A Risk-based Assessment And Management Framework For Multipollutant Air Quality

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Risk Assessment
• Public Health

Background:

• Current air quality management often focuses on individual pollutants.
• The National Research Council advocates for a multipollutant, risk- and performance-based approach.
• Existing risk analysis frameworks are adaptable for multipollutant management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe risk analysis and its application in air quality management.
• To recommend how current practices can evolve into a risk- and performance-based multipollutant system.
• To highlight the need for data and models supporting multipollutant risk and accountability assessments.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing risk analysis frameworks.
• Conceptual adaptation of these frameworks for multipollutant scenarios.
• Identification of data and modeling requirements for integrated assessments.

Main Results:

• The existing risk analysis framework is conceptually suitable for multipollutant actions.
• Emissions and air quality modeling elements already possess multipollutant characteristics.
• The framework requires enhanced data on multipollutant exposure and concentration-response relationships.

Conclusions:

• A multipollutant risk analysis framework can improve current air quality management.
• Integrating prospective risk analyses and retrospective accountability assessments within a single framework is recommended.
• Defining goals using comparable risk metrics across pollutant types and encompassing human and ecological risks offers further improvements.