Twice the effort: Ineffectiveness of selecting air pollution control targets with emission quantity for risk reduction
Journal
Environment International
Journal Volume
125
Pages
489-496
Date Issued
2019
Author(s)
Abstract
Protection of human health from air pollution has been typically pursued primarily via regulations of air quality standards and emission standards. Although reducing air pollution from the largest sources and placing more stringent emission limits on the industries of focus is a criterion used by decision makers to control air pollution, it is not clear whether this criterion is the most effective and efficient in improving health protection. Pollutants released from sources into the environment are spatially fluctuating rather than uniformly distributed, and hence, health risk is an issue of geographic variability. To address this issue, this study used a representative example of lead (Pb) in Taiwan. This study implemented an IO-RA methodology to redefine the effectiveness of air pollution management and rank the control priorities of target industries using different perspectives, i.e., environmental responsibility, economic benefit and repercussion potential. This study also considered the potential differences in policy effectiveness based on the air pollution control targets and ranked the industries according to their effectiveness in health risk improvement across the three perspectives and pure emission quantities. After determining the cause-effect chain of health risk through IO-RA, authorities can partner with specific industries according to the chosen effectiveness criteria and thus facilitate better policy performance. ? 2018 The Authors
Subjects
Decision analysis; Emission standard; IO-RA; Lead; Risk assessment
Other Subjects
Air quality; Air quality standards; Decision making; Decision theory; Health; Health risks; Lead; Risk assessment; Economic benefits; Emission standard; Environmental responsibility; Geographic variability; Policy performance; Pollution management; Potential difference; Target industries; Air pollution control; lead; lead; air quality; atmospheric pollution; decision analysis; emission control; health risk; lead; pollution control; pollution exposure; risk assessment; air pollutant; air pollution control; Article; economic aspect; environmental health; environmental management; health hazard; methodology; policy; priority journal; responsibility; risk assessment; risk management; risk reduction; Taiwan; air pollution; ecosystem restoration; human; prevention and control; procedures; Taiwan; Air Pollutants; Air Pollution; Environmental Restoration and Remediation; Humans; Lead; Risk Assessment; Taiwan
Type
journal article