News
Southern California tightens rules on air pollution
www.thelancet.com/respiratory Vol 3 August 2015
set off a lengthy process of scientific review and ultimately concluded that the cancer risks had been underestimated for all carcinogens, especially in young children. OEHHA proposed changes to their health risk assessment guidelines, which were released on March 6, 2015. The new methods for assessing risk improve the characterisation of exposures in early childhood and refine exposure assessment for all ages. The approach draws on three peer-reviewed health-risk assessment guidelines, which were finalised in 2008, 2009, and 2012, and that focus on non-cancer risk, cancer risk, and exposure assessment, respectively. Each individual air district can adopt its own threshold numbers. The SCAQMD adopted a threshold of 10 in 1 million lifetime statistical chance of cancer. If that level is exceeded, the requirement is to make a public and formal notification to the affected community. If the risk reaches 25 in 1 million, the facility must take steps to reduce emissions. According to the new rules, 22 facilities will need to implement risk reductions and install additional controls, for an estimated annual cost of US$1·3–1·4 million. An additional 87 facilities will need to submit health-risk assessments for the first time or update them, which will incur a one-time cost of $2·2 million. 42 facilities would be required to issue formal public notices to the surrounding communities that their health risks are increased, even if the facility’s emissions have decreased or stayed the same. The public notification requirement is a tenuous one, because most people are not going to like hearing that a local industry is causing a cancer risk, but yet doesn’t have to do anything about it, said Atwood. “The facility is not required to reduce the risk.” However, businesses don’t really want to notify communities, since
most do not want to advertise that they are polluting the air with toxins and raising the risk of cancer, he pointed out. As a result, many do early risk assessments and reductions, to avoid having to notify the public. Thus the stipulation for notification might be an incentive for a business to voluntarily lower its emissions. David Pettit, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an international non-profit environmental advocacy group, isn’t convinced that public notification has much of an effect on getting industry to decrease emissions. “The industry didn’t have a problem with the new methodology, but what they were most concerned about were the public notifications, and what the reaction was going to be”, he said. “They were concerned that the public would think that the emission levels had changed when in fact they hadn’t, and not understand that it was just a change in how it was being assessed. But I don’t think that it will necessarily cause them to voluntarily lower emissions.” Pettit believes that the new regulations will have the biggest effect on new projects going forward. “New facilities will have to adhere to them, and that is where we will be seeing the biggest difference”, he said.
Published Online June 26, 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ S2213-2600(15)00252-0 For the OEHHA guidelines see http://www.oehha.ca.gov/air/ hot_spots/2015/2015Guidance Manual.pdf For the new regulations issued by SCAQMD see http://www. aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/ Agendas/GoverningBoard/2015/2015-jun1-028. pdf?sfvrsn=9 For the assessment of non-cancer risk from 2008 see http://www. oehha.ca.gov/air/hot_spots/rels_ dec2008.html For the assessment of cancer risk from 2009 see http://www. oehha.ca.gov/air/hot_spots/ tsd052909.html For the exposure assessment from 2012 see http://www. oehha.ca.gov/air/hot_spots/ tsd082712.html
Roxanne Nelson
Tom Mchugh/Science Photo Library
Air quality rules in Southern California are about to become stricter, and they will affect dozens of regional industries, including metal factories, oil refineries, and aerospace plants. The new requirements come on the heels of guidelines issued by a state environmental agency (the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment; OEHHA) in March this year, in which the cancer risk from some air pollutants was estimated to be nearly three times higher than what was previously believed. About 400 facilities will be affected by the new regulations issued by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), the largest of 35 air districts in the state, which has jurisdiction across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. These four counties combined have a population of 16·7 million people. “The emissions from these industries have not increased, and in many instances they have actually decreased in the past few years”, said Sam Atwood, a spokesperson from the SCAQMD. “But what has changed is the methodology used in evaluating the health risk from air contaminants.” California has been monitoring toxic air pollutants for several decades, initiating the Air Toxics Hot Spots programme in the 1980s. “This was basically a right-to-know programme, which required facilities to notify the public if their cancer risk exceeded certain thresholds”, said Atwood. “The SCAQMD adopted regulations for new facilities and existing facilities, and established thresholds for cancer risk and non-cancer risk.” The regulations that existed until now are the outcome of a process that began 15 years ago, when the California state legislature directed the OEHHA to take a closer look at the toxic effects of air pollutants, particularly in children. This initiative
