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Indoor Air Contamination from Hazardous Waste Sites: Improving the Evidence Base for Decision-Making
At hazardous waste sites, volatile chemicals can migrate through groundwater and soil into buildings, a process known as vapor intrusion. Due to increasing recognition of vapor intrusion as a potential indoor air pollution source, in 2015 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4690896/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26633433 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph121214960 |
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author | Johnston, Jill MacDonald Gibson, Jacqueline |
author_facet | Johnston, Jill MacDonald Gibson, Jacqueline |
author_sort | Johnston, Jill |
collection | PubMed |
description | At hazardous waste sites, volatile chemicals can migrate through groundwater and soil into buildings, a process known as vapor intrusion. Due to increasing recognition of vapor intrusion as a potential indoor air pollution source, in 2015 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new vapor intrusion guidance document. The guidance specifies two conditions for demonstrating that remediation is needed: (1) proof of a vapor intrusion pathway; and (2) evidence that human health risks exceed established thresholds (for example, one excess cancer among 10,000 exposed people). However, the guidance lacks details on methods for demonstrating these conditions. We review current evidence suggesting that monitoring and modeling approaches commonly employed at vapor intrusion sites do not adequately characterize long-term exposure and in many cases may underestimate risks. On the basis of this evidence, we recommend specific approaches to monitoring and modeling to account for these uncertainties. We propose a value of information approach to integrate the lines of evidence at a site and determine if more information is needed before deciding whether the two conditions specified in the vapor intrusion guidance are satisfied. To facilitate data collection and decision-making, we recommend a multi-directional community engagement strategy and consideration of environment justice concerns. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4690896 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-46908962016-01-06 Indoor Air Contamination from Hazardous Waste Sites: Improving the Evidence Base for Decision-Making Johnston, Jill MacDonald Gibson, Jacqueline Int J Environ Res Public Health Concept Paper At hazardous waste sites, volatile chemicals can migrate through groundwater and soil into buildings, a process known as vapor intrusion. Due to increasing recognition of vapor intrusion as a potential indoor air pollution source, in 2015 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new vapor intrusion guidance document. The guidance specifies two conditions for demonstrating that remediation is needed: (1) proof of a vapor intrusion pathway; and (2) evidence that human health risks exceed established thresholds (for example, one excess cancer among 10,000 exposed people). However, the guidance lacks details on methods for demonstrating these conditions. We review current evidence suggesting that monitoring and modeling approaches commonly employed at vapor intrusion sites do not adequately characterize long-term exposure and in many cases may underestimate risks. On the basis of this evidence, we recommend specific approaches to monitoring and modeling to account for these uncertainties. We propose a value of information approach to integrate the lines of evidence at a site and determine if more information is needed before deciding whether the two conditions specified in the vapor intrusion guidance are satisfied. To facilitate data collection and decision-making, we recommend a multi-directional community engagement strategy and consideration of environment justice concerns. MDPI 2015-11-27 2015-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4690896/ /pubmed/26633433 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph121214960 Text en © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons by Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Concept Paper Johnston, Jill MacDonald Gibson, Jacqueline Indoor Air Contamination from Hazardous Waste Sites: Improving the Evidence Base for Decision-Making |
title | Indoor Air Contamination from Hazardous Waste Sites: Improving the Evidence Base for Decision-Making |
title_full | Indoor Air Contamination from Hazardous Waste Sites: Improving the Evidence Base for Decision-Making |
title_fullStr | Indoor Air Contamination from Hazardous Waste Sites: Improving the Evidence Base for Decision-Making |
title_full_unstemmed | Indoor Air Contamination from Hazardous Waste Sites: Improving the Evidence Base for Decision-Making |
title_short | Indoor Air Contamination from Hazardous Waste Sites: Improving the Evidence Base for Decision-Making |
title_sort | indoor air contamination from hazardous waste sites: improving the evidence base for decision-making |
topic | Concept Paper |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4690896/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26633433 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph121214960 |
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