Toxic Air Contaminant Program
Evaluation (Risk Assessment)

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The law requires the preparation of a report for candidate toxic air contaminants that includes air monitoring data, environmental fate information, use data, data on health effects and assessment of public exposure. The report is reviewed by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the Air Resources Board, and is made available for public review. The draft also undergoes a peer review for scientific soundness by the Scientific Review Panel. Based on this evaluation, the Director of the DPR determines whether the candidate is a toxic air contaminant.

DPR has a comprehensive approach for risk assessment that evaluates potential dietary (food and drinking water), workplace, residential, and ambient air exposures. Assessing Human Health Risk describes DPR's comprehensive risk assessments and how the toxic air contaminant evaluations are a part of the assessment.