[CPEO-MEF] Do we need a national EPA Standards Oversight Committee?

[borderlands@igc.org]

Hello all,

Want to start a national organization for EPA Standards Oversight?  Who 
sets the safe protection levels?

How do citizens start the process of urging the EPA to update their 
criteria?  Who is in charge of this?  We have contacted many EPA 
officials with questions and mainly we just get referred to another 
office.

The Denver Post story about the EPA indoor air testing model illustrates 
our local problem. (EPA model based on one test: National toxic-gas 
cleanup depends on faulty analysis of Denver apartment.  
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%7E469362,00.html)

In Tucson, as in Ohio, Colorado, Tennessee, and I don't know where else, 
we have another slow-acting but deadly monster in our community - 
beryllium.  EPA and OSHA standards for exposure to beryllium are based 
upon questionable science.  As a result, many workers and some community 
members develop deadly beryllosis.  Our community (Tucson) continues to 
be exposed to legal releases of beryllium into the air and wastewater 
stream.  There is a very large body of evidence addressing exposures 
with suggestions that levels be much lower.  Other nations have set much 
lower exposure limits. Even the Department of Energy has set much lower 
exposure limits to beryllium for its workers than the EPA allows for the 
public.

How can we get the EPA, and OSHA, to act?  They say to us that our 
legislators are responsible because there is insufficient funding to 
review the standards.  How come the DOE can review the standards?  In 
the meantime, over thirty workers in the Tucson facility that 
manufactures with beryllium have developed beryllosis, and they are 
going to die of beryllium-related illnesses.  More horribly, there are 
three childrens' schools within a quarter mile of this industrial 
facility that emits up to ten grams a day of beryllium dust, and is 
allowed to dump any amount into the wastewater stream.  No one has ever 
tested the children for beryllium sensitization.  How can the EPA 
conscionably allow us to be exposed like this?

Can we start a nationwide organization to stand up for responsible 
standards from the EPA?  Who wants to participate?  Who has the time and 
money?

Regards,
Jake Elkins

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a member of Sustainable Borderlands Planning,
an Arizona non-profit corporation.
1309 E. Lee St.
Tucson, AZ  85719
(520) 327-4058
borderlands@igc.org
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