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]
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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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    Executive Summary committee composed of federal agencies to help it carry out its research and information dissemination activities. To meet this latter requirement, EPA relied on an interagency consultative body, the Committee on Indoor Air Quality, composed of agencies, such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, whose missions were in some way related to the healthfulness of indoor environments.” In 1989, as required by the 1986 legislation, EPA submitted a report to the Congress on indoor air quality and radon. The report described the research that EPA and others had conducted up to that time and the general understanding of the problem. It also outlined a broad agenda of research that EPA, in consultation with others, had concluded would be needed to increase the scientific understanding of the problem and the ability to devise effective solutions for it. In October 1991, GAo reported on the progress by EPA and other federal agencies in implementing the 1986 legislation and advancing its objectives.® GAO concluded that EPA’s emphasis on indoor air pollution, as reflected by the amount of funding for research and related activities, was not commensurate with the health risks posed by the problem—a high comparative risk ranking made by the agency and endorsed by its Science Advisory Board.4 Gao also concluded that better coordination was needed among federal agencies in their indoor air-related activities, including research. GAO reported that EPA’s indoor air-related research had been, and likely would continue to be, constrained by a lack of funding, largely due to an increase in the agency’s overall program responsibilities over the years that was not accompanied by a corresponding increase in its budget. Also contributing to this problem was the fact that the indoor air program, unlike other statutorily mandated EPA programs, did not have the kinds of legislatively mandated time frames and goals that tend to drive the resource allocation process and set research funding priorities. With respect to cooperation and coordination among members of the Committee on Indoor Air Quality, GAo found that the limited participation by agencies other than EPA and the lack of a clear charter for the body had inhibited its effectiveness as a means to coordinate federal indoor air pollution efforts and avoid duplication. °The Committee was first set up in 1979, disbanded during the tenure of EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch, and reinstituted in 1984 in response to an appropriation giving EPA funds to conduct research on indoor air issues. Current members of the Committee on Indoor Air Quality are listed in app. I. *Indoor Air Pollution: Federal Efforts Are Not Effectively Addressing a Growing Problem (GAO/RCED-92-8, Oct. 15, 1991). 4A public advisory group established within the Office of the EPA Administrator to provide independent, expert advice on scientific matters related to EPA’s mission responsibilities.