EPA switchback on arsenic. (Environment).In March, 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1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and rescinded a proposed, tougher limit on arsenic in drinking water drinking water supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. 3 days before it would have become final. That proposed limit would have lowered acceptable concentrations of the cancer-causing pollutant from 50 parts per billion to just 10 ppb. On Oct. 31, EPA EPA eicosapentaenoic acid. EPA abbr. eicosapentaenoic acid EPA, n.pr See acid, eicosapentaenoic. EPA, n. rescinded its March decision and again put forth the 10 ppb limit, which is planned for implementation in 2006. A Sept. 21 review of arsenic risks by the National Academy of Sciences seems to have initiated the reversal. "Even very low concentrations of arsenic in drinking water appear to be associated with a higher incidence of cancer," noted Robert Goyer, a retired pathologist and chairman of the academy's arsenic-review committee. That group found that routinely drinking water laced with even 3 ppb arsenic would pose a 1 in 1,000 risk of bladder or lung cancer lung cancer, cancer that originates in the tissues of the lungs. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States in both men and women. Like other cancers, lung cancer occurs after repeated insults to the genetic material of the cell. . --J.R. |
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