Mr. Roman, a Principal at Industrial Economics, Incorporated (IEc), has over 17 years of experience analyzing environmental policy and a strong background in environmental sciences and chemistry. His expertise includes analytical support for human health risk analysis and natural resource damage assessment; development of guidance for risk assessment methods; regulatory benefits analysis of existing or proposed rules; and uncertainty/decision analysis, including the use of expert elicitation methods to improve the characterization of uncertainty in key elements of regulatory analysis. As Principal, Mr. Roman is responsible for overall direction, planning, budgeting, staffing, and management of regulatory analysis and risk assessment projects. Mr. Roman has significant experience managing multi-disciplinary teams of subcontractors and expert consultants in the context of large-scale regulatory analyses, expert workshops, and expert elicitation studies. Prior to becoming Principal, Mr. Roman conducted and managed numerous studies and analyses involving risk/benefits assessments of regulatory policies, valuation of benefits, risk assessment guidance development, and characterization of uncertainty in regulatory analysis through expert elicitation or other means. Examples of Mr. Roman s recent work include the following. C For the U.S. EPA s Office of Air and Radiation, Mr. Roman designed and conducted an expert workshop to evaluate the literature linking exposures to methyl mercury from fish consumption with adverse cardiovascular health outcomes in humans. Mr. Roman is currently developing a manuscript for publication that describes the findings of that workshop and presents a recommended strategy for developing a dose-response relationship between methyl mercury exposure and myocardial infarctions that could be used by EPA to estimate the cardiovascular benefits of regulations that reduce mercury emissions. C Mr. Roman managed two studies for the U.S. EPA's Office of Air and Radiation that applied formal expert judgment elicitation methods to characterize the concentration-response (C-R) relationship between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure and premature mortality. The pilot-scale and full-scale studies employed state-of-the art methods for expert elicitation, including the use of internet teleconferencing to help experts visualize and evaluate their responses. The full-scale study was extensively reviewed by EPA and OMB during its development and received glowing peer reviews from outside experts. It is currently viewed by EPA and OMB as the gold standard for studies of this kind. EPA has incorporated the results into its BenMAP benefits assessment model and applied them to characterize uncertainty in several regulatory impact analyses of National Ambient Air Quality Standards and other rules affecting PM2.5. This work was published in Environmental Science and Technology. C Providing support to State and Federal Trustees for natural resource investigations in the Gulf of Mexico. Activities include analytical and technical support, coordination and management of investigations, and conceptual model development, and coordination with multidisciplinary teams of experts. Mr. Roman holds a M.S. in Environmental Health Management from Harvard University School of Public Health, and A.B., cum laude, in Chemistry from Harvard University.
Additional examples of Mr. Roman s recent work experience include: C For the U.S. EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, Mr. Roman designed and is executing a comprehensive uncertainty analysis plan for the second Section 812 prospective benefit-cost analysis of the U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 covering the years 1990 to 2020. This uncertainty analysis plan addresses a wide range of uncertainties in factors affecting both benefit and cost estimates of Clean Air Act programs. It includes scenario analyses, sensitivity analyses, and Monte Carlo probabilistic uncertainty analyses on issues including static versus dynamic population growth, fleet composition assumptions, treatment of unidentified control measures, differential PM toxicity, and cessation lag. C For the U.S. EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, Mr. Roman designed and conducted a case study of the benefits resulting from Clean Air Act controls on benzene emissions in the Houston, Texas area. Mr. Roman directed the overall benefits assessment process, which included development of an urban-scale life-table-based risk assessment model for benzene exposure that calculates the effect of benzene reductions on leukemia incidence over time and accounts for population growth and cessation lag effects. The model also applies economic values for both fatal (using the latest VSL estimates) and non-fatal leukemia cases avoided. C For the U.S. EPA s Office of Air and Radiation, Mr. Roman managed the benefits analysis for the regulatory impact analysis of alternative proposed national ambient air quality standards for lead. IEc conducted analyses that estimated and valued benefits to children in the form of IQ points preserved as the result of reduced ambient lead exposure. IEc conducted an extensive literature review to identify suitable dose-response functions for childhood lead exposure and IQ decrements and appropriate estimates for the dollar value of the effect of the loss of an IQ point on earnings. IEc developed a spreadsheet model to integrate the dose-response and valuation analyses and allow EPA to conduct rapid evaluations of alternative regulatory levels for lead in air. C