PHILADELPHIA—After more than a year of public meetings and hearings, the Air Pollution Control Board approved an update to Philadelphia’s Air Management Regulation 6, or AMR VI. AMR VI, titled Control of Emissions of Toxic Air Contaminants, is an air pollution control regulation that focuses on control of a category of air pollutants called Toxic Air Contaminants (TACs), also known as Air Toxics, or Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs). This update is a significant upgrade from the previous version that has the capacity to significantly lower cancer risk in areas of Philadelphia that have large (Title V) industrial facilities.
“Philadelphia’s new AMR VI is an important addition to our ability to protect Philadelphians from exposure to toxic air pollution,” said Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole. “The Health Department will now regulate many more air toxic compounds, catching up with the science that has evolved over the past 42 years since the previous air toxics regulation, using thresholds for action that are significantly lower than before, and will require large pollution emitters to take into account the background cancer risk around their facility when seeking regulatory approval. This regulation responds to serious concerns raised by many community members who have noted the concentration of toxic emissions in Black and Brown neighborhoods and demanded change.”
“One of the Health Department’s strategic goals is to place equity at the center of everything we do,” said Deputy Commissioner Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson. “For decades, communities of color in Philadelphia have had to contend with air polluted by facilities that met our most stringent regulations. And oftentimes neighborhoods had more than one of these facilities nearby, doubling or tripling the amount of toxics in the air. The updated AMR-VI is a strong statement by the City that this is not acceptable. Facilities will have to not only meet regulations that mirror the current state of the science, but also understand the burden that industry as a whole places on these communities. This is, without a doubt, one of the most important steps that we can take to improve the health of our most vulnerable residents.”
“Air Management Services staff work every day to make sure that the air we breathe is as safe and as clean as possible,” said Air Management Services director Dr. Kassahun Sellassie. “While we have made significant strides in lowering the amount of criteria pollutants like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and particulate matter in the air, we haven’t been able to make meaningful progress on hazardous air pollutants. By bringing AMR VI into the twenty-first century, guided by the latest science on the generational damage that these pollutants can cause, we now have a tool to help make similar progress in cleaning up our air. This is especially important in our poorest communities, which have borne an inequitable burden from where these polluting industries have been sited.”
The previous version of AMR VI was adopted in 1981 and regulated 99 chemical compounds and compound groups. In the past 40 years, many things have changed: science has advanced significantly in understanding and determining harmful health effects that toxic air contaminants cause in humans; the U.S. EPA has issued guidelines and rules regarding control of air toxics under the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments; the usage of toxic chemical compounds and pollutant emission patterns from industries have changed; and the public has had further demand and expectations for air pollution control. The updated AMR VI was written to take all of this into account.
The Health Department’s Air Management Services division started research for the AMR VI update in 2018. Drafts of the amendment were presented at multiple Air Pollution Control Board meetings. After each presentation, feedback from the public and the Board members was taken into consideration for revising the draft amendment. On April 28, 2022, the Air Pollution Control Board approved the current version of the 2022 AMR VI amendment and Exhibits A, B, and C. The approved documents were posted on the Records Department website (PDF) for public review and comments. A public hearing on this amendment took place on August 10, 2022. After the hearing, the Health Department created a document responding to all comments and questions. This comment response document was then presented to the APCB for approval and a few further revisions to this amendment were made based on the public comments. Yesterday, the Air Pollution Control Board conducted a final vote on the update to the Regulation, which passed unanimously.
The new AMR VI offers significant protections to Philadelphians above and beyond the previous version. The major differences include:
- The number of regulated air toxics increased from 99 to 217 chemical compounds and compound groups;
- In the 2023 amendment, each of the air toxics is associated with a Reporting Threshold. This is an emission amount (pounds per year) of the particular pollutant from a source, above which the Health Department has determined that a health risk assessment is necessary when an entity applies for an air emission permit. The reporting thresholds in the 2023 amendment are much more stringent than those of the 1981 regulation; and
- Large emitters (Title V) are required to submit calculations of the total cancer and non-cancer risk for the facility along with consideration of the background cancer risk. By definition, background cancer risk includes other emitters and industry around the facility, which could lead to significantly lower amounts of air toxics emitted in communities that have multiple emitting facilities.
In addition to having to present new data on risk analysis, some facilities that are found to emit air toxics at levels above newly created threshold limits may need to alter their operating applications or install control devices. Reducing air toxics emissions can save money for large facilities in some cases. In one study of the furniture industry, changing the design and manufacturing process reduced the use of materials emitting formaldehyde, resulting in lower emissions as well as lower cost of the materials.