Paul W Bartlett

NOTICE These meeting minutes have been written as part of the activities of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP). The meeting minutes represent the views and recommendations of the FIFRA SAP, not the United States Environmental Protection Agency (Agency). The content of the meeting minutes does not represent information approved or disseminated by the Agency. The meeting minutes have not been reviewed for approval by the Agency and, hence, the contents of these meeting minutes do not necessarily represent the views and policies of the Agency, nor of other agencies in the Executive Branch of the Federal government. Nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute a recommendation for use. The FIFRA SAP is a Federal advisory committee operating in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act and established under the provisions of FIFRA as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of 1996. The F...

The events of September 11, 2001 and thereafter resulted in arguably the worst environmental disaster in the history of New York City. Particulate matter and combustion by-products containing asbestos, lead, mercury, dioxin, PAHs, and other toxic substances, not only affected rescue and recovery workers but also infiltrated thousands of residences and workplaces. Government agencies did not acknowledge responsibility for residential indoor environmental quality until eight months later, and still have not accepted responsibility for indoor environmental quality in commercial or government buildings. In May 2002, 200 representatives from 38 community, labor, environmental, and public health organizations met to discuss unmet post-9/11 public health needs. They established a technical working group to press the Environmental Protection Agency to expand and improve its proposals for the cleanup of Lower Manhattan. This 2002 document, “The ‘Gold Standard’ for Remediation of WTC Contamin...

What follows are the conclusions of the second and final phase of a study on dioxins in the Great Lakes by the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems (CBNS). In the earlier phase, the CBNS scientists inventoried North American sources of dioxin and hexachlorobenzene and developed a method to estimate airbome emissions deposited in each of the Great Lakes. They were thus able to identify and rank the major sources of these pollutants in the lakes. The focus of this report was to analyze the economic impact of replacing the major types of sources of airbome dioxin with altemative processes that do not generate dioxi~ thereby preventing pollution. The work focused on these generators of airbome dioxin: medical waste incinerators, municipal waste incinerators, iron ore sintering plants, and cement kilns that bum hazardous waste. The scientists also considered pulp and paper mills, an identified source of waterbome pollutants. The scientists described their method: " ... to the extent that the available data permit we have carried out the following sequence of analytical steps, with respect to each of the identified major dioxin-generating sources: "1) Identification of alternative changes in the technology of production that lead to the virtual elimination of the production of dioxin at the source and yet allow continued output of the facility's product. "2) Estimation of the economic effects of the indicated changes in production technology on: production costs, capital expenditures, and employment. "3) Comparison of the above effects with the overall economic features of the relevant industry. "4) Impact of the remediation-induced changes in the economic features of the source industry on the regional economy." To obtain the full report, contact CBNS at Queens College, CUNY, Flushing, New York 11367; phone 718670-4180; fax 718-670-4189. A summary of the report is available from the CBNS website

Introduction Persistant organic pollutants (POPs) emit into the atmosphere from near and distant sources, transport and deposit to land and marine surfaces, and enter the food chain through water, flora and fauna. Remedial policy must be directed to the reduction of emissions ...

The events of September 11, 2001 and thereafter resulted in arguably the worst environmental disaster in the history of New York City. Particulate matter and combustion by-products containing asbestos, lead, mercury, dioxin, PAHs, and other toxic substances, not only affected rescue and recovery workers but also infiltrated thousands of residences and workplaces. Government agencies did not acknowledge responsibility for residential indoor environmental quality until eight months later, and still have not accepted responsibility for indoor environmental quality in commercial or government buildings. In May 2002, 200 representatives from 38 community, labor, environmental, and public health organizations met to discuss unmet post-9/11 public health needs. They established a technical working group to press the Environmental Protection Agency to expand and improve its proposals for the cleanup of Lower Manhattan. This 2002 document, " The 'Gold Standard' for Remediation of WTC Contamination, " articulates the environmental health concerns and suggestions of grassroots organizations active in 9/11 response efforts at that time.  Co-authors: Paul Woods Bartlett, Marjorie J. Clarke, David Kotelchuck, David Newman, Monona Rossol, Mike Vozick

The Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution (TF HTAP) was established under the Convention on Long–range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) to improve scientific understanding of the intercontinental transport of air pollutants and to deliver policy–relevant information on this issue. The first comprehensive assessment of POP intercontinental transport made by the TF HTAP was compiled in 2010 and published in 2011. The HTAP assessment was made possible by the contributions of a large network of experts in various national and international organizations and is intended to support further development of international policy and regulation of POPs under the frameworks of the UN ECE CLRTAP and the Stockholm Convention on POPs. By summarizing the outcome of past studies on POPs, the assessment highlights the evidence of POP intercontinental transport and the associated threat to human health and the environment. It presents the current state of knowledge on levels of POPs in the environment, emission inventories and projections, modeling of long–range transport and fate in various compartments, interactions with climate change, as well as harmful effects on human health and ecosystems. Two important outcomes of the HTAP 2010 assessment are the summary of key scientific and policy–relevant findings, and the recommendations for further work which include the need to a more fully developed integrated approach to the pollution assessment. In its next phase, which extends to 2015, the Task Force is planning to cooperate across different thematic areas of scientific activity on intercontinental transport of pollution, and exploit synergies of effort in cases where particulate matter (PM), ozone, mercury, and POPs share common sources. It is recognized that a fully “integrated approach” for building a scientific understanding of POPs in the environment should encompass measurements, modeling results, and emission estimates, and in
addition it should more explicitly include assessment of ecosystem effects.