Agency Says Research Articles

Enforcement EPA deal stops production of short-chain chlorinated paraffins

U.S. production of short-chain chlorinated paraffins has ceased under a settlement agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and Dover Chemical, EPA announced on Feb. 7. These substances are persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic, the agency says. Short-chain chlorinated paraffins have 10 to 13 carbon atoms and three to 12 chlorine atoms per molecule, says EPA. They have been used as lubricants and coolants in metal cutting and as plasticizers and flame retardants in plastics. “By halting production of short-chain chlorinated paraffins, this settlement will reduce undue risks to human health and the environment,” says Ignacia S. Moreno, assistant U.S. attorney general for environment and natural resources. Dover Chemical, based in Dover, Ohio, was the last U.S. manufacturer of short-chain chlorinated paraffins. Under the deal, it will also pay $1.4 million to settle allegations that it produced a variety of chlorinated paraffins with short and longer carbon chains without notifying EPA. The ...

Strategies and systems can reduce risk of administration errors

Administering medications is a core part of the nurse’s role, yet it appears to be an area where patient safety is at significant risk. The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) says that 17 per cent of all reported incidents involving children and young people in the UK were medication errors (NPSA 2009). Younger children appear to be at risk, with those aged under five involved in the second highest number of incidents nationally when analysed by age. Commonly reported problems include incorrect dosage inadvertent omission of medication and incorrect frequency of administration.

AIR POLLUTION: New Rules Proposed for Power Plant Toxics

Coal- and oil-fired power plants are key cogs in U.S. economic development. They’re also major emitters of many toxic substances, including mercury, arsenic, chromium, and dioxins. In an effort to dramatically cut the latter while modestly impacting the former, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing regulations that would set the first national standards for emissions of toxic substances from about 525 power plants.1,2 The agency estimates that by 2016 the proposed standards, which would regulate 67 toxics, could produce health benefits worth $5–13 (for avoided premature deaths, nonfatal heart attacks, respiratory problems, lost work days, and other health outcomes) for every $1 spent to meet the requirements.1 But Melissa McHenry, spokeswoman for American Electric Power, whose 25 coal-fired power plants serve 5.3 million customers in 11 U.S. states, says the agency is significantly underestimating costs to industry. The new regulations, which are scheduled by consent decree to be finalized by 16 November 2011, would replace a George W. Bush administration regulation that addressed only mercury.3 In February 2008 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia vacated that regulation, deeming it inadequate under the requirements of the Clean Air Act.4 Among the toxics covered in the proposed rule for existing plants are mercury, lead, arsenic, chromium, cadmium, nickel, antimony, beryllium, manganese, hydrogen chloride (HCl), hydrogen fluoride (HF), dioxins, and furans. Additional sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM) standards would be implemented for new plants. The agency says existing plants, which are located in nearly every state and provide 46% of U.S. electricity generation, are responsible for 83% of all airborne selenium emissions, 62% of arsenic, 60% of SO2, 50% of mercury, over 50% of many acid gases (including HCl and HF), 28% of nickel, and 22% of chromium.1,5 The agency says existing technology6 could be used to meet all the proposed standards and that the installed equipment would concurrently reduce SO2, NOx, and PM even in existing plants for which such controls would not be mandated. As part of the new rules, the agency is also proposing mandatory work practices that would lead to optimal combustion and subsequent reductions in toxics such as dioxins and furans. When installed, the EPA estimates the new equipment and operating practices would keep 91% of the mercury in coal from being released into the air and reduce 91% of acid gases and 55% of SO2 from power plants each year. The agency also predicts that implementing the controls will not only prevent 850,000 days of missed work each year but also provide 31,000 short-term construction jobs and 9,000 long-term utility jobs.7 Regarding the toxics parameters, McHenry says, “We don’t have a problem with the proposed limits.” But she is concerned about the time allotted by the EPA to implement necessary controls. Power plant owners and operators would have three years to comply after the regulations are finalized, with the possibility of an additional year in certain circumstances. That’s too tight, she says, especially if about 20% of all plants have to shut down rather than add emission controls, which is what she says the industry is estimating. She says those closures might make it difficult for the remaining plants to meet peak demands. A 15 April 2011 press release issued by Southern Company, which has 4.4 million customers in four Southern states, quotes company head Thomas A. Fanning as saying, “As the CEO of a company that has installed more pollution controls than any other utility, I tell you that this cannot be done in three years.”8 Furthermore, Southern Company spokeswoman Valerie Hendrickson says the toxicity limits may not be achievable. The Clean Air Task Force, an advocacy group that worked to overturn the old rule, is continuing its review of the lengthy proposed rule prior to the public comment deadline of 5 July 2011. “I’m glad it’s as strong as it is,” says senior counsel Ann Weeks. “But the devil is in the details.”

