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13 Regulation 51 (1990)
Air Toxics and Public Health: Exaggerating Risk and Misdirecting Policy

handle is hein.journals/rcatorbg13 and id is 229 raw text is: Air Toxics and Public Health Exaggerating Risk and Misdirecting Policy Frederick H. Rueter and Wilbur A. Steger Each of the leading legislative proposals for amending the Clean Air Act advocates a two- phased approach to regulating industrial emissions of toxic chemicals into the outdoor air. In the first phase emission control requirements will focus on technology; in the second phase they will focus on health. More specifically, in the first phase industrial plants that emit hazardous air pollutants will be required by the various proposals to install either the maximum achievable control technology (MACT) or the best available control technology (BACT). The proposals differ, however, with regard to such issues as: the degree to which the Environmental Protection Agency will be allowed to consider cost, technical feasibility, and other nonhealth factors when determining the required effectiveness of con- trol technologies; the applicability of the require- ments to area sources (small stationary sources) and to mobile sources of emissions; and the com- pliance schedules stipulated for particular source categories. In the second phase regulated sources will be required to implement additional controls that are sufficient to reduce to reasonable levels the esti- Frederick H. Rueter and Wilbur A. Steger are, respec- tively, the vice president and president of CONSAD Research Corporation. This article is based in part on a consultant report prepared for the USX Corporation. mated residual risks to human health associated with population exposures to the emission levels achieved with the technology-based controls. Dif- ferent proposals, however, specify different criteria for determining whether a particular source has achieved a reasonable level of risk. For example, both House bill H.R. 2585 and Senate bill S. 816 state that major sources of toxic emissions must ultimately reduce their residual risks to at most one in 1,000,000 for the individual in the population who is most exposed to such emissions,' although the Senate bill would allow sources that are unable to achieve the one in 1,000,000 level to continue operating if their residual risks can be limited to one in 10,000. In contrast, the administration pro- posal grants the EPA substantial discretion in assess- ing the reasonableness of the public health risks that remain after sources have installed particular technological controls. To evaluate the potential effects of such legisla- tion, it is instructive to examine the available sci- entific evidence about the health effects of specific hazardous air pollutants. Accordingly, in this arti- cle we first review the scientific data on the health outcomes associated with human exposure-both occupational and environmental-to coke oven emissions. Next, we present recent EPA estimates of the health effects associated with environmental exposures to benzene and to other toxic air pollu- CATO REVIEW OF BUSINESS & GOVERNMENT 51

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