Joint Commission Report - public health risks

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@ix.netcom.com>]

Below is an excellent news item. It addresses specifically EPA and 
other federal agencies and public health issues. The last sentence is 
a premise that we have seen propagated here many times by Radsafers. 
Among the lost is Jim Muckerheide. The call is for common sense in 
regulatory issues.. The last sentence, if you don't want to read 
ahead, is ...  ``The public's in as good a position to debate as the 
experts. Common sense counts for a lot.'' 
----------------------
                     
 WASHINGTON, Jan. 28  -- A new report by a joint presidential- 
congressional commission aims to improve the way the Environmental
Protection Agency and other federal agencies measure and address
public health risks. 
 In releasing the report Tuesday, the commission's chairman is calling
  upon Congress to shift the focus of laws such as the Clean Air Act
from the regulation of specific contaminants to a wider view of
overall air quality. 
 Chairman Gilbert Omenn, professor of enivornmental health and  
medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, says, ``The way
its done now is one chemical, one medium at a time. The solution is to
look at the air and water in general.'' 
 The Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Superfund are due for  
congressional and presidential reauthorization. The commission seeks
to amend these federal environmental intiatives to the broader
approach outlined in their plan. 
 Part of the problem with the current approach stems from the  
inability of various regulators to work together. For example, a clean
air law may prevent an industrial facility from spewing a certain
contaminant into the atmosphere, but the same material may be ignored
as it is poured down a drain. 
 The Presidential/Congressional Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk
  
Management, which has held 2 1/2 years of public hearings on the
issue, also wants to beef up the public stake in the risk assessment
process. Much of risk assessment involves value judgment, and Omenn
said when scientists extrapolate beyond their experiments they need to
be overly cautious. 
 Omenn says, ``The public's in as good a position to debate as the 
experts. Common sense counts for a lot.'' 

Sandy Perle
Technical Director
ICN Dosimetry Division
Office: (800) 548-5100 x2306 
Fax: (714) 668-3149

E-Mail: sandyfl@ix.netcom.com    

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