Review of Health Risk Assessments for Airborne Emissions from Major California Universities

摘要

Airborne emissions from operation and research activities at major universities can be the source of public health concern in surrounding communities.These concerns include the use of chemicals in research activities;however,many universities also have their own power and steam generation facilities,as well as other sources of toxic air pollutants including diesel-fired equipment and hazardous materials handling.As universities in California undergo long range development planning,environmental impact reports(EIRs)required under the California Environmental Quality Act(CEQA)must disclose potential environmental impacts.These EIRs have included health risk assessments(HRAs)to address public health concerns.This paper examines HRAs that have been performed for several California universities,and the methods employed to perform these assessments.The chief method to date has been the integration of air dispersion models with exposure algorithms developed under the California Air Toxics "Hot Spots" Law,either by spreadsheet or the ACE2588 model.The results of selected analyses are presented in terms of predicted health risks and contributing emission sources.Under development by the California Air Resources Board(CARB)is the HotSpots Analysis and Reporting Program(HARP),a single software package integrating air dispersion modeling with health risk assessment(HRA)applications.HARP will have the ability to display output in a tabular format as well as through a Geographic Information Systems(GIS)program.CARB has not yet released HARP as of the writing of this paper,but the reported capabilities of HARP are described.