GOVERNMENT & POLICY CONCENTRATES
GLOBAL LOOK AT ENDOCRINE DISRUPTORS
FACILITIES MAKING LISTED CHEMICALS ARE MAPPED A new report shows the geographic distribution of U.S. facilities that produce or import chemicals that EPA, states, or the European Union have identified as potentially problematic because of health or other concerns. These facilities are strewn across the country, showing that substances listed by regulators as hazardous chemicals permeate the U.S. economy, says Richard Denison, senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund. The advocacy organization compiled the report using publicly available data that
In one of the largest Superfund cleanups ever proposed, EPA has unveiled a $1.7 billion plan to remove 4.3 million cubic yards of toxic sediment from the bottom of the Passaic River in New Jersey. The bank-to-bank dredging project would target the lower 8 miles of the waterway, from Belleville to Newark, which remains heavily contaminated with dioxin, PCBs, heavy metals, and other pollutants left behind by more than a century of industrial activity. “All of the companies that put the contaminants in the water will be paying for the full cleanup,” EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck says. The agency says about 100 companies are potentially liable under the federal Superfund law. The plan could take decades to implement, however, as court challenges will likely delay and complicate the cleanup effort.—GH
chemical manufacturers provided to EPA in 2012 as required by regulation. The 120 substances selected for the report are also targeted by a broad campaign seeking their removal from consumer products. That campaign, run by Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, a coalition of health and environmental groups, sponsored a take-back day for certain products sold by retailer Walgreens that contain those compounds.—CH Activists return products containing targeted hazardous chemicals to a Portland, Maine, Walgreens store.
GOVERNMENT ROUNDUP
11,000 premature deaths annually.
THE U.S. COURT of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld the Obama Administration’s standards for curbing emissions of mercury, lead, arsenic, and other hazardous pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants. EPA says the rule, which begins in 2015, will prevent
BIOMEDICAL research in the U.S. is on an unsustainable path, four leading researchers say (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 2014, DOI: 10.1073/ pnas.1404402111). The current system is creating an ever-growing supply of biomedical scientists vying for finite resources and jobs, they write.
THE DEPARTMENT of Energy released for comment a draft loan guarantee solicitation for renewable energy and efficient energy projects last week. When finalized, the solicitation could provide up to $4 billion in loan guarantees to aid commercialization of renewable energy and energyefficient technologies. CONOCOPHILLIPS an-
CEN.ACS.ORG
24
AND REW FRANCIS/MAINE PEOPLE’S RESOURCE CENTER
Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals and their potential to cause disease in humans and wildlife are global problems that require more collaboration and data sharing among scientists, government agencies, and countries, concludes a World Health Organization report. The report highlights rising trends in endocrine disorders, including hormone-related cancers, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and reproductive problems. But, it says, “health-care systems do not have mechanisms in place to address the contribution of environmental risk factors to these trends.” The report suggests that the most sensitive windows of exposure to endocrine disruptors are during fetal development and puberty. Adverse health effects, however, might not show up until decades later in the exposed individual or in subsequent generations. The same exposures in adults may have no effect, the report says.—BEE
DREDGING PROPOSED FOR NEW JERSEY RIVER
CORROSION LED TO UTAH REFINERY BLAST Sulfidation corrosion in a 10-inch pipe at the bottom of a reactor in the mobile distillation dewaxing unit of the Silver Eagle Refinery in Woods Cross, Utah, led to a hydrogen release and blast on Nov. 4, 2009. That is the conclusion in a recently released metallurgical analysis by the Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). The board’s examination found the accident cause to be similar to those of two other recent refinery accident investigations. Fortunately, CSB notes, no one was seriously injured in the Silver Eagle explosion, but more than 100 homes were damaged. CSB found no inspection records for the failed pipe, which had been thinning for years, according to the metallurgical analysis. CSB’s full report remains delayed, the board says, because of its workload and a “pressing series of accidents in the oil production and refining sector.”—JJ
nounced last week that it would soon begin exporting liquefied natural gas from its Kenai LNG plant in Alaska. DOE authorized the company to reopen a facility already at the site and to export up to 40 billion cu ft of LNG over two years. ETHYLENE GLYCOL would be listed as a reproductive toxic in California, under a proposal from
APRIL 21, 2014
the state. If the plan is adopted, products sold in the state that contain the compound would have to include warning labels. HEXAVALENT chromium would be regulated for the first time in drinking water in the U.S. starting in July if California finalizes a proposal issued last week. The rule would set a maximum allowable amount of 10 ppb of Cr(VI).
