Technical Reports
Rice Releases Air Toxics Study:
A new report recommends immediate action to reduce levels of four toxic air pollutants because exposure to them poses a high risk to community health. Released today by Rice University, and funded by Houston Endowment, the study proposes a new set of air quality standards based on the underlying toxicology of the four pollutants investigated.
Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Southern University, University of Houston Law Center and The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston collaborated with Rice on the study, which focused on benzene, 1,3-butadiene, formaldehyde and diesel particulate matter.
According to the report, the ultimate goal is the adoption of enforceable ambient air quality standards for which only one more person in a million would be expeced to develop cancer from a lifetime exposure to individual hazardous air pollutants.
The study provides the detailed toxicology and health risk assessment for four compounds and also investigates how a variety of factors leads to a greater impact from exposure to air toxics for some people. The study also compiles how other states and countries regulate air toxics.
A full version of the report and the Executive Summary are available at the Rice Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering website: http://ceve.rice.edu.
Or The Executive Summary (1MB) and Full Report (2MB) can be downloaded here.
- Executive Summary (1MB)
- Full Report (2MB)
