Thursday, 07 December, 2006

1. By . Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @08:13am:

   The law is working too well for the polluters. The wealthy, campaign contributing polluters.
2. By Miss Cellania. Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @09:03am:

   Bush logic at work.
3. By . Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @09:06am:

   It doesn't END as air pollution. It never goes away. It gets in everything, and eventually ends up in YOU.
4. By . Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @09:57am:

   Jeb Bush canceled auto inspections because the Florida air 'was clean' yet I can stand on almost any corner in Broward County and smell the gasoline.
   
   20 years ago when I returned to help my father in his business I was amazed that there were so many new cars and no junkers, no smokers, etc.
   
   Now since Jeb Bush the junk cars have returned belching clouds of black exhaust.
   
   Jeb Bush was a developer who filled the Florida Coast line with hotels and condos so no one else could see the ocean...
5. By Candidus. Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @10:43am:

   The agency says revoking those standards might be justified "given the significantly changed circumstances since lead was listed in 1976" as an air pollutant.

   
   Pity that the news article chose not to elaborate on this.
6. By . Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @11:57am:

   They are probably referring to the "ban" on leaded gas.
7. By Woody. Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @01:11pm:

   Moon is right. Gas with lead additivies provides a higher octane with less refining, which is why that gas in the 1970's and prior was less expensive and offered more punch for the buck. But, we had to move to unleaded gas because lead destroys catalytic converters. The warning on gas caps was mostly for that reason. I suspect that a relaxation of lead pollution limits, with this factor long gone, will have little if any impact on society.
   
   This reminds me of the hysteria over arsenic in water in which some municipal water treatment plants had to be replaced or upgraded at high costs to further reduce this element from some water supplies, even though the higher limits did not pose a health hazard and were only attacked for political purposes.
   
   In these decisions, costs must be weighed against benefits or risks. Someone has to pay for trying to make air and water perfect, but I'll take almost perfect and save a lot of money for better uses.
8. By . Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @01:46pm:

   Still, the lead doesn't go away. So any further additions are just piling on top of the lead from gasoline.
   
   50,000 years from now they will be able to accurately date soil samples and rock samples as being from after 1922 because of the high concentration of lead.
   
   Thomas Midgely, Jr. invented both leaded gas and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) - a one man wrecking crew. Rumor is that he died of lead poisoning.
9. By Jimbo. Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @02:45pm:

   LEAD IS BAD.
10. By . Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @03:00pm:

    Moon - Re: Midgley
    His third invention proved fatal (extracted from Wikipedia):
    In 1940, he contracted polio at the age of 51, which left him severely disabled. This led him to devise an elaborate system of strings and pulleys to lift him from bed. This system was the eventual cause of his death when he was accidentally entangled in the ropes of this device and died of strangulation at the age of 55.
11. By Woody. Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @04:28pm:

    ...50,000 years from now they will be able to accurately date soil samples and rock samples as being from after 1922 because of the high concentration of lead.
    
    So, lead has some usefulness, after all.
12. By . Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @04:29pm:

    IIRC, the REAL reason he was in that bed wasn't polio. It was just CALLED polio so that the Ethyl Corporation's only product (lead for gasoline) didn't look bad. An 1940s case of "catapulting the propaganda".
13. By . Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @04:30pm:

    Yes, Woody, very similar to that Iridium that came from the comet that killed 90% of all life on Earth in the dinosaur era.
    
    /If you like that sort of thing.
14. By . Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @04:39pm:

    So this repeal law will flip the meaning of the phrase: "...Get the Lead out" and replace it with "Get the Lead in..."
15. By . Comment posted 07-Dec-2006 @04:40pm:

    They are going to reclassify lead as a green vegetable.
16. By Snag. Comment posted 08-Dec-2006 @04:11am:

    Lead flying in Iraq .... Lead in the air in America ... Dubya always was one to share things around.

Original content © 2010, John Walkenbach