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ACCOUNTABILITY WITHIN NEW OZONE STANDARDS
Citation:
Foley, G J., P. G. Georgopoulos, AND P. J. Lioy. ACCOUNTABILITY WITHIN NEW OZONE STANDARDS. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 37(21):392A-399A, (2003).
Description:
Over the past two decades, as part of the effort to develop the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), researchers have been using real human exposure data to help analyze the magnitude and extent of the risks from specific or multiple pollutants. Surrogates for exposure have also been used such as the ambient air quality measured at fixed monitoring sites. These approaches are based on available science. Meanwhile, during the past decade, researchers at the U.S. EPA, universities, and institutes have been developing better scientific approaches for measuring and modeling real or potential human exposures that explain hazardous exposure situations.
In parallel, the President, Congress, and the public have set higher expectations for government programs, such as NAAQS. These expectations were first defined through the evolution of the "risk assessment-risk management paradigm" and then by the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), which defines accountability for government program.
In this article we examine the challenges that EPA faces in its NAAQS program and how the scientific results of its National Exposure Research program, conducted by the National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) within EPA's Office of Research and Development and its partners, such as the Exposure Measurement & Assessment Program at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI), can be used to achieve these higher expectations. Specifically, we will show the implications that accountability brings to the risk assessment-risk management paradigm. This will be done by stressing the importance of understanding human exposure and the linkages across the continuum from the emission of the causal agents or their precursors to effects and pollution risk. We will also present advances in air quality and exposure modeling tools that can assist in defining population exposure patterns. To address each of these issues, estimates of potential population exposures for the new standard for 8-hour (h) ozone standard will be used to demonstrate the implications of various control strategy scenarios on achieving exposure reductions that can meaningfully reduce population risk and provide benchmarks for accountability.
The U.S. EPA, through its Office of Research and Development, funded by the U.S. EPA National Exposure Research Laboratory through EPA HEADSUP has funded the research described hereunder and supports the CERM at EOHSI (CR827033). The NJDEP also supports the Ozone Research Center at EOHSI (AQ00-07). The article has been subjected to agency review and approved for publication.