Citizens, engineers and air toxics: citizen participation in technology based standard setting

This article analyses the potential for involving state and local citizen g roups in technology-based standard setting for air toxics under the 1990 US Clean Air Act. Congress hoped that by focusing on technology rather than r isk that the standard setting process would be Less contentious. This has n ot turned out to be the case. There are a number of points where scientists and engineers make choices between several technologically defensible opti ons. Their judgments have implications for the stringency and the costs of implementing a standard. It is at these points of judgment that all parties - citizen groups and industry - want to have a say. The article identifies places where citizens could be included in standard setting. The article h ighlights underlying strategies to consider when involving citizens, and su ggests specific participatory techniques for including citizens in air toxi cs standard setting. While the article focuses on air toxics the issues it raises about citizen participation are applicable to other federal standard setting activities.