Pollution coming from the Nakanishi Motor Corporation's plant near Winterville does not pose a health threat to its neighbors, and there is no reason to deny the company's application to renew its pollution permit, state officials said at a public meeting Monday night.

The 1225 Voyles Road plant vents more than 100,000 pounds of year of a solvent called trichloroethylene, or TCE, less than one-third of a mile from W.R. Coile Middle School. But it is so diluted by the time it reaches the school or a nearby church that the health risk is far below any federal standards, said Randy Manning, coordinator of the state Environmental Protection Division's Environmental Toxicology program.

This article raises two questions:

First, what level of TCE in air do Georgia regulators consider safe?

Second, why is Nakanishi Motors still using such large quantities of TCE? My impression is that most industrial users of TCE in the U.S. have phased it out. At least, that's the case here in Silicon Valley