- (Reuters) -- U.S. environmental regulators are considering
removing lead, a heavy metal linked to learning problems in children, from
a list of regulated pollutants because past rules have greatly reduced
levels of the toxin.
-
- An Environmental Protection Agency staff paper released
on Tuesday said the agency would evaluate the status of lead as an air
pollutant and "assess whether the revocation of the standard is an
appropriate option for the Administrator to consider."
-
- The EPA said that from 1980 to 2005 the national annual
lead concentrations have dropped more than 90 percent. Lead levels in air
have mostly fallen because it was banned as a gasoline additive starting
in the 1970s. Auto makers had asked for the ban because it damaged catalytic
converters.
-
- Criteria pollutants on the National Ambient Air Quality
list are reviewed every five years under the Clean Air Act.
-
- Now one of the leading emitters of lead pollution is
the battery industry.
-
- An environmentalist said the EPA was pressured to review
the status of lead as a pollutant by industry.
-
- "The EPA would be cutting a big sweetheart deal
for the lead smelter industry if they revoked the listing," said Frank
O'Donnell, president of Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Clean Air
Watch. He said the lead assessment was an example of the EPA subordinating
the expertise of agency scientists.
-
- EPA officials could not be immediately reached.
-
- In a letter last July to the EPA, industry group the
Battery Council International urged the agency to "delete lead from
the criteria pollutants."
-
- A U.S. lawmaker also derided the EPA for considering
the revocation of the lead listing.
-
- In a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, U.S.
Representative Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), a California Democrat,
said: "I am writing to urge you to renounce this dangerous proposal
immediately. At a time when the public health impacts of environmental
pollution are becoming better understood and our reason for concern grows,
this announcement by EPA is particularly misdirected."
-
- EPA expects to release potential policy options on lead
for the agency's administrator to consider next summer.
-
- Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
|
