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Add to FavoritesEPA is Asked to do More
On July 10, the EPA announced that the Sierra Club and other environmental groups have petitioned the Agency to limit the use of nonylphenol (NP) and nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE). NP and NPE are chemical substances used to manufacture a variety of commonly used household and commercial cleaning products. Past reports about toxicity and persistence in the environment have raised concerns about the safety of both chemicals. In addition, recent studies in fish and laboratory animals have indicated that NP acts as an endocrine disrupter having harmful effects on reproduction.
NP and NPE have been restricted in Europe and other countries, but the EPA has not limited their use in the U.S. In a 2006 report, EPA scientists concluded that, "if the one-hour average concentration of NP in the aquatic environment did not exceed 28 ug/L more than once every three years on the average and if the four-day average did not exceed 6.6 ug/L more than once every three years on the average," aquatic life and human health would be adequately protected.
At least one group agrees with EPA's 2006 decision. Dow Chemical has described their line of NP based products as a "combination of economy and performance in a wide variety of applications." At the same time, companies such as Proctor and Gamble have decided not to use NP and NPE in high volume products due to "long-term concerns for the environment." Proctor and Gamble has also announced that they are working to eliminate NP and NPE in other consumer products.
Other environmental groups involved in the Sierra Club petition include: the Environmental Law & Policy Center; the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Association; the Washington Toxics Coalition; Physicians for Social Responsibility; and UNITE HERE. The petition filed under section 21 of the Toxic Substances Control Act is asking EPA to conduct additional health and safety studies, to require product labeling and to limit use in certain products.
While other countries have decided to limit production, EPA decided not to limit manufacturing NP and NPE based consumer products in the U.S. The scientific questions and debate about the safety of NP and NPE may be interesting, but the real question should be, "is EPA doing an adequate job to protect us from harmful chemicals?"
Learn more about this author, Homer Emery.
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No
I was working in New York in 2001 as a City Investigator. I remember the terror attacks on the World Trade Center very well. My building was only 4 avenues away from there, on 2 Lafayette St. I sometimes took the X4 MTA City Express Bus from Staten Island, my home town, to Lower Manhatten. The X4 would ride along Church st. and pass the World Trade Center every morning at 9:15am. I would get off at the next stop on Vessy St. and walk up to Lafayette St. to get to work by 9:00am. As the bus would pass the towers, I would peer out the window and admire the great buildings. I would especially admire the Giant Orange Cube outside in the court area of the WTC. I would watch the people get off the bus and marvel at them as they would enter the giant structures. I always asked myself; Why couldn't I get a job in there? And thought; How lucky are they that work there.
On September 11th 2001, I called in sick to my supervisor who started at 8:00am. I didn't make it there to see the the planes hit the buildings and the bus I would have been on, crushed. I did, however manage to board an emergency Ferry on 9/12 and found that lower Manhatten had become a Military Zone and my building was closed. I did bring a video camera and still have some rare footage of the disaster. I managed to make it to 100 Gold St. where the parent agency I worked for was located.
I met with the Commissioner and was sent home. After a few days, I was notified that we would be returning to work in about a week or so.
After Christie Todd Whitman, the Head of the EPA stated that the air quality was fine in lower Manhatten, we were ordered back to work. This was about the last week in September. The bus rides in were spooky. Every day the X4 would be rerouted passed the WTC and forced to go around to the FDR Drive. Each morning, for, what felt like 6 months, the bus would pass the smoldering site of Ground Zero, where the sounds of heavy construction equipment, large trucks and billowing teal colored smoke never seemed to end. As a New York City Housing Inspector, assigned to the N.Y.C. Dept. of Investigation for HPD's Office of the Inspector General and a member of the Allied Building Inspector's Local 211, I couldn't understand how bureaucrats would aloow human beings back into that toxic and contaminated area. I assumed, after doing my own evaluation of the damage, that it would take at least 1 year before lower Manhatten was safe for human habitation. But afterall, I'm only an Investigator, I didn't have the authority to call the shots. As the years went by, I have seen countless New Yorkers die from cancers and lung diseases, which in my opinion, would not have happened, had the EPA really done it's job. In closing, I would say that, I am happy that I left that job and moved to Pennsylvania. I hope this report will shed some light on the integrity of our government and bring some kind of answers to questions out there. The EPA did not do an adequate job at that time.
Learn more about this author, Joe Bomb.
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