A top EPA science adviser is recommending changes to a cornerstone of EPA’s regulatory framework for air pollution.
For decades, the agency has channeled vast amounts of labor into oversight of a fixed roster of six pollutants subject to National Ambient Air Quality Standards. But since the list’s development in the 1970s, “scientific understanding and the air pollution challenges facing humanity have both changed enormously,” Lianne Sheppard, chair of the agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, said during a virtual meeting of the seven-member panel Thursday.
While “agnostic” on which pollutants should be added or dropped, Sheppard alluded to a recent written submission in which she urged the committee to take a look in the near future.
Known as “criteria pollutants,” the six are currently carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxides, ozone, particulate matter and sulfur dioxide. With some relatively minor differences, EPA first spelled them out in early 1971, soon after passage of the Clean Air Act.
