How to measure design suitability—the long view

Among all the smoke and mirrors of new product reveals, how do you actually measure a product’s success and suitability? One way is to consider how an innovation diffuses. This measurement of the “legs” of a technology is rooted in the diffusion of innovation theory (Rogers, 1961). This theory provides a framework that recognizes technology normally has two components: 1) the physical object and 2) the knowledge to use it. My upcoming book, Winds of Change: Innovation and Tradition in the Fishing Boats of Southeast Asia, will extend this inquiry into boat construction and design in Maritime Southeast Asia. I spent six months traveling the boatyards of this region and found interesting results by looking at innovations that never left a region and comparing them to those that spread quickly. Diffusion is often a vote on design suitability rather than optimization.

The motivators for the expansion of innovations are typically thought of as a combination of perceived advantage, compatibility with existing approaches, and ability to experiment with the technology. Looking at actual data on diffusion characteristics let me look backwards into these factors. I am hoping to continue this work next Fall! Cool stuff.

Design Research in Southeast Asia

 

Much has happened since my last blog entry. I spent January through July 2025 in SE Asia studying traditional boat design. In the US, I have spent time developing a medical device class and doing industry projects. I have stopped talking about AI because it is all going so fast that the commentary I offered a few years back can't be reasonably added upon at this time. Currently, I don't let AI touch my writing or analysis. I use AI for some graphics and music and I reference its use. I enjoyed putting my poems to music a couple of years ago, largely using AI, and have a YouTube channel set up for it as discussed in my last blog entry.

My field work and subsequent analysis will be published in a book by Penerbit UTM Academic Press soon. It will be entitled, Winds of Change: Innovation and Tradition in the Fishing Boats of Maritime Southeast Asia. Here is a little introduction to that study:

https://canadiandesignnetwork.com/newsletter-article/alluring-design/?utm_source

Alluring DesignAlluring Design

canadiandesignnetwork.com

Usefulness: Cheap Art and Authenticity

 

Forty dollars for a framed painting? Sixty-five dollars for a hand knit sweater? This is what people charge when they seek usefulness over income. When they enjoy commerce over wealth, when they seek satisfaction over sustainability. 

I was visiting an affluent retirement community where I attended an arts and craft festival. The artists and crafters were talented and had a voice to share. They didn't want their work stacked up in a dusty basement. They wanted others to enjoy their work, their art, their voice. But they wanted a small affirmation of value. They wanted commerce, an exchange of money for their hard work and well-seasoned talent. The pricing did not represent true value, but for me, the pricing was shouting, My work has value! I don't need the money, I just want appreciative homes.

The need for purpose, when money isn’t important, appears in our desire to create.

When branded art becomes excessively valuable, when AI handles the landscapes and portraits, we still seek authenticity. Authenticity is art now. The rules of composition, the use of allegory, and the extension of famous artists’ oeuvre can be managed by generative AI. But art that is authentic will have a home. It will be squeezed between the mass-produced AI generated decorative arts and the wares of lesser talented artists. Authenticity and the human connection between the artist and the viewer will be interesting to watch over these next years. The critics and authenticators might only be asking, Where are the surprises? Where are the mistakes?

 

Death of Ideation Sketching

 

Most of my ideation "sketches" just flow through my mind--little maquettes dancing with flashes of imagery. Requiring a specific number of ideation sketches, never lifting your pen, working with two colors—these are all fine to the extent they are useful.* However, design educators should not be pedantic about these things.

In a few minutes I littered the blog above and below with ideation sketches using DALL-E 2. This will only get easier and “better” with time. These sketches of toasters, helmets, blenders, coffee makers, and door handles may not be to your liking, but I generated all of them in less than ten minutes of typing. They are done in marker, colored pencil, and graphite. Easy stuff.

Interesting issues arise for the designer/educator/student to consider in the AI universe. One of them is personal style. While our personal style seems independent of AI’s ability to identify patterns that nurture rule creation, it is influenced by the world we encounter, much of which will be increasingly generated by AI or flattened by the globalization of cultural standards.

Unlike AI, people have the ability to 1) change their style and 2) incorporate influences serendipitously. The randomness and mistakes people make do not rest in the datasets that machine learning requires. Moreover, people respond and appreciate the sacrificial time expended by other people. People hold hands and converse. AI can converse, but it doesn’t sacrifice its time in the process.

