Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee

The lEUBK model has been more exhaustively validated and calibrated than any like model being used today as a site-specific risk assessment tool by EPA or others. This evaluation ranged from verifying the basic computational soundness of the model to the range of its applications, independently evaluated by EPA s Science Advisory Board, Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (SAB/CASAC). SAB approved its use in stationary source air Pb exposure assessment and at hazardous waste sites containing lead (SAB/ CASAC, 1989, 1992). 

U.S. Science Advisory Board, 1989. Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) Report Review of the Lead NAAQS Exposure Analysis Methodology and Evaluation, Report No. EPA SAB-CASAC-89-018. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC. 

A lead criteria document, the scientific basis for subsequent regulatory action, was issued in December 1977 (U.S. EPA, 1977). An ambient air Pb standard was issued in October 1978 (43 FR 46246 October 5, 1978), with a NAAQS value of 1.5 pg/m Pb, determined as a quarterly maximum arithmetic average. This value was the same for the primary and secondary NAAQS for Pb. This NAAQS for Pb was to be reviewed at 5-year intervals to determine if changes were necessary, with recommendations for changes to come from an independent Congressionally specified advisory body called the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). 

This regulatory action was supported by the Dust Study just discussed. Therefore, EPA conducted a peer review in accordance with the Final Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB). EPA requested this review from the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) Lead Review Panel. The CASAC, which is comprised of seven members appointed by the EPA Administrator, was established under the Clean Air Act as an independent scientific advisory committee. The CASAC s comments on the Dust Study, along with EPA s responses, have been placed into the public docket for this action. More information on the CASAC consultation process, along with background documents, is available on EPA s website at www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/casac.htm. 

US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Policy and Analysis. (1984). Comments on issues raised in the analysis of the neuropsychological effects of low level lead exposure. Presented at Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) meeting April Research Triangle Park, NC. Available for inspection at US Environmental Protection Agency, Central Docket Station, Washington, DC docket no. ECAO-CD-81-2 IIA.F.19. 

The actual standard-setting process is complicated and typically protracted. In current practice, key elements are the preparation of a criteria document by the EPA staff with substantial input from scientists outside the agency. The criteria document is reviewed by the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CAS AC), which was created in response to congressional action in 1977. The intent of the process of review, and typically of revision, is to achieve a criteria document that C ASAC views as scientifically adequate for regulatory decision making. The most recent criteria document, Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter (23), consists of three volumes about 6-in. thick. It represents an encyclopedia of current information on PM. 

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