Two actions by the State of California produced this weak health standard for DBCP in tap water. The first was the decision that the cost of cleaning up the water did not justify the health protections that it would provide to the people who drink and bathe in it. The second is the fact that infants and children are ignored in the process of setting a safe exposure level. Documents from the California Department of Health Services show that the state never seriously considered setting an enforceable limit for DBCP contamination at a point that would provide the normal level of health protection for the public that is typically applied to potent cancer causing substances. Part of the reason that DHS never seriously considered a truly safe health standard for DBCP is that DBCP is such a potent pesticide that it is not possible to detect an amount small enough to be safe.
Any detection carries risks that are above the traditional one in one million negligible risk level.
The safe level calculated by DHS, 0.002 parts per billion, is five times smaller than the lowest detectable amount, 0.010 ppb. Even so, the state could have provided a much greater safety margin for the public by setting the safe level at the limit of detection. Regulators rejected this option because in their judgment the additional public health protections were not worth the money. This illustrates a major breakdown in environmental law and regulation. Under current policy, both the health risks and the full cost of cleanup are shouldered by the public, even though the public is the only truly innocent party in the process.