From the Sacramento Bee on-line, http://www.sacbee.com
Indoor air could get more oversight
Planned bill would give state Air Resources Board new authority
By Edie Lau -- Bee Science Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, June 10, 2005
Roused by a recent report that Californians' health is endangered as much from polluted air indoors as outdoors, a state lawmaker said Thursday she will push to give the state Air Resources Board the power to clean up indoor air.
Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, said the report, which was produced by air board staff members at the request of the Legislature, was "even more damning than most people thought it would be."
Lieber's comments came in an interview Thursday after a hearing on the subject by the Assembly Select Committee on Air and Water Quality, of which she is a member.
The second-term legislator pledged to pick up where former state Assemblyman Fred Keeley, D-Santa Cruz, left off. Three years ago, Keeley introduced a bill to give the air board authority to regulate indoor air. The board is known internationally for its aggressive actions to clean up outdoor air, mostly through stringent limits on motor-vehicle emissions.
Industry opposition led Keeley to revise his indoor-air bill only to require the air board to produce a study on the issue. That bill passed.
Completed in March, the study concludes that indoor air pollution - caused by numerous sources including cigarette smoke, radon, improperly vented gas-burning appliances, mold and even some devices sold as air purifiers - costs the state at least $45 billion a year in lost worker productivity, medical care and premature deaths.
The 333-page report was based upon hundreds of scientific studies and found, among other things, that the risk of cancer from breathing toxic air contaminants, such as formaldehyde, is comparable to the risk of cancer from breathing particles of diesel exhaust outside.
Despite the hazard, no one agency in the state or federal government has the authority to regulate indoor air.
"This is a huge gap in our state programs," said Bonnie Holmes-Gen, assistant vice president of governmental relations at the American Lung Association of California.
Barbara Spark, indoor-air program coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional office in San Francisco, said many solutions to indoor air pollution are inexpensive and easy, but the public generally is unaware of the importance of the problem.
"Every time my colleagues and I walk into a school, we find many simple things that can be remedied immediately, at little or no expense," Spark said.
"A master ventilation switch may be permanently in the 'off' position. A classroom's outdoor air supply may be blocked by books or cabinets. Compost or a Dumpster may be under an air intake … . Many school districts don't understand that good indoor air is a necessity, not a luxury, and it needs to be managed," she said.
Industry lobbyists cautioned legislators not to overestimate the risks of particular products or chemicals, whether household cleaning agents or formaldehyde in wood preservative.
Lieber pledged to introduce legislation, probably in January, that would expand the powers of the Air Resources Board to regulate indoor air, as Keeley's bill originally sought. Keeley since has been termed out of office.
"Now that the report has come back, there should be more political will," Lieber said.
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