Janice Schakowsky: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. This bill is dangerous and its title is disingenuous. H.R. 1633 is about much more…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. This bill is dangerous and its title is disingenuous. H.R. 1633 is about much more than farm dust. Our colleague Mr. Shimkus acknowledged that much in the Energy and Commerce Committee markup of this bill last week when he said, ``It is called farm dust, but I am here for my open- pit mines in southern Illinois.'' The bill allows major industrial polluters to emit unlimited amounts of particulate matter in violation of the Clean Air Act. Mines, cement plants, and coal processing plants could legally emit unlimited amounts of dangerous chemicals into the air. Let's be clear. The chemicals we are talking about are incredibly dangerous. Arsenic overexposure leads to skin, bladder, liver, and lung cancer. Lead exposure can damage the central nervous system, kidney, and blood cells. Cadmium exposure leads to severe respiratory damage. Zinc poisoning leads to kidney damage. Mercury pollution results in cognitive deficiencies, especially in children. Those pollutants, emitted from a range of nonfarm sources, could fall under the vague definition of ``nuisance dust.'' It seems to me that this is a piece of legislation that is being disguised as something as innocuous as farm dust, something that, as has been pointed out, has been regulated for a very long time. This is an effort to get around the legislation with a phony name, to get around the effectiveness of the Environmental Protection Agency.…”