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EFA had Rs chance :o regulate hy,. ,den su~ide htlp !:'1vww.chron com,wrtentlchronicle/paaetl97! 11;09A~?smaln Mar. The F,pA to this point had developed standards for only eight compounds: asbc:,los, mercury, bers?hum, r7nyl chloride, benzene, inorganic arsenic, a;ke oven emissions and radionuclides. Its air-toxics progr asr. was, by any measure. a bust. Hydrogen sulfide was included on the Mitchell list, according to an internal EPA document, because of as high toxicity The fist was trimr,ied to 19i during the first halfof 1990, and hydrogen sulfide survitied the cut by the time the final bi!1 got to the White house in November, only two of the 191 chemicals had been targeted for removal. hydrogen sulfide and, in a concession to agriculture, ammonia. A fomter congressional aide involved in the negotiations said that the inclusion of hydrogen sulfide un the list "became a lightning rod API (the Amerman Petroleum Institute, the major oil coxnpanics' trade association) was ail over it_ Our preference wotdd have been that ii stayed on the list " A senior APl attorney explained the oil industr}'s position. "What it really came down to was that hydrogen sulfide emissions are not appropriately handled as routine emissions," Ellen Siegler said. "Our view was that this was more of an accidental-release issue," "Told that t}:e chemical is, in fact, regularly discharged in large quantities at a number of locations, Sies:!et said- "That'; ne~.s to me." Li 5 Rep- Hem}' Waxman, D-Calif, one of the arclutects of the 1990 act, said that there was uncertainty at that time about hydrogen stttfide's behavior at low leuels- "There have since been some studies showing that tow-level exposure does present a publio-health theca!." 1L'axman said "I'm concettted about it " It is fair to say that less vows known seven years ago about hydrogen sulfide's more subtle actions on thc- human body then is known today But even in 1990 there were chues. ~ 1 Qbd li S PubSc Heahh Sen'ice report un an outbreak of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and shott!n_:~s v.. b~ ratty in Terre l laute, lad , to example, idenh.fied a, the culprit a "vile odor" discovered to be. hydrogen sulfde from an industrial waste iagrlon "Cettainlc n_,usea is nu,rc than merely a nuisarlee since it intert<res with physical wmfort, anpctit~ eeneral rceli-being." the rsp<vt's authors wrot. "Feaple do not tsave to die to prove that a medical puhii~ healtl: p ahlern exists " As a happened, ti clerical error allowed hydrogen sulfide to remain on the Flazarduus Air Pollutant list :o•, a era, after Fu~h signed the ac; It took a joint resulutiou of Congross Waxman made the mntiun in the Hnuse to get a vff for good l~he final list of ! 89 as since been red~~,ced by one Caprolaciarn. a feedstock ~.~sed i,: the making of ,rii,`~I,'-~e~ 1"C al:~.<-; b'. i?}~ Lt'-v til If~pORSC .O en Indll]lry pelJtlOll