Clearly, what may constitute permissible levels of asbestos in the air will add up to significant quantities on the ground.
One of the toughest pending decisions, he said, concerns a standard for permissible levels of smog-causing compounds including ozone.
Kazakh emergency officials said the concentration of harmful substances around the site exceeded permissible levels by at least 1,000 times.
California, a leader in limiting emissions, has tightened the permissible levels for those standards under rules that are to take effect in 2004.
For the first time, department officials said, the government will require testing for disease-causing bacteria and set limits for permissible levels.
Permissible levels of radiation exposure for nuclear workers were amended soon after the disaster struck to allow emergency operations at the stricken Fukushima reactor.
Some of the state's large cities have decibel-level noise codes, but there are no statewide restrictions on permissible levels of short-term noise.
There had been particular anger over new government guidelines that allowed schoolchildren to be exposed to radiation doses that were more than 20 times the previously permissible levels.
But in response to the most recent report, it said that the Oregon tests showed that formaldehyde exposure from Brazilian Blowout was "safely below" permissible levels.
Environmentalists were less accepting of the administration's actions on Wednesday in issuing new national air quality standards for smog, setting permissible levels of the chemical ozone in the air.
In 1993, New Jersey put into place a new law, the Industrial Site Recovery Act, which set standards for permissible levels of contamination in groundwater and soil, and for proper site testing, investigation and work plans.
