WILTON, Conn.,--7 Mar----PRNewswire-AsiaNet/InfoQuest Mihama Has Completed the Commissioning of Its 10,000 Pound Per Day Startech Plasma Converter Facility in Japan and Has Started Processing Startech Environmental Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: STHK), a fully reporting company, today announced that Mihama Incorporated has completed the commissioning of its new, state-of-the-art, 5 ton-per-day Plasma Converter Processing and Technology Center to safely and irreversibly destroy PCBs and PCB contaminated materials. Operations started recently in the Mihama facility in Himeji, a city of about one half million people located near Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe. Besides processing, the new Center will also be an important part of Mihama's Plasma Converter marketing and sales programs. About Mihama Mihama Inc., the Startech Environmental distributor headquartered in Nagano-Ken, Japan, is a well established manufacturer and seller of automotive parts and accessories. Mihama's customers are eminent international companies including Toyota Motor Corporation, General Motors, NTN Corporation and major trading companies that include Toyota Tsusho, to name a few. With its new facility, Mihama is now expanding into the commercial processing of wastes. What are PCBs "PCBs" is the abbreviation for a family of manufactured industrial products called polychlorinated biphenyls. PCBs come in many forms. They are molecular products comprised principally of chlorine and carbon atoms.The major use of PCBs has been in industrial electric equipment especially in transformers, capacitors, voltage regulators and electromagnets. In operation, these devices produce undesirable heat and PCBs help to remove that heat while operating as an effective non-flammable dielectric (an electricalinsulator). PCBs have also been used in hydraulic systems, as plasticizers and as additives in lubricants. Among PCBs' important industrial characteristics are its chemical stability and its resistance to degradation. It is these very resistant and robust characteristics that make PCBs so persistent and troublesome in the environment. PCBs are dangerous and harmful, and PCB concentrations have been found in water, soil, animals, plants and the food chain all over the world, even in the polar ice caps ... a testament to the atmospheric transport of global contamination. Concentrations have also been detected in the fatty tissue of humans, animals and fish. PCB biomagnification concentrations have even beenfound accumulated in "mother's milk." Why are PCBs harmful PCBs are pernicious materials that enter the body through the lungs, digestive system and even through the skin, and tend to accumulate in the fatty issues of the body. The World Wildlife Fund reports that, "PCBs interfere with many biological functions, including the immune system, the nervous system and several endocrine systems, and fetuses appear to be particularly vulnerable tothese actions. Chronic low level PCB exposures can cause liver damage, reproductive abnormalities, immune suppression, neurological and endocrine system disorders, retarded infant development, and stunted intellectual function Of the estimated 3.4 billion pounds of PCBs that had been manufactured worldwide (not including the PCBs in the former Soviet Union) by 1989, almost two-thirds remain in use or in the environment." About Startech -- a Waste Industry and Energy company Startech Environmental is a Waste Industry and Energy company engaged in the production and sale of its innovative, proprietary plasma processing equipment known as the Plasma Converter System(TM). The Plasma Converter System safely and economically destroys wastes, no matter how hazardous or lethal, and turns them into useful and valuable products. In doing so, the System protects the environment and helps to improve the public health and safety. The System achieves closed-loop elemental recycling to safely and irreversibly destroy Municipal Solid Waste, organics and inorganics, solids, liquids and gases, hazardous and non-hazardous waste, industrial by-products and also items such as "e-waste," medical waste, chemical industry waste and other specialty wastes hile converting many of them into useful commodity products that can include metals and a synthesis-gas called Plasma Converted Gas (PCG)(TM). Among the many commercial uses for PCG, it can, for example, be used to produce "greenpower," alcohol fuels and also hydrogen for sale. The Startech Plasma Converter is essentially a manufacturing system producing commodity products from feedstocks that were previously regarded as wastes. Startech regards all wastes, hazardous and non-hazardous, as valuable renewable resources. For further information, please visit http://www.startech.net Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the Company's plans and expectations regarding the development and commercialization of its Plasma Converter(TM) technology. All forward-looking statements are subject to risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause such a difference include, without limitation, failure of the customer to obtain appropriate financing for the project, general risks associated with product development, manufacturing, rapid technological change and competition as well as other risks set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements ontained herein speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in the Company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. SOURCE: Startech Environmental Corporation CONTACT: Steve Landa of Startech Environmental Corporation, +1-888-807-9443, +1-203-762-2499 ext. 148, [email protected] Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/113537.html Web site: http://www.startech.net --Distributed by AsiaNet ( www.asianetnews.net )--