Clean air act

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Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown David Steinman See book keywords and concepts

Richard Nixon signed the clean air act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and also established the Environmental Protection Agency." You have to stand for something or you will fall for anything. So figure out what you stand for and don't back down, especially with your back at the gates of hell. But be smart. Here's a story that will illustrate what I mean. George Simeon was chief executive of Organic Valley, a cooperative of mostly small organic dairy, cattle, hog, and livestock farmers.

Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power Mark Schapiro See book keywords and concepts

Clean Air Act of 1990, and it was emulated by Europe and Japan. The U.S.-devised cap-and-trade system, launched by President George H. W. Bush in 1988, was a successful American innovation on capital markets that was emulated globally and reduced the sulfur-dioxide emissions that contribute to acid rain. Now that system is being emulated on a grander scale, in the carbon-credit trading markets used by the signatories of Kyoto, to channel billions of dollars into renewable energy. The United States refuses to participate in these markets.

How Everyday Products Make People Sick: Toxins at Home and in the Workplace Paul D. Blanc, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

In addition to lingering reluctance in the auto industry to accept MMT, another factor delaying its use has been the evolving ait pollution control standards for gasoline mandated by the clean air act. Specific regulations promulgated by the EPA define how much oxygenation capacity gasoline must have when it is marketed in areas of high ozone pollution. Although MMT is an effective antiknock agent (like lead), it provides no substantive oxygenation value. Fuel that is modified through additive mixes intended to achieve targeted oxygenation levels is referred to as reformulated gasoline.

The Secret History of the War on Cancer Devra Davis See book keywords and concepts

President Nixon's speech marked the opening of a decade that saw the passage of major environmental laws, including the clean air act of 1970, which included national fuel economy standards for cars. A new federal agency was created—the Environmental Protection Agency— and staffed by committed young lawyers and others with a passion for planetary defense. By 1980, the Clean Water Act of 1977 had been enacted and the Superfund law was in place to clean up hazardous wastes. The nation has not seen another period of such focused attention on environmental laws since then.

In 1972 El Paso sued the American Smelting and Refining Corporation (ASARCO), alleging that it had violated the federal clean air act by releasing a steady rain of sulfur on the surrounding communities. When copper is smelted with limestone and silica, the raw rock in which it can be found is essentially baked at 1,200°F, releasing gases of sulfur and other impurities. These contaminants don't go far because they are heavy metals. Tiny traces of these toxic metals can be tracked into homes and schools on the soles of shoes or on bare feet. Small children, then as now, play in dirt and dust.

The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith See book keywords and concepts

According to the EPA, the levels of six pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter, have declined 54 percent since 1970 in the city, when the clean air act became law. Even as the national level of ozone, a key component of smog, declined, 99 million people in the United States still lived in counties with failing grades for ozone.

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century James Howard Kunstler See book keywords and concepts

Scientists and officials have criticized it as the biggest rollback in the history of the clean air act. Hydroelectric Power Hydroelectric power means electricity generated by water power, usually involving sites on rivers where moving water can be directed to spin turbines that activate a generator to produce electricity, or in reservoirs behind dams, where a reserve of water makes a constant, regular flow available from a river with an erratic or seasonal flow.

Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements Phyllis A. Balch, CNC See book keywords and concepts

The clean air act of 1990 required the use of reformulated gasoline, or RFG, in certain parts of the country, with the goal of reducing air pollution in those areas. RFG accounts for some 30 percent of gasoline sold in the United States, and MTBE is now added to over 80 percent of RFG fuel. According to a disturbing report aired on the CBS television program 60 Minutes on January 16, 2000, this measure to improve air quality has, ironically, given Americans yet another reason to be concerned about the safety of their drinking water supply.

Earth Right H. Patricia Hynes See book keywords and concepts

Under the clean air act, the Environmental Protection Agency has the responsibility to control U.S. production and use of ozone-depleting chemicals. The clean air act also directs the President to negotiate international agreements, with the assistance of EPA and the State Department, to control these chemicals worldwide. Write President Bush and insist that the United States negotiate an international agreement to phase out CFCs and halons by 1995. Write the EPA administrator, William Reilly, and demand that he support the agreement.

Our Toxic World: A Wake Up Call Doris J. Rapp, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Consideration of measures to weaken the enforcement of the clean air act are reported to have contributed to the resignation of the director of the Office of Regulatory Enforcement of the EPA.35 In the past other exemplary conscientious scientists, who had the temerity to "blow the whistle" in relation to some toxic exposures, appeared to have experienced unwarranted difficulties. It has been claimed that if the pesticide industry is threatened in some way or a scientist is too critical of a pesticide product or its use, there can be "gag" orders with threats of various repercussions.

