Superfund and real risks

Journal Article · · American Enterprise (Washington, D.C.); (United States)

OSTI ID:6591637

Viscusi, W K; Hamilto, J T

In the highly charged atmosphere of controversy over the potential health hazards posed by leaking chemicals at industrial sites such as Love Canal, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980. The act created the Superfund program and directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to identify hazardous waste sites that substantially endangered human health and the environment and to supervise their cleanup. The EPA, with assistance from the states, has evaluated about 36,000 potential problem areas thus far. Of these, the agency has put over 1,200 sites on the National Priorities List (NPL), which qualifies a site for remediation expenditures for the Superfund program. An EPA assessment of the risks at each site is the first step in a process that eventually produces an evaluation of options for responding to the dangers that exist. The EPA then selects a cleanup option if one is necessary. The administrative record of all this activity at each site contains a substantial amount of quantitative information on the cancer and noncancer risks for different exposed populations. Researchers and policymakers have not systematically examined these data, however, in part because the considerable cost of collecting the information from regional EPA offices is significant.

• OSTI ID: 6591637
• Journal Information: American Enterprise (Washington, D.C.); (United States), Journal Name: American Enterprise (Washington, D.C.); (United States) Vol. 5:2; ISSN AEETE9; ISSN 1047-3572
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540220* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
552000 -- Public Health
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
ABANDONED SITES
DISEASES
IMPLEMENTATION
LAWS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NEOPLASMS
POLLUTION LAWS
POLLUTION REGULATIONS
POLLUTION SOURCES
REGULATIONS
REMEDIAL ACTION
RISK ASSESSMENT
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
US EPA
US ORGANIZATIONS
US SUPERFUND