The National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Air Quality Management in the United States recently released its report Air Quality Management in the United States.

The Committee on Air Quality Management in the United States was formed by the National Research Council in response to a congressional request for an independent evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the CAA and its implementation by federal, state, and local government agencies.   The committee was asked to develop scientific and technical recommendations for strengthening the nation’s air quality management (AQM) system. Michael Bradley, Principal of M. J. Bradley & Associates served as a committee member.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare.  Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters.

The committee concluded that implementation of the CAA has contributed to substantial decreases in emissions of several pollutants.   However, despite the progress, the committee identified scientific and technical limitations in the current air quality management system that will hinder future progress, especially as the nation attempts to meet key challenges in the coming decade.

Among its recommendations, the committee identified the following objectives to strengthen the air quality management system in the long-term:

§          Strive to identify and assess more clearly the most significant exposures, risks, and uncertainties.

§          Strive to take an integrated multipollutant approach to controlling emissions of pollutants posing the most significant risks.

§          Strive to take an airshed-based approach by assessing and controlling emissions of important pollutants arising from local, multistate, national, and international sources. 

Michael Bradley and Dan Greenbaum, Vice Committee Chair and president and chief executive officer of the Health Effects Institute, will present these and other findings from the NAS report to the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee on March 24, 2004.

To view the report, visit http://www.nap.edu/books/0309089328/html/