What is personal style and how much of it is simply a product of cultural imputation and the copying of influencers? Do we own our own sense of style? These are unanswerable questions; however, people can take surprising actions that upset rule-based approaches. People have the ability to shed rules and explore new ways of thinking and acting. Additionally, people can be exposed to events that modifies their personal style. This serendipitous stumbling can lead to a surprising randomness in style.

I do take joy knowing that imagination is greater than knowledge, imagination is an untethered rocket and a sweeping cool wind that carries thoughts wherever it will!  Maybe my technology-enabled works are only decorative, but I own them. They are my voice. Being able to present my voice is all I can ask. I can’t ask for fame or money, no one owes me that.

In this next chapter of design, the dogma should continue to crumble and distinctive human abilities should shine brighter while we swim in what AI is flooding at our feet.

The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the Cradle of all true art and science. Key to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer Wonder at stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. Albert Einstein 1930

* I like tradition. My students and I have crawled into a dark room under one of our campus buildings to do blind contour drawings. Weird and intriguing, but I really don't know how useful it is for the aspiring designer.

More ideation sketches! How many do you want? I have a few more minutes.

All images are from Dall-E 2 (and I)

 

 

Personal Style: Where do personal style and AI intersect? *

Do we truly have our own sense of personal style, or are we just copying the influencers around us?

Investigating how well AI could copy my own personal style made me think of the nature of personal style. What does that mean in the era of large datasets that seem to contain all styles. Do we somehow just pick and choose from what is out there? What distinctive, original content lies inside of us? Is there nothing new under the sun?

People can slightly unleash themselves from the culture and community of influencers. We are distinct because we can surprisingly change our style. Machine learning that looks at past datasets can’t predict our shedding of old rules and taking in new ones. In addition, people can be exposed to events or engage in experiences that modify their personal style. We can possibly work with the world of AI by curating your own datasets.

Reducing Creative Expression to a Flow Chart…Yuck

Everyone is creative. However, expressing creativity outside the daily requirements of problem solving and moving into art and music goes through three basic steps.

1. Imagination of creator
2. Technology to implement creation
3. Physiology of viewer

But there is feedback, whether be from how your paint is showing on the canvas or the music to your ears or the feedback from other people (Picasso and Braque are a famous example of productive peer critiques).

It could be modeled as follows:

 

A picture of creative expression

Employing rules to bring personal mental images or musical creations to an audience broadens access to these processes. Seeking to communicate creative impulses with rules and structure extracted from cultural norms and other sources democratized artistic and musical expression. Children learn normative rules in speaking and writing that quickly let them use these abilities to express individual thoughts. A parent understands, “I miss daddy” as well as a lengthy narrative about loneliness and familial connections. A child’s stick figure drawing showing two people holding hands, presents as clear a meaning as a painting of the same thing.

We can quickly use normative rules to engage in art forms that may have traditionally been moderated by human gatekeepers. Introducing these rules can open a corridor for richer expression of ideas. Moreover, coupling these rules with intuitive software, online instruction, and the unfettered communications on the internet, allows more inclusive entrance into creating art and music.

Rules can guide the novice. For example, in music the relationship between notes that make up a chord are established and culturally conditioned. Moreover, the progression of these chords follows commonly recognized sequences. Therefore, one can couple lyrics with a chord progression that turns poetry into music. The visual arts also have rules related to guiding compositions and color. Moreover, artificial intelligence has been used in music and the visual arts to identify and redeploy patterns in new work.

I’m Offended!

Musical composers should be offended at the notion of creating music by simply accompanying lyrics with a rule-based (or sampled) approach. This offends the depth, breadth, and creative majesty of musical composition. A traditionally trained artist will likewise be offended at artwork produced by morphing existing images and applying colors from a standardized color scheme. However, musical and artistic creation can be democratized by identifying patterns and normative rules which are redeployed in a new, personal form.

Here is a remix of the song with a discussion of process. The remix is at the end.

* Much of the last two blog posts and YouTube song derive from my most recent ASEE paper, Engineering Art: Democratizing artistic expression using normative rules. The proceedings have not been published yet.

AI vesus Art

 

People were not meant to be ignored. We desire to communicate ideas with the transcendence permitted by art.

I compared AI generated images with my own artwork to see how AI performed. I used the text-to-image generation ability of DALL-E and DreamStudio Lite to enter in the intended themes of my art. I tried a variety of text descriptions, including the themes I intended to evoke, to guide the AI system to recreate my artwork.

