EDITORIAL
And With each breath. Man can survive five weeks without food, five days without water, but only five minutes without air. His consumption of air-nearly 30 Ib/day-is obligatory, continuous and, except for certain mystics, involuntary. Air-pristine or polluted-rushes into and out of his lungs about 30 times a minute, bringing oxygen into intimate contact with the bloodstream; there oxygen exchanges for the noxious gas carbon dioxide, which is expelled from the body. It is this intimate contact with the bloodstream, one of the important communications networks of the body, that makes polluted air so insidious. Without air, man survives a mere five minutes. With polluted air. he may die prematurely from some heart or lung condition, or he may endure to carry the burden of more respiratory infections, bronchitis, emphysema, asthma, heart disease, or some form of cancer. A t the very least, polluted air may impair his senses of sight and smell. T h e concomitant of poor air quality is a decline in the quality of life. This decline can only be partially quantified by tallying up lost working days, lost productivity, and increased health-care costs. America’s can-do philosophy and its ingenuity and diligence fostered tempestuous surges of industrialization that carried ill-fated winds. Gusts of polluted air blew across the country; air quality in some parts visibly deteriorated. The U.S. Congress attempted to “protect and enhance” the health of the nation‘s air by enacting the Clean Air Amendments of 1970. Flaws in this act were to be corrected by the 1977 amendments. But the 1977 Clean Air Act broke no new ground and existing programs were modified only slightly-usually by shifting timetables. One oversight in the 1970 law, never corrected by the 1977 act, was the failure to regulate indoor pollution, which is often worse than outdoor pollution. As a consequence, there is now no clear-cut legal mandate for controlling or ameliorating indoor pollution. A major, unchecked hazardous indoor pollution problem is asbestos which, as part of other materials. was sprayed onto ceilings, pipes and other structures in existing buildings. Asbestos fibers are now being set
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free as the sprayed structures flake and peel. T h e health problems may be severe: asbestosis, a disabling lung disease; lung, stomach and colon/rectal cancers; and a rare form of cancer--mesothelioma--which attacks the chest cavity lining. A year ago, EPA proposed to prohibit the spraying of new building structures with materials containing more than 1% asbestos by weight. EPA intended to regulate indoor asbestos emissions under the hazardous air pollutants section ( 1 12) of the Clean Air Act. But a recent Supreme Court ruling (Adamo Wrecking Co. L‘ U S . ) , which held that the EPA could express a standard developed under Section 1 12 only in the form of an emissions limitation, has made the agency reluctant to use this section for controlling indoor asbestos pollution. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) recently asked EPA to control indoor asbestos emissions under Section 6 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Under this regulatory option, EPA could require all owners of public buildings to permanently seal asbestos-laden materials on building structures from public exposure, or replace them entirely. E D F suggested that EPA might use its inspection authority under Section 1 1 of TSCA or Section 1 14 of the Clean Air Act to gather information on which sources posed health hazards. EPA’s Office of Toxic Substances is now studj)ing the problem, reviewing all alternatives, including such nonregulatory approaches as voluntary guidelines. The agency plans to meet with E D F and Johns Manville Co., the largest US. asbestos producer, in the near future. In the meanwhile, the indoor asbestos problem remains unchecked. And, people living and working in these public buildings are unwittingly being exposed to a serious health risk with every involuntary breath they draw.
Volume 12, Number 6 , June 1978
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