Carnegie Mellon

 

Exposure-Based Regulation of Particulate Air Pollution

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Investigator(s) H. Keith Florig, CMU/EPP, florig@cmu.edu, Guodong Sun, CMU/EPP, gsun@andrew.cmu.edu, Guojun Song, Renmin University, Institute for Environmental Economics
Period 1999-2001
Funding Center for the Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change and the Scientific Group on Methodologies for the Safety Evaluation of Chemicals (travel).
Products

Florig HK, Sun G, Song G, “Evolution of particulate regulation in China - Prospects and challenges of exposure-based control,” Chemosphere, in press.

Florig HK, Sun G, Song G, “Particulate Regulation in China,” slide presentation at the 14th meeting of the Scientific Group on Methodologies for the Safety Evaluation of Chemicals, 7-12 November, 1999, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii. (download PDF file here).

Abstract

China’s urban and rural populations face very serious health risks from combustion particles.  Major sources of exposure to inhalable particulates include the burning solid fuels (biomass and coal) for household cooking and heating, coal-fired industrial and residential boilers, tobacco smoking, and diesel motor vehicles.  China began to address particulate pollution problems over twenty-five years ago and has implemented a series of progressively more aggressive policies.  This paper reviews the successes and limitations of past and existing policies for particulate controls, as well as the effects of China’s economic reforms and energy policies on particulate exposure and pollution management.  We examine the challenge of emissions reporting, required as part of both China's pollution levy system and emerging system for "total emissions control."  Finally, we discuss practical steps toward exposure-based regulation of particulates, which would take advantage of the high cost-effectiveness for lifesaving of controlling particulate exposure from household and neighborhood sources relative to that of controlling exposure from industrial sources. 

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