Carol M. Browner

Public Health

Browner also made some notable progress in her eight years at the EPA in the public-health realm. Two of her most influential acts were updating federal standards for particulate matter and ozone (perhaps better-known as "soot" and "smog"). In 1994, she oversaw the expansion of the Toxic Release Inventory, nearly doubling the number of chemicals whose emission must be reported to the public.

Browner also played a key role in enacting rules to strengthen the Safe Drinking Water Act, which overhauled in 1996 public -water system standards, and in 1997 the Food Quality Protection Act. In both cases, she worked to pass legislation with Congressional Republicans.

In 1999, Browner led the charge to ban two pesticides that studies found disrupted brain development in children. But environmentalists criticized her for not going far enough in outlawing some of the most dangerous chemicals and accused her of bowing to industry pressure.

In 1997, Browner created an EPA Office of Children's Health Protection in order to help implement Clinton's executive order strengthening children's health protections. The goal of the office was "to make the protection of children's health a fundamental goal of public health and environmental protection in the United States." The new office incorporated a Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, a panel of experts in the field that makes policy recommendations to the administration. The office in its first years focused on issues like asthma rates and exposure to toxic chemicals like lead-based paint.

Superfund Sites

Browner led efforts to clean up brownfields, or land that has been contaminated with harmful chemicals. She also tried to rally support for legislative measures to reform the Superfund program, which makes polluting industries pay for cleanup work at toxic-waste sites.

Though the Clinton administration wasn't able to get those measures through Congress, Browner did help accelerate the pace of Superfund cleanups, completing 400 in the administration's first term.

Air Pollution

One of Browner's last acts as EPA administrator was to issue new air-pollution control rules for diesel fuels, requiring that the sulfur content of diesel fuel be reduced from 500 parts per million to 15 parts per million - a 97 percent decline. The Clinton administration enacted the law in 2000, though it wasn't fully phased in until 2006. The new rule also called for stronger emissions limits on diesel engines.

Her 1999 official biography notes that Browner "is guided by the philosophy that safeguarding the environment means protecting where we live and how we live," but also by the idea that "the environment and the economy go hand in hand."

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