Benner Timothy C
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Office of Science Policy, Washington, DC 20460, USA.
Environ Sci Technol. 2004 Jul 1;38(13):3457-64. doi: 10.1021/es035132h.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgates standards for air pollutants and drinking water contaminants, as part of its mandate to protect public health and welfare. The Agency also assesses the health risks associated with hundreds of chemical substances, often developing quantitative toxicity and cancer potency benchmarks. This article compares EPA standards and benchmark values to those of other countries and other agencies. This includes the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), the national primary drinking water regulations (NPDWR), and benchmark values from the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). Results show that the NAAQS are generally comparable to or less strict than the air quality standards of other countries and international organizations. The NPDWR tend to be less strict than the water quality standards of other countries for inorganic chemicals, and they are more strict about as often as they are less strict for organic chemicals. Reference values for toxicity and cancer potency derived in EPA health assessments posted in the IRIS database are less stringentthan those of other agencies about as often as they are more stringent, and they are often identical. Revisions to these values more often than not made them less stringent. These results suggest that EPA's standards and quantitative health assessments are not out of line with those of other agencies and other countries.
美国环境保护局（EPA）颁布空气污染物和饮用水污染物标准，作为其保护公众健康和福祉任务的一部分。该机构还评估与数百种化学物质相关的健康风险，经常制定定量毒性和癌症效力基准。本文将EPA标准和基准值与其他国家及其他机构的标准和基准值进行比较。这包括国家环境空气质量标准（NAAQS）、国家主要饮用水法规（NPDWR）以及综合风险信息系统（IRIS）的基准值。结果表明，NAAQS总体上与其他国家和国际组织的空气质量标准相当或更宽松。对于无机化学品，NPDWR往往比其他国家的水质标准更宽松，而对于有机化学品，它们宽松和严格的情况大致相同。IRIS数据库中公布的EPA健康评估得出的毒性和癌症效力参考值，宽松和严格的情况大致相同，且它们常常是一样的。对这些值的修订往往使其更宽松。这些结果表明，EPA的标准和定量健康评估与其他机构和其他国家的标准和评估并无不一致。