A posting for a job that does not exist: How we might define information architects in today's “integrated” advertising agency

A posting for a job that does not exist: How we might define information architects in today's “integrated” advertising agency

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Proposes Major Payment and Policy Changes

On July 1, 2009, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposal for the Medicare 2010 Physician Fee Schedule. The CMS estimates that the update for physician services will decrease by 21.5% from calendar year (CY) 2009. In general, the proposal would cut Medicare payments for imaging and specialists and use those savings to increase payments for primary care services. The payment formula has produced negative updates since 2002; however, from 2004 to 2009, Congress approved a series of legislation that prevented the cuts from being enacted. The Medicare law requires CMS to adjust the Medicare 2010 Physician Fee Schedule payment rates annually based on an update formula that includes application of the Sustainable Growth Rate or SGR that was adopted in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. This formula has yielded negative updates every year beginning in CY 2002, although CMS was able to take administrative steps to avert a reduction in CY 2003, and Congress has taken a series of legislative actions to prevent reductions in CYs 2004–2009. Based on current data, CMS is projecting a rate reduction of 21.5% for CY 2010. CMS is making several proposals to refine Medicare payments to physicians that are expected to increase payment rates for primary care services. The proposals include an update to the practice expense component of physician fees. For 2010, CMS is proposing to include data about physicians' practice costs from a new survey, the Physician Practice Information Survey, designed and conducted by the American Medical Association. CMS is proposing to increase the payment rates for the Initial Preventive Physical Exam (IPPE), also called the “Welcome to Medicare” visit, to be more in line with payment rates for higher complexity services. The IPPE benefit was mandated by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 to pay for an initial assessment of key elements of a beneficiary's health status within six months of the beneficiary's enrollment in Medicare Part B. Subsequently, Congress extended the time period for the IPPE benefit to within 1 year of the beneficiary's enrollment in Part B. In addition, CMS is proposing to refine how Medicare recognizes the cost of professional liability insurance in its payment system. “While these changes would have a modest impact, they will promote payment equity by redirecting the portion of Medicare's payment for professional liability insurance to those physicians that have the highest malpractice costs,” the agency says. “Taken together, refining the practice expenses, eliminating payment for the consultation codes and revising the treatment of malpractice premiums would increase payments to general practitioners, family physicians, internists, and geriatric specialists by between 6 and 8 percent (before taking into account the proposed update and other proposed changes to the fee schedule).” The CMS proposal also recommends removing physician-administered drugs from the update calculation, which CMS anticipates would minimize payment reductions over the long term. This proposal would take effect in 2010. The rule also suggests several changes to the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative and the Electronic Prescribing Incentive Program, such as including a group reporting option and allowing data submission from electronic health records. A Fact Sheet providing more information about the e-Prescribing Program and Physician Quality Reporting Initiative proposals can be found at: www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/fact_sheets.asp.

Comments: The Long-Term View

Editor's column The landscape has certainly changed as the oil and gas industry heads into a new year. Last year was one of the most volatile on record for oil prices, which rose to more than USD 145/bbl at mid-year before losing two-thirds of that value by last month. The new year begins with uncertainty as prices continue to fluctuate and the crisis in the credit market has dried up financing. Already, some projects have been delayed or are being re-evaluated, and operators are renegotiating contracts with service companies. Anecdotal evidence suggests a pullback in upstream activity, particularly for less conventional plays, as could be expected. Canada's Nexen is scaling back investment in its Long Lake oil sands project in Alberta and Shell has announced that it is also delaying some Canadian oil sands development. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers has cut its forecast for medium-term oil sands output because of these and other expected delays. Large Russian companies, and others that rely heavily on debt financing, have been affected as well. The collapse in the credit market has created liquidity challenges for smaller-capitalized oil and gas firms, and merger and acquisition activity is down sharply. The first half of 2008 witnessed a minor decline in transaction activity year on year, reports Ernst & Young, while the second half saw a more marked 30% decline. A survey by the consultancy showed that more than 70% in the industry believe it will be another year before merger and acquisition activity heats up again. Global demand will likely continue to contract. The US Department of Energy predicts that demand will fall this year as well as last, marking the first time in 30 years that demand has fallen for consecutive years. Demand fell by 50,000 BOPD last year and will drop as much as 450,000 BOPD this year, the agency says. But the long-term outlook does not look much different than it did a year ago. The current downturn is demand-driven while the long-term supply picture remains challenging. As several speakers noted during the recent International Petroleum Technology Conference in Kuala Lumpur, the underlying industry fundamentals remain strong, and the industry will remain hard-pressed to meet rising world demand, especially from emerging countries. ExxonMobil's latest Outlook for Energy: A View to 2030 predicts that global energy demand will increase by an average of 1.2% a year to 2030, with oil, gas, and coal meeting the vast majority of that demand. The real danger of this downturn is that it cancels or delays much investment in upstream projects and research and development, and that when global demand recovers, the industry will be straining to catch up after months of underinvestment. The industry's aging upstream profile and declining reserves replacement rate has not changed. From a historical perspective, USD 40/bbl oil—although only a third of its value at the mid-point of last year—is still on the high side. It was only a few years ago that OPEC's target price was USD 28/bbl, and from 1990 to 2004, oil prices drifted in a USD 20-30/bbl range.

