New reporting rules for endocrine-modulating ... - ACS Publications

More than 10 demonstration projects that, EPA staff say, could lead to "alternative compliance paths" for industry and regulators are being hammered o...
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Project XL demonstrations promise less pollution, fewer regulations More than 10 demonstration projects that, EPA staff say, could lead to "alternative compliance paths" for industry and regulators are being hammered out in factories around the country. The plans are intended to offer a simplified regulatory system in return for less pollution, but some of the industry- and regulator-initiated proposals are sketchy at this point, and their implementation would require relaxation of current laws. They incorporate regulatory approaches that U.S. industries have lobbied for for years. The first wave of projects were announced last fall through EPA's Project XL to encourage companies, states, and communities to develop innovative ideas for pollution control. In December, eight projects were formally selected by EPA and two were waiting in the wings, according to Jon Kessler, director of the Emerging Sectors and Strategies Division in EPA's Policy Office. Project selection starts a sixmonth timetable in which companies, states, and community groups must agree on a plan to implement the trial projects, Kessler said. By June, the Agency expects to have detailed plans for the first eight proposals. The agreements must be approved by EPA, states, companies, and the community before projects begin. Kessler said the role of EPA headquarters will be minimal in the beginning: "We've staked out a goal of superior performance, and then we'll see what we get. We want to allow for creativity. If we spell out exactly what we want, that's all we'll get." He also spoke against central control, saying it was a drag on momentum. Consequently, much will turn on the actions of regions, states, communities, and—most of all— companies. Kessler singled out projects by Intel and Merck as demonstrative of corporate plans. Intel Corp. is proposing a performance-based permitting system in which overall plantwide emissions limits will be set at levels that are tougher than currently required. In return, compliance details will be left to Intel. "How a company achieves a goal isn't the government's con-

Project XL participants As of late November, EPA had received proposals from the six companies and two regulators listed below. Plans from several others are under consideration. Intel Corp. proposes developing a single performance-based, multimedia "contract" to control pollution rather than several media-specific permits at a new semiconductor wafer fabrication facility in Arizona. Anheuser-Busch Co. proposes to develop a multimedia permitting approach at its Jacksonville, FL, plant that would allow banking and bubbling of emissions with a local power plant and wastewater treatment facility. HADCO Corp. plants in New Hampshire and New York propose a production system that would avoid hazardous designation for wastes by directly recycling metal-bearing streams back into production at its printed wiring board manufacturing facilities. Merck & Co., Inc.'s Elkton, VA, facility would establish a plantwide emissions cap that would allow it to "trade" emissions and increase some pollutants in return for significant reductions in others. AT&T Microelectronics' business unit proposes greater use of environmental auditing and management systems in return for more flexible monitoring and reporting requirements under the Clean Water Act. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency proposes three to five local projects modeled on Project XL, all with a variation of multimedia permitting. South Coast Air Quality Management District in California proposes several alternatives to vehicle work-trip reduction plans, including remote sensing, tougher inspection and maintenance programs, and buy-back programs for old vehicles. 3M Corp. facilities in California, Illinois, and Minnesota would obtain "beyond compliance" performance-based permits, establish emission caps below existing limits, develop a single multimedia permit, and use a simplified reporting system with environmental audits. —JEFF JOHNSON

cern. But we are very interested in whether the goal is achieved, in monitoring it, and in distributing that information," Kessler said. Merck & Co., Inc., in Elkton, VA, proposes to "push the envelope as far as any of the proposals," Kessler said. Merck is putting together a pollution trading plan that will allow increases as well as decreases in emissions as long as the cuts are greatest, he said. Because of community opposition

to increased emissions, Kessler said, "I can just as easily see us saying Merck tried something and it didn't work as I can see us saying Merck tried something and it did. But Merck wants to give it a try, and we are willing to explore it with them." Merck's plan will be complicated further because of the plant's proximity to Shenandoah National Park, which is suffering from air pollution problems, he noted. —JEFF JOHNSON

