This Assessment discusses the technical issues of moving from the current pollutant-by-pollutant approach to air quality management to an integrated air quality management paradigm that addresses multiple pollutants and sources, considers overall risk reduction as a principal decision metric, and uses retrospective analysis (also known as accountability) as a tool for assessing and improving air quality management. The assessment concludes that there are theoretical advantages to an integrated, risk-based approach, but achieving it will be an evolutionary process. This evolution will require improvements in exposure and dose assessment, changes in monitoring approaches to support these assessments, and it will require considerable advance planning in order to select appropriate accountability metrics and obtain the information needed to evaluate them.

The Assessment was conducted under the direction of

Dr. George M. Hidy (Envair, Aerochem)

Dr. Jeffrey R. Brook (Senior Research Scientist, Environment Canada, Air Quality Research Division)

Prof. Kenneth L. Demerjian (Director, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, University at Albany, State University of New York)

Dr. Luisa T. Molina (President, Molina Center for Energy and the Environment and Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Dr. Richard D. Scheffe (Senior Science Advisor, Air Quality Assessment Division, Office of Air Quality Planning and Analysis, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

The Assessment is scheduled for publication by Springer as Technical Challenges of Multipollutant Air Quality Management; Hidy, G.M., J.R. Brook, K.L. Demerjian, L.T. Molina, W.T. Pennell, and R.D. Scheffe (eds). Springer, Dordrecht, 2010.

A copy of the Assessment Summary is provided here.