Supersite - continued from pg. 1

and sophisticated research instruments will be used.

    Finally, the data obtained at the Supersite will be used to study health effects of airborne particles at a level of detail not previously possible. The health effects studies will be coordinated by epidemiologists at other institutions examining morbidity and mortality data. This research will include panel studies of susceptible populations such as individuals with asthma and other pulmonary diseases.

    Although the grant will focus on measurement of ambient air quality, other funding on hand by Pandis, Davidson, and Robinson will enable the Supersite data to be used for testing and evaluating three-dimensional air quality models and for examining air pollutants emitted from sources in the Pittsburgh area. Furthermore, a collaborative effort with other institutions will examine indoor-outdoor air quality relationships in the vicinity of the Supersite.

    The sampling will be conducted at a primary site near the Carnegie Mellon campus and at several satellite sites in the tri-state region beginning in the Spring of 2001. Measurements will continue for 12-18 months, and will include a number of intensive runs for especially detailed measurements. The total project, including preliminary work and data analysis, will last for four years. Overall, the results of the new program will provide valuable information to assist future research efforts and will help EPA as well as state and local agencies establish better air quality regulations.

New Air Quality Laboratory

    Thanks to a grant from the Alcoa Foundation, laboratory research in air quality by EPP faculty is being consolidated in a new 2200 square foot state-of-the-art facility. The laboratory, which is located on the B-level of Doherty Hall, is actually four labs in one: a class 100 clean lab with ion chromatographs; a class 1000 clean lab with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer; a smog chamber with special lighting system to study photochemistry; and a flow reactor to study atmospheric chemical reactions. A general lab area for other types of air quality studies is also available.

    A floor plan of the facility is shown below. The lab is being equipped with real-time aerosol monitors as well as air flow measurement devices, equipment for preparing samples for chemical analysis, and a variety of analyzers.

R_x for Regulation

    Rhetoric is great, but sooner or later solving problems requires substance. The R_x for Regulation Project offers specific substance in the form of policy briefings on environment, health, and safety issues. A product of EPP's Center for the Study and Improvement of Regulation (CSIR), the briefings are being sent to policy-makers nationwide.

    Ten one-page briefings comprise the first package. They cover: regulatory performance review, drinking water standards, quantity based performance standards, water pollution trading, Superfund cleanup standards, environmental equity, eco-labeling, offshore oil and gas drilling, and the regulation of transportation emissions.

    Solutions offered include: setting a risk protection threshold to which all people are entitled but beyond which regulation should be based on benefits and costs; focusing on niche transportation markets to encourage the introduction of new technology that is both criteria pollutant and green-house gas friendly; incorporating regulatory review into the ongoing evaluation required of the Government Performance and Results Act; expanding EPA's water science budget, and changing the Clean Water Act to allow pollution trading. Unsurprisingly, the short policy briefs tier back into longer analyses done by the authors, several of which are set to appear in a new book edited by Paul Fischbeck (SDS/EPP) and Scott Farrow (EPP) from Resources for the Future Press titled, Improving Regulation.

    As its name suggest, CSIR is an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to studying and improving health, safety and environmental regulation. For a copy of the R_x for Regulation packet, send e-mail to sf08@andrew.cmu.edu.

    When asked, what is the R_x for regulation, CSIR Director Scott Farrow (EPP) says: "Implement one a month."

EPP and TPP/TMP Graduate Students Meet

    Last year, five EPP graduate students traveled to Boston to meet with their counterparts in MIT's TPP (M.S.) and TMP (Ph.D.) programs. Students from the two programs talked face-to-face, compared their department's philosophies and approaches, and discussed their individual research pursuits. Patrick Gurian, Tim Johnson, Kanchana Wanichkorn, Henry Willis, and Felicia Wu described the EPP program, its research centers, and talked about life at Carnegie Mellon.

    In the afternoon, and during an informal evening out in Cambridge, TMP and EPP students explored what "technology-policy" analysts are and where they fit both in the traditional academic universe and in the world at large. Whether programs like TPP/TMP and EPP are part of an emerging discipline or are more akin to professions occupied much of this discussion. Thoughts on what should be included in the core of a technology-policy program's curriculum also featured prominently in the conversation.

    The students spent much of their time sharing views on three questions: what is technology-policy, is it a discipline, and what is the nature of a technology-policy analyst? EPP Ph.D. student Tim Johnson has summarized some of the views expressed in a more extended version of this article which can be found on the EPP web site (www.epp.cmu.edu) under "Other." Readers who visit that site and would like to share views can send e-mail to him at tjohnson@andrew.cmu.edu and he will share them with his EPP and MIT student colleagues.

_____________________________________________________________________