EPA LIFTS BAN ON IMPORTING TOXIC WASTE FOR INCINERATION.Byline: Associated Press Reversing a 16-year-old ban, the Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and has agreed to allow thousands of tons of highly toxic highly toxic Occupational medicine adjective Referring to a chemical that 1. Has a median lethal dose–LD50 of ≤ 50 mg/kg when administered orally to 200-300 g albino rats 2. PCB PCB: see polychlorinated biphenyl. PCB in full polychlorinated biphenyl Any of a class of highly stable organic compounds prepared by the reaction of chlorine with biphenyl, a two-ring compound. compounds to be brought into the United States for incineration incineration the act of burning to ashes. . The policy shift, primarily expected to affect PCBs in Canada and to a lesser extent Mexico, is likely to boost the U.S. waste-disposal industry, which has complained that it is running out of domestically produced PCBs to destroy. EPA EPA eicosapentaenoic acid. EPA abbr. eicosapentaenoic acid EPA, n.pr See acid, eicosapentaenoic. EPA, n. officials said Thursday the import ban is no longer necessary because the industry has enough incinerator capacity to handle safely the foreign volume of PCB waste. The agency said in its final regulation that PCB imports "will not present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment." Burning the chemical is safer, the EPA said, than allowing it to remain in electrical transformers and other equipment in Canada and elsewhere where it may seep into the environment. There is mounting evidence, said EPA spokeswoman Loretta Ucelli, that some PCBs stored in neighboring countries end up being wafted by air across the border and deposited on U.S. soil, "where they threaten the environment and public health." Some environmentalists met the resumption of PCB imports with disbelief. "The latest thing this country needs is more toxic waste toxic waste is waste material, often in chemical form, that can cause death or injury to living creatures. It usually is the product of industry or commerce, but comes also from residential use, agriculture, the military, medical facilities, radioactive sources, and ," said Al Meyerhoff of the Natural Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a New York City-based, non-profit non-partisan international environmental advocacy group, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Beijing. Founded in 1970, NRDC today has 1. , a private environmental group. "There aren't any positive benefits for bringing someone else's wastes across the borders." The United States banned PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, for a variety of industrial uses after they were found in the 1970s to cause cancer. The chemical compound still is found in some equipment such as old electrical transformers. Five toxic waste incinerators dispose of PCBs in the United States - two in Texas, two in Utah and one in Kansas. The waste industry has sought to end the ban since 1990 as the volume of PCBs in this country declined and disposal capacity grew. |
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