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Environmental policy in the United States (US) is known for its media-specific approach to problems, and scholars have argued that this is ineffective. To combat these problems, some have argued for a more coordinated, integrated approach to policymaking. With Congressional gridlock prohibiting legislative solutions, the Obama administration offers some examples of a regulatory path to policy integration. Importantly, these efforts do not entail significant organizational remodels, which can be difficult to adopt. Three different 'types' of policy integration from the US Environmental Protection Agency and Bureau of Land Management are described. These cases serve as a potential roadmap for broader implementation of policy integration within the fragmented US bureaucracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing partisan divide in Congress stalled almost all new federal climate policy in 2011. The divide frustrated efforts to pass a cap-and-trade carbon permitting system, spawned a battle between the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Congress, pushed most substantive climate change policy down to the municipal level and hindered US ability to effectively negotiate an international climate agreement. Amid the federal partisan wrangling, US cities have enacted far-sighted climate policy initiatives, and the growing cost of fossil fuels has stimulated investment in renewable energy, edging the country closer to commercially viable alternatives to fossil fuels. These trends could help provide an alternate route to climate mitigation, even without international treaties or national legislation. But the inevitable shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources would be greatly hastened by federal action to tax carbon dioxide emissions and use the revenue generated to support alternative energy technologies. That action is extremely unlikely to occur unless climate change comes to be seen in the United States as a practical, rather than ideological, issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental data justice (EDJ) emerges from conversations between data justice and environmental justice while identifying the limits and tensions of these lenses. Through a reflexive process of querying our entanglement in non-innocent relations, this paper develops and engages EDJ by examining how it informs the work of the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI), a distributed, consensus-based organization that formed in response to the 2016 US presidential election. Through grassroots archiving of data sets, monitoring federal environmental and energy agency websites, and writing rapid-response reports about how federal agencies are being undermined, EDGI mobilizes EDJ to challenge the 'extractive logic' of current federal environmental policy and data infrastructures. 'Extractive logic' disconnects data from provenance, privileges the matrix of domination, and whitewashes data to generate uncertainty. We use the dynamic EDJ framework to reflect on EDGI's public comment advising against the US Environmental Protection Agency's proposed rule for Transparent Science. Through EDJ, EDGI aspires to create new environmental data infrastructures and practices that are participatory and embody equitable, transparent data care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) has contributed to the institutionalization of environmentalism. Putting environmental INGOs in comparative perspective, it is argued that differences in authority among INGOs are an important determinant of the strategies that INGOs adopt and the ultimate influence they are able to achieve. This claim is illustrated through an examination of the changing political opportunities for INGOs and a case of a recent private governance initiative, The Sustainability Consortium. The status maintenance concerns of leading INGOs encourage them to adopt incrementalist and pro-market policies that help launch weak governance schemes and frustrate many other environmental INGOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on environmental nongovermental organizations (ENGOs). It refers to the support of activities of less-institutionalized, more radical activists by ENGOs in various ways. It describes the symbiotic relationship between ENGOs and radical environmental activists. It explains the role of ENGOs in some sociologists of social movements. It highlights the external institutionalization of ENGOs which did not eclipse less institutionalized forms of direct action and should not be exaggerated.