For the U.S. National Park Service (NPS), Mr. Roman is providing expert review of documents related to U.S. EPA s development of a baseline human health risk assessment for contaminated fish, sediment and other media at the Upper Columbia River site (Lake Roosevelt) in Washington. IEc s review focuses on technical quality and issues of concern to NPS, such as exposure of park employees, recreational visitors, anglers, and area residents to metals, radionuclides, PCBs and other contaminants. C For the U.S. Department of the Interior s Bureau of Reclamation, directed a risk assessment of inhalation exposures to metal- and radionuclide-contaminated sediments in and near the lakebed of Lake Roosevelt. The analysis included an evaluation of potential acute health risks that may be caused by high winds re-suspending a substantial mass of lakebed sediments during the spring drawdown period, as well as chronic particulate exposures. C For the U.S. EPA s Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation (OSRTI), Mr. Roman is revising EPA s Guidance on Remedial Actions for Superfund Sites with PCB Contamination. As part of this effort, Mr. Roman is developing new human health risk-based screening levels and remediation goals for PCB-contaminated soils. C Mr. Roman developed a guidance document for the OSRTI that establishes Superfund s recommended approach for assessing risks due to inhalation exposures to Superfund site contaminants. The guidance is based on updated dosimetry models for inhaled contaminants that focus on concentration-based assessments rather than dose-based assessments of risk. 2
C For the University of Texas Health Science Center, Mr. Roman conducted air toxics benefits analysis in the Houston area to better characterize the expected benefits of proposed emission controls. Mr. Roman directed the effort, which included expanding the Section 812 case study benzene life-table risk assessment model to address 1,3 butadiene exposures, expanding its study area and exposure period, incorporating detailed baseline mortality data at a fine geographic resolution, and applying the model to various regulatory control scenarios (2008-2009). C Developed a dynamic population simulation spreadsheet model for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation that simulates the effects of air pollution hazards on the U.S. population. The model is designed to track the effect of alternative assumptions about the effects of air pollution on mortality over time, using a life table approach to risk assessment. C For U.S. EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, developed a Report to Congress on the first prospective costs-benefit study of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments for the period 1990 to 2010. Mr. Roman was primarily responsible for managing the air quality modeling analyses and the development of health benefit estimates from appropriate human health concentration-response functions for PM and other criteria air pollutants. C For Health Canada, Mr. Roman directed a pilot-scale expert judgment study to characterize uncertainty in the VSL metric when applied in a health benefits analysis of air quality regulations. The study applied formal methods for the elicitation of subjective expert judgments to explore uncertainty in the effect on VSL of differences in age, income, health status and other factors relevant to air pollution mortality risks. C For EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, Mr. Roman researched probability distributions for risk coefficients for radium and uranium, and developed a methodology for combining this information with probability distributions for assumptions about average consumption and the value of a statistical life in a Monte Carlo analysis to estimate the benefits to non-transient, non-community water systems of alternative MCLs. C For EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, Mr. Roman provided expert review of a proposed probabilistic risk assessment methodology for evaluating exposures to radon in drinking water under alternative maximum contaminant levels (MCLs). C For Health Canada, Mr. Roman conducted a series of literature reviews that assessed the literature base supporting economic valuation of health outcomes pertinent to chemical and biological air pollutants. The four resulting memoranda included a review of asthma valuation (both for prevention of new cases and avoiding exacerbation of existing symptoms), valuation of low birth weight and pre-term birth outcomes, and valuation of health effects resulting from indoor exposure to moulds and radon. The reviews explored estimated values based on both cost-of-illness (COI) and, if available, willingness-to-pay (WTP) approaches to valuation based on either revealed or stated preference methods, and identified key data gaps and areas for future research C Mr. Roman provided support to Health Canada s Tobacco Control Programme for its analysis of the benefits of potential changes to the Tobacco Reporting Regulations, which require manufacturers to submit periodic reports on factors including tobacco product emissions. Mr. Roman managed development of a value-of-information (VOI) decision analysis model to illustrate the potential benefits of expanding requirements for emissions testing of cigarettes sold in Canada (2008 2009). 3