Antimatter Experiment May Be Too Costly for NASA to Launch

NASA says it is willing to fly a $1.5 billion experiment designed to detect antimatter. But Congress would have to come up with as much as $4 billion to make it happen, the agency says.

The Evolution of Sanctions in Practice and Theory

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. ‘Sanctions: History Lessons’, Economist, 19 October 2006. 2. David Lektzian, Making Sanctions Smarter: Are Humanitarian Costs an Essential Element in the Success of Sanctions? (Oslo: International Peace Research Institute and Norges Rode Kors, 2003), p. 4. 3. See for example Lucy Komisar, Journal of Commerce, 24 September 1991, p. 8A. 4. Lektzian, Making Sanctions Smarter, p. 21. 5. For one point of view on this issue, see ‘Iraq Sanctions: Humanitarian Implications and Options for the Future’, Global Policy Forum, 6 August 2002, at http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sanction/iraq1/2002/paper.htm. 6. ‘In Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia, Sanctions Virtually Fused the State with the Criminal Class’, Economist, 19 October 2006; see also Lektzian, Making Sanctions Smarter, p. 12. 7. See ‘Iraq Sanctions’, Executive Summary, section 2. 8. Arne Tostensen and Beate Bull, ‘Are Smart Sanctions Feasible?’, World Politics, vol. 54, April 2002, pp. 373–4. 9. Ibid., pp. 379–80. 10. ‘Iraq Sanctions’, p. 6.4. 11. Kofi Annan, Annual Report on the Work of the Organization (New York: United Nations, 1998), available at http://www.un.org/Docs/SG/Report98. 12. This story is well told in Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006). 13. This section is drawn from the very thorough discussion of Title III in the testimony of Herbert A. Biern, senior associate director, Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation, ‘The Bank Secrecy Act and the USA Patriot Act’, Before the Committee on International Relations, US House of Representatives, 17 November 2004. 14. Ibid. 15. Peter A. Prahar, director of the Office of Africa, Asia and Europe Programs, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Department of State, Statement before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security, Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, 25 April 2006, p. 12. 16. Steven R. Weisman, ‘The Ripples of Punishing One Bank’, New York Times, 3 July 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/business/worldbusiness/03bank.html. 17. ‘North Korean Accounts to Remain Frozen for Long’, Kommersant, 18 May 2007. 18. Prahar, Statement, p. 12. 19. For a useful discussion of the North Korea case, see Ruediger Frank, ‘The Political Economy of Sanctions against North Korea’, Asian Perspective, vol. 30, no. 3, 2006, pp. 5–36. 20. ‘U.S. Assumes Financial Risks in N. Korea Money Transfer-Lavrov-1’, RIA-Novosti, 20 June 2007. 21. ‘N. Korea Agrees to Start Talks on Closing Nuclear Reactor’, RIA-Novosti, 25 June 2007. 22. For an excellent review of US legislation and the intended investment targets, see Kenneth Katzman, ‘The Iran Sanctions Act (ISA)’, Congressional Research Service, Order Code RS20871, US Library of Congress, updated 9 July 2007. 23. Ibid., p. CRS-2. 24. A full description of the sanctions negotiations in the UNSC through 15 May 2007 can be found in Kenneth Katzman, ‘Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses’, CRS Report for Congress, Order Code RL32048, The US Library of Congress, updated 15 May 2007. 25. Elaine Sciolino, ‘Atom Work Expanding in Iran, UN Agency Says’, International Herald Tribune, 31 August 2007. 26. One example of this phenomenon is the ‘Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism’, which was launched by Presidents Bush and Putin at the time of the St Petersburg G8 summit in July 2006. The United States and Russia are co-leaders of this initiative, which has since attracted 51 partner nations. Media Note, ‘Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism: Joint Statement’, Office of the Spokesman, US Department of State, Washington DC, 12 June 2007. Additional informationNotes on contributorsRose GottemoellerRose Gottemoeller is Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. Before joining the Endowment in October 2000, she was Deputy Under Secretary for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation in the US Department of Energy. Previously, she served as the department's Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation and National Security, and Director of the Office of Nonproliferation and National Security. She has written widely on arms control and non-proliferation topics.