For many national parks and wilderness areas with special air quality protections (Class I areas) in the western United States (U.S.), wildfire smoke and dust events can have a large impact on visibility. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 1999 Regional Haze Rule used the 20% haziest days to track visibility changes over time even if they are dominated by smoke or dust. Visibility on the 20% haziest days has remained constant or degraded over the last 16 yr at some Class I areas despite widespread emission reductions from anthropogenic sources. To better track visibility changes specifically associated with anthropogenic pollution sources rather than natural sources, the EPA has revised the Regional Haze Rule to track visibility on the 20% most anthropogenically impaired (hereafter, most impaired) days rather than the haziest days. To support the implementation of this revised requirement, the EPA has proposed (but not finalized) a recommended metric for characterizing the anthropogenic and natural portions of the daily extinction budget at each site. This metric selects the 20% most impaired days based on these portions using a “delta deciview” approach to quantify the deciview scale impact of anthropogenic light extinction. Using this metric, sulfate and nitrate make up the majority of the anthropogenic extinction in 2015 on these days, with natural extinction largely made up of organic carbon mass in the eastern U.S. and a combination of organic carbon mass, dust components, and sea salt in the western U.S. For sites in the western U.S., the seasonality of days selected as the 20% most impaired is different than the seasonality of the 20% haziest days, with many more winter and spring days selected. Applying this new metric to the 2000-2015 period across sites representing Class I areas results in substantial changes in the calculated visibility trend for the northern Rockies and southwest U.S., but little change for the eastern U.S. Implications: Changing the approach for tracking visibility in the Regional Haze Rule allows the EPA, states, and the public to track visibility on days when reductions in anthropogenic emissions have the greatest potential to improve the view. The calculations involved with the recommended metric can be incorporated into the routine IMPROVE (Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments) data processing, enabling rapid analysis of current and future visibility trends. Natural visibility conditions are important in the calculations for the recommended metric, necessitating the need for additional analysis and potential refinement of their values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2001, the DuPont Company and various Virginia regulatory agencies (Virginia) established the South River Science Team (SRST) as a multi-stakeholder and collaborative program to address legacy Hg contamination of the South River, Virginia. Specifically, the SRST began to apply a watershed-level risk-based assessment process to evaluate the potential impact of a former DuPont facility adjacent to the South River. Mercury had been found in facility soils in 1976 spawning numerous chemical and biological studies. However, prior to 1999, with the exception of a structured, long-term fish monitoring plan developed by Virginia, these studies were conducted by diverse, independent organizations resulting in limited scientific oversight and implementation, or interaction with the public. This article focuses on some key findings (e.g., defining/refining the issues, setting up the team, the role of the different stakeholders in making the process work) from the problem formulation and planning phase of this multi-stakeholder effort. The SRST effort draws heavily on the concepts of problem formulation (PF) and planning (as described by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) to guide the overall risk-based approach. PF is one of the most important steps in the process and, if done correctly can lead to a well-conceived and implemented assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines a process for developing social indicators for regional resource management programs. Insights and lessons are drawn from experience developing indicators for the social dimensions of water quality programs addressing non-point-source pollution. The project driving these insights originated with a charge from regional leaders of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) water quality program to a project team comprised of participants from land grant universities within the region. We believe the indicator development process from that experience could be applied in other regions to address a variety of resource management issues. Key lessons learned through this process include the value of building stakeholder capacity for using social data, the importance of developing a conceptual framework to guide indicator selection, and the importance of selecting a small set of core indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency''s Self-Policing Policy (more commonly referred to as the Audit Policy) waives or reduces penalties when companies voluntarily discover, disclose, and correct environmental violations. One goal of the Audit Policy is to encourage companies to conduct environmental audits in order to identify poor environmental performance. Thus, the regulatory flexibility associated with the Audit Policy should reduce subsequent chemical emissions. While several studies examine predictors of the Audit Policy, no studies examine if facilities that use the Policy decrease their chemical emissions as a result. The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of the Audit Policy on changes in Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) emissions among a sample of 178 facilities operating in the chemical and allied product industry. The results of that analysis suggest that facilities that use the policy have similar subsequent emissions trends as facilities that do not use the policy. Moreover, the results also suggest that formal enforcement actions are the best predictor of TRI reductions. These findings persist despite other regulator and company controls. In terms of environmental policy, the results suggest that self-policing may not improve or deteriorate environmental performance in the chemical and allied products industry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the authority of the Clean Air Act (CAA), is required to promulgate National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQSs) for criteria air pollutants, including ozone. Each NAAQS includes a primary health-based standard and a secondary or welfare-based standard. This paper considers only the science used for revision of the primary standard for ozone in 2008. This paper summarizes deliberations of a small group of scientists who met in June 2007 to review the scientific information informing the EPA Administrator’s proposed revision of the 1997 standard. The Panel recognized that there is no scientific methodology that, in the absence of judgment, can define the precise numerical level, related averaging time, and statistical form of the NAAQS. The selection of these elements of the NAAQS involves policy judgments that should be informed by scientific information and analyses. Thus, the Panel members did not feel it appropriate to offer either their individual or collective judgment on the specific numerical level of the NAAQS for ozone. The Panel deliberations focused on the scientific data available on the health effects of exposure to ambient concentrations of ozone, controlled ozone exposure studies with human volunteers, long-term epidemiological studies, time- series epidemiological studies, human panel studies, and toxicological investigations. The deliberations also dealt with the issue of background levels of ozone of nonanthropogenic origin and issues involved with conducting formal risk assessments of the health impacts of current and prospective levels of ambient ozone. The scientific issues that were central to the EPA Administrator’s 