Salt Lake City (12/9, Yeates) reported, researchers with Hill Air Force Base and Utah State University “literally stumbled upon” plastic Christmas ornaments which emit “a vapor containing what is called 1,2-dichloroethane (DCA).” The chemical compound “is a quick and easy way to harden plastics” but it is “prohibited in the United States for the direct manufacturing of consumer goods,” having been labeled a possible carcinogen. The “gingerbread men and other Christmas ornaments” were manufactured in China. “The mystery unfolded last year as HAFB and USU environmental teams tried to figure out why homes that had already been cleaned up from another chemical…were still spiking portable sensors.” Although “the readings were high inside storage boxes where air doesn’t circulate and diffuse the vapors,” the Toxic Substances and Disease Registry “has taken a keen interest” in the findings and “is now looking at other states reporting similar mystery readings.” Read on.