It is important, as part of pre-construction protocols to identify hazardous building materials before beginning a restoration or remediation project. Although there are many hazardous building materials, the most common include asbestos, lead, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), chlorofluorocarbons, and radioactive sources.
A Schenectady hazardous materials remediation contractor exposed its employees to mercury poisoning and did not provide proper safeguards to workers doing mercury removal work at the General Electric Co. Power and Water Main Plant State Superfund site in Schenectady, an OSHA investigation has found.
Blood mercury levels in women of childbearing age have dropped 34 percent in the past 14 years, according to a survey by the EPA. Additionally, the percentage of women of childbearing age with blood mercury levels above the level of concern decreased 65 percent from the 1999-2000 survey and follow-up surveys from 2001-2010.
More than half of the nation’s waterways are polluted with toxins like mercury and have been stripped of vegetation that protects them, according to a stark new report from the EPA. The first comprehensive survey looking the health of thousands of stream and river miles across the country found that 55 percent are in poor condition for aquatic life.
Air Cycle Corporation is very pleased to announce that as of March, 2013 our customers have kept over 3 million acres of water free from mercury contamination through their waste recycling efforts.
The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) has joined the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, and other leading organizations to formally oppose S.J. Res. 37, a resolution by Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla) that employs the Congressional Review Act to reverse the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for Power Plants.
The Environmental Protection may get some help from environmental and public health groups as it contends with legal challenges to its final Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rule.
On Dec. 21, EPA issued the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, the first national standards to protect American families from power plant emissions of mercury and toxic air pollution such as arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium, and cyanide.
