WHILE BACKING EPA, AIR ADVISERS SOFTEN FINDINGS ON NO2 HEALTH IMPACTS

摘要

DURHAM, NC — EPA's clean air advisory panel is expressing general support for a crucial agency science document that could lay the groundwork for a stricter air quality standard for nitrogen oxides, but the advisers are softening their conclusion about NO2 health impacts of [nitrogen dioxide (NO2] after criticizing EPA for not adequately presenting evidence linking exposure to adverse health effects. The panel stopped short of concluding that current ambient NO2 exposures directly result in adverse impacts to public health. Instead, the panel members worked out a statement saying that the epidemiological findings outlined in EPA's draft science document indicate that current ambient NO2 exposures are "associated with adverse impacts to the public health," but that EPA needs to do a better job of documenting its findings. A panel of EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee's (CASAC) is reviewing the science documents — known as an integrated science assessment (ISA) — that EPA will use to set a new primary national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for NO2. EPA's current primary NAAQS for nitrogen oxides, which is intended to protect human health, is set at an annual average of 0.053 parts per million.