Ehrlich presses new pollution bill

MARBLEHEAD-Her first solo bill is designed to hold polluters accountable for toxic chemical emissions.State Rep. Lori Ehrlich (D-Marblehead) is the lead sponsor of H2046, which if enacted would charge companies that emit certain toxic chemicals a fee for each pound of emissions.Ehrlich said the bill would send a signal to those who release toxic chemicals into the environment.?This is my first bill to come before the committee,” she said. “I think it’s a novel approach and it’s precedent setting. I have filed this bill for one simple reason. There isn’t a single person in the commonwealth whose life has not been touched, directly or indirectly, by cancer or other illnesses.” Ehrlich said the bill recognizes 188 toxic chemical emissions known as Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPS).?It seeks to have those who emit barely pronounceable things like Benzotrichloride and Hexachlorocyclophentadiene and the more familiar but no less toxic vinyl chloride and benzene, all with undisputed health effects, into our air, put aside a relatively small amount of money into a trust fund with the Mass Department of Public Health to be used for health studies and research,” she said. “This bill includes volatile organic chemicals, pesticides and herbicides that present “tangible hazards” to humans and other mammals,” she said. “The bill will place a modest assessment of 20 cents per pound on the companies responsible for the emissions. It will help raise $1.7 million.Ehrlich said she refers to it as a “people bill” because most legislation addressing pollutants attempts to recognize and address the damage inflicted upon the environment.?Instead, with this bill, I am taking a different route,” she said. “While crafting this legislation I attempted to bring the impact on our health, a cost borne not only by the sick and their families, but to all of society with rising health care costs and lost work days into the economic transaction.”Ehrlich said if the bill becomes law, any funds received from the assessment would go into a funding health studies.?What I’ve noticed is when people become ill particularly in clusters they want to know why,” she said. “And as people seek answers to the question, they often turn to the Mass DPH for study and understanding. Though the fees assessed in this bill are admittedly quite modest, it sends an important message that if you pollute you will have to bear at least some of the cost of study and research.”