Pollution

The Grim Reaper, dressed in the dark robe of death, walks around the chalk- outlined bodies of 75 protesters sprawled across the sidewalk in front of the Sun Co. building at 18th and Market streets yesterday. Pretending to be corpses, the demonstrators held signs to their chests in protest of any changes to ease laws enacted to reduce air pollution

How foolish of me that to think the news media would report the news as unbiased. I have canceled my subscription to Time magazine due to their anti-Catholic reporting. I no longer read the New York Times because of the biased articles. Now it will be impossible to read the Daily News knowing that they have taken a position on a political candidate. The day will come when abuse of this type will come under closer scrutiny, but until then I guess I'll read whatever comes to print that's not trying to pollute my thoughts and the way I vote.

When the sun comes up on Tulpehocken Street, the well-worn buckets are already waiting on the curb. Cans and bottles. Bundled newspapers. Weekly offerings from a neighborhood of recyclers in a city where most of the trash still goes to waste. "I'm into it now," says Joan Fuller, a longtime resident of the West Oak Lane neighborhood that was one of the first to be required by the city to separate its trash. "You get in the habit of getting up and going to work every day, so get in the habit of recycling every day," she said.

Don't ask Christine Fisher for an endorsement of the alleged pollution-killing wonders of MTBE, the winter-time gasoline additive used in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The drinking-water well at her home in Blue Bell, Montgomery County, was poisoned by the stuff. Don't ask Ross D'Bono, executive director of the Pennsylvania Gasoline Retail Association & Allied Trades in Northeast Philadelphia. Many of the 600 service station dealer-members of his organization reported getting sick from the smell of the stuff and took similar complaints from customers at self-serve islands.

The team holding an environmental microscope to South and Southwest Philadelphia thought it had pulled off a coup when it scrounged up six more air-pollution measuring devices in a tight budget year. That was before community activists began clamoring for more monitors. At a contentious meeting yesterday with representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency, activists each told why their neighborhood needed a monitor most. "We're all fighting each other for the most contaminated neighborhood - the most pollution," said Gloria Inverso, whose Italian Market area likely will get a monitor because of its numerous auto body shops.

Several significant facts were overlooked in the April 6 article "Illnesses caused by 'sick buildings,' " by Sally Squires of the Washington Post. Symptoms that disappear upon leaving the workplace would not likely be caused by bacteria or viruses, as emphasized in the article. What was not mentioned was the role played by air pollution of another kind - the buildup of chemicals in the indoor environment. Levels of carbon monoxide and formaldehyde, for example, may be present at higher levels indoors than what would be found outdoors.

Environmental disasters, such as the million-gallon oil spill near Pittsburgh, can have devastating effects on the air, water and soil. In extreme cases, such as Bhopal, India, thousands of people can be killed or injured. Usually, insurance is available to cover the damage caused by these sudden and accidental occurrences. There is, however, another crisis threatening the environment that most people are unaware of: Insurance for gradual pollution damage has become virtually nonexistent.

Cathy DeStefano and Bonnie Mercadante spent yesterday morning painting the town blue. DeStefano and Mercadante, members of the local Beach Babies Mothers Club, joined a dozen fellow volunteers painting blue fish on storm drains along center city streets. Working under cloudy and sometimes drizzling skies, they put the first touches on a campaign designed to help people realize that what goes down the storm drain winds up in the ocean - and pollutes the water. Pollution - including lawn fertilizers, dog feces, motor oil, detergent, and litter - enters the ocean and bay after washing into the storm drains, particularly after a heavy rainfall.

People in South and Southwest Philadelphia have long worried about the impact of pollution on their lives, with good reason: Their neighborhoods are dotted with trash transfer stations, sewage plants, refineries, businesses that emit toxic releases and even a Superfund site. After years of demanding an environmental study, they finally got one. But as Daily News staff writer Ramona Smith reported yesterday, the results are both frightening and scientifically inconclusive. Conducted by Johns Hopkins University the study found that people living in a 26-square-mile area face an elevated risk of developing cancer, respiratory ailments and other health problems.

By 1995, Pennsylvania motorists will face the toughest auto emission standards in the nation, and businesses that pollute will face stiff fees and fines, under a program announced by the Casey administration yesterday. The program would also impose tougher standards on gasoline pumps and on gas itself. The measures are part of Casey's plan to implement the new federal Clean Air Act in Pennsylvania. If the state fails to meet the act's standards, the federal government could withhold up to $600 million for highways or prohibit federal funds for economic development.