2008 revision of the NAAQS for ozone will undoubtedly also be critical to the next review of the ozone standard. That review should begin very soon if it is to be completed within the 5-year cycle specified in the CAA. It is hoped that this Report will stimulate discussion of these scientific issues, conduct of additional research, and conduct of new analyses that will provide an improved scientific basis for the policy judgment that will have to be made by a future EPA Administrator in considering potential revision of the ozone standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late 1970s, a large body of scientific literature has developed focused on attributing sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments. Forensic evaluation of sources of PAHs in sediments has typically relied on the use of the 'expanded PAH' analysis in which 'parent' (non-alkylated) and alkylated members of each homologous series are quantified and reported. Use of this method for source attribution is widely documented in the peer-reviewed literature and has gained wide acceptance in the forensics community. Although the expanded PAH analysis is the preferred method of using PAH data for source attribution, these detailed forensic data are often not collected during routine environmental site investigations. Conversely, the 16 United States Environmental Protection Agency “priority pollutant” PAHs, which include the parent PAH of each homologous series, are routinely analyzed for and reported. Because of the large number and relatively high costs of sediment and soil remediation projects focused on PAHs, there is significant interest in the use of these parent PAH data for forensic source attribution. The peer-reviewed literature contains a few case studies where parent PAHs have been used to attribute sources, including distinguishing between petrogenic (petroleum) and pyrogenic (combustion and pyrolytic) sources, and among multiple pyrogenic sources. This article focuses on a case study that demonstrates the use of parent PAH ratios or proportions for source attribution for PAHs in sediments offshore of a former wood treating facility located in a highly industrialized port of the northwestern United States. The wood-treating facility was assumed as the source for all of the PAHs present in the sediments; this assumption was questioned in the litigation brought to allocate costs for the sediment remediation. Because the sediment remediation was complete, additional sampling for sophisticated forensic testing was not possible; therefore, the forensics evaluation had to rely on the pre-existing parent PAH data. Using the forensic parent PAH proportions and ratios developed by Yunker et al. (2002) and those of Costa and Sauer (2005), PAHs in the sediments were categorized into those attributed primarily to the wood treating facility creosote and those attributed primarily to a mixture of pyrogenic and petrogenic sources common in the “urban background” of industrialized waterways. This approach provided a basis to propose cost allocation for each of the sediment areas that required remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some fish contain high levels of mercury (Hg), which could pose a risk to fish eaters themselves or their children. In making decisions about fish consumption, people must decide whether to eat fish, how much to eat, what species to eat, and what size fish to eat, as well as suitable (or unsuitable) locations, among other factors. Yet to make sound decisions, people need to know the levels of Hg in fish as a function of species, size, and location of capture. Levels of Hg and selenium (Se) were examined in three species of flatfish (fluke or summer flounder [Paralichthys dentatus], winter flounder [Pseudopleuronectes americanus], and windowpane [Scophthalmus aquosus]) from New Jersey as a function of species, fish size, season, and location. Flatfish were postulated to have low levels of Hg because they are low on the food chain and are bottom feeders, and data were generated to provide individuals with information on a species that might be safe to eat regularly. Although there were interspecific differences in Hg levels in the 3 species, total Hg levels averaged 0.18, 0.14, and 0.06 ppm (μg/g, wet weigh) in windowpane, fluke, and winter flounder, and selenium levels averaged 0.36, 0.35, and 0.25 ppm, respectively. For windowpane, 15% had Hg levels above 0.3 ppm, but no individual fish had Hg levels over 0.5 ppm. There were no significant seasonal differences in Hg levels, although Se was significantly higher in fluke in summer compared to spring. There were few geographical differences among New Jersey locations. Correlations between Hg and Se levels were low. Data, based on 464 fish samples, indicate that Hg levels are below various advisory levels and pose little risk to typical New Jersey fish consumers. A 70-kg person eating 1 meal (8 oz or 227 g) per week would not exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reference dose of 0.1 μg/kg body weight/d of methylmercury (MeHg). However, high-end fish eaters consuming several such meals per week may exceed recommended levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trichloroethane functions in cosmetics as a solvent. Although Trichloroethane has been reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be used in cosmetic products, an industry survey found that it is not in current use in the cosmetic industry. Trichloroethane is considered a Class I ozone-depleting substance by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its use is prohibited in the United States, unless considered essential. The FDA has stated that Trichloroethane's use in cosmetics is considered nonessential. Trichloroethane is detected by gas chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and gas-liquid chromatography. In rats, Trichloroethane, whether inhaled or injected, is mostly expelled intact from the body through exhalation. A very small percentage is excreted in the urine. In humans, Trichloroethane is rapidly absorbed through the skin and eliminated in exhaled air and a very small percentage is excreted in urine. Inhaled Trichloroethane is eliminated in exhaled air. Acute oral LD50 values have been reported as follows: 12.3 g/kg in male rats; 10.3 g/kg in female rats; 11.24 g/kg in female mice; 5.66 g/kg in female rabbits; and 9.47 g/kg in male guinea pigs. Acute toxicity studies using other routes of exposure, including subcutaneous injection and inhalation, produced no evidence of significant toxicity, except at very high exposure levels. Continuous inhalation exposure of rabbits to 750 mg/m3 for 90 days did not produce any signs of toxicity. Continuous exposure of rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, and monkeys to 500 ppm Trichloroethane for 6 months did not produce any signs of toxicity. Other short-term and subchronic inhalation exposures confirmed acute and short-term exposure findings that the toxic effects of inhalation were a function of both concentration and time... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Receptor modeling is the application of data analysis methods to elicit information on the sources of air pollutants. Typically, it employs methods of solving the mixture resolution problem using chemical composition data for airborne particulate matter (PM) samples. In such cases, the outcome is the identification of the pollution source types and estimates of the contribution of each source type to the observed concentrations. Receptor modeling also involves efforts to identify the locations of the sources through the use of local meteorology or ensembles of air parcel back trajectories. Compositional data were collected in a number of monitoring programs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deployed a network of urban airborne PM samplers to provide PM2.5 composition data for urban centers across the United States. In addition, advanced monitoring methods were deployed at “supersites.” These data show the differences in composition in different part of the country and were also used to identify and apportion the particle sources. These results were used to (1)develop effective and efficient air quality management plans and (2) refine emission inventories for input into deterministic models to predict changes in air quality as the result of the implementation of various management plans. The apportionments also serve as exposure estimates for health effects models to identify those components of the PM that are most closely related to observed adverse health effects. Although current regulations target total airborne mass concentrations, such health effects results might result in targeting those sources that are most likely linked to adverse health effects and thus produce the maximum health benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1990s, American Indian Nations assumed regulatory primacy over certain portions of federal environmental laws in the United States. For tribes that have not developed their own standards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued policy statements aimed at incorporating tribal health and natural resources. While many communities of color have to fight to get heard in state and federal permitting processes, the U.S. EPA has made it an explicit mission to always include Indian Nations. Thus, "getting to the decision-making table" - a key goal of environmental justice groups - is presumably serving the interests of tribes seeking environmental justice. However, being involved in regulatory processes, as tribes are, may not be enough for Indian Nations or other communities of color. It is to this end that I write this article - should "getting to the table" be the ultimate goal for environmental justice groups, and how should this table be structured? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mode of action (MOA) information is increasingly being applied in human health risk assessment. The MOA can inform issues such as the relevance of observed effects in laboratory animals to humans, and the variability of response within the human population. Several collaborative groups have developed frameworks for analyzing and utilizing MOA information in human health risk assessment of environmental carcinogens and toxins, including the International Programme on Chemical Safety, International Life Sciences Institute, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. With the goal of identifying gaps and opportunities for progress, we critically evaluate several of these MOA frameworks. Despite continued improvement in incorporating biological data in human health risk assessment, several notable challenges remain. These include articulation of the significant role of scientific judgment in establishing an MOA and its relevance to humans. In addition, binary (yes/no) decisions can inappropriately exclude consideration of data that may nonetheless be informative to the overall assessment of risk. Indeed, the frameworks lack a broad consideration of known causes of human disease and the potential for chemical effects to act additively with these as well as endogenous background processes. No integrated analysis of the impact of multiple MOAs over the same dose range, or of varying MOAs at different life stages, is included. Separate consideration of each MOA and outcome limits understanding of how multiple metabolites, modes, and toxicity pathways contribute to the toxicological profile of the chemical. An extension of the analyses across outcomes with common modes is also needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this project was to examine soil-sample handling techniques used by state regulatory agencies that regulate pesticides and their impact on soil-residue levels of the insecticide fipronil and to offer a standardized soil-sampling protocol. In the United States, the pesticide user industry is large for both agricultural and non-agricultural applications. The United States Environmental Protection Agency regulates pesticide use on a federal level, whereas each state has established a "state lead agency" (SLA) that is responsible for state regulation of pesticides. In the absence of mandatory federal protocols for sample collection by SLAs, each state is free to take environmental samples pursuant to administrative or criminal investigations as deemed appropriate. A comparative study of common sampling practices was performed to evaluate the impact of handling methods on results. Soil was treated with fipronil insecticide and placed in two types of storage containers: in opaque bags that block ultraviolet light or in clear glass jars. Soil samples were placed in a commercial freezer, a cooler with commercial ice, and a growth chamber (incubator) that exposed soil samples to heat, humidity, and ultraviolet light. The results of the experiment revealed that within 72 hr, exposure of the soil samples to freezing, humidity, 37.8°C, or commercial ice in a cooler had no statistically significant effect on the level of fipronil residue in the soil samples used in the experiment. However, soil in glass jars placed in the growth chamber and exposed to 51.6 Kj/m2 of ultraviolet light contained significantly less fipronil residue than the standard soil samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A safety characterization specific to children was performed for methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) according to the guidelines of the Voluntary Children's Chemical Evaluation Program (VCCEP). The characterization indicates that MEK exposures are not expected to pose an acute or chronic risk to children. Hazard information, summarized as per the VCCEP Tier structure, indicated no need for additional studies. All exposure pathways potentially relevant to children were considered, including child contact with environmental media, food, drinking water, parental transfer to child (human milk or dermal contact), direct consumer product use, and presence during product use. The assessment found that exposures from anthropogenic sources that children may encounter on a daily basis are very low, and in particular well below the chronic inhalation and oral health benchmarks (RfC and RfD) derived by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). Indoor uses of consumer products can result in higher acute exposures, but these are short-lived and also fall below chronic benchmarks adjusted to an acute timeframe. In addition, MEK is rapidly metabolized and excreted, thus acute exposures do not lead to an increase in body burden over time. The USEPA concluded the VCCEP submission sufficiently characterized potential risks to children, and that no additional toxicity tests were needed for MEK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an overview of the development, theoretical basis, regulatory status, and application of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) Equilibrium Partitioning Sediment Benchmarks (ESBs) for PAH mixtures. ESBs are compared to other sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) for PAHs. Data that examine the ability of the ESB approach to predict toxic effects to invertebrates are discussed. A USEPA draft methodology for the development of site-specific ESBs that takes into account the limited bioavailability of PAHs at certain sites is discussed. Research is presented that compares the ability of ESBs and site-specific ESBs to predict the toxicity of sediments collected from manufactured gas plants (MGPs). Site-specific ESBs that accounted for adsorption of PAHs onto black carbon were better predictors of the toxicity of sediments from MGP sites than ESBs that did not account for adsorption to black carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on challenges the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have faced during 2006. The author reviews the issues of particulate matter air pollution standards and the dioxin risk re-assessment. He discusses the EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases. He considers staffing changes at the CDC as a result of reorganization in 2003 which created coordinating centers.

