\GOVERNMENT CONCENTRATES EPA takes aim at pollution prevention
Handling of Superfund program faulted
EPA is moving away from its previous focus on managing pollution problems through treatment, control, and disposal to a focus that emphasizes reducing all environmentally harmful releases. In a new polciy statement, EPA commits itself to a multimedia preventive program to reduce or eliminate the generation of potentially harmful pollutants. The agency says that source reduction, which for industry means input substitution, product reformulation, process modification, improved housekeeping, and on-site, closed loop recycling, is preferred to other management practices. In addition, EPA says it is committed to promoting environmentally sound recycling as a second management technique preferred above treatment, control, and disposal. The agency is encouraging individuals to practice source reduction and recycling by changing their consumption and disposal habits, their driving patterns, and their on-the-job practices.
EPA is taking it on the chin this week: Three separate reports have slammed the agency for its poor management of Superfund, the hazardous waste cleanup program. Rep. Bob Traxler (D.-Mich.), chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on HUD—Independent Agencies released a full committee staff report faulting EPA for failing to press private companies to clean up or to pay for such cleanups, thus undermining the enforcement of the law. By relying too heavily on contractors for these cleanups, Superfund trust fund monies are rapidly being depleted. Also, EPA was faulted for studying sites endlessly at the peril of exposing more people to hazardous wastes for longer than is necessary. And the agency was criticized for not developing cost-effective, permanent treatment of wastes. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D.-N.J.) released a General Accounting Office report critical of EPA and other agencies for missing about half the deadlines imposed by Congress for strengthening the program. In addition, an Office of Technology Assessment report finds that private contractors are reaping huge profits whereas government supervisors of Superfund projects generally are underpaid.
Alar cancellation speeded u p . . . On the basis of interim analyses of new data from cancer studies, EPA has accelerated its action to cancel registration of the chemical daminozide, commonly called Alar, for use on food. Daminozide, used as a growth regulator on apples to reduce bruising of the fruit and to extend storage life by two to three months, and daminozide's major metabolite, unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, have been under scrutiny as cancer-causing agents for several years. EPA initiated a special review of the chemicals in 1984 after a determination that they might cause cancer in lab animals. Based on the information now available, the metabolite seems to cause mutations but not cancer, although daminozide itself shows carcinogenic activity in mice. EPA, on the basis of this, has estimated lifetime exposure risks for cancer as 4.5 per 100,000 persons. Currently, the tolerance for daminozide on apples is 20 ppm, and that will remain in effect until Jan. 31, 1990, when EPA thinks it will have completed its cancellation process.
. . . but Uniroyal thinks action is unnecessary Uniroyal Chemical, manufacturer of Alar, thinks EPA is moving too fast against its product. Although realizing that EPA is under pressure to demonstrate that it can take action against products that affect peoples' health, the company says Alar has been shown to be no threat to public health. Uniroyal says Alar has been used for more than 20 years with no evidence of adverse health effects among applicators, employees, or anyone else exposed to daminozide. The company also contends that taking Alar off the market may result in application of other, more toxic products to supply the volume and quality of product consumers expect. Use of Alar has fallen since EPA began its review, to about 4% of fresh apples currently being treated, down from 25% in 1986. 18
February 6, 1989 C&EN
Waste cleanup systems promoted at fair Under mandate from Congress, EPA offered three waste cleanup systems to industry in a two-day trade fair exhibit in Edison, N.J., late last month. About 250 industry representatives listened to presentations from EPA personnel and saw equipment the agency developed. Equipment included a mobile carbon regeneration system, a mobile soil washer system, and a mobile in-situ containment/treatment system. In accordance with provisions of the StevensonWydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 and the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986, EPA is seeking to lease the technology to a partner for a minimum of five years. The lease would obligate the partner to further develop and market the technology.
Washington roundup • Newly appointed members of the National Commission on Superconductivity, which was established by Congress last year, include George A. Keyworth II, former director of the Office of Science & Technology Policy; Alan Schriesheim, director of Argonne National Laboratory; Arthur W. Sleight, research manager of Du Pont's Experimental Station; and Edward Teller, professor emeritus of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. • OSHA has published new safety and health guidelines for employers that emphasize good management methods. Distilled from applied health and safety practices that OSHA has found especially effective over the years, the guidelines are published in the Jan. 27 issue of the Federal Register.
