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To date, only a limited number of studies have examined the impact of ambient pollutant policy on respiratory morbidities. This accountability study examined the effect of a regional pollution control policy, namely, the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) nitrogen oxides (NOx) Budget Trading Program (NBP), on respiratory health in New York State (NYS). Time-series analysis using generalized additive models was applied to assess changes in daily hospitalizations for respiratory diseases in NYS after the implementation of the NBP policy. Respiratory end points in the summers during the baseline period (1997-2000) were compared with those during the post-intervention period (2004-2006). Stratified analyses were also conducted to examine whether health impacts of the NBP differed by socio-demographic, regional, or clinical characteristics. Following the implementation of EPA's NBP policy, there were significant reductions in mean ozone levels (−2% to −9%) throughout NYS. After adjusting for time-varying variables, PM2.5 concentration, and meteorological factors, significant post-intervention declines in respiratory admissions were observed in the Central (−10.18, 95% confidence interval (CI): −14.18, −6.01), Lower Hudson (−11.05, 95% CI: −16.54, −5.19), and New York City Metro regions (−5.71, 95% CI: −7.39, −4.00), consistent with wind trajectory patterns. Stratified analyses suggest that admissions for asthma, chronic airway obstruction, among those 5-17 years old, self-payers, Medicaid-covered, and rural residents declined the most post-NBP. This study suggests that the NOx control policy may have had a positive impact on both air pollution levels statewide and respiratory health in some NYS regions. However, the effect varied by disease subgroups, region, and socio-demographic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses what U.S. president Barack Obama could do to rejuvenate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Topics include commentary from six leading individuals regarding the changes including former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman, president of the United Nations Foundation in Washington, D.C., Timothy E. Wirth, and co-director of the Harvard Sussex Program on chemical and biological weapons, Matthew Meselson.

The article focuses on the initiation of various activities to address the use of genomics information by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPA has released an interim policy position which offers guidance concerning the application of genomics information in assessing the risks of environmental contaminants under the different regulatory programs enforced by the agency. A genomics white paper was employed by the agency which outlines the implications of genomics.

The article reports on the continuous inventory collection of radioactive waste products in nuclear power industry involving its radiation risk to future generations in the U.S. The administration of the permanent respiratory for radioactive waste products has been encountering delayed in technical difficulties and political controversy. The federal Environmental Protection Agency announces the revision of proposed standards including the ten years radioactive waste storage and the period of ten thousand years into the future. The storage facility includes overlying vegetation as its physical characteristics and integrity.

Discusses the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) need to focus on population growth in solving environmental problems in the Los Angeles Basin in California. Suit filed by environmental groups against the EPA to force it to produce a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) for California; Group Against Smog Pollution (GASP); Control of population growth from illegal immigration.

Comments on the remarks of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Chief Carol Browner on population and environmental issues and policies. Council on Environmental Quality's role; Immigration Act; Clean Air Act.

The article focuses on the controversies that besieged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2006, a federal appeals court examined the way EPA was proposing to regulate power-plant emissions. The court found EPA to be ambiguous in its rules. Some of the criticisms since EPA was founded in 1970 were its standards for smog, rules for mercury and enforcement changes to the coal industry. Under the Bush administration, the emphasis was on less regulation.

The article reports on the challenges faced by U.S. President George W. Bush and his administration with the climate-change policy in the U.S. There is an argument that the Environmental Protection Agency should be forced to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from cars and trucks as a pollutant. The problem is that climate change is a large and global problem that the emission in question may not make a huge difference by themselves.

'the biggest global health threat of the 21st century', but paradoxically 'the greatest global opportunity of the 21st century'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article underscores that the United States has lessened the acceptable limit for airborne lead. It states that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revised the airborne lead standard for the first time in 30 years, lessening the maximum permissible concentration by 90%. Environmentalists expressed their appreciation on this development. The standard of 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter is within the range pushed by a science advisory panel that studies air quality issues.

The author reflects on the ruling in smog control under the U.S. Clean Air Act which involve policy judgments and scientific determinations. The author said that the Act leaves the decision to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) panel to examine the standards based on science conflates policy and science inquiry. Moreover, he favored the proposal by EPA to tighten the primary ozone standard.

The article reports on the criticism thrown at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by science advisers as it sets a new air-quality standard for ozone, a primary component of smog. EPA's decision will lessen the existing regulatory limit on ground-level ozone concentrations set in 1997 from a maximum of 84 parts per billion to 75 parts per billion. Environmentalists also dislike what they saw as the administration's interference. In a memorandum, Susan Dudley, a top regulatory official, encouraged the EPA not to set a secondary welfare standard at a lower level to protect against other environmental problems like the potential damage to crops and other vegetation. The EPA set the primary and the secondary standards at the same level.

Reports on the plan of the U.S. Congress to ban the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from using human tests to determine whether a pesticide should be marketed. Decision to place moratorium on the conduct and use of studies that expose participants to pesticides; Moral and ethical issues surrounding pesticides; Impact of the EPA policy on children.