THE OTHER DRUG FOR AVIAN FLU

AS THINGS STAND, IF AN AVIAN FLU pandemic breaks out before a vaccine has been developed, the first line of defense is Roche's much-ballyhooed antiviral drug, Tamiflu. As a second choice, doctors will turn to GlaxoSrnidiKline's Relenza, a drug that is more expensive and harder to obtain. In the freewheeling drugstores of Hong Kong, pharmacists have seen neither Tamiflu nor Relenza for several months. The local agents for GSK and Roche no longer deliver the drugs to private drugstores, pharmacists say. But whereas drugstore managers expect Tamiflu to soon become available again in local shops, they aren't holding their breath for Relenza. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that oseltamivir and zanamivir—Tamiflu and Relenza, respectively, by their generic names—have proven effective in reducing the severity and duration of the seasonal flu. Therefore, the drugs may improve the prospects of survival [from avian flu}, if administered early, the agency says. Peter Cordingley, a Manila-based ...

Elephants Who Marry Mice are Very Unusual: The Use of the Relative Pronoun Who with Nonhuman Animals

AbstractThis paper explores the use of the relative pronoun (who) with nonhuman animals. The paper looks at what dictionaries, an encyclopedia, grammars, publication manuals, newspapers, and news agencies say and do relative to this issue. In addition to investigating the views and practices of these authoritative publications, the study also searched a 100-million-word collection (corpus) of spoken and written English. The study found that while some reference works reject or ignore the use of (who) with nonhuman animals, other works discuss the possibility, and (who) does occur in the corpus with nonhuman animals. Explanations for such usage include psychological closeness with particular nonhuman animals and/or features shared with humans. The paper suggests that the use of (who) with nonhuman animals might play a role in promoting human attitudes and behaviors beneficial to fellow animals. However, it cautions that the correlation between language use, on the one hand, and attitudes and behaviors, on the other hand, is not a perfect one.

CLEANING UP TRITIATED SOLVENTS

DISPOSAL OF TRITIATED ORGANIC solvents, used to radiolabel materials such as pharmaceuticals so they can be traced in biological studies, is problematic. But scientists at the now-shuttered National Tritium Labelling Facility (NTLF) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory believe a new laboratory-scale waste treatment technique they developed could help other research facilities that use tritiated solvents. Tritiated solvent waste is a hassle to get rid of because it falls under two types of disposal regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency's rules on waste cover these materials since they exhibit what EPA terms a hazardous characteristic—they are flammable. Meanwhile, Department of Energy regulations on the disposal of radioactive waste also apply to these solvents. Because they are both and radioactive, tritiated solvents are dubbed wastes. According to EPA, Treatment options for mixed waste are extremely limited and prohibitively expensive. Plus, the agency says...

PESTICIDE TESTS: EPA ALTERS STANCE

LOOKED AT THE RESULTS of four human studies in its assessment of the pesticides azinphos methyl and phosmet this year, but those data had no effect on the final decisions, the agency says. However, an spokesman did say the agency will be developing a proposal on incorporating data from human clinical trials in regulatory decisions on pesticides and soliciting comments on it over the next few months. This is a reversal of an informal policy established during the Clinton Administration, under which refused to accept new data from clinical trials in which people were deliberately exposed to pesticides. According to a 1998 policy statement: EPA is deeply concerned that some pesticide manufacturers seem to be engaging in health effects studies on human subjects as a way to avoid more protective results from animal tests under the new Food Quality Protection Act. The purpose of human tests is to avoid the 10-fold safety factor ...

The principle of agency.

The Principle of Agency says that if it would be good for a state of affairs to occur "naturally," then it is permissable to take action to bring it about. This contradicts the views of some bioethicists, who object to euthanasia, in vitro fertilization, and cloning, even though they acknowledge that the states of affairs produced are good. But the principle, or some form of it, seems inescapable. The opposite view -- that we may not, by our action, reproduce "natural" goods -- may owe its appeal to an implicitly religious view of nature.

