Hazardous Air Pollutants In The 1970s

In 1970 was the federal first attempt to control hazardous air pollutants (HAP).” The current definition of HAP is a pollutant "known to cause or [that] may reasonably be anticipated to cause adverse effects to human health or adverse environmental effects”. It came in section 112 amendments to clean air. The EPA was required by Section 112 to have a list of hazardous air pollutants that may have would cause to mortalities, fatalities, illnesses or anything that could not be reversed. Once the pollutant list was made, The EPA required that the companies establish and develop health based emissions that provide some sort of safety precaution to protect the public’s health. Substances listed as criteria pollutants and regulated under sections
108 and 109 of the Act were not considered under this category. “The question of how this law would work arose early. In Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) v. EPA (the "Vinyl Chloride" case), the NRDC challenged the EPA's failure to list vinyl chloride as a HAP under the Act, even though the EPA had concluded that it caused harm to human health”( 112 ) The Natural Resources Defense Council argued the cost of compliancy but what happen next is interest, even though the section 112 require the EPA to establish a level zero emission if they could not come up with a safer with to produce the chemical, they fail to list the chemical as a HAP. I believe that this is where the problem lies when it come to big business they have lawyer to find a variety of loop holes to get there product on the market. The EPA ending up disagreeing with the Natural Resources Defense Council and did not listed the chemical. It is frighten to realize what is tolerated with the EPA when the Clean Air Act was amended in 1990 they could only indentify a list of eight hazardous air pollutants. How is this even possible in the 1990?(Alex Jackson) Even though it has not been proven but indicated that the non-carcinogen HAP like mercury and cadmium can cause birth defects, lung disease.” The detrimental health effects of human exposure to HAPs are uncontested and, as the data indicate, present a serious risk to public health”(Alex Jackson)