I failed in this pursuit. The comparative images below show the closest matches. I do recognize that while the artist is trying to communicate ideas with his or her artwork; however, the viewer is part of the process. One mustn’t de-art the art. Perhaps this AI failure is a good thing for artists?

Interface Design

 

  

We are easily frustrated when dealing with interfaces. Things get even tougher if we need to interface with a machine while others watch out of the corner of their eye—or while waiting behind us. Sometimes it is a good way to strike up a desperate conversation, perhaps proving people are generally kind.

Fundamentally, interface design requires discerning acceptable simplification. However, there is a limit on how much you can simplify a design—and you can never win— oversimplification irritates power users.

Designing interactions should pursue two categories of concerns: 1) simplify and 2) assist user.

Here are examples of human-machine interface challenges from the non-digital world.

Washington DC Metro: Scary and confusing. Need tourist mode.

Cricut Cutting Machine: Manageable and sufficient

Sleeping breaks chains and opens creativity

 

Dreaming allows a daily disconnect from saturating sensory stimulation. The breaking and shrinkage of the dendritic spines in our neurons is a slow task, one that can be nurtured by sleep. Sleep induced forgetting can allow new connections that arise in unexpected ways -- ways unconstrained by memory.

One insight into changes of physiology and its affect on artistic abilities can be seen with the changes in Willem de Kooning's paintings as he contended with Alzheimer's disease. The paintings became less variegated and he embraced simplicity. However, art experts considered his latter paintings to be appropriate parts of his oeuvre. His disease had been migrating from his hippocampi to the upper reaches of his cortical processing. However, his lower cortical hubs, where colors and contours are processed, were thought to be unaffected. He created in a different way.

Claude Monet's "blue period" is a similar artistic response to physiological changes. Perhaps his photoreceptors had less sensitivity to blue light so he over-saturated blue hues to produce the image in his mind. Therefore what we see is not what Monet saw. Is this the case? I don’t know, but I think there is a lot of this occurring in the world of creative expression where art and design have the momentum of the artist and designer pushing them into a higher level of execution than they deserve. At least Marcel Duchamp made fun of this attitude.

Sleeping's effect on dendritic spines is an interesting peek into the physiological encouragements for creativity. Dream on!

Wooden Wonders: Traditional Malaysian Fishing Boats

I had the pleasure of discussing my work with traditional Malaysian fishing boats and my book, "Wooden Wonders" yesterday. You can watch the presentation at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwv23DiaJMY

Accomplishments vs. Excellence

 

I just turned sixty, which is sort of like a prank you play on your twelve-year-old self. Same person, different package.

This birthday does offer a benchmark to consider my work life because I’m entering my last decade of employment. It makes me think of the difference between accomplishments versus excellence.

Accomplishments grow with time due to hard work and perseverance. Excellence is something else. It is also related to hard work and perseverance, but there is something else. It is something that I don’t seem to have. When I compare my accomplishments to those who earnestly pursue the arenas where I claim accomplishments, I see that I am not more excellent than anyone else working in that pursuit.

I started listing these pursuits, but it sounded like a mix between bragging and a pity party.

I pursue many areas of personal and professional interest--all at an average level of achievement. Many of my accomplishments meet minimum thresholds, such as academic degrees and licensure, but they couldn’t be considered excellent. They are binary yes/no accomplishments. They are the punch boxes of a puffed-up curriculum vitae.

Excellence it hard to achieve. I realize a semantic debate arises whether excellence means complete competence or above “average” ability (whatever that is), but it can most readily be identified quantitatively. For example, I can only think of one thing I used to be excellent at, namely Morse Code. Not many people know Morse Code, but I knew it well. In my early twenties I could copy over thirty words per minute, which is fast. That’s it. That is my most excellent ability. This is not meant to be negative, but honest.

My heroes are people you have never heard of. People who serve others quietly (e.g., my mom). Their excellence is in their sacrifice, their excellence is in their humility. They will never win awards or enjoy monuments to their own glory. I don’t fit in that camp either, but it is certainly my preferred desire as I enter my twilight years.

I made the painting on the right when I turned 60, I made the painting on the left when I was 45. Still dreaming though!

I wrote a couple poems which I inked on the back of the “Average Man” painting. One goes like this:

 
Decade swings
A number clings
Time is soft on rusty hinges
Swelling wisdom tinges
And energy lingers
 
Love made bold
For those who are old
 
Actions for others
Cries in our troubles
 
We cry, “we were here”
We fought our fear
We tried with each day
To prevent a tear
To laugh and lift
And truly care.

