Compelled by court order to review its 30-year-old standards for airborne lead, the U.S. EPA proposed a new, tougher standard this week that would cut allowable lead levels by over 90 percent. True to form, though, the agency proposed a range of standards that exceeded the maximum limit of what its scientific advisers recommended as necessary to protect public health. Lead pollution can affect children's development and stunt their IQ; it can also cause heart and kidney problems in adults. In soliciting comments from the public, the EPA went even further, leaving its options open to set still looser lead standards -- up to two and a half times the maximum levels advised by its scientists. The agency also left open the possibility of setting no standard at all, asking for comment on "when, if ever" the airborne lead standard should be scrapped (an option floated by the agency back in 2006). Yet, aside from its flaws, even the upper limits of allowable airborne lead proposed by the agency are a few times stricter than the current standard.
If the Leaders Lead, the Lead Standards Will Follow
U.S. EPA to tighten standard for airborne lead 8
-
Posted 6:24 AM on 2 May 2008
-
Posted in
Read More About
Related Stories
Obama headed to Copenhagen, sets the bar for success
‘Copenhagen Diagnosis’ offers a grim update to the IPCC’s climate science
Add a Comment
You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have an account, log in. If you don't have an account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.
Comments
View as Threaded
Delay And Deny Posted 1:30 am
02 May 2008
Looks like business as usual at Grist.
The earth is cooling.
Yet, you plow on as if it were warming!
I guess the science wasn't as "known" as you pretended, Grist Ecologists!
Permalink
Matt Posted 2:48 am
02 May 2008
Permalink
Tasermons Partner Posted 4:08 am
02 May 2008
It also helps that lead ins't nearly as "controversial" as other environmental problems in that most people are in agreement on it's effects and the need to eliminate it.
Permalink
GreenMom Posted 8:44 am
02 May 2008
Stay tuned.
Permalink
human power Posted 4:21 pm
02 May 2008
Permalink
Tasermons Partner Posted 6:18 am
03 May 2008
Good point. But I'm under the impression that they may "delay" it and file it under the "let the next administration handle it" stockpile they seem to be accumulatin' recently.
Permalink
GreenMom Posted 2:45 pm
03 May 2008
EPA doesn't blow court-ordered deadlines, ever. It would put the Administrator in contempt of court.
Court-ordered deadlines happen all the time (when EPA is sued by environmental groups for missing statutory deadlines). I can't remember EPA ever blowing a court-ordered deadline. It just doesn't happen.
Permalink
litesong Posted 2:58 am
06 May 2008
Permalink