一 | WOBURN, Mass. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday proposed banning the cancer-causing chemical trichloroethylene, which can be found in consumer products including automobile brake cleaners, furniture care and arts and crafts spray coating. The move would end a nearly four decade battle to ban the chemical known as TCE, which can cause sudden death or kidney cancer if a person is exposed to high levels of it, and other neurological harm even at lower exposure over a long period.EPA’s recent risk-evaluation studies found that as much as 250 million pounds of TCE are still produced in the United States annually. One of the first places the chemical raised concern was in Massachusetts, where it was linked to contaminated drinking water in the city of Woburn. Two locations there were ultimately designated as massive Superfund sites. Monday's news conference was held at one of them, a location which now serves as a transportation center.“For far too long, TCE has left a toxic legacy in communities across America," said Michal Freedhoff, the EPA’s assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “Today, EPA is taking a major step to protect people from exposure to this cancer-causing chemical.” Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey, who has led the effort to ban TCE, welcomed the move. “With this rule, we can see a future where we will no longer be manufacturing, processing and distributing a chemical known to be deadly,” Markey said. “We will no longer be exposing American families, communities and workers to a toxic chemical legacy that leaves questions, cancer and catastrophe in its wake.”Markey called the effort personal, citing his long-time work with Anne Anderson, a resident-turned-activist whose son Jimmy died in 1981 of leukemia.“Since Anne and I met in 1980, we have been partners in the effort to clean up Woburn, to get justice for her son, and to save other families from seeing their children fall sick as a result of contamination,” Markey said. "Thanks to the advocacy of Anne Anderson and the action of the EPA, the era of corporations using communities like Woburn as dumping grounds for toxic TCE is over.” A 1982 lawsuit over the contaminated water supply involved eight Woburn families, including the Andersons. The case garnered national attention and led to the book and movie titled “A Civil Action.” The American Chemistry Council said in a statement that TCE has several important uses in packaging and in formulating products. The proposed rule “is inconsistent with the underlying science,” the council said, calling on the EPA to avoid unnecessarily restricting valuable industrial uses for the chemical. “EPA must base its risk management proposals on best available science, including accurate assessments of exposure," the industry group said. “Where uses of chemistries have decreased over time, this must be reflected in EPA’s underlying risk assessment, because decreased use reduces potential exposure.”Meanwhile, environmental groups praised the proposed rule, which would take effect in a year. “EPA followed the science, listened to impacted communities, and proposed one of the strongest chemical regulations in recent history,” Earthjustice Senior Attorney Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz said in a statement. “Some chemicals are simply too harmful to remain on the market." TCE is used to make refrigerants and in solvents that remove grease from metal parts. It is also used in carpet cleaners, laundry spot removers and hoof polish for horses. The chemical presents an “unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment” in 52 of 54 uses in industrial and consumer products, the EPA has found.“I am overwhelmed that all of you are here to acknowledge everything that has happened and everything that was bad has turned good,” Anderson said. “I owe so much to you people to keep the fight going, making sure that everybody is safe and that toxic chemicals like TCE will no longer exist.”The proposed ban stems from a major expansion of EPA's regulatory powers under a landmark 2016 law that overhauled rules governing tens of thousands of toxic chemicals in everyday products, from household cleaners to clothing and furniture.The statute authorized new rules for tens of thousands of toxic chemicals found in everyday products, including substances such as asbestos and TCE, that for decades have been known to cause cancer but were largely unregulated under federal law. Known as the Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, the law was intended to clear up a hodgepodge of state rules governing chemicals and to update the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976.The 2016 law required the EPA to evaluate chemicals and put in place protections against unreasonable risks. The agency moved to ban asbestos last year and has also proposed banning methylene chloride, perchloroethylene and carbon tetrachloride.__ Associated Press writer Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this report.。
二 | Russian President Vladimir Putin has underscored that the white-blue-and-red flag of the country “symbolizes our faith in our traditional values that we will never give up.” In an address on the occasion of National Flag Day, celebrated by Russia on August 22, he continued:,"Russia is a strong, independent world power. On the international stage, we are committed to pursuing only such policies that meet the vital interests of our Fatherland.",Putin added that the flag symbolizes faith in values such as “truth and justice, solidarity and mercy, and respect for Russia’s centuries-long uninterrupted history, the achievements and victories of our ancestors that inspire us to care for and defend our Motherland and never permit any foreign hegemony or diktat.”,© Sputnik / Evgeny Odinokov / Go to the photo bankRussian servicemen and the National Guard unfurled a 1,000-square-meter tricolor on National Flag Day near the Victory Museum in Moscow.Russian servicemen and the National Guard unfurled a 1,000-square-meter tricolor on National Flag Day near the Victory Museum in Moscow.© Sputnik / Evgeny Odinokov / Go to the photo bank,He added that starting from September 1, the beginning of the school year, all schools in Russia will begin each week with a ceremony of raising the flag and singing the national anthem.,Russia’s White-Blue-Red Tricolor,The Day of the State Flag was established on the basis of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated August 20, 1994.,On this day in 1991, the Supreme Council of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) adopted a resolution "On the Official Recognition and Use of the National Flag of the RSFSR." The move, just a few months before the official dissolution of the Soviet Union, brought back a design similar to the pre-revolutionary tricolor abolished in 1917.,Alternative View: Could USSR Have Avoided Dissolution, Overcome Crisis?17 August 2015, 13:47 GMT,The Soviet Union’s sickle-and-hammer flag was lowered on the night of December 25, 1991 and the Russian white-blue-red tricolor was raised in its place with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.,© Sputnik / Sergey Kuznecov / Go to the photo bankFlag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (File)Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (File)© Sputnik / Sergey Kuznecov / Go to the photo bank,However, the actual origins of the flag predate the post-Soviet Russian state by centuries.,The white-blue-red flag was hoisted for the very first time on the first Russian man-of-war Orel during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676). On January 20, 1705, Peter the Great issued a decree ordering all merchant ships to fly the white-blue-red flag.,In the beginning, the white-blue-red flag’s use was limited to vessels. It was the geographical discoveries of Russian navigators that led to the flag being associated with dry land as well.,Until the 19th century, Russian sailors typically erected a memorial cross on shore during such ventures to mark land they were claiming for the country.,Yet when the Russian expedition of 1806 explored the coast of southern Sakhalin, it landed and raised two flags: St. Andrew's flag celebrated the merit of the Navy, the state white-blue-red flag – Russia’s new territorial acquisition. Thus, in 1883, the Russian flag was authorized to be used on dry land.,Officially, the white-blue-red flag was approved as the state flag of Russia only on the eve of the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in 1896.,The three colors of the flag received an official interpretation, where red meant "sovereignty," blue, the color of the Mother of God - under whose heavenly protection Russia’s land was deemed to be, and white, the color of freedom and independence.。
Current article:http://rgs0.yaoyaotoutuanmieshaideizun.buzz/list_4bgp9k/6g9sl.html
Published on:20:37:34
