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Background: The National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Improving Risk Analysis Approaches Used by the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) recommended that low-dose risks be estimated in some situations using human variability distributions (HVDs). HVD modeling estimates log-normal distributions from data on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic variables that affect individual sensitivities to the toxic response. These distributions are combined into an overall log-normal distribution for the threshold dose (dose below which there is no contribution to a toxic response) by assuming the variables act independently and multiplicatively. This distribution is centered at a point-of-departure dose that is usually estimated from animal data. The resulting log-normal distribution is used to quantify low-dose risk. Objective: We examined the implications of various assumptions in HVD modeling for estimating low-dose risk. Methods: The assumptions and data used in HVD modeling were subjected to rigorous scrutiny. Results: We found that the assumption that the variables affecting human sensitivity vary log normally is not scientifically defensible. Other distributions that are equally consistent with the data provide very different estimates of low-dose risk. HVD modeling can also involve an assumption that a threshold dose defined by dichotomizing a continuous apical response has a log-normal distribution. This assumption is shown to be incompatible (except under highly specialized conditions) with assuming that the continuous apical response itself is log normal. However, the two assumptions can lead to very different estimates of low-dose risk. The assumption in HVD modeling that the threshold dose can be expressed as a function of a product of independent variables lacks phenomenological support. We provide an example that shows that this assumption is generally invalid. Conclusion: In view of these problems, we recommend caution in the use of HVD modeling as a general approach to estimating low-dose risks from human exposures to toxic chemicals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the case of Massachusetts versus U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory interest theory. It states that the private law model views the role of the court as the adjudicator of individual rights. Meanwhile, the opposing public law model favors congressional power to create causes of action that confer standing without showing of differentiated injury. In connection, the author concludes that a positivist approach to standing that predicates state and citizen provides a relatively straightforward.

The Supreme Court's split decision in Rapanos v. United States left the lower courts with the question of whether to apply the plurality's restrictive test for determining which waters are protected under the Clean Water Act (CWA), or whether to use Justice Kennedy's more flexible, policy-based test. For those courts intending to follow Kennedy's concurrence, the parameters of his "significant nexus" test were far from explicit. In Baykeeper v. Cargill Salt Division the Ninth Circuit relinquished its first opportunity to apply the significant nexus test expansively in order to keep the CWA potent as a tool for environmental protection. The best remaining approach for litigants seeking to establish CWA coverage of non-navigable-in-fact waters that are not wetlands is to proceed under the theory that such waters are tributaries with a significant nexus to navigable waterways, pressing this language into service in the broadest array of hydrological scenarios possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on China's efforts to reduce pollution. It comments on the environmentally-friendly architecture used to host the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, including such endeavors as recycled water and biodegradable plastics. It mentions that China burns enough coal for electricity and energy and accounts to almost five percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. It comments on the State Environmental Protection Administration of China and the Ministry of Environmental Protection's (MEP) efforts to enforce environmental standards, and of resistance to mandates by local governments in China to keep up environmental growth. It mentions that there is a partnership between the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the MEP to help China improve energy efficiency.

During the 1990s, American Indian Nations assumed regulatory primacy over certain portions of federal environmental laws in the United States. For tribes that have not developed their own standards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued policy statements aimed at incorporating tribal health and natural resources. While many communities of color have to fight to get heard in state and federal permitting processes, the U.S. EPA has made it an explicit mission to always include Indian Nations. Thus, "getting to the decision-making table" - a key goal of environmental justice groups - is presumably serving the interests of tribes seeking environmental justice. However, being involved in regulatory processes, as tribes are, may not be enough for Indian Nations or other communities of color. It is to this end that I write this article - should "getting to the table" be the ultimate goal for environmental justice groups, and how should this table be structured? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of environmental decision-making in the United States is primarily one of antagonism, conflict, and litigation. Four sectors of American society are typically at odds over why and how to solve environmental problems—government regulators, businesses proponents, environmental advocates, and members of affected communities. Dissimilar worldviews are at the heart of most environmental disputes, and people in the four sectors tend to have diverse perspectives and philosophies that affect how they interpret and respond to environmental issues. To promote integrated, cost-effective decisions, the public health paradigm (prevention first, intervention second, treatment third), as embodied in the Precautionary Principle and the concept of Sustainable Development, should be mutually adopted as a joint framework for prioritizing solutions to pressing environmental problems. The core public health principle of prevention first is a simple yet powerful tenet that can help foster better environmental choices that are more effective, efficient, and equitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the establishment of the Environmental Technology Verification Program by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The program is designed to verify the performance of innovative environmental technologies that can be used to monitor, prevent, control and clean up pollution. It is formed to address the need for credible performance data to help regulators and users better respond to the available choices of environmental technology. The program develops testing protocols and verifies the performance of technologies that have the potential to improve the protection of human health and the environment.

