Berry D K
Air Quality Management Division, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27711.
Toxicol Ind Health. 1990 Oct;6(5):1-12.
Over the past several years, substantial concern has been expressed by some in Congress, environmental groups, and members of the public concerning the lack of progress in regulating toxic air pollutants by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As a result, a number of amendments to the Federal Clean Air Act have been introduced to require EPA to regulate in a relatively rapid timeframe, a large number of potentially toxic pollutants that are released to the ambient air. This paper discusses EPA's current understanding of the magnitude and nature of the air toxics problem in the U.S., and the pollutants and source categories that pose the most significant risk to the public. The focus of the discussion is on routine releases, as opposed to catastrophic, accidental releases such as the one in Bhopal, India. The paper then discusses the strategy that EPA has put in place to deal with the problem and presents the status of a number of regulatory and non-regulatory activities under way to better understand the problem and to mitigate it. The strategy involves important roles for: (1) EPA to regulate national problems using a variety of Federal authorities in addition to the Clean Air Act, and (2) States to develop their own air toxic control programs to deal with unique local problems involving high risk point sources and multipollutant, multisource problems in large urban or industrialized areas.
在过去几年里，美国国会的一些议员、环保组织以及公众对美国环境保护局（EPA）在管控有毒空气污染物方面缺乏进展表达了严重关切。因此，有人提出了多项对《联邦清洁空气法》的修正案，要求EPA在相对较短的时间内对大量排放到环境空气中的潜在有毒污染物进行管控。本文讨论了EPA目前对美国空气有毒物质问题的规模和性质的理解，以及对公众构成最大风险的污染物和污染源类别。讨论的重点是常规排放，而非像印度博帕尔那样的灾难性意外排放。本文接着讨论了EPA为应对该问题所制定的策略，并介绍了一些正在进行的监管和非监管活动的现状，这些活动旨在更好地了解该问题并加以缓解。该策略涉及以下重要角色：（1）EPA利用除《清洁空气法》之外的各种联邦权力来管控全国性问题；（2）各州制定自己的空气有毒物质控制计划，以应对涉及高风险点源以及大城市或工业化地区多污染物、多源问题的独特地方问题。
