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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Marybeth Smuts, PhD, US EPA - New England, One Congress Street, Suite 1100, Boston, MA 02114, (617) 918-1512, smuts.marybeth@epamail.epa.gov
Occupational health risk is rarely considered when air pollution regulations are developed even when Congress mandates that the public health and the individual most exposed be considered. The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments requires that air toxic standards be evaluated within 8 years of promulgation to determine the remaining risk to the public health and if an ample margin of safety to protect public health is achieved. Options for achieving emission reductions may include work practice changes; therefore, the worker is part of the control technology but worker health is not part of the determination of residual risk to the public health. The first sources for this residual risk consideration are: coke ovens, secondary lead smelters and ethylene oxide sterilizers. Analysis of historical occupational exposures provides some examples of continued risks; such as review of OSHA inspection database of a coke oven. The same violation for worker exposure to coke oven emissions, including benzene is reported in 1988, prior to CAA, and in 2000, after promulgation of the coke oven standard in 1993. The OSHA PEL for benzene that was exceeded in these inspections is 3200ug/m3 (1ppm). The environmental health benchmark (1 in million risk level) for benzene is 0.12ug/m3. Public health should focus on reducing the enormous gap between air toxics health benchmarks for occupational exposures and environmental exposures as well as forcing environmental health organizations to consider workers' health part of public health.
Learning Objectives: The audience after this presentation will
Keywords: Air Pollutants, Occupational Exposure
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: employed by EPA and discussing EPA air pollution regulations