epa overhaul

On the heels of Lisa Jackson’s approval as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Government Accountability Office has released a report saying that the EPA is flawed in its ability to assess toxic chemicals, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal.

The report has concluded that the EPA lacks even the “basic information to say whether chemicals pose substantial health risks to the public. It says actions are needed to streamline and increase the transparency of the EPA’s registry of chemicals. And it calls for measures to enhance the agency’s ability to obtain health and safety information from the chemical industry.”

Stating that the EPA needs to be timely in determining health risks to the public but their system “is at serious risk of becoming obsolete because the EPA has been unable to keep its existing assessments current or to complete assessments of important chemicals of concern.” In the last year they completed 8 assessments with 70 uncompleted still pending. That is not fast enough for health and safety.

Strengthening the EPA has been recommended as a top priority for the Obama Administration.

midnight ruling, 12/16/08

This is a good one….

Rule OK’s chemical tankers through cities, via the Christian Science Monitor.

The Bush administration has finalized a controversial regulation that will allow railroads to continue to ship dangerous chemicals through major cities.

Federal security officials have long considered railroad tankers full of such chemicals as chlorine or anhydrous ammonia to be potential weapons of mass destruction. If attacked by a terrorist or disturbed individual in the middle of a city they could cause thousands of deaths.

In this instance, the regulation leaves the decision of which route to take with deadly chemicals primarily in the hands of the railroads. Critics contend that this leaves too many communities vulnerable to a serious security threat and that state, local, and federal officials should have more input to ensure the chemicals are transported along the shortest, safest, and most secure routes.

I don’t think more needs to be said…. read the article

the air they breathe

In probably the most comprehensive study of its kind, in a series from USA Today (beginning Dec 8th, 2008) on “Toxic Air and America’s Schools”, the reporters Brad Heath and Blake Morrison, pinpoint toxic hotspots near schools in over 34 states. Working with the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, they looked at over 127,000 public, private and parochial schools, ranking them by air quality.

Thirteen thousand schools across California were involved, with 3, 266 schools residing in Los Angeles County. The worst school in Los Angeles: Stephens Middle School in Long Beach. In fact, Long Beach had six of the top ten schools with the worst air quality, in Los Angeles.

There were also a listing of the schools with the most chemical concerns where the chemicals in the air were at concentrations well above EPA guidelines, and including such things as the carcinogen benzene and naphthalene. Of the 57 schools listed as having chemical concerns, Beverly Hills High School and Cesar Chavez Elementary (Long Beach) were included due to high levels of chloroform. It has been found that people exposed for a long period of time will face a cancer risk of 1 in 100, 000.

USA Today found that there were failings by the EPA since a search in the EPA records found only about 3% of the nation’s schools were within a mile of a long-term monitor set up to detect hazardous air pollutants. Even fewer — the newspaper identified only 125 of almost 128,000 schools — had monitors within a few blocks. The EPA has already passed it off saying that they provide the grants for each state to monitor air quality. but critics have come back and said that the EPA gives no direction that monitoring needs to be done near schools.

All of this is especially timely given potential midnight rulings by the Bush Adminstration to alter the Clean Air Act for the allowance of more toxins to be emitted by power plants. It will be interesting to follow the fallout from this study and if there is push back in the many proposed changes to the allowed emissions.

There is a very interactive website, where you can get more information and actually search by school name at USA Today

do you smell that?

Let’s just say… you better hope not.

I don’t know about you but the overabundance of fragrance jammed into every item on the market (candles, laundry detergent, dish soap) are annoying, at best. But now, we all have something else to worry about, it seems thatthe odors are produced by a soup of chemicals, and some of these compounds may not be very good for you. Manufacturers of detergents, laundry sheets and air fresheners are not required to list all ingredients on their labels. The laws protecting people from indoor air pollution from consumer products are very limited.

In tests, these chemicals are shown at levels that can inflict damage to our health. One such ingredient that the NRDC found is phthalates. Consider this a cousin to BPA, which I write about all the time.

Exposure to phthalates can affect testosterone levels and lead to reproductive abnormalities, including abnormal genitalia and reduced sperm production. … California notes that five types of phthalates — including one that we found in air freshener products — are ‘known to cause birth defects or reproductive harm.’ Young children and pregnant women should be especially careful to avoid contact with these chemicals.”

Because phthalates are hormone disrupters, doctors are most concerned about exposures to pregnant women between their eighth and 15th weeks of pregnancy. It is during that period that a delicate balance of hormones directs the development of sex organs in the fetus.

The sad thing is that manufacturers advertise the use of this products everywhere, including nurseries or other areas that children play and sleep.

The next time you smell your neighbors laundry wafting into your home… I give you permission to make a stink about it!

You can find the whole article HERE.