The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has embarked on an effort to conduct a front-end analysis of the scope of the hazardous waste injury problem and the victim compensation problem. These issues, it is believed, soon will be in the midst of a good deal of action in Congress, and the Administration wanted to be in a good position to respond to that emerging concern. In response, we have gathered together the relevant agencies to form a task force and have decided to focus our efforts on two issues: how big is the problem, and what are some solutions.

You would think that, with all of the data gathered by the federal government, we would have some idea of the extent of the problem. For the purposes of our review, we first defined the problem narrowly, that is, injuries related to hazardous wastes. The data is uncertain, however, despite the fact that we have asked all of the agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and a variety of components of each of those agencies to submit data to us on the scope of the problem. I must stress that the lack of data does not necessarily suggest the lack of a problem.