THE DANGER INDOORS : The Next Battle Over Pollution: Inside Story?

Congress, which last year passed comprehensive legislation to revise the Clean Air Act dealing with pollution in the atmosphere, is about to come indoors--with a bill to help clean up the air that Americans breathe in their homes and offices.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of a House Energy subcommittee on health and the environment, has listed legislation to help reduce pollution of the indoor environment as one of his panel’s major priorities for this year.

Waxman, for one, contends that pollution of the indoor environment poses “immense risks to human health.” Americans now spend up to 90% of their time in their homes and offices, he points out. That alone argues for strict legislation to reduce pollution indoors, he says.

BACKGROUND: Congress made an attempt to take up the issue--which has only recently gained widespread public awareness--in 1990, but never completed its work. The Senate passed a bill, but companion legislation languished in the House.

Two bills already are pending this year. Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) has reintroduced the measure he sponsored in the Senate in the 1990 session, and Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass.) has introduced similar legislation in the House. The bills would require the Environmental Protection Agency to issue health advisories for indoor contaminants and to determine adequate ventilation standards for later adoption nationwide.

They also would authorize nearly $50 million a year over the next five years to expand research on technology to control indoor air pollution.

There’s no doubt about the seriousness of the problem.

One pollutant alone--radon--is suspected of causing between 5,000 and 20,000 deaths per year, while indoor exposure to chemical emissions and to tobacco smoke claims between 3,500 and 10,000 more lives annually.

Perhaps even more alarming, one of the most ubiquitous health threats--lead--is now believed to be blunting the intelligence and stunting the behavioral development of more than 15% of all the children in America under the age of 6.

Indoor pollution also imposes other costs. Estimates suggest that the indirect costs of related illnesses exceed $6 billon a year--more than $1 billion in medical bills and $5 billion or more from sick leave and reduced worker productivity.

BATTLE LINES: Although the EPA ranks indoor air pollution as one of the nation’s gravest environmental health threats, the Bush Administration is against action this year, arguing that more research is needed.

While the health threats posed by such infamous pollutants as asbestos, lead and tobacco smoke are well known, the Administration argues that there still is too much scientific uncertainty about other substances that are believed to be harmful.

“It is impossible to estimate just how large an indoor air pollution problem we are dealing with,” EPA Deputy Administrator F. Henry Habicht II testified at a recent hearing before Waxman’s panel. “We are pushing the frontiers of science here.”

Administration officials also argue that the bills now pending before Congress would force the agency to divert its limited resources from research and public education efforts that are now under way.

The Administration already has asked for permission to spend nearly $7 million on indoor air research next year--$3.8 million more than is currently budgeted.

But Waxman and other Democrats on his subcommittee, supported by testimony from scientists and public health groups, counter that enough is already known about the problem to begin legislating solutions.

They also charge that the Administration’s reluctance to face the problem has less to do with scientific uncertainty than with pressure from business groups whose interests might be adversely affected by laws restricting the sale of some commonly used contaminants.

OUTLOOK: As in last year’s debate over the Clean Air Act, politics is sure to complicate the process as Republicans resist federal regulation that will be opposed by businesses and Democrats seek to exploit the health issue among voters generally.

Congress-watchers say the likelihood of a bill emerging this year is strong, if only because of a growing awareness among millions of Americans that they are living in homes and working in offices where the air--slowly but very surely--is killing them.

Recent scientific testimony before Congress has detailed the myriad contaminants in everyday household items. These include:

1. ASBESTOS: In some houses, found in duct and pipe insulation, acoustic ceilings and tile. A leading cause of lung cancers and other respiratory problems.

2. PARTICULATE MATTER: Produced by wood-burning stoves and fireplaces. Substances may be carcinogenic and could cause respiratory problems.

3. CARBON MONOXIDE: Emitted by natural gas-burning appliances, heating equipment. Robs the body of oxygen, and sufficient exposure can be fatal.

4. LEAD: Found in some paints, ceramics and leaded gasoline. Considered a major health threat to young children because small amounts can cause permanent brain and nervous-system damage.

5. RADON: Ubiquitous radioactive gas, emitted from the ground. Second to smoking as a leading cause of lung cancer.

6. ORGANIC COMPOUNDS: Found in some new carpets and upholstery, certain cleaning solvents, hair spray. Many are quite toxic and can cause a variety of ill effects.

7. FORMALDEHYDE: Carcinogenic compound found in certain finishes, including some nail polishes.

8. TOBACCO SMOKE: Causes cancer, respiratory disease for smokers and nonsmoking household members alike.