Medical Herbalism: The Science Principles and Practices Of Herbal Medicine David Hoffman, FNIMH, AHG See book keywords and concepts

Mice are more sensitive than rats to the carcinogenic effects of 1,3-butadiene, a chemical used in the production of synthetic rubber and other resins that is one of the 189 hazardous air pollutants identified in the clean air act amendments.23 Butadiene causes cancer through its conversion in the body to more-toxic metabolites, butadiene monoepoxide and butadiene diepoxide. Studies on the livers of rats, mice, and humans indicate that humans and rats metabolize butadiene in a similar manner, and rats are relatively resistant to the cancer-causing effects of this chemical.

The Politics of Cancer Revisited Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Even this increased figure is small compared to the $150 million budget of the first year of the clean air act. The costs to industry of toxic substances legislation were estimated in 1975 by EPA and the General Accounting Office to range from $80 to $200 million. These estimates contrast strikingly with estimates of $2 billion by the Manufacturing Chemists Association and Foster D. Snell. The maximal government estimate of $200 million, based largely on costs of carcinogenicity and chronic toxicity testing, represents about 0.

In 1983, the ACS refused to join a coalition of the March of Dimes, American Heart Association, and the American Lung Association to support the clean air act. • In 1992, the ACS issued a joint statement with the Chlorine Institute in support of the continued global use of orga-nochlorine pesticides — despite clear evidence that some were known to cause breast cancer. In this statement, Society Vice President Clark Heath, M.D., dismissed evidence of this risk as "preliminary and mostly based on weak and indirect association.

Earth Right H. Patricia Hynes See book keywords and concepts

The clean air act also directs the President to negotiate international agreements, with the assistance of EPA and the State Department, to control these chemicals worldwide. Write President Bush and insist that the United States negotiate an international agreement to phase out CFCs and halons by 1995. Write the EPA administrator, William Reilly, and demand that he support the agreement. Demand that he undertake the following five-part program, as developed by the Natural Resources Defense Council (shown in the box on page 157). 3. Support State and Local Legislation.

The Politics of Cancer Revisited Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

According to a recent report of the Council on Environmental Quality, they are the only major pollutants whose concentrations in air have increased since the passage of the clean air act in 1970. Relatively high levels of NOx, ranging up to 0.4 ppm, are found in the air of large U.S. cities. In a non-industrial city, mobile and stationary sources contribute about equally to atmospheric levels of NOx, with the relative proportion from mobile sources increasing during rush hours. In an industrialized city, the contribution of stationary sources is proportionately greater.

The clean air act. This 1970 Act provides broad authority for establishing primary ambient air quality standards for dispersed pollutants from stationary and mobile sources, performance standards for stationary sources, regulations for fuel additives, and emission standards for hazardous air pollutants. Section 112 of the Act is designed for the strict and uniform regulation of hazardous air pollutants, those which pose risks of serious adverse effects, particularly cancer, at relatively low exposure levels.

Like the clean air act, the Water Pollution Control Act contains a wide range of provisions: new source standards (Section 306), oil and hazardous substances regulation (Section 311), water quality standards (Section 303), water quality related effluent standards (Section 302), and toxic effluent standards (Section 307). Toxic effluent standards are aimed primarily at limiting the industrial discharge of toxic pollutants that can induce cancer and other serious effects.f The standard takes into account problems of persistence and pollutant degradability in water.

Staying Healthy in a Risky Environment: The New York University Medical Center Family Guide Arthur C. Upton, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

The Federal clean air act, 1955 (Amended 1960, 1970, 1977, and 1990) Originally passed to mandate federal assistance to the states in reducing pollution, this law has been strengthened to require the federal government, states, and cities to meet a wide range of ambient air-pollution standards.

Suspended particulate matter (PM) that is less than 10 micrometers in diameter, known as PM 10, are the ones listed in the clean air act as comprising a criteria pollutant index. A recently completed decade-long study in Philadelphia by researchers from the EPA and Harvard School of Public Health found that as levels of particulates increased in the area there was a corresponding increase in the number of cases of illness and death. In both Philadelphia and Seattle, harmful effects occurred when levels of particulates were well below current EPA standards.

Pollution control devices and cuts in the sulfur component of fuel have reduced the amount of sulfur dioxide in the air, but large amounts are still being produced in the burning of fossil fuels by electric utilities, oil refineries, pulp and paper mills, and nonferrous smelters. The clean air act Amendments of 1990 call for a reduction by the year 2000 of one-half of the 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide still being emitted annually.

