BOARD MEETING DATE: April 4, 2003
AGENDA NO. 33
Guidance for Staff Testimony and Comment Regarding Potential Health Risks
SYNOPSIS:
AQMD staff is called upon to present comments on behalf of the agency at various government hearings or other agency proceedings. Topics include characterization of potential health impacts presented by a proposed project or permit action. As part of the enhancements to the AQMD’s Environmental Justice Program, the Board directed staff to develop guidance and specific training for staff regarding public testimony and comment relating to potential health risks. This provides a description of the guidance training developed.
COMMITTEE:
None
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Receive and file.
Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env.
Executive Officer
Background
In October 1997, the Board approved a work plan to implement ten Environmental Justice (EJ) Initiatives. These Initiatives, along with a set of guiding principles, were intended to ensure that clean air benefits are accorded to all residents and communities of the South Coast Air Basin (Basin). The ten EJ Initiatives were completed by mid-2000.
In February 2002, the Board approved development of environmental justice enhancements. Specifically, staff was asked to perform an annual review of AQMD’s EJ Program and to lay out proposed EJ related activities for FY 2002-03. Following that directive, staff developed a set of program enhancements, which were presented at the July 2002 Board meeting. A series of eight public consultation meetings were held throughout the District in August and September to solicit diverse community feedback and further suggestions. On September 13, 2002, the Board approved the 23 EJ Program enhancements and directed staff to implement them by June 2003. One of the 23 EJ Enhancements is Item #II-2: Staff Protocol for Testimony on Health Impacts.
Training Description
A training presentation on Effectively Communicating the Health Risks of Air Pollution was developed and given to AQMD management staff as part of a recent training seminar on environmental justice. The guidance is summarized in the attached presentation slides used in the training.
The guidance consists of several components of a common-sense approach to communicating health risks in settings related to environmental justice concerns. Used as sources for the materials from several publications listed below under References. These documents can also be referred to for additional information.
The basics of the guidance training are summarized by the so-called "Seven Cardinal Rules of Risk Communication" developed by Covello and Allen. These are listed below.
- Accept and involve the public as a partner
- Plan carefully and evaluate your efforts
- Listen to the public’s specific concerns
- Be honest, frank, and open
- Work with other credible sources
- Meet the needs of the media
- Speak clearly and with compassion
Additional variables that influence the perception of health risks were discussed, as well as appropriate ways to interact with members of the public. Factors important in earning trust and building credibility were also presented.
Presentation of Potential Health Risks
Staff members are often called upon to present results of health risk assessments of emissions from a facility or other source of air emissions. The risk assessments results are given in terms of potential additional cancer risk and in terms of a Hazard Index for non-cancer health effects. The following is a guide for presenting such results.
Cancer risk refers to the additional probability of cancer in an individual that is exposed to the highest concentration of emitted substances that may be found near the facility. The values are given as the chance in a million. This estimate is calculated using cancer potency values adopted by the California-EPA Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) and is generally based on a continuous 70 year lifetime exposure. The risk estimates should not be interpreted as the expected rates of disease in the exposed population, but rather as estimates of potential risk, based on current scientific knowledge. The risk values are best used as a comparison of risks from different sources.
The Hazard Index is the ratio of the concentration of a toxic air contaminant in the air to a Reference Exposure Level (REL) concentration. The RELs are levels developed by OEHHA. Exposures to concentrations below the RELs are not expected to result in non-cancer adverse health effects. The Acute REL refers to effects that might occur with short term exposure of about an hour. The Chronic REL refers to effects that might occur with long term exposure over a period of several years. A Hazard Index below one means that none of the toxic air contaminant levels was above the REL. A level greater than one means that one or more of the toxic air contaminants is above its REL, or that the sum of the Hazard Indices for all of the toxic air contaminants emitted is greater than one.
The cancer risk and Hazard Index from a risk assessment of a specific source can then be compared to significance levels for adverse health effects in the District’s rules relating to air toxics.
In addition, when providing testimony or input to another policy body, staff will also provide available occupational safety threshold information relative to any estimated or measured pollution level to provide additional perspective to the decision makers. This would include occupational exposure limits adopted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Threshold Limit Values adopted by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists
References
A Primer on Health Risk Communication Principles and Practices. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. June, 2001. Available at http://atsdr1.atsdr.cdc.gov/HEC/primer.html
Covello, V. and Allen, F. Seven Cardinal Rules of Risk Communication. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Policy Analysis. Washington, D.C. 1998
Covello, V. Risk Communication, Trust, and Credibility. Health and Environmentlal Digest, 6(1)1-4, 1992
National Research Council. Improving Risk Communication. National Academy Press, 1989.
U.S. EPA. Environmental Equity. Reducing Risk for all Communities. EPA230-R-92-008, June, 1992.
Effectively Communicating the Health Effects of Air Pollution. Environmental Justice Training Seminar handouts, February, 2003
ATTACHMENT A
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