This article discusses how the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extrapolates its health assessments between species. The author reviews EPA practices such as relevance of animal data to humans, target organ concordance, interspecies extrapolation, and route-to-route extrapolation. He argues that most human carcinogens produce a similar response in mammals. Therefore, the most sensitive animal species, sex, strain, and age are used in the absence of mode of action data. Reference doses are adjusted by interspecies uncertainty factors considering size and weight of the animals. Target organ similarities and point of entry toxicity are also considered.

This article discusses how the state of Minnesota has adapted risk assessment tools from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop air and groundwater pollution rules. According to the author, the state promulgated Health Risk Limits and Health Risk Values for concentrations and mixtures of chemicals. They determined levels of risk for acute, chronic and subchronic exposures. Minnesota relied heavily on the EPA Integrated Risk Information System database to determine levels at which chemicals are unlikely to cause significant risk to humans exposed to those chemicals. They include bioaccumulative chemicals such as methylmercury and PCBs.

This article discusses the science of environmental risk assessment at the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. They review new methods for risk assessment (e. G. , physiologically based pharmacokinetic models, biologically based dose-response models) uncertainty factors, and extrapolation (e. G. , from animals to humans, from high to low dose). The authors trace the history of environmental risk assessment. They discuss issues raised at the workshop and how EPA is responding to them. Examples are presented of how the EPA is changing their chemical health risk assessment reference values for certain common toxic organic chemicals.

This article discusses high-to-low dose extrapolation: and health risk assessment According to the authors, the practice of risk assessment at the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) often includes the estimation of risks at doses or exposures below the range of observation. This includes regulation risk sometimes well below those observable in epidemiological or experimental settings. They discuss model-dependent and model-independent approaches such as physiologically based pharmokinetic model uncertainty. They consider determination and internal variability of individual threshold levels.

