Air Toxics Assessment

Under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, EPA is required to regulate emissions of 188 listed air toxics. EPA is currently conducting a National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) that, when complete, will include 33 air toxics that present the greatest threat to public health in the largest number of urban areas. This assessment will also include diesel particulate matter, an indicator of diesel exhaust.

This assessment includes the development of toxic inventories from point sources, area sources, and mobile sources. The NATA Assessment is designed to help EPA, state, local and tribal governments and the public to better understand the air toxics problem in the U.S. EPA's activities to reduce risk on a national scale may not address potential risks on the more local level. Consequently, the Strategy includes local and community-based initiatives which EPA envisions will involve partnerships between EPA and the State, local and Tribal governments.

In January 2000, EPA created the Integrated Air Toxics State/Local/Tribal Program Structure Workgroup, which met from February through August 2000. EPA created the workgroup to obtain advice on how to structure a program encompassing Federal, State, local, and Tribal authorities to collectively address air toxics risk. Using the workgroup's recommended structure as a starting point, EPA plans to develop a program for an integrated air toxics State/Local/Tribal program structure to move the national risk-based program forward.

If you'd like to review more specific information about these areas, please check out the links provided below. You can also contact Gwen Yoshimura, our Air Toxics Contact, at either (913) 551-7073 or yoshimura.gwen@epa.gov.

Useful Bookmarks:

National Air Toxics Assessment

Recommended Framework for State/Local/Tribal Air Toxics Risk Reduction Program

Air Toxics Monitoring Concept Paper

Green Communities

Databases on Major Sources:

AirData

Toxic Release Inventory (Chemical Right to Know) Reports

Envirofacts (Emissions Database Search Engine):

Air Toxics Data for Mobile and Area Sources:

EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality -- Mobile Source Air Toxics

AirData

California's Proposed Risk Reduction Plan for Diesel-Fueled Engines and Vehicles

Chemical Fact Sheets and Toxicity Data:

Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)

Agency for Toxic Subst. and Disease Registry (ATSDR)

TOXNET

CAL-EPA (Office of Environmental Health and Hazard Assessment)

Health Effects Notebook for Hazardous Air Pollutants

Air Toxics Assessment

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