Indoor pollution : status of federal research activities : report to the Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives / United States General Accounting Office.
- United States. General Accounting Office
- Date:
- [1999]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Indoor pollution : status of federal research activities : report to the Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives / United States General Accounting Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Chapter 1 Introduction (NIEHS), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Nationa] Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the National Cancer Institute (NcI), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). To obtain the detailed information needed to address each of our objectives, we interviewed key agency officials, requested and reviewed pertinent agency documents, and submitted extensive written questions for formal responses from agency officials. In many instances, these questions were supplemented with follow-up questions and interviews to obtain additional details or clarifications on selected aspects of the agencies’ activities. We requested information on expenditures for indoor pollution-related research from the agencies we reviewed for fiscal years 1987 through 1998 as well as anticipated spending for fiscal year 1999. Generally, the agencies were able to provide the requested expenditure data, however, in a few cases, agencies told us that they could provide only estimates of spending for the earliest years (See app. I for details of spending by individual agencies and explanations and qualifications on reported expenditure data). To account for inflation and to facilitate interyear comparisons, we have aa ma all expenditure amounts in this report in 1999 constant dollars.” To provide the broadest possible perspective on our objectives, in particular, the crucial questions of (1) the advances resulting from research conducted to-date and (2) the remaining knowledge gaps and research needed to fill them, we also sought the views of recognized authorities working outside the specific federal agencies included in the scope of our review. These experts were identified for us by officials of the agencies we reviewed as individuals that the agencies themselves frequently call upon for expert advice and were often the authors of the peer-reviewed scientific journal articles that we consulted. They included prominent researchers in academia, environmental medicine, state government, and national laboratories affiliated with DoE.’ In addition, the pertinent views of some of these agency-identified experts, as well as those of other authorities in this field, were obtained from a detailed review of the extensive hearing record compiled by OSHA in connection with its proposed rule-making on indoor air quality. We used the Department of Commerce's chain-type price index for gross domestic product to convert figures on expenditures to their 1999 constant dollar values. We sought the views of a large number of experts who were recommended to us or who were identified by us through our review of the peer-reviewed scientific literature. A much smaller number of experts actually responded to our requests, however. Those individuals whose contributions were particularly helpful in the preparation of this report are listed in app. III.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3223059x_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