Genomics information has great potential to enhance assessment of risks to human health and the environment. Although understanding genomic responses with respect to adverse ecological and human health outcomes is not, as yet, established, it is important to consider the likely future impacts of genomics technologies on risk assessment and decision-making. Four areas are identified as those likely to be influenced by the generation of genomics information within, and the submission of such information to, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA): risk assessment, prioritization of contaminants and contaminated sites, monitoring, and reporting provisions. For each of these risk assessment and regulatory applications, representative activities are presented to illustrate the application. Three major challenges for the USEPA associated with genomics are also identified in the areas of research, technical development, and capacity. The USEPA's initial activities to address these challenges are discussed. The Agency recognizes it must be prepared to use genomics information, and that many scientific, policy, ethical, and legal concerns will need to be addressed. The USEPA also recognizes it is essential to continue to collaborate with other federal agencies, academia, the regulated community, and other stakeholders in order to benefit from ongoing advances in genomics in the wider scientific and regulatory communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article summarizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Risk Management Research Laboratory's Fuel Cell Program (www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/std/fuelcell) and presents interim findings of an ongoing project aimed at quantifying how clean fuel cell technology is from “cradle-to-grave” compared to conventional power generation processes. Data and data sources will be reviewed by fuel cell type (polymer exchange membrane, phosphoric acid fuel cell, solid oxide fuel cell, molten carbonate fuel cell, etc.) and life cycle stage (manufacture, use, end of life). Data gaps will also be identified as well as proposed EPA strategies for filling these “knowledge” gaps regarding the environmental attributes of fuel cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Self-Policing or Audit Policy waives or reduces penalties when regulated entities voluntarily discover, disclose, and correct environmental violations. This study uses a case-control design to determine if traditional regulatory efforts, organizational factors, and/or case characteristics are associated with the odds of disclosing a Clean Air Act violation under the policy. The results suggest that Audit Policy use is related to within-industry regional inspection levels. We find no evidence that company size directly influences Audit Policy use. Instead, company size appears to be mediated by case characteristics. Specifically, we suggest that larger companies may be more likely to use the Audit Policy because they violate multiple environmental laws. This finding indicates that the Audit Policy may expand the total number of violations that ultimately become known to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the establishment of the Environmental Technology Verification Program by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The program is designed to verify the performance of innovative environmental technologies that can be used to monitor, prevent, control and clean up pollution. It is formed to address the need for credible performance data to help regulators and users better respond to the available choices of environmental technology. The program develops testing protocols and verifies the performance of technologies that have the potential to improve the protection of human health and the environment.

Claims that the organizational structure of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) failed to cope with the needs to build comprehensive environmental protection policies. Comparison of the EPA structure with other agencies in the U.S.; Structural choices at the EPA; Argument that the lack of congressional mandate created the structural failures of the agency.

In 2002, methodological issues around time series analyses of air pollution and health attracted the attention of the scientific community, policy makers, the press, and the diverse stakeholders concerned with air pollution. As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was finalizing its most recent review of epidemiologic evidence on particulate matter air pollution (PM). statisticians and epidemiologists found that the S-PLUS implementation of generalized additive models (GAMs) can overestimate effects of air pollution and understate statistical uncertainty in time series studies of air pollution and health. This discovery delayed completion of the PM Criteria Document prepared as part of the review of the U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standard, because the time series findings represented a critical component of the evidence. In addition, it raised concerns about the adequacy of current model formulations and their software implementations. In this article we provide improvements in semiparametric regression directly relevant to risk estimation in time series studies of air pollution. First, we introduce a closed-form estimate of the asymptotically exact covariance matrix of the linear component of a GAM. To ease the implementation of these calculations, we develop the S package gam.exact, an extended version of gam. Use of gam.exact allows a more robust assessment of the statistical uncertainty of the estimated pollution coefficients. Second, we develop a bandwidth selection method to reduce confounding bias in the pollution-mortality relationship due to unmeasured time-varying factors, such as season and influenza epidemics. Third, we introduce a conceptual framework lo fully explore the sensitivity of the air pollution risk estimates to model choice. We apply our methods to data of the National Mortality Morbidity Air Pollution Study, which includes lime series data from the 90 largest U.S. cities for the period 1987-1994. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the ten recommendations in the National Research Council's (NRC's) report Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process, commonly called the "Red Book," three were highlighted in the report's Executive Summary. Two of the three have had wide influence on the conduct of risk assessment but the third has been virtually ignored. The Red Book Committee's proposal that Congress establish an independent Central Board on Risk Assessment Methods, if implemented, might have done much to improve the conduct of risk assessments by regulatory agencies, to ensure greater uniformity in approaches among agencies, and to enhance the scientific credibility of agency performance. Among the functions of the proposed Board was to be the development, for use by agencies, of guidelines for the conduct of risk assessment (including the selection of so-called inference options— or "defaults"—to deal with limits in scientific knowledge). Guideline development was seen by the Committee to represent a critical step in avoiding case-by-case manipulation of risk assessments by the insertion of arbitrary inference options, but Committee recommendations in this area have received significant attention only from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Implementation of the several tasks proposed by the NRC Committee, including guideline development, by a truly independent Board of the type described in the Red Book, might still do much to strengthen the scientific basis of regulatory actions. Key Words: Red Book; risk assessment; EPA; National Research Council; defaults; risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A national focus on carcinogen risk assessment grew out of the expectations for zero risk inspired by the strong environmental movement of the early 1970s. With the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its infancy, the enthusiasm of the movement inspired zero risk expectation and served to underscore the fear that an epidemic of cancer existed and was closely linked, if not substantially caused, by exposure to contaminants in the environment. Founded in 1970, EPA fostered a zero risk policy until it became evident in the mid-1970s that such a policy was unobtainable. The then-Administrator, Russell Train, announced a new procedure on May 15, 1976, which emphasized a two-part process, risk assessment followed by the regulatory decision process, for making policy decisions regarding carcinogens. After 8 years of wholesale application of the two-step process for scores of agents at EPA, the National Research Council's (NRC's) report Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process, called the "Red Book," gave validity to the approach, codified terminology, and emphasized the central role of science as discrete from the regulatory process which necessarily includes policy, economic and social factors as well as political considerations. The emphasis on the need to preserve the integrity of the scientific process has continuing application 20 years later as there is increasing evidence of the tensions created at the confluence of science and regulatory policy. This paper places the Red Book in the context of history and points to its utility for the present and the future. Key Words: risk assessment; carcinogens; guidelines; Red Book; risk management; quantitative; exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1983 National Research Council's report Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process, popularly known as "The Red Book," synthesized emerging concepts of the time, addressed politically-salient policy questions, and was published at a time when its recommendations were needed and were utilized in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other regulatory agencies. The Red Book has become synonymous with science-based risk assessment and the effective, respectful, and explicit inter-connection of science and policy, of science and values. It set the stage for the later emphasis on engagement of a wide range of stakeholders in the characterization and control of risks from chemicals in our environment. Key Words. Red Book; risk assessment; risk management; Presidential Commission; EPA; National Research Council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the promotion of environmental democracy. Use of a geographic information system as a means of integrating the community; United States Environmental Protection Agency's Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources; Watersheds included in the study.