Agency Says Dam Should Come Down

In an unprecedented move last week, the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the agency that licenses most of the power-producing dams in the United States, recommended removing a dam on Maine9s Kennebec River. The FERC says that the removal would be the best and cheapest way to aid the Kennebec9s struggling migratory fish populations, which have been blocked by the dam from reaching their historic spawning grounds upriver. Environmentalists hail the decision, which they say could set a precedent for taking down myriad other dams across the United States.

EPA paperwork reduction illusory

In its latest progress report on reinvention activities, the Environmental Protection Agency says that over the past two years it has substantially reduced the time U.S. businesses spend completing the paperwork associated with its environmental regulations. However, the report doesn't mention that this reduction has been almost totally offset by new information collection demands, and, as far as paperwork reduction is concerned, is on a treadmill—running hard just to keep from falling behind. Administrator Carol M. Browner proudly stated when releasing the report that EPA [has] reduced the time needed to comply with environmental rules by an amazing 16 million hours—the equivalent of 400,000 workweeks for American business. And, furthermore, Browner said the agency will soon eliminate another 8 million hours. A little more than two years ago, pledged to reduce by 25% its Jan. 1, 1995, annual paperwork burden-hour total of 81 million hours by the end of 1996. But since ...

GAO Report Slams FDA User Reporting System; Agency Says Increased Enforcement and Education Planned

GAO Report Slams FDA User Reporting System; Agency Says Increased Enforcement and Education Planned

Smog control strategies flawed, report finds

Current U.S. strategies to check ground-level ozone—a chief component of smog—have largely failed, and major changes are needed, concludes a study issued last week in Washington, D.C. by the National Research Council. Efforts over the past 20 years to control ozone pollution have focused primarily on reducing emissions of hydrocarbons from automobiles and industry. But in many parts of the country, adding or substituting controls on nitrogen oxides, would be more effective, says the report, Rethinking the Ozone Problem in Urban and Regional Air Pollution. Ozone is produced in the lower atmosphere by complex photochemical reactions between volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides. Although California regulates both classes of pollutants, most regions address only hydrocarbons. But ozone concentrations continue to peak at levels the Environmental Protection Agency says are unhealthy. A key problem, the report finds, is that there is little monitoring of precursor emissions. Consequently, hydrocarbo...

As Nation's Long, Hot Summer Drags On, So Does War Against Forms of Air Pollution

THE AIR POLLUTION WAR could be going better than it is. But at the moment the battle is being more successfully fought against carbon monoxide than it is against ozone. The Environmental Protection Agency says that the number of areas having levels of ozone higher than the allowed minimum has increased since the last estimate was made. However, the agency says, the number of areas with excessive amounts of carbon monoxide has decreased. Still, Environmental Protection Agency officials say, 44 states and the District of Columbia have places where ozone and carbon monoxide levels are in excess of those laid down by the Clean Air Act. Physicians' Role As to what physicians can do to help patients exposed to such levels of pollution, Samuel V. Spagnolo, MD, director, Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Allergy, George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, said: Pollution at these levels irritates the trachea

No Change Indicated in Traffic Fatality Rate

THE NATION'S traffic fatality rate remains slightly less than 2.5/100 million miles driven. At least, that the indication from preliminary calculations (for 1986) of a Department of Transportation agency. The department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that, at this point, data suggest the 1986 rate has remained about the same as the 2.47/100 million miles recorded in the United States during 1985. There appear to have been about 2200 more deaths in 1986—an approximate 5% increase over the 43 795 recorded in 1985—but the agency says the number of miles driven rose in proportion, so that the fatality rate unlikely to change. Some other industrialized nations report similar increases in actual number of traffic fatalities for 1986, the agency says, citing France (4.9%), West Germany (6.5%), Britain (4.5%), and Sweden (4.5%). Nonetheless, it says, 2.47/100 million vehicle miles in the United States is the lowest fatality rate

Organic Effluent Rules Delayed

Environmental Protection Agency regulations governing point source effluent limitations and pretreatment standards for organic chemicals, plastics, and synthetic fibers manufacturing facilities have been delayed once again. The agency has been under a court order to promulgate final regulations for those substances, first proposed in March 1983, by Dec. 31 of this year. But in a notice published in the Dec. 8 issue of the Federal Register , the agency says that in the course of completing its analyses and selecting final regulatory approaches, it identified several issues or approaches that it believes interested parties should have an opportunity to comment on. Those comments won't be due until Feb. 6, 1987, so EPA soon will file a motion requesting an extension of the court-imposed deadline for the final rules. Specifically, EPA is seeking comments on three areas: • Possible alternative control requirements for small plants with respect to best available technology economically achievable (BAT) limitati...