Peltier Appointed to EPA Ozone Review Panel

Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences Richard Peltier has been appointed to the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) Ozone Review Panel. CASAC provides independent advice to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator on the technical bases for EPA's National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

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Peltier joins a team of 18 external experts who will review the EPA’s current ozone pollution standards, which were last revised in 2015. In 2019, the Trump administration opted to keep ozone pollution standards the same. EPA has requested that CASAC provide advice on policy-relevant science to support the Agency’s reconsideration of the ozone pollution standards for the United States.

“I am very honored to have been asked to serve as an expert in this crucially important national role,” says Peltier, whose two-year appointment began in March 2022. “There are many challenging questions ahead as we dive into the current state of science on air quality. Good scientific understanding is the basis for good science-driven policy, and I know that there are nationally important changes that arise from this work. Not only in helping to set national air quality standards, but in ensuring that public health remains a national priority.”

Established in 1977 under the Clean Air Act of 1977, CASAC addresses research related to air quality, sources of air pollution, and the strategies to attain and maintain air quality standards and to prevent significant deterioration of air quality. To fulfill that mandate, CASAC reviews criteria documents, science assessments, risk and exposure assessments, and policy-related assessments developed by EPA. Most preliminary work of the CASAC is done by ad hoc panels focused on specific criteria pollutants.

Peltier’s expertise and innovative approaches, novel designs and applications of instrumentation to improve our understanding of particulate matter have made him a sought-after scholar throughout the U.S. and abroad. In addition to his advisory role with CASAC, Peltier also serves on the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Air Pollution and Health Technical Advisory Group (GAPH-TAG). The advisory group has been studying the organization’s health impact assessment of air pollution and working to update their Sustainable Development Goals for the United Nations, and to help revise global air quality guidelines.