HORIZON INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS SITE

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing final rules that will protect Americans’ health by cutting emissions of mercury, particle pollution and other harmful pollutants from Portland cement manufacturing, the third-largest source of mercury air emissions in the United States.

The rules are expected to yield $7 to $19 in public health benefits for every dollar in costs. Mercury can damage children’s developing brains, and particle pollution is linked to a wide variety of serious health effects, including aggravated asthma, irregular heartbeat, heart attacks, and premature death in people with heart and lung disease.

"Americans throughout the country are suffering from the effects of pollutants in our air, especially our children who are more vulnerable to these chemicals," EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said. "This administration is committed to reducing pollution that is hurting the health of our communities. With this historic step, we are going a long way in accomplishing that goal. By reducing harmful pollutants in the air we breathe, we cut the risk of asthma attacks and save lives."

This action sets the nation’s first limits on mercury air emissions from existing cement kilns, strengthens the limits for new kilns, and sets emission limits that will reduce acid gases. This final action also limits particle pollution from new and existing kilns, and sets new-kiln limits for particle and smog-forming nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. 

When fully implemented in 2013, EPA estimates the annual emissions will be reduced: 
 

Mercury in the air eventually deposits into water, where it changes into methylmercury, a highly toxic form that builds up in fish. People are primarily exposed to mercury by eating contaminated fish. Because the developing fetus is the most sensitive to the toxic effects of methylmercury, women of childbearing age and children are regarded as the populations of greatest concern.

EPA estimates that the rules will yield $6.7 billion to $18 billion in health and environmental benefits, with costs estimated at $926 million to $950 million annually in 2013. Another EPA analysis estimates emission reductions and costs will be lower, with costs projected to be $350 million annually.

More information: http://www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpg/t3pfpr.html and http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/exphistory/ehorgan_systems.html

This news is from the U.S. EPA, 9 August 2010

Note:

Forthcoming Publication:

 “Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Environment: Challenges, Interventions and Preventive Measures,”

 a John Wiley & Sons, Inc. - Horizon International Publication,

will soon be available. 

The print copy of the book will be accompanied by

a multimedia DVD.

Special Web sites established by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and by the Horizon Solutions Site at www.solutions-site.org will present the electronic version of the book, the DVD and other Supplementary Material. 

Written by authorities from the fields of public health, medicine, epidemiology, environmental health, climate change, environmental engineering, and population research, this book presents an interdisciplinary picture of the conditions responsible for water and sanitation-related diseases, the pathogens and their biology, morbidity and mortality resulting from lack of safe water and sanitation, distribution of these diseases and the conditions that must be met to reduce or eradicate them.

The publication covers access to and maintenance of clean water, and guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta and greywater and examples of solutions, but with an emphasis on what is achievable considering that 2.6 billion individuals have no toilet and 1.2 billion people are exposed to water-related illness from their drinking water.

Meeting water and sanitation needs coupled with protection of the environment and prevention of pollutants is essential to every effort to improve the health and living conditions of billions of people.  Meeting these needs is fundamental not only to effectively diminish incidence of diseases that afflict a third or more of the people of the world, but also to improve education and economic well-being and elevate billions of individuals out of vicious cycles of poverty.

Preventive measures and solutions provide guidance for possible action on the local, national and international levels.

Watch for announcements of the

publication date and availability.