Air Toxic Risk Assessment And Management

The practice of performing and managing regulatory air toxic risk assessments requires an exceptionally broadbase of understanding. The information and hands-on skills needed to evaluate the effects of air toxic emissions on human health derive from a broad range of disciplines: engineering, the physical and biological sciences, probability, statistics, and medicine. Dr. Lawrence Gratt's Air Toxic Risk Assessment and Management provides a comprehensive study of the subject of risk assessment, showing how the various disciplines are integrated to carry out this complex process. No other resource combines the basic science underlying risk assessment with the techniques needed to perform the analyses.

This resource document is the third in the Air Toxics Risk Assessment (ATRA) Library series. It presents an overview of the overall process and tools for evaluating cumulative risk from multiple air toxics emitted from sources at the community level and developing and implementing risk reduction activities to bring about meaningful environmental change. Volume 1: Technical Resource Manual discusses the overall air toxics risk assessment process and the basic technical tools needed to perform these analyses. The manual addresses both human health and ecological analyses. It also provides a basic overview of the process of managing and communicating risk assessment results. Other evaluations (such as the public health assessment process) are described to give assessors, risk managers, and other stakeholders a more holistic understanding of the many issues that may come into play when evaluating the potential impact of air toxics on human health and the environment. Readers with a limited understanding of risk assessment are encouraged to consult Volume 1. Volume 2: Facility-Specific Assessment (this volume) builds on the technical tools described in Volume 1 by providing an example set of tools and procedures that can be used for source-specific or facility-specific risk assessments. Information is also provided on tiered approaches to source- or facility-specific risk analysis. Volume 3: Community-Level Assessment builds on the information presented in Volume 1 to describe to communities how they can evaluate and reduce air toxics risks at the local level. The volume will include information on screening level and more detailed analytical approaches, how to balance the need for assessment versus the need for action, and how to identify and prioritize risk reduction options and measure success. Since community concerns and issues are often not related solely to air toxics, the document will also present readily available information on additional multimedia risk factors that may affect communities and strategies to reduce those risks. The document will provide additional, focused information on stakeholder involvement, communicating information in a community-based setting, and resources and methodologies that may play a role in the overall process. Note that EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics has also developed a Community Air Screening How To Manual that will be available in 2004 and will be discussed in Volume 3.

The public depends on competent risk assessment from the federal government and the scientific community to grapple with the threat of pollution. When risk reports turn out to be overblownâ€"or when risks are overlookedâ€"public skepticism abounds. This comprehensive and readable book explores how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can improve its risk assessment practices, with a focus on implementation of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. With a wealth of detailed information, pertinent examples, and revealing analysis, the volume explores the "default option" and other basic concepts. It offers two views of EPA operations: The first examines how EPA currently assesses exposure to hazardous air pollutants, evaluates the toxicity of a substance, and characterizes the risk to the public. The second, more holistic, view explores how EPA can improve in several critical areas of risk assessment by focusing on cross-cutting themes and incorporating more scientific judgment. This comprehensive volume will be important to the EPA and other agencies, risk managers, environmental advocates, scientists, faculty, students, and concerned individuals.

With the recent tightening of air quality standards as mandated by the U.S. EPA, has come great pressure on regulatory bodies at all levels of government, along with the industries and groups affected by these standards, to better assess the hazards and risks that result from air pollutants. Risk Assessment and Indoor Air Quality carefully ties tog