Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 92 Part 3.djvu/820

This page needs to be proofread.

PUBLIC LAW 95-000—MMMM. DD, 1978

92 STAT. 3452

Reports to congressional committees.

"Health costs of pollution and other environmental conditions."

PUBLIC LAW 95-623—NOV. 9, 1978

and specifically determine whether cancer, birth defects, genetic damage, emphysema, asthma, bronchitis, and other respiratory diseases, heart disease, stroke, and mental illness and impairment are such a disease or effect; "(C) identify (on a national, regional, or other geographical basis) the source or sources of such pollutants and conditions and estimate the portion of each pollutant and the extent of each condition which can be traced to a specific type of source; "(D) ascertain (i) the extent to which the pollutants and conditions identified under subparagraph (A) are, or may reasonably be anticipated to be, responsible, individually or collectively, for causing, contributing to, increasing susceptibility to, or aggravating the diseases and effects identified under subparagraph (B), and (ii) the effect upon the incidence or severity of specific diseases and effects of individual or collective, as appropriate, incremental reductions in the pollutants and changes in such conditions; and " (E) quantify (i) the present and projected future health costs of the diseases and effects identified under subparagraph (B), and (ii) the reduction in health costs which would result from each incremental reduction and change referred to in subparagraph (D)(ii). "(2) The Secretary shall enter into appropriate arrangements with the Academy under which the Secretary shall be responsible for expenses incurred by the Academy in connection with the study prescribed by paragraph (1). "(3) The first report on the study prescribed by paragraph (1) shall be made to the Committee on Human Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce of the House of Representatives by the Secretary and the Academy not later than eighteen months after the date of the enactment of this subsection. Subsequent reports on the study shall be made by the Secretary and the Academy every two years after the date the first report is submitted. Each report shall (A) identify deficiencies and limitations in the data on the matters considered in the study and recommend actions which may be taken to eliminate such deficiencies and limitations, (B) include such recommendations for legislation as the Secretary determines appropriate, (C) include recommendations for facilitating studies of the effects of hazardous substances on humans, and (D) include a description of any administrative action proposed to be taken by the Secretary, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Secretary of Labor, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to reduce the costs which have been quantified under paragraph (1) (E)(i). In conducting the study, the Secretary and the Academy shall seek assistance from public and private health financing entities in securing the data needed for the study. " (4) For purposes of paragraph (1), the term 'health costs of pollution and other environmental conditions' means the costs of human diseases and other adverse effects on humans which pollution and other environmental conditions are, or may reasonably be anticipated to be, responsible for causing, contributing to, increasing susceptibility to, or aggravating, including the costs of preventing such diseases and effects, the costs of the treatment, cure, convalescence, and rehabilita-