Session Symposium Summary: California Risk Assessment Case Study On Diesel Exhaust. E. L. Anderson, Sciences International, Inc., King Street Station, 1800 Diagonal Rd., Suite 500, Alexandria, VA 22314-2808; L. B. Gratt, IWG Corp., 2241 Kettner Blvd., Suite 220, San Diego, CA 92101; and W. R. Chappell, Center for Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado at Denver, Denver, CO 80204
A special session at the10th Annual Society for Risk Analysis Symposium on Health Risk Assessment in Monterey, California was held on October 8, 1997 on the California Risk Assessment Case Study: Health Effects of Exposure to Diesel Exhaust prepared by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment of the California Environmental Protection Agency. This presentation will summarize the one-half day session on diesel exhaust, with presentations in a technical forum where comparison to USEPA can be highlighted and unresolved key science issues discussed. A key question for this risk assessment concerns the existence of a dose-response relationship. A summary of the report was followed by a summary of the recent exposure measurements for 16 US cities. The key epidemiological study on the railroad workers was reviewed. The analysis assumptions and conditions for establishing a dose-response relationship from two conflicting studies were compared. Risk assessment overviews were followed by a panel question and answer session. Panel moderators summarized the session, trying to highlight the key unresolved science issues in the DE risk assessment.