation.

IV. Establishes the World Assembly Science and Technology Association (WASTA) for the purposes of this legislation.

OOC: Oh joy, you are adding not one, but two more committees to the World Assembly committee pile! Ugh...

Against. Any proposal that adds multiple committees to the World Assembly must be fought tooth and nail.

[Anuit Antesaria]

Frightened by the inherent dangers of the use, manufacturing, or trade of Microparticles, specifically in their abilities to bypass standard methods of water decontamination, their overwhelming presence in common commercial products, and the extreme difficulty associated with their proper disposal;

OOC: I really don't like words like "frightened" being in the language of WA legislation, it just seems unprofessional.

III. Establishes the World Assembly Manufacturing Association (WAMA) for the purposes of this legislation.

IV. Establishes the World Assembly Science and Technology Association (WASTA) for the purposes of this legislation.

OOC: Oh joy, you are adding not one, but two more committees to the World Assembly committee pile! Ugh...

Against. Any proposal that adds multiple committees to the World Assembly must be fought tooth and nail.

OOC: Thank you for your criticism! I have edited the introduction to be more formal and professional. Unfortunately, I cannot agree on the suggestion to remove the committees. Their purpose is not exclusive to this proposal; hopefully they will be used in future legislation. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but neither of their purposes were shared by the current list of committees, and therefore their creation is justified.

[The Greater Siriusian Domain]

OOC: From personal experience, the machining and working with high-strength plastics such as HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) and UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene) and the 3D printing of materials such as ABS and nylon compounds always produces microparticles as a byproduct, whether it's the shavings from machining UHMWPE or the fine nanoparticulate dust from 3D printing with some materials. I'd like to advise that you be careful with this proposal, as it could affect manufacturing processes that are not within the intended scope of this proposal.

As part of my job and hobby of building custom combat robots (Battlebots, not military hardware), I work with UHMWPE and Alloy910 Nylon on a regular basis.

[Imperium Anglorum]

As part of my job and hobby of building custom combat robots (Battlebots, not military hardware), I work with UHMWPE and Alloy910 Nylon on a regular basis.

We know you build terminators. Give it up!

[The Greater Siriusian Domain]

As part of my job and hobby of building custom combat robots (Battlebots, not military hardware), I work with UHMWPE and Alloy910 Nylon on a regular basis.

We know you build terminators. Give it up!

OOC: Well, my 3lber has terminated quite a few opponents. In out of 26 matches, it's won 20 - 19 of them by KO. Match record for 2017

So, I guess you can say it's a terminator of a sort.

[Serrus]

We know you build terminators. Give it up!

OOC: Well, my 3lber has terminated quite a few opponents. In out of 26 matches, it's won 20 - 19 of them by KO. Match record for 2017

So, I guess you can say it's a terminator of a sort.

So that's 3 people I know that do robotics and I think are cool.
Yay!

[Kenmoria]

"For the first clause, 'consideration' is a mass noun and doesn't need an 's' to show plurality. Also, the World Assembly has members on thousands of planets so 'planets' needs an 's'".

[Alpha Cassiopeiae]

After looking through the long list of committees: "Ambassador, instead of adding two new committees to the growing bureaucracy of the World Assembly, could you not simply utilise the existing ones? For WAMA, you could task that to the World Assembly Trade Commission or the International Trade Agency, and WASTA could be replaced with the World Health Authority, Health Research and Development Division, or World Assembly Scientific Program. It isn't necessarily a dealbreaker for The Alliance, but there are, to my knowledge, 57 committees and subcommittees active in the World Assembly."

[Araraukar]

I. Defines for the purpose of this legislation the term "Microparticles" to mean nonbiodegradable and toxic debris, commonly comprised of plastics or other substances related to the aforementioned description, measuring at a length of 5 millimeters or smaller.

OOC: Is the requirement for "microparticle" here that it's nonbiodegradeable and toxic? And that it must be debris? Because if "debris" is a requirement, then you're not actually banning manufacturing of microparticles, but are banning things like, say, airplanes, combustion engines, cars, bicycles and most clothing and food industry, including banning the sale of fresh vegetables.

Also, a particle with length of 5 millimetres is hardly a microparticle. At least according to Wikipedia, microparticles vary in size from 0.1 to 100 micrometres. For comparison, 5 millimetres is 5000 micrometres.

[The New California Republic]

OOC: Unfortunately, I cannot agree on the suggestion to remove the committees. Their purpose is not exclusive to this proposal; hopefully they will be used in future legislation. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but neither of their purposes were shared by the current list of committees, and therefore their creation is justified.

OOC: Nope, there is really no need for them. This kind of thing could easily be given to one of the committees that currently exists, contrary to what you say. If you continue to insist on creating multiple committees in a single proposal, then you will find support for this will be greatly reduced. Pointlessly increasing the bureaucracy of the WA needs to be stopped.

[Anuit Antesaria]

OOC: All wonderful suggestions, thank you!

[Arotania]

Well, this version is slightly better than the original proposal that tried to ban flour among other things.
Still there is a number of serious problems.

I. Defines for the purpose of this legislation the term "Microparticles" to mean nonbiodegradable and toxic particles, commonly comprised of plastics or other substances related to the aforementioned description, measuring at a length of 100 millimeters or smaller that have been produced via machine use or by standard factory production.

Even if the obvious typo (milli instead of micro) is changed this still encompasses particles that are smaller than microparticles (e.g. nanoparticles).
What exactly is meant by 'toxic'? For who? Under what circumstances? At what dose? Water is toxic at sufficient doses. People have died from water poisoning. To put it in most commonly known terms:

All things are poison, and nothing is without poison, the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.
—Paracelsus

This definition is bound to be a nightmare.

B) Organic Microparticles, defined as Microparticles that are nontoxic and biodegradable, are exempt from Section II.

Further overloading the meaning of 'organic' by legislation is not a good thing. The term has a specific meaning in chemistry.
Also how does this relate to the definition above? Aren't particles that are 'nontoxic and biodegradable' already no microparticles according to the definition in this proposal?

[Imperial Polk County]

Even if the obvious typo (milli instead of micro)

"Even that would ban substances like sifted flour, which, while edible, can be toxic if inhaled."

[The New California Republic]

I. Defines for the purpose of this legislation the term "Microparticles" to mean nonbiodegradable and toxic particles, commonly comprised of plastics or other substances related to the aforementioned description, measuring at a length of 100 millimeters or smaller that have been produced via machine use or by standard factory production.

OOC: 100 millimetres? 10 centimetres?? That is a pretty massive "microparticle"!

[Ransium]

No nibba

Knock it off.

And before you say "But Monitor just ruled the use of the word 'nigga' okay, so this has to be fine!" Context matters. Your posting history, forum profile, the context of this thread, and use of "nibba" are all important pieces of context that make your post not okay and troll-y.

Beyond that, your post is not helpful. Maybe actually post your reasoning and objections in the future?

[Xmara]

Opposed. This is far too overreaching.

According to Wikipedia,

Microparticles are particles between 0.1 and 100 μ\mu m in size. Commercially available microparticles are available in a wide variety of materials, including ceramics, glass, polymers, and metals. Microparticles encountered in daily life include pollen, sand, dust, flour, and powdered sugar.

Just scroll through the article and you’ll see why this is a bad idea.