Capabilities:
Health & Environmental Regulation

• Compliance cost estimates
• Sensitivity analysis of health effects
• Alternative regulatory scenarios
• Industry-specific surveys and analysis

Our Practice

Heiden Associates has developed numerous analyses that identify and quantify the effects of health and environmental regulations and of voluntary performance standards. In many instances our studies are submitted directly to a regulatory agency as part of an industry or firm response to a regulatory proposal, and are often presented by our economists in agency proceedings. Agencies we have appeared before include:

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
• California Air Resources Board (ARB).

We have a proven track record in helping to reduce burdensome elements of rules or to shift their focus to less burdensome alternatives.

Download List of Reports and Testimony [PDF]

Representative Projects

• Several major studies of the economic burden on companies of collecting environmental risk and exposure data. For the chemical and chemical specialties industries, we have done studies on the economic burdens of filing pre-manufacture notification (PMN) data under the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA), including the adverse impact on innovation; on the cost and economic impact of EPA's Comprehensive Assessment Information (CAIR) Rule; and on the burden associated with reporting requirements under the proposed Chemical Use Inventory (CUI). For the mining industry, we conducted an analysis of the burdens of proposed new data collection and analysis requirements for diesel particulates as part of an industry effort to develop input for rule-making procedures by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.
• Several studies of emissions levels, costs, and economic impacts of proposed emissions standards for portable two-stroke power equipment (submitted to the EPA and the California ARB).
• An analysis of issues raised by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's economic evaluation of its draft methylene chloride standard (submitted to OSHA).
• Economic analysis of proposed critical habitat determination for the northern spotted owl (submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service).
• Analyses for major manufacturers of the cost and economic impact of separate EPA proposals to list wastes from wood preserving facilities and chemical manufacturing plants as hazardous under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (submitted to EPA).
• Studies of the cost and economic impact of formaldehyde regulation. These studies were an important part of the industry's submissions to OSHA, EPA, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development in their respective rule-making proceedings.
• A study prepared for EPA's Office of Toxic Substances (now OPPT) on how chemical firms respond to the designation of their products as "suspect toxic hazards". We developed various statistical models to evaluate the effect of that designation on chemical production and use of ten chemicals designated by EPA as "suspect hazards".
• An analysis of the costs to crushed-stone using and producing industries of complying with regulations limiting worker exposure to non-asbestiform actinolite, tremolite, and anthophyllite, submitted to OSHA.
• An analysis of the costs and economic impacts of a proposal to list as hazardous under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) wastes from wood preserving plants, submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency.
• A study of the costs and economic impact of complying with a proposed EPA standard for the magnetic tape coating industry. This study included an analysis of the impact of compliance on the international competitive position of the domestic magnetic tape industry.
• A study of the effect of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) on innovation in the chemical specialties industry. Data from a survey we undertook of 200 chemical specialties firms showed that new substance development and use had declined since 1979. The study was presented to senior EPA officials and at a Congressional hearing.