Here is a letter I sent recently to Lisa Jackson, ...

2009-10-23T07:51:18.305-06:00

Here is a letter I sent recently to Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA. I have yet to receive a reply.

Dear Ms. Jackson,

Congratulations on your appointment and I wish you great success.

In reading the EPA document just released, "Proposed Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases Under the Clean Air Act", I see that EPA included six gases for consideration. Tropospheric Ozone is not on the list, according to the report, because it behaves differently than the six listed (does not persist as long in the atmosphere) - and is already regulated as a hazard to human health, levels of which being monitored at theNational Ambient Air Quality section of EPA.

In visiting that website, it appears that regulations for those standards of acceptable concentrations were last revised in 1990, and that the emissions monitored are: Carbon Monoxide, Lead, Nitrogen Dioxide, Particulate Matter, Ozone and Sulfur Dioxide. However, in recent years the government has mandated the addition of ethanol to gasoline.

As you are no doubt aware, ethanol emissions produce acetaldehyde, the precursor to Peroxyacetyl Nitrates when reacting to UV radiation. PANs are well known to be detrimental to human health, and to vegetation, quite possibly more dangerous than Ozone.

Something in the atmosphere is killing the vegetation on the East Coast of the US (and perhaps elsewhere). I know the cause is atmospheric in nature, because the tell-tale symptoms of damaged stomata can be readily identified on every single species of tree or other vegetation - perennial, annual, and even aquatic. The foliage is unable to photosynthesize and produce chlorophyll. What I see is a rapidly accelerating ecosystem collapse which will inevitably lead to mass extinctions.

Aside from the impact on crops, the wholesale loss of trees will inevitably mean a massive reversal of CO2 absorption rates, thus contributing to global warming. Ethanol emissions should thus be considered as a seventh greenhouse gas in the new EPA regulations.

I strongly suggest the EPA get some researchers investigating this very urgent and neglected aspect of toxic, not to say lethal, invisible gases - if you have none already who are investigating the escalating use of ethanol and its impacts on trees and other plants.

I would very much appreciate a response. Specifically, I would like to know if EPA has been testing for acetaldehyde and/or PAN's; and if so, where and for how long in the past the records go; and how to access the data. If you are interested, there are photos documenting the damage and links to academic scientific research at www.witsendnj.blogspot.com.

Please feel free to contact me via email at witsendnj@yahoo.com if there is any aspect of my questions I could clarify.

Thank you,
Gail Zawacki
Oldwick, NJ

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Here is a letter I sent recently to Lisa Jackson, ...