Toward Risk- and Results-Based Multipollutant Air Quality Management—What’s Next?

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to comment on the status and limitations of current tools for developing multipollutant air management strategies, and demonstrating accountability for results. A transition from today’s regulatory practice to more complete, risk-based, results-oriented multipollutant management strategies is a major challenge for North American policy-makers. If such a path is chosen, a transition is envisaged along the lines discussed in Chap. 2 with four levels of change. The current approach to air quality management, a focus on achieving individual air quality standards with some consideration of efficiency in multipollutant emissions reductions, has provided major improvement in air quality as exemplified in Chap. 11. A pathway towards a full transition to risk- and results-based multipollutant air quality management is also described in Chap. 2. How far decision-makers could progress towards this goal depends on identifying appropriate indicators of exposure, health and ecosystem effects, combined with tools for determining “optimum” risk reduction.