C Provided analytical support to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for regulatory impact analysis of the Western Hemisphere Transportation Initiative (WHTI). Directed development of analytical framework for Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis, identifying key uncertain variables in the model, recommending appropriate distributions to describe uncertainty in those variables, and guiding the development of the model architecture. C Provided analytical support to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for break-even analysis of the Importer Security Filing and Additional Carrier Requirements rule. Calculated reductions in the probability of specific terrorist attack scenarios required for benefits of the rule to equal costs, based on cost data and the valuation of potential consequences of successful terrorist attacks involving shipping containers. Presented benefits analysis to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and revised benefits chapter in response to OMB and interagency review comments. C For U.S. EPA s Office of Policy (OP), developed a cumulative exposure assessment methodology as part of EPA s Who Bears the Burden? project. This study involved evaluating exposures of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg community (in Brooklyn, New York) to contaminants in air, food, drinking water, and fish, as well as developing a methodology for integrating exposures from these individual pathways to evaluate the cumulative impact of exposures in the community. C For U.S. EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD), developed three case studies that investigate the potential economic value of collecting exposure information through a national exposure study. Two of the case studies use decision analysis methods to estimate the value of exposure information for EPA regulatory decisions concerning lead and air toxics. The third consisted of interviews of EPA staff and others involved in the regulatory process to identify key initiatives that would benefit significantly from the collection of exposure information. C For EPA s Office of Emergency and Remedial Response (OERR), developed a document to supplement EPA s Soil Screening Guidance. The supplement presents methods for developing human health risk-based Soil Screening Levels (SSLs) at National Priority List hazardous waste sites under both residential and non-residential land use scenarios. C Supported the F5 Panel of the United Nations Compensation Commission by conducting expert review of claims from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for public health damages caused by Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait. Damages include health effects associated with exposure to smoke from oil well fires, post traumatic stress disorder from traumatic events, and injuries from mine and ordnance explosions. 4
Selected Reports and Publications Fann, N., Roman, H. A., Fulcher, C. M., Gentile, M. A., Hubbell, B. J., Wesson, K. and Levy, J. I. (2011), Maximizing Health Benefits and Minimizing Inequality: Incorporating Local-Scale Data in the Design and Evaluation of Air Quality Policies, 31: 908 922. Roman, H.A., Walsh, T.L., Coull, B.A., Dewailly, E., Guallar, E., Hattis, D., Mariën, K., Schwartz, J., Stern, A.H., Virtanen, J.K., and Rice, G., (2011) Evaluation of the Cardiovascular Effects of Methylmercury Exposures: Current Evidence Supports Development of Dose-Response Function for Benefits Analysis, Environmental Health Perspectives, 199:5, 607-614. Kinney, P.L., H. Roman, K. Walker, H. Richmond, L. Conner, and B. Hubbell. (2010). On The Use Of Expert Judgment To Characterize Uncertainties In The Health Benefits Of Regulatory Controls Of Particulate Matter, Environmental Science & Policy. Published online June 2010. Expert Elicitation Pilot Study of the Value of Statistical Life in an Air Pollution Context. Prepared for Air Health Effects Research Division, Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau, Health Canada, March 2009. Roman, H.A., K.D. Walker, T.L. Walsh, L. Conner, H.M. Richmond, B.J. Hubbell, and P.L. Kinney, (2008). Expert Judgment Assessment of the Mortality Impact of Changes in Ambient Fine Particulate Matter in the U.S., Environ. Sci. Technol., 42, 7, 2268-2274. Walker K., L. Conner, H. Roman, R. Cooke, B. Hubbell, T. Walsh, and J.S. Evans. Comparison of Two Recent Expert Judgment Elicitations about PM2.5 Mortality: Implications for Expert Elicitations. September 15, 2008. Manuscript. Section 812 Prospective Study of the Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act: Air Toxics Case Study - Health Benefits of Benzene Reductions in Houston, 1990-2020, prepared for the Office of Policy Analysis and Review, Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, July 2009. Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund, Volume I: Human Health Evaluation Manual (Part F, Supplemental Guidance for Inhalation Risk Assessment). Prepared for the Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, January 2009. Expanded Expert Judgment Study of the Concentration-Response Relationship Between PM2.5 Exposure and Mortality, prepared for the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, September 2006. Supplemental Guidance for Developing Soil Screening Levels for Superfund Sites, prepared for the Office of Emergency and Remedial Response, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, December 2002. Economic Value of Improved Exposure Information (Review Draft), prepared for the National Exposure Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, November 2000. The Benefits and Costs of the Clean Air Act, 1990 to 2010, Report to Congress, prepared for the Office of Policy Analysis and Review, Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, November 1999. December 2011 5