Focuses on environmental protection in the United States. Criticism of the system of environmental regulation as costly, inflexible, and ineffective; Discussion of the environmental management system (EMS) which is endorsed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use in the private sector; Topics of EMS standards, ISO 14001 certification, government policy for EMS implementation, adoption of EMS in many sectors through the efforts of private organizations, government mandates and incentives. INSETS: ISO Standards for Environmental Management Systems;Environmental Management Systems in Small Businesses.

The Albany Pine Bush Preserve and the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission are included among the successful case studies for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) community-based environmental protection (CBEP) initiative. The U.S. EPA believes that this type of community-based environmental protection promotes (1) comprehensive identification of local environmental concerns, (2) priority and goal setting that reflect overall community concerns, and (3) development of inclusive and long-term solutions. Using interviews and document analysis, this article studies the Albany Pine Bush experience to explore the relationship between citizen participation and environmental protection. This research attempts to determine if the experiences of the Albany Pine Bush conform to the goals of the U.S. EPA CBEP efforts. Preliminary results suggest that CBEP does not meet the goals related to participation and that the U.S. EPA could strengthen the program by encouraging a wider range of participation mechanisms and building specific incentives to encourage policymakers to seek out citizen participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the background against which ecological risk assessment and management framework has developed. Techniques for risk assessment; Use of risk analysis in the development of environmental policy by the Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and Environment Premises; Elements of evaluating scientific information in the assessment by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In the national ambient air quality standards specified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Code of Federal Regulations, new standards were established for particulate matter on July 18, 1997. The new particulate matter standards specify mass concentration as the indicator for fine particulate matter (aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm or less). Ambient measurements for the new particulate standard must be performed by a new federal reference method as specified in the Code of Federal Regulations or by an alternative measurement method that has been designated by the Environmental Protection Agency as an equivalent method. The new particulate reference method is a 24 h integrated sample collected from the ambient air and analyzed gravimetrically. The reference method is explicitly specified using a combination of design- and performance-based criteria. Additional requirements listed in the Code of Federal Regulations address conditioning, handling, and weighing of the sample filter, which are performed manually. For alternative measurement techniques that do not meet the qualifications of the reference method, the Environmental Protection Agency defines three classes of candidate PM[sub 2.5] equivalent methods based on the measurement technique used and its degree of similarity to the reference method specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the 1998 report of the Enterprise for the Environment (E4E) program of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) entitled `The Environmental Protection System in Transition.' Weaknesses of the report; How the E4E report offers proposals for reforming the environmental protection system; Brief information on the E4E initiative chaired by EPA Administrator William D. Ruckelshaus.

This article presents news briefs relating to environmental policy as of July 1988. A technique common in mechanical engineering may be used to detect plant damage caused by severe ground-level ozone pollution. Compared with a control group of rye grass, the ozone-exposed plant became more brittle, a possible result of altered amino acid and sugar levels. The brittleness may make it easier for insect pests to attack the leaves. Meanwhile, the treated waste water from a proposed meat-processing plant in Alberta, Canada will create a wetlands area. Treated effluent from both the $50-million Cargill Meat Processing Plant and the town of High River will be carried along a 10-mile pipeline to Frank Lake, where the wetlands will be established. The oversized pipeline will be able to accommodate water from other sources for future enhancement of the wetlands. Finally, a report was released by the U.S. Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, which criticized the federal Superfund program that is aimed at cleaning toxic waste sites. The report examined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's handling of Superfund sites and included 10 case studies as representative examples. Major problems that have rendered the program a failure include inconsistencies in decision making across waste sites; a harmful degree of decentralization leading to minimal direction and oversight from EPA headquarters to regional offices; and the agency's decision to opt for short-term methods of cleanup.