603
Southern California tightens rules on air pollution
www.thelancet.com/respiratory Vol 3 August 2015
set off a lengthy process of scientific review and ultimately concluded that the cancer risks had been underestimated for all carcinogens, especially in young children. OEHHA proposed changes to their health risk assessment guidelines, which were released on March 6, 2015. The new methods for assessing risk improve the characterisation of exposures in early childhood and refine exposure assessment for all ages. The approach draws on three peer-reviewed health-risk assessment guidelines, which were finalised in 2008, 2009, and 2012, and that focus on non-cancer risk, cancer risk, and exposure assessment, respectively. Each individual air district can adopt its own threshold numbers. The SCAQMD adopted a threshold of 10 in 1 million lifetime statistical chance of cancer. If that level is exceeded, the requirement is to make a public and formal notification to the affected community. If the risk reaches 25 in 1 million, the facility must take steps to reduce emissions. According to the new rules, 22 facilities will need to implement risk reductions and install additional controls, for an estimated annual cost of US$1·3–1·4 million. An additional 87 facilities will need to submit health-risk assessments for the first time or update them, which will incur a one-time cost of $2·2 million. 42 facilities would be required to issue formal public notices to the surrounding communities that their health risks are increased, even if the facility’s emissions have decreased or stayed the same. The public notification requirement is a tenuous one, because most people are not going to like hearing that a local industry is causing a cancer risk, but yet doesn’t have to do anything about it, said Atwood. “The facility is not required to reduce the risk.” However, businesses don’t really want to notify communities, since
most do not want to advertise that they are polluting the air with toxins and raising the risk of cancer, he pointed out. As a result, many do early risk assessments and reductions, to avoid having to notify the public. Thus the stipulation for notification might be an incentive for a business to voluntarily lower its emissions. David Pettit, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an international non-profit environmental advocacy group, isn’t convinced that public notification has much of an effect on getting industry to decrease emissions. “The industry didn’t have a problem with the new methodology, but what they were most concerned about were the public notifications, and what the reaction was going to be”, he said. “They were concerned that the public would think that the emission levels had changed when in fact they hadn’t, and not understand that it was just a change in how it was being assessed. But I don’t think that it will necessarily cause them to voluntarily lower emissions.” Pettit believes that the new regulations will have the biggest effect on new projects going forward. “New facilities will have to adhere to them, and that is where we will be seeing the biggest difference”, he said.
Published Online June 26, 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ S2213-2600(15)00252-0 For the OEHHA guidelines see http://www.oehha.ca.gov/air/ hot_spots/2015/2015Guidance Manual.pdf For the new regulations issued by SCAQMD see http://www. aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/ Agendas/GoverningBoard/2015/2015-jun1-028. pdf?sfvrsn=9 For the assessment of non-cancer risk from 2008 see http://www. oehha.ca.gov/air/hot_spots/rels_ dec2008.html For the assessment of cancer risk from 2009 see http://www. oehha.ca.gov/air/hot_spots/ tsd052909.html For the exposure assessment from 2012 see http://www. oehha.ca.gov/air/hot_spots/ tsd082712.html
Roxanne Nelson
Tom Mchugh/Science Photo Library
Air quality rules in Southern California are about to become stricter, and they will affect dozens of regional industries, including metal factories, oil refineries, and aerospace plants. The new requirements come on the heels of guidelines issued by a state environmental agency (the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment; OEHHA) in March this year, in which the cancer risk from some air pollutants was estimated to be nearly three times higher than what was previously believed. About 400 facilities will be affected by the new regulations issued by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), the largest of 35 air districts in the state, which has jurisdiction across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. These four counties combined have a population of 16·7 million people. “The emissions from these industries have not increased, and in many instances they have actually decreased in the past few years”, said Sam Atwood, a spokesperson from the SCAQMD. “But what has changed is the methodology used in evaluating the health risk from air contaminants.” California has been monitoring toxic air pollutants for several decades, initiating the Air Toxics Hot Spots programme in the 1980s. “This was basically a right-to-know programme, which required facilities to notify the public if their cancer risk exceeded certain thresholds”, said Atwood. “The SCAQMD adopted regulations for new facilities and existing facilities, and established thresholds for cancer risk and non-cancer risk.” The regulations that existed until now are the outcome of a process that began 15 years ago, when the California state legislature directed the OEHHA to take a closer look at the toxic effects of air pollutants, particularly in children. This initiative
603
