Estimates of the Health Risk Reductions Associated with Attainment of Alternative Particulate Matter Standards in Two U.S. Cities

Leland B. Deck, Ellen S. Post, Eric Smith, Matthew Wiener, Kathleen Cunningham and Harvey Richmond

Risk Analysis, 2001, vol. 21, issue 5, 821-821

Abstract: As part of its periodic re‐evaluation of particulate matter (PM) standards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated the health risk reductions associated with attainment of alternative PM standards in two locations in the United States with relatively complete air quality data: Philadelphia and Los Angeles. PM standards at the time of the analysis were defined for particles of aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 10 μm, denoted as PM‐10. The risk analyses estimated the risk reductions that would be associated with changing from attainment of the PM‐10 standards then in place to attainment of alternative standards using an indicator measuring fine particles, defined as those particles of aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 μm and denoted as PM‐2.5. Annual average PM‐2.5 standards of 12.5, 15, and 20 μg/m3 were considered in various combinations with daily PM‐2.5 standards of 50 and 65 μg/m3. Attainment of a standard or set of standards was simulated by a proportional rollback of “as is” daily PM concentrations to daily PM concentrations that would just meet the standard(s). The predicted reductions in the incidence of health effects varied from zero, for those alternative standards already being met, to substantial reductions of over 88% of all PM‐associated incidence (e.g., in mortality associated with long‐term exposures in Los Angeles, under attainment of an annual standard of 12.5 μg/m3). Sensitivity analyses and integrated uncertainty analyses assessed the multiple‐source uncertainty surrounding estimates of risk reduction.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/0272-4332.215154

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:riskan:v:21:y:2001:i:5:p:821-821

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Risk Analysis from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().