Adventure Democratized – by design

 

Navigating on the water has become remarkably like playing a video game. You keep your digital boat image in the digital white area of a digital map. I have been sailing many decades and remember the old days of boat navigation. These were bad old days. You were more tense. You would determine your position as best you could and plot a direction that was safe to travel. You would do this with a paper chart (map) and parallel rulers. You would determine a range of directions (bearings) that were acceptable and those that weren’t. You considered current (and leeward movement for sailboats) and try to offset these invisible movements. If you could see visible markers, such as buoys, you were in pretty good shape although the current and leeway could deceive you. When you could see two navigational markers you could precisely locate your position and that was thrilling. Otherwise, you were not exactly sure of where you were. Your depth sounder gave you some idea of what was going on but it could not be fully trusted in silty waters. You struggled with how fast to go when things got tight. Running aground at anything but dead slow is a big problem. Sextant sightings were fine in the open ocean but not around hazards.

I don’t miss the tension of analog piloting. It was a challenge and had some visceral thrill (we are going to run aground!) You were still dependent on technology, but it was charts and navigational aids. This is not much nobler than GPS and electronic charts. However, I guess you are more prepared for power outages and digital deaths. I also know high speed Morse Code, having been a ham radio operator for many decades. However, this ability has not helped in any way for the last few decades. It is a little sad when your skills are no longer important, but that is how life goes. Don’t love anything that won’t love you back.

I recently finished Dana’s, “Two Years Before the Mast” which recounts a trip from the US East Coast, around Cape Horn and up to California. It was a more interesting read than I expected. Now you can view California’s nature on YouTube. When Dana was traveling in the 1830s, you might have to wait a week in the raging seas to get a wind shift so you could actually get around Cape Horn. Losing your ship for any reason meant you were likely to die or at least be stranded. The saddest part of sea life at that time is the men were stuck in their position. They had little hope for anything better. I can’t imagine not having hope. Hope is fueled by wonder and in turn fuels ambition and action. Losing hope takes away a deep part of human essence. 

Secret knowledge closes doors. Modern navigation turned my old skills into nearly useless relics, but reducing the stress of boat navigation is a sweet change and makes boating more accessible to everyone – adventure democratized by design. Navigation is a small example of the doors opened by design and technology. Designing both technology and its integration into purposeful systems has allowed people to do wonderful things, from visually hopping on their drones to accessing the world’s greatest library on the internet. 

I don’t know if “purposeful systems” is a real term, but I like it. Only humans can have a purposeful vision that brings technology together by design. Adventure democratized reminds me of rock climbing, kayaking, and backpacking. These are some of the inexpensive ways to gain access to nature’s wonders, but that is another story…. 

Social Anxiety in Design

 

The public nature of design critiques used in education may adversely quiet gentile voices. Those with social anxiety are overwhelmed by this affront to their propriety and sense of peace. Does public scrutiny and pointed criticism help one become a better designer? Well, yes. Is it required to make you a better designer? No, not necessarily.

Public critiques can have a homogenizing affect as we try to communally agree on what is good and bad design. The intrusion of AI makes this effect broader as we move from friends and classmate’s opinions to some algorithm rooted in established data or normalized rules.

Almost all of my work has been improved by the critique of others. However, there are categories of my work in which I don’t want critiques. I want only to be a songbird in the forest.

Contending with Complex Interdisciplinary Problems using Affinity Congregates

Many innovations come from those in marginal positions in a discipline, and these individuals therefore greatly benefit from the support afforded by like-minded people. James Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix nature of DNA, stated the power of collaboration unequivocally: “Nothing new that is really interesting comes without collaboration”. However, in some groups a dominating person might drive ideation. As discussed previously, group dynamics need to be recognized in group settings. Particularly in the case of new groups, such as in a classroom setting, an affinity congregate allows people to individually express their ideas before becoming engaged in a group situation. This is a small variation of affinity diagraming because affinity congregating focuses on initial, independent problem solving before bringing ideas to a group so that participants may collectively identify affinities. Affinity congregation preserves the independent voice of each student. This approach is intended to prevent group dynamics from taking over the ideation process.

With affinity congregating, the participants are presented with a problem or design prompt, they individually write solutions on a sticky notes or other suitable media. When they are finished writing proposed solutions, the notes are collected and assembled by a moderator and grouped by affinities or themes into an affinity diagram. The themes arise from the data, which is founded on grounded theory. Grounded theory is a method common in the social sciences that allows categories and concepts to develop based exclusively on data and not from predisposed theories.

