Measuring contaminants in people is a good idea. Using that data to measure whether Great Lakes cleanup is benefiting human health is a good idea. But:
While the agency has not chosen which contaminants to look at, it will most likely focus on the usual suspects, Dearwent said. “I think in general that we could say that we’ll probably be focusing on persistent organic pollutants, so the chlorinated pesticides, PCBs, possibly dioxins and furans, possibly polybrominated diphenyl ethers and possibly some heavy metals. Those in general are usually the contaminants or classes of contaminants that we look at, either because of their burden to public health or because of their persistence in the environment and in people.”
The money will be better spent if at least some of it measures emerging contaminants in water and people. More on that soon.
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