Appendix I: Reduced Risks to Children's Health

Reductions in risks to children's health comprise an important part of the benefits analysis for the Hazardous Waste Combustion (HWC) MACT standards. The risk analysis specifically targets children in estimating risks from HWC facility emissions. Additionally, recent initiatives of the EPA and other branches of the federal government have emphasized the necessity of addressing the subject of environmental threats to the health of children in conjunction with federal regulatory actions, like the MACT standards. The purpose of this appendix is to highlight the reduction of risk to children's health associated with the MACT standards and to address the regulatory context of these benefits. This appendix is organized into two sections. First, we present a brief background discussion on federal children's health initiatives and describe how we analyze children health risks for the HWC MACT standards. Second, we discuss the reduced risks to children's health associated with the MACT standards. The key findings from the risk assessment are highlighted below: • Cancer Risks. In general, children do not face significant cancer risks from hazardous waste combustion emissions. Only in the case of children of subsistence farmers and commercial dairy farmers do baseline cancer risks exceed 1x10 for the most highly exposed children. With the exception of-5 children (aged 0-5 years) of subsistence farmers living near cement kilns and LWAKs, all of the highest cancer risks are reduced to below levels of concern (<1x10) post-MACT under both the BTF-ACI and Recommended MACT-5 options. • Non-Cancer Risks. Much of the non-cancer risk reductions resulting from implementation of the MACT standards most likely will benefit children specifically. The MACT standards will lower exposures to particulate matter (PM), and lead, which are two types of pollutants addressed in the non-cancer risk reductions that primarily affect children.-PM reductions will prevent 268,000 asthma attacks in the general population. If these cases are equally distributed across age groups, over 77,000 asthma attacks affecting children will be avoided each year. For economically significant rules (i.e., those expected to have an annual effect on the 1 economy of $100 million or more), Executive Order 13045 also requires an explanation as to why the planned regulation is preferable to other alternatives considered. MACT standards are exempt from this requirement because the rule is an example of technology-based regulation rather than a risk-based one I-2-Reduced lead exposures for children are expected post-MACT which may prevent cognitive and nervous system developmental abnormalities. In …