This article deals with issues relating to priority setting at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). When EPA was established in 1970, the most pressing environmental problems in the U.S. were soot and smoke from cards and smokestacks, and raw sewage and chemicals from municipal and industrial waste water. Since 1970, the nation has done much to abate the most visible form of pollution, but there is still much unfinished business. Moreover, problems have been discovered or have risen in importance, such as indoor radon, global climatic change from the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, acid precipitation, and hazardous waste. The complexity and scope of these issues make it particularly significant that EPA apply its finite resources where they will have the greatest effect. Choosing which environmental programs to emphasize should be viewed as an attempt to maximize the health and ecological benefits from the public and private resources that EPA can command. In principle, the environmental agency should analyze its set of investment opportunities in terms of their relative impacts on public health and the environment. A variety of factors combine to make such priority setting difficult. One major difficulty stems from the multiple statutory goals governing the agency. EPA administers nine major statutes, which contain a multitude of goals and prescriptions. INSET: Highlights of How EPA Experts Rank Environmental Risks.

Presents commentary on two major reports on the greenhouse effect. Information from the International Council of Scientific Unions and the United States Department of Energy; Reasons for the growing concern over the issue; Scope of the reports; Need for people with scientific training to be active in the policymaking process; Failure of both reports to follow through on the socioeconomic implications; Rising sea levels and need for this to be labeled a priority issue.

Reports on renewed efforts by U.S. congressional leaders and environmental groups to reauthorize the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, know as Superfund. How Superfund was passed in 1980 to help solve the hazardous waste site problems in the U.S.; Controversy over the size of the fund, responsibility of the cleanup programs, remedies for victims of exposure, and the state share of cleanup costs; Estimated cost to the Environmental Protection Agency.

This section presents news briefs relating to environmental policy as of January 1985. On December 14, 1984, after being informed at field hearings in West Virginia that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not consider the chemical methyl isocyanate to be a hazardous air pollutant, Congressman Henry Waxman (D.-Calif.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, announced he will introduce legislation to force EPA to regulate the compound. Meanwhile, three significant actions related to acid rain occurred in 1984. On November 8, EPA proposed new restrictions on the use of tall smokestacks to disperse pollution in order to avoid local pollution reduction requirements. Sulfur dioxide from these stacks has been identified as a source of acid precipitation in areas distant from its origin. The rules require industries to reduce emissions by using scrubbers or by burning low-sulfur coal. Finally, the first tidal power generating station in North America opened in 1984 at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. The plant, which can generate about 20 megawatts of electricity, is a pilot project designed to evaluate the operational characteristics and potential of the turbines for large-scale generation of tidal power in the Bay of Fundy, which has the world's highest tides.

The article presents a reply to researcher Madhusudana N. Rao for his comments on a article by the authors. According to them they are familiar with most of the citations mentioned by Rao. as they were commissioned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop a complete bibliography on climate/health relationships as part of the effort to evaluate the impact of a predicted global warming on the environment. In addition to that, the article presents various other information.

Offers news briefs related to the environment. Formation of the National Institute for the Environment; Handling of criminal environmental cases by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice; Recycling program instituted by Goodwiill; Others.

Questions how clean is clean when speaking of the clean up of Superfund sites. Congressional efforts to define clean; A new definition by the EPA which has some concerned that the cleanups may not be thorough; The two major questions about cleaning up wast sites, one of which is who is paying for it; Pressure on the EPA from industry to relax standards; Argument of industries that tough cleanup standards have been obstacles to cleanup; Lack of federal funding to help; Second strategy of industry to avoid the costs of cleanup; Details of the law.

Reports on the growing environmental enforcement power of the United States' Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as of 1987. Practice of some U.S. companies to pollute and face a fine rather than clean up an effluent or emission, while others even devised elaborate schemes to get rid of wastes illegally; With expanded criminal enforcement powers the EPA is no longer limited to penalizing faceless corporations, now deputized EPA agents can bring individuals such as company presidents to justice; Criminal enforcement of environmental offenses.

Presents an overview of government efforts in the United States to resolve environmental problems in the country in 1982. Enactment of laws on environmental protection; Establishment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1970; Budget allocation for pollution control in 1981.

Discusses the government data obtained by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which implied that farmers are routinely planting more insect-resistant genetically modified (GM) corn than the allowable capacity of the U.S. federal regulations. Recommendations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding GM corns in the U.S.; Violations imposed against GM corn farms in Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska.