Health Risks of Multiple Air Pollutants Examined by EPA
By Pat Rizzuto, Bloomberg BNA.
The Environmental Protection Agency is developing an approach to understand the health risks posed by mixtures of different air pollutants.
Barbara Buckley, a toxicologist working in the EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment, described during a July 12 webinar a conceptual approach the agency is developing to assess mixtures of air pollutants.
Buckley said the Adverse Outcome Pathway approach the EPA is exploring is at the research stage; information would be used to identify additional studies that could address critical data gaps. The approach, however, marks an important shift in the agency from a single-pollutant at a time approach to assessing multiple pollutants in the air people breathe, she said.