New reporting rules for endocrinemodulating chemicals considered To speed up government action on endocrine-modulating chemicals, EPA may require industry to submit unpublished health and ecological effects studies related to the reproductive effects of chemicals. Under the authority of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Agency is also considering methods to standardize testing of potential endocrine

modulators, according to John Walker, executive director of the TSCA Interagency Testing Committee. Walker spoke at the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry meeting in Vancouver, Canada, in November. Under TSCA, EPA has the power to request and evaluate unpublished data and require further testing of chemicals on the

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basis of recommendations of the Interagency Testing Committee (ITC), which coordinates the needs of government organizations for data on existing chemicals. An ITC subcommittee on endocrine-modulating chemicals has already started work on a group of alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates that have the potential to cause endocrinemodulating effects. Research has linked several alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates to proliferation of human estrogen-sensitive breast tumor cells. Others in this group have been shown to stimulate fish to produce a precursor egg yolk protein, vitellogenin, normally produced only in female fish. ITC's most recent recommendations, released November 22, add 28 alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates to the Priority Testing List, which calls for the release of unpublished data on the chemical composition and environmental fate of these chemicals as well as information on their health and ecological effects, including endocrinemodulating effects. "U.S. government agencies need data on composition, environmental fate, and health and ecological effects. Data on endocrine modulation is just one part of those needs," said Walker. Nine of the alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates have recent production and importation volumes > 1 million lb, according to TSCA. The other 19 are being recommended because they are structurally similar to the highvolume chemicals. Industrial production of plastics, elastomers, textiles, agricultural chemicals, and paper accounts for 55% of the usage of alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates; 45% are used in industrial cleaning and household cleaning products. In response to ITC's recommendations, EPA will issue two TSCA rules requiring manufacturers and importers to submit data on production, exposure, and health and safety studies. After the rules are issued, manufacturers and importers have 60 days to comply. ITC will then review the data to decide whether further testing is required. —REBECCA RENNER

NEWS SOCIETY Mohawk environmental health project integrates research into the community Research in the late 1980s found that women in a 12,000-member community of Native Americans living along the St. Lawrence River in New York and Canada had extremely high polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) levels in their breast milk—nearly twice that of control groups. The PCBs had leaked into the St. Lawrence from three aluminum foundries, now Superfund sites, and been taken up by fish, a primary food source for community members of the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne. They live on a thin strip of land of less than 25 square miles in Ontario, Quebec, and New York. When researchers at the University at Albany School of Public Health began investigating PCB's effect on humans, they took the unusual step of involving the Mohawks in conducting research and designing the project. The Native Americans and the scientists developed a "new paradigm for how research would be done in the Mohawk community," according to Katsi Cook, an aboriginal midwife and clinical instructor at the university's Department of Environmental Health and Toxicology who led in creating the bridge between the Mohawks and the scientists. Cook's work is now being supported through a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). In this second year of the four-year, $700,000 grant, she will continue to build a community-based health education, outreach, and training program. The NIEHS grant program is one of several federal community assistance programs that have sprung up over the past few years at the urging of environmental justice advocates. NIEHS supports seven community education and training programs in rural and inner-city communities with a wide range of environmental problems. The number of "Partnerships for Communica-

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tion" grants will grow to 12 in the years ahead, according to NIEHS officials. The grants are intended to bring environmental health researchers and health care providers together with community members. What first confronted the Mohawks has in one form or another faced other environmental justice communities: Health problems springing from toxic wastes created by sources outside community control followed by studies

"For generations we've seen anthropologists and social scientists come in, do studies, earn academic laurels, build careers, and do absolutely nothing for the community." —Katsi Cook and cleanup attempts equally out of their control. When the community questions decisions, it is hit with impenetrable scientific and technical jargon. As Cook explained, "For generations we've seen anthropologists and social scientists come in, do studies, earn academic laurels, build careers, and do absolutely nothing for the community." But now, Mohawks are involved as field investigators and members of some dozen university research projects that grew from that first investigation of PCB levels in breast milk. Increased Mohawk involvement was advocated by Cook and actively supported by David Carpenter, dean of the School of Public Health, who led the early PCB research and is a co-investigator on Cook's grant. Carpenter is now beginning a new series of studies of the Mohawks, particularly to examine the impact of PCBs on development and the brain. "Enormous anger" is how