Marcellus Shale natural-gas drilling is a significant source of air pollution, and as drilling expands, so will the risk to human health and the environment. The drilling, processing, and transportation of Marcellus Shale gas require many pieces of equipment and activities that release harmful pollutants into the air. In fact, gas transmission and production engines are the second-largest emitters of nitrogen oxides in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the full extent of these emissions is not known because the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection does not collect air emissions data from wellhead activity.

In the latest salvo over Marcellus Shale gas drilling in the embattled town of Dimock, a natural gas company on Tuesday alleged that federal regulators had cherry-picked old test data to distort the amount of contamination in drinking-water wells. Cabot Oil & Gas Co., whose drilling was blamed for the pollution, said that the drinking-water tests the Environmental Protection Agency used to justify its Jan. 19 order to deliver fresh water supplies to four Dimock houses "do not accurately represent the water quality" and are inconsistent with the body of data collected at the residences.

Leonardo da Vinci completed The Last Supper in Milan, Italy, in 1498. Almost immediately, the fresco started to deteriorate. Over the centuries, the famous work has suffered from human carelessness, humidity, pollution, a wartime bombing, and more. The fragility of The Last Supper has been the subject of numerous studies. Preservation efforts have focused on minimizing human contact and keeping pollution out of Milan's Santa Maria delle Grazie, the church where the fresco is located.

DuPont Co. agreed Thursday to pay $500,000 to settle state and federal accusations the company polluted the Delaware River with toxic industrial chemicals "numerous" times in the last six years. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Delaware's environmental agency, and state and federal prosecutors joined in a consent decree to curb illegal chemical discharges at DuPont's Edge Moor works next to Fox Point State Park just north of Wilmington, which processes titanium dioxide, used in auto paints, printing, and other industries.

BAY HEAD, N.J. - Everyone knows Barnegat Bay is in trouble. The real question is, how bad are things? To get answers, the state Department of Environmental Protection will team with research institutions across the state to carry out 10 studies of aspects of Barnegat Bay to get a comprehensive view of the health of the struggling waterway. The answers won't all be in until 2014. The studies will examine such things as pollution nutrients in the water, crabs and clams, and the prevalence of stinging jellyfish and algae blooms.

In the Region N.J. appeals coal-plant ruling Gov. Christie announced that New Jersey will appeal a judge's ruling tossing a case over pollution from a coal-fired Pennsylvania power plant. In February, New Jersey joined a complaint brought by New York, Pennsylvania and the U.S. against the plant's former owners and EME Homer City Generation L.P. , claiming the Homer City plant 50 miles east of Pittsburgh is spewing tons of pollutants in the air which travel to downwind states.

With more Superfund sites than any state in the country and more than 16,000 hazardous-waste cleanups pending, New Jersey's industrial landscape has long made it a punch line of pollution jokes. But now that state environmental officials are trying to trim the backlog by handing control to the private sector, they are facing a backlash from both the state's environmentalists and its industrial and chemical companies. Under plans still being reviewed, state-licensed environmental professionals will be granted day-to-day autonomy, relegating state bureaucrats to the role of auditors on the majority of cases.

THESE DAYS, conservatives can't seem to say "government regulations" without the prefix "job-killing. " It's like a hiccup. If so, it must be contagious, infecting even President Obama: In putting off instituting EPA regulations of smog-causing ozone last month - an about-face that reversed a commitment to strengthening protections - Obama seemed to agree that regulating pollution costs jobs. He cited "the importance of reducing regulatory burdens. " But no one yet has shown real evidence that regulations cause a net loss of jobs or harm the economy.

WASHINGTON - The Republican-controlled House passed the first of two bills Thursday to delay rules to cut toxic air pollution and mercury from cement plants, solid-waste incinerators, and industrial boilers. House Republicans repeatedly have targeted Environmental Protection Agency regulations that they view as job killers. The latest bills probably will stall in the Democratic-run Senate, even if some Democrats vote for them, and the White House has threatened to veto both measures.

If you follow the news in Washington, you've heard a lot about "job-killing government regulations. " It must be a powerful, poll-tested talking point, because Republicans are well-programmed to spout it when talking about today's tough economy. But where is the evidence? The Pro Publica journalism project has found some answers in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' reports on mass layoffs. In the first half of 2011, employers blamed government regulations for no more than a minuscule 0.3 percent of the jobs they cut - three of every 1,000 jobs lost.