Clarkson prof on lead-level advisory panel

POTSDAM — A Clarkson University professor will be one of seven scientists to advise the federal government about safe levels of airborne lead.

Philip A. Hopke, the university's Institute for a Sustainable Environment director, will be part of a review committee to ensure that current lead standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency are appropriate, or to recommend changes to current federal policy. The process begins this year and will continue for the next three.

"We provide advice to the agency and the administrator as to what kinds of concentration the science would suggest would provide adverse health effects," Mr. Hopke said. "This is where the science meets the policy, and it's important that we get the science right."

Every five years, the EPA reviews its safety standards for airborne pollutants, including particulates and sulfur oxides. The processes take years to gather data from scientists and make sure the policymakers understand the science. That is where Mr. Hopke and the rest of his committee come in. They act as the middlemen between the data-collecting scientists and the policy-setting officials of the EPA.

Over the next three years, the committee will meet several times face to face and several more times via videoconferencing, according to Mr. Hopke, who has served on the lead panel and several other EPA advisory committees several times in the past decade.

Though the committee will be looking at standards, it may not make any changes to current policy. Since the element was taken out of gasoline in the 1980s, it has become far less common in the air. Since the first standard was set, it has only been revised once.

"That lead standard was set in 1979 and stayed in place. Another one was set two years ago, primarily because of the population around the remaining primary smelter," Mr. Hopke said. "I don't know how much new information has come up since then."

The only active American primary smelter is in Missouri, though there are secondary smelters, which are used to reprocess battery acid, among other things, scattered across the nation. Other issues, like lead paint and lead soldering around plumbing, continue to be a problem across the country, including in the north country.

Monitoring lead is more difficult than other airborne pollutants, like carbon monoxide, because it is a neurotoxin. Neurological problems can be impacted by changes in behavior or lifestyle, as well as environmental factors, making it hard for scientists to pinpoint blame solely on lead.

"The big thing here is that lead is a neurotoxin. How good are measurements in regards to a decrease in IQ? It's hard to pin it down to one potential neurotoxin," Mr. Hopke said. "We made a big jump down in the standard two years ago. Now we have to determine whether that standard is working and whether we need to do more."