While these affinity congregations shown by the groupings of notes is subjective, general themes or affinities arise in a logical fashion. A variation of this approach is to have the group identify themes rather than a moderator. In this approach, the group gathers around the notes and identifies logical groupings. The notes are reviewed and duplicate ideas are stacked on top of each other. Finally, the affinities can be discussed and each idea can be critiqued by the group.

Affinity Congregating Technique Summary

1. Problem statement or design prompt.

2. Individuals write proposed solutions on sticky notes.

3. Moderator collects notes and assembles by affinities or themes that arise (affinity diagrams). Alternatively, the group identifies affinities as a team.

4. Duplicates omitted.

5. Group critiques affinities and proposed solutions.

Outcomes of Affinity Congregation

One example of applying this technique to professional practice is addressing the issue of palliative care in the developing world. In this case, I invited two physician colleagues to partner with this investigation. Because we came from different disciplines (design, pain management and palliative care), the congregation technique was used to prevent the board-certified palliative care specialist from overwhelming the pain management expert and the engineer. This cooperation led to identifying four tracks of palliative care: physical, psychological, relational, and spiritual as shown in Figure 4. These tracks were further divided into key concerns and we developed practical treatment options.

In this example, the most common concerns were identified as pain, dyspnea (air hunger), nausea and vomiting, delirium, anxiety, and terminal secretions (‘the death rattle’). The affinity aggregation allowed artificial intelligence driven diagnosis systems to inhabit an equal space as recommending paracetamol or diclofenac for pain relief. This technique worked well in this interdisciplinary environment because we concluded with specific recommendations as well as the somewhat surprising result that the patient care should be the responsibility of a loving caregiver rather than a medical professional.

 

Figure 4 – Integrative palliative care factors.

From:  T. Ask, “Engaging Creativity: Classroom Exercises for Enhancing Engineering Students' Creative Self Identity,” 2019 ASEE Zone I Conference & Workshop, Niagara Falls, NY, USA, April 2019, https://peer.asee.org/33791.

And     T. E. Ask, J. Boll and A. Nesbitt, “Steps towards Integrative Palliative Care in the Developing World,” Design for All Institute of India, Newsletter Vol. 12, No. 3, p. 61, 2017.

 

Invention and Philosophy

 

Science seeks to investigate the sentient and identify truths within that realm. Although making, and design in general, seek to identify that which works, we run our hand along the guiderail of science so the philosophies of science are a relevant framework for makers. For example, exploring designs that might parallel those considered outside "normal science" or endanger an intellectual ecology can lead to resistance within the engineering and design communities.

Makers are comfortable with abductive reasoning but tap into positivism with alacrity. Moreover, nonmechanistic elements of design and building are a part of the maker movement. This includes creating things that are visually appealing, connected with a material culture, and communicate values. The process of building can also be an expression of filial piety or social dynamics and can be infused with improvised and planned agents. The joy of the designing and building process can be of greater importance than the object’s utility – the world of hands-on design teaches the heroics of the nail gun, the intimacy of the soldering iron, the magic of casting, and the crunching sound of failure. Makers know the dance of deep thinking and wonderful journeys.

From: Ask, T. E. (2016). Philosophical Foundations of the Maker Movement. Paper presented at the The Fourth International Conference on Design Creativity, Atlanta, GA. 

Instructor Bias in Higher Education

This has been in my syllabus for a number of years and I try hard to follow it. The lectern should not be used for unfair advantages. Faculty have opinions, but opinions on many topics can be unfairly imputed onto students. 

Instructor Bias

My goal is that you learn how to think and not what to think.  By its nature, design requires creative (and very human) approaches.  These approaches can be influenced by tradition and an experientially rooted bias.  Your educational experience should not include receiving any sort of instructor indoctrination.

Where controversial issues arise, I may present information from sources representing differing views from which you can develop your own opinion.  These writings will be appropriate and professional presentations of the topics.  However, unlike me, you have the right to present your opinions in class, which other students can debate.  As an instructor with an unfair access to the podium, I do not share in that privilege.  Think for yourself!  However, design critiques are an important part of design education and these critiques should not be taken personally, they are intended for your benefit.

What about my dioxin footprint?

Carbon footprint has become a simplistic tagline for environmental