Recent interest in understanding the human and ecological health risks of contaminants on lands in the United States has led some managers and public policy makers to use extensive narratives associated with maps and Conceptual Site Models (CSM) in their Vision statements. While narratives are descriptive, CSMs can graphically depict the sources, releases, transport and exposure pathways, and receptors, together with possible barriers to block pathways and reduce exposure. In most situations, vision statements and CSMs are developed for one site, providing no opportunity to understand how they function generally. This paper reviews a set of 31 Vision statements and CSMs developed for Department of Energy (DOE) sites to examine the use and importance of ecological data in the process. This analysis provides a framework for evaluating ecological resources and risk at contaminated sites generally. While data on human health risks were usually extensive, data on specific ecological receptors were sparse. Less than 70% of the sites mentioned endangered or threatened species, less than 40% provided even partial species lists for their sites, and less than 40% provided information on unique habitats. Almost no sites mapped the distribution of endangered/threatened species. Ecological receptors were treated as a class, without regard to whether they were terrestrial or aquatic, or sedentary or migratory. Only 29% of the sites referred to specific ecological risk assessments. Confusion existed with respect to routes of exposure, pathways of exposure, and media for exposure. Overall, the ecological information presented was not consistent across sites, making it difficult to compare ecological resources at risk, effects of remediation on ecological resources complex-wide, or to determine which resources were most important to protect if monetary resources are limited. One of the objectives of DOE in having sites develop these Vision statements was to achieve uniformity in information available for the public, managers, policy-makers, and decision-makers. Any variances from previously agreed-upon remediation will likewise require this detailed ecological information. The dataset indicates a clear need to delineate the key ecological information required for these stakeholders before effective decisions can be made across a wide complex of contaminated sites, and a list of potential indicators is suggested. This ecological information can be both qualitative and quantitative. Finally, the information developed for Vision statements (CSMs, maps) will be useful in ensuring continued human and ecological protection, and will contribute to the sustainable safety of remaining contamination on sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the spatial distribution and enforcement of air polluting facilities in the state of New Jersey, as listed in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Aerometric Information Retrieval System. Results show that air-polluting facilities tend to concentrate near minority neighborhoods, although this relationship is partially explained by factors of population density, manufacturing employment, and land use. Other results suggest that facilities in areas with a relatively high percentage of minority population tend to have a weaker record of environmental enforcement as compared to other facilities. Of the socioeconomic variables considered, employment in manufacturing appears to be the most strongly related to environmental enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on environmental regulation of industry in the United States. Over the past thirty years, environmental regulation of industry in the United States has achieved remarkable success in reducing air and water pollution, and controlling the effects of hazardous waste. Most environmental regulation in the United States utilizes performance-based and technology-based standards. The article argues that while many of the proposed reforms are valuable additions to the regulatory toolbox, each has disadvantages that restrict its ability to address some of the problems of the current system.

The rising public awareness of environmental problems around 1970 brought the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and targeting of the obvious environmental polluters. This has helped the clean‐up, but there are now new challenges. Toxics are much more subtle, more widespread, and there effects more unknown than sewage or smoke. The public will have to decide the trade‐offs of toxic risk and material goods. Focus is turning to habitat protection and healthy ecosystems, not just human health. Now that big industry is better controlled, the more difficult widely dispersed environmental problems must be tackled. Solutions will require costs and lifestyle changes for us all. For this to happen, the public must understand the problems and accept that they are part of them. The role of the environmental professional will be to assess the problem and possible solutions and present them to the public for their decisions when weighed against the cost of the solutions and prevailing values. We must open up the process of environmental decision making to those who bear the costs, and then accept their judgment. Roles of government will change to, more local control using federal assistance, standards, research, regulations and advice. Local actions and industry may include more projects, seeking help from government agencies. Attitudes and behaviour of everyone must change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the U.S. Environmental Defense Fund, an action-oriented environmental organization created in 1967. The organization has four major programs that focus on energy, land and water, toxics, and wildlife, although individual projects may bridge these areas. The programs are supported by income arising in roughly equal parts from national membership fees, grants from foundations, and gifts from individual donors. The Environmental Defense Fund developed out of the 1967 effort by several scientists on Long Island to reduce the indiscriminant spraying of DDT, an activity that was rapidly destroying populations of ospreys and other birds high on the food chain. By 1979, the Environmental Defense Fund had a staff well versed in the paths by which toxics move through the environment and skilled in legal tools an risk-benefit arguments needed to reduce the dispersal of toxic substances and to force the cleanup of earlier depositions. The toxics program at the Environmental Defense Fund covers a wide range of topics, including lead in gasoline, chlorine in sewage treatment plant discharges, mercury and uranium in streams, and carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide in the air.

The article talks about the effort of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) to establish environmental protection policy and standards. On November 2005, the EPA published its final rule pertaining to the Standards and Practices for All Appropriate Inquiry. Shortly thereafter, the ASTM issued its updated E1527-05 Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments: Phase I Environmental Site Assessment Process. This standard contains new requirements and latest landowner liability protections that evolved as a result of Congress' actions and the new rule of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The article focuses on the environmental health protection issues in New Zealand and compares the environemtal law in the country with that in the U.S. The Environmental Performance Index ranked New Zealand first out of 133 countries in the areas of health, biodiversity, energy, water, air, and natural resources, in an announcement at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in January 2006 in Davos, Switzerland. With 78.5/100 points, the U.S. ranked 28th. Demand for water for all purposes is increasing in New Zealand. The current pressures on freshwater ecosystems are less severe in New Zealand than those in many other industrialized countries. As the 1986 New Zealand Environment Act establishes the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment and its associated minister, it roughly corresponds to the 1969 U.S. National Environmental Policy Act.

The author reflects on the training and education of professional environmental health manpower in the U.S. The author has stressed that there was a need for strengthening the support of programs to develop professional manpower in the field of environmental health and environmental protection. He has emphasized that most states were having difficulty in meeting the sizeable operating program requirements to implement federal statutes.

The article discusses a plan by the United States Environmental Protection Association to repair dead zones that have formed in the Gulf of Mexico. Dead zones have formed in the Gulf over the past four decades because of farm fertilizers that run down the Mississippi River and feed algal blooms that choke oxygen supplies. The plan, which is scheduled to release in June 2008, is likely to fail unless it receives new funding from United States Congress, according to the author. A map of states that contribute pollutants to the Gulf is included.

The article presents information related to environmental health practitioners' duties during emergencies in the U.S. Environmental health practitioners must take active part in local and state emergency response planning efforts. They must understand the value of their skills in response to emergency events. Environmental health practitioners need to be flexible. They should apply their skills and knowledge across several areas of environmental health. The basics of environmental health are often needed to be reviewed by practitioners. They address and evaluate a variety of environmental issues. They have the ability to collect, analyze, and translate environmental data in emergencies. The need for environmental health practitioners and resources during emergencies was demonstrated by the environmental health issues that arose during the 2005 hurricane season. During emergencies, environmental health practitioners have essential roles to play.

The article discusses issues concerning conservation biology and law in the U.S. Existing environmental laws in the U.S. focuses almost entirely on the well-being of humans, on the air people breathe, the water they drink and safety of their food. The author believes that these laws are overdue for revision. An approach based on health is more needed than the current risk-based approach. Conservation biologists need to take a long, hard look at their land use ideas and understandings. Only by doing so can they make the appropriate, wide-ranging changes to environmental laws and help conservation biology gain its rightful place in American law.

The article discusses how a Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies survey of 1,000 adults nationwide found that Americans are seriously concerned about the country's environmental health and want more political action on the environment. A majority of voters--84 percent--say a candidate's stance on the environment will be a factor in how they decide to vote this November. Poll results indicate that three out of five Americans rate the quality of the country's overall environment as "only fair" or "poor," while just 3 percent say the environment is "excellent." American opinion of global environmental conditions is even more striking: Three-fourths rate global conditions as "only fair" or "poor", and 63 percent say conditions are worsening. According to the poll, 67 percent of Americans say the U.S. government does not do enough to protect the environment. Fifty-six percent of Americans, especially younger voters, say that the candidates should talk more about their environmental plans.

The author reflects on the role of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in supporting, stimulating, and encouraging the higher education and training of professional environmental pollution control practitioners. The author has stressed that the role of the agency was a broader and more complex question, involving a variety of federal agencies, policies, and programs, deserving of very serious consideration by those primarily responsible and knowledgeable about it.

The article focuses on the report entitled "2008 Report on the Environment" (EPA 2008 ROE) released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The report presents information that helps the public better understand trends in the condition of land, water, air and related changes in human health and the environment in the United States. Scientifically sound indicators were used, which are suggested for review before using to ensure the details would be useful and supported by technically sound data. According to the EPA, its purpose is to create a reliable set of information useful for year-to-year comparisons and for planning as well.

The article discusses a report by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stating that it is preparing for the effects of global warming on water quality. The report details EPA plans to deal with changes in ocean and fresh water chemistry, snowfall amounts, and groundwater availability.

The article outlines the new standards imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce locomotive and marine diesel pollution in the U.S. According to Stephen L. Johnson, EPA administrator, the institution is fitting another important piece into the clean diesel puzzle by cleaning emissions from trains and boats. These new standards will reduce soot or particulate matter (PM) by 90% or 27,000 tons and reduce nitrogen oxide emissions (NOx) by 80% or nearly 800,000 tons. It is advantageous to the whole populace because it will help prevent 1,400 premature deaths and 120,000 lost workdays annually in 2030.

The article reports on the issues concerning the white paper titled "Safety Implications of Greening," produced by the American Society of Safety Engineers' (ASSE) Hospitality Branch. According to the author, the report examines how safety, health and environmental (SH&E) professionals are working to reduce or eliminate risks related to greening efforts in the hospitality industry. The white paper includes a history of greening in the industry, examples of greening programs, and information on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) "Top Green Power Purchasers" list.

The article discusses the fundamental change needed for chemical toxicity testing in the U.S. The National Academies' National Research Council urges in its "Toxicity Testing in the Twenty-First Century: A Vision and a Strategy," that a rapid shift is needed to shift away from the entrenched reliance on animal testing, as requested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The committee says this information, combined with multidisciplinary research on human populations and the fate of chemicals in the environment, could lead to better models for predicting chemical effects on critical pathways in the human body.

The article reports that university and research laboratory directors have commented that the regulations for handling hazardous waste developed under guidelines in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and imposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are designed for large industries and not for small laboratories where students experiment with thousands of chemicals every year. In response, a proposed rule was released by EPA in May 2006 that introduces a performance-based standard streamlined to meet the specific needs of university and research laboratories.

This article reports that activists are criticizing a proposal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to speed up its regular review of air-quality standards. By law, EPA must revisit its National Ambient Air Quality Standards every 5 years. Staff scientists evaluate the latest research and propose ranges for new standards, which are then reviewed by the agency's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee. Because EPA regularly misses its deadline and gets sued, an internal EPA committee proposed several suggestions in for speeding up the process. EPA chief scientist George Gray said that the idea behind this proposal is not to have the policy drive the science.

The article discusses the inadequacy of current environmental protection standards relating to the health hazards posed by the ozone levels in the atmosphere. Ozone has been known to be a common urban pollutant and has been correlated to health effects including reduced lung function, increases in respiratory symptoms, and asthma. A study was released in 2006 indicating that ozone may pose a danger to human health even at levels below the limits set by current U.S. and international regulations.

The article informs that critics of revision to air pollution standards, proposed last month by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), say the new daily threshold will only marginally improve public health. In fact, an outside panel that made such a recommendation is not happy with EPA's decision. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson did not answer that question during a 20 December teleconference announcing the standards but said he had thought long and hard about the data. Studies have shown that inhaling the small particles that make up soot, a widespread byproduct of combustion, harms health, although the mechanisms are not all clear. In 1997, the EPA first regulated fine particles measuring 2.5 micrometers or less. As part of a settlement in a suit brought by the American Lung Association, EPA was required to propose revised PM 2.5 rules by the end of 2005. Such a reduction could make a big difference in public health, scientists have found. The EPA models for nine major U.S. cities predict that the tightest daily and annual standards recommended by CASAC would cut the roughly 4700 deaths due each year to PM 2.5 in those cities by 48%.

Describes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's guide "Environmental Innovation Portfolio: Strategic Approaches for Leading Change," that shares strategies and practices available to public environmental agencies. Section on improving delivery of agency services.

This article reports that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has asked experts to help it assess the health dangers of a common chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). PFOA and related chemicals are used to make nonstick and stain-resistant coatings, including Teflon. EPA officials trying to assess PFOA's risks also face a host of technical issues, says Charles Auer, director of EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, including how to compare blood levels in humans and animals.

This article presents information on the developments in environmental research. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is inviting outside researchers to use some of its topnotch facilities for their own studies. The only caveats are that scientists must pay user fees and that the research should fit with EPA'S overall mission. Previously, EPA researchers could collaborate with outside scientists, but this change in policy offers non-agency scientists the chance to use the laboratories on their own. About two dozen research laboratories have already opened theft doors; these include the Drinking Water Research Facility in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Coral Research Facility in Gulf Breeze, Florida.

The article provides observations regarding the reputation of the Republican Party for supporting environmental policy. At the presidential level, this record goes back at least to Theodore Roosevelt's leadership in protecting more than 350,000 square miles of natural areas. Republican presidents appointed some of the most outstanding civil servants ever to advance the cause of environmental quality in America: Russell Train, William Ruckleshaus, Lee Thomas, and William Reilly come readily to mind. The nation's environment has also historically benefited from the leadership of enlightened Republican legislators, ranging from John Saylor's pioneering work on the Wilderness Act, through Barry Goldwater's promotion of solar energy, to John Chaffee's championing of safe drinking water. The behavior of contemporary Washington's Republican establishment can only be described as a radical departure from the party's traditions. One example, the current Bush administration is pushing an energy strategy that violates traditional Republican values at every turn: It would expand federal authority over land use, restrict states' rights to hold polluters accountable, and increase federal subsidies. Other administration initiatives on toxic pollutants, forest reserves, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are equally radical departures from the precedents set by an earlier generation of truly conservative and conservation-minded Republican leaders. Against this unrepresentative, radically antienvironmental record of the majority of Washington's current crop of Republicans, a small, beleaguered band of "Green Elephants" has continued to stand for traditionally conservative principles of conservation and environmental protection.

Research budgets at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would face a 4.3% cut, to $589 million, in a spending plan approved last week by the U.S. House of Representatives' appropriations committee. The cuts are part of an increasingly gloomy budget picture for science. The panel restored funding to EPA's extramural grants program, called Science to Achieve Results, bringing the program back to its fiscal year 2004 level of about $76.1 million, with an additional $9.5 million spent on graduate fellowships.

Looks at the announcement of the Environmental Protection Agency that dioxin and dioxin-like compounds may be added to the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). Request of the EPA for public comment concerning TRI; Plans of the EPA to formally lower the roster for the TRI.