NEWS OF THE WEEK ENVIRONMENT
BUSH TO PUSH POPS PACT U.S. AGREES Whitman signs international treaty on persistent organic pollutants.
Administration plans quick action so U.S. can ratify new treaty
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Stockholm Convention
HE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
"plans to move swiftly" so the U.S. can ratify a new treaty controlling persistent organic pollutants (POPs), according to the State Department. EPA Adminis trator Christine Todd Whitman last week joined offi cials from more than 90 other na tions to sign the POPs agreement, known as the Stockholm Con vention. The treaty bans or severely restricts use of 12
DRINKING
chemicals that persist in the envi ronment and accumulate in ani mal tissue. The 12 chemicals are aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, dioxins, eldrin, furans, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, polychlorinated biphenyls, and toxaphene. The treaty also sets up a process for more substances to be added to the pact. The Stockholm Convention officially will take effect when 50 countries ratify the accord by crafting domestic laws conform ing to its provisions. The World Wildlife Fund is urging govern ments to ratify the POPs pact before the September 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. A State Department official
WATER
REGULATING ARSENIC Possible shift in EPA thinking could loosen drinking-water standard
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LESS TAXING The Senate, last week, passed its version of President George W. Bush's tax cut plan, Restoring Earnings to Lift Individuals and Empower Families (RELIEF) Act of 2001. It will now be reconciled with the House's more plainly titled Economic Growth & Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. 12
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2001
HE ENVIRONMENTAL PRO-
tection Agency last week indicated that it might change its scientific thinking on how arsenic causes cancer. Such a shift: could lead EPA to set a looser drinking-water standard for the element than the 3- to 20-ppb range now under consideration. Christine Todd Whitman, President George W Bush's EPA administrator, suspended the Clinton Administration's 10-ppb arsenic standard for drinking water that was issued in January following decades of study. Although announced in April, the withdrawal did not become offi
cial until a formal notice was issued on May 22. Whitman's move leaves in place the nation's 50-ppb standard for arsenic, set in 1942, until EPA reviews health effects data and estimates of the cost of imple menting a new standard ranging between 3 and 20 ppb. EPA will issue the new regulation by Feb ruary 2002. The notice says EPA will reconsider its scientific assump tion that any amount of arsenic, even minuscule doses, can cause cancer and that theriskof devel oping the disease rises propor tionally with dose. Alternatively,
says that, given strong support for the POPs treaty by the chemical industry, environmentalists, and President George W. Bush, the U.S. is likely to ratify the agree ment quickly. For this to happen, the Senate will have to agree to ratification and Congress will have to make minor amendments to two environmental laws. Frederick L. Webber, presi dent and chiefexecutive officer of the American Chemistry Coun cil, says, "We believe this treaty is a significant step in securing international action to promote meaningful public health and environmental protection.,, But one Washington, D C , policy group called on the Bush Administration to help poor nations use more of one of the pesticides covered in the treaty "When used in small amounts in and around homes," rather than for agricultural uses, "DDT is an extremely effective, safe, and inexpensive way to prevent the spread of malaria,,, the Compet itive Enterprise Institute says.— CHERYLHOGUE
the agency could determine that there is a threshold below which exposure to arsenic does not cause cancer. This could lead EPA to set an arsenic standard looser than 10 ppb. The agency's notice invites the public to "provide evi dence" supporting a standard higher than 20 ppb. ErikD. Olson, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the move "stun ningly arrogant andwrongjheaded" The group plans to challenge the agency's suspension ofthe 10- ppb standard in court, in part because Congress required EPA to issue a new standard byJune 22,2001. EPA also suspended a require ment that utilities must tell cus tomers about arsenic in their water at levels of5 ppb and higher. Currendy, water suppliers have to provide this information only for concentrations of 25 ppb and higher.-CHERYL HOGUE HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