Air Toxins In addition to reaffirming the primary standards for criteria pollutants, the clean air act Amendments of 1990 placed 189 chemicals in the separate category of hazardous pollutants, or air toxics. These chemical compounds and mixtures are released by such stationary sources of pollution as chemical factories, steel mills, power plants, pulp and paper mills, dry cleaners, and mobile sources such as automobiles and trucks.

Nontoxic, Natural and Earthwise Debra Lynn Dadd See book keywords and concepts

The quality of outdoor air has been regulated since 1970 by the federal clean air act. Since its passage, outdoor air has become somewhat cleaner, but we still have a long way to go. In a rnajor study released in 1989, the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) said that over one hundred cities in this country are failing to meet the clean-air standards that were set by Congress nearly twenty years ago.

Staying Healthy in a Risky Environment: The New York University Medical Center Family Guide Arthur C. Upton, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Over the past decades since the clean air act of 1970 was passed, the air in this country has improved. Overall, the average American breathes air that contains no more than the permissible levels of many of the major pollutants: There are notable declines in the amounts of lead, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide spewed into the atmosphere, although there are still problematic levels of two other important pollutants—ozone and suspended particulate matter.

20 Years of Censored News Carl Jensen See book keywords and concepts

UPDATE: In 1990, the clean air act Amendment required the EPA to establish limits for emissions of dioxins from incinerators. While the EPA was ordered to put the rules in place by April 1995, the process was delayed to mid-1997 (The Sunday Gazette Mail, 7/7/95). Meanwhile, the residents of a small neighborhood in Pensacola, Florida, live in the deadly shadow of a hill they call "Mount Dioxin." The dioxin-contaminated hill was built by the EPA in 1991.

The Politics of Cancer Revisited Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

For example, ACS refuses to join a coalition of major organizations, including the March of Dimes, American Heart Association, and American Lung Association, to support the clean air act. ACS has rejected requests from Congressional subcommittees, unions, and environmental organizations to support their efforts to ban or regulate a wide range of occupational and environmental carcinogens. Giant corporations, which profit handsomely while they pollute the air, water and food with cancer causing chemicals, must be greatly comforted by the ACS's silence (Chapter 16).

Intelligent Medicine: A Guide to Optimizing Health and Preventing Illness for the Baby-Boomer Generation Ronald L. Hoffman, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Yet, statistics indicate that because of the clean air act, the levels of air pollution in our major metropolitan areas are actually declining. So while air pollution and chemical exposure play a major role in asthma, we can't conclude that the increase in asthma problems is due simply to deteriorating air quality. Some argue that smoking is responsible for our worsening asthma statistics. But here, too, research indicates that the number of smokers is declining overall, despite still-high smoking levels among teenagers and young women.

20 Years of Censored News Carl Jensen See book keywords and concepts

UPDATE: Despite heavy lobbying by the Methyl Bromide Working Group representing pesticide users and producers, the 104th Congress did not amend the clean air act to postpone the 2001 ban on use of methyl bromide (Chemical Week, 10/16/96). Now the MB proponents are hoping President Clinton will support their agenda during his second term. Meanwhile, scientists and regulators from 14 nations met in Orlando, Florida, in early November 1996 to discuss efforts to find alternatives to the use of methyl bromide.

Under the clean air act, the EPA has mandated a halt to MB production in, and imports to, the U.S. in 2001—but manufacturers and agricultural users have mounted a formidable campaign to delay the ban. The Methyl Bromide Global Coalition—a group of eight international MB users and producers (including Ethyl Corp. and Great Lakes Chemical Corp., the major MB producers in the U.S.)—has launched a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign to keep the product on the market. SOURCE: Earth Island Journal, Summer 1995, "Campaign Against Methyl Bromide: Ozone-Killing Pesticide Opposed," by Anne Schonfield.

Nonetheless, as required by the clean air act, the production of chloro-fluorocarbons officially ended in the United States on New Year's Day 1996. The Heating, Piping, Air Conditioning trade journal noted (January 1996) the timing was quite appropriate since the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry went to three scientists who developed the ozone depletion theory in 1994. However, no sooner did the ban take place than CFCs became readily available on the black market. The New York Times reported (11/10/96) that CFC contraband was running second only to marijuana in U.S.

The Healthy Home: An Attic-to-Basement Guide to Toxin-Free Living Linda Mason Hunter See book keywords and concepts

A likely scenario is that the city will have to reduce emissions of ozone's key raw materials, volatile organic compound (VOCs), by more than 70 percent to meet the standards of the clean air act. Compliance in some areas could mean restrictions on deodorant sprays and use of gasoline lawn mowers. Already mandatory at Los Angeles gas stations are nozzle controls on gas pumps that catch at least 84 percent of VOCs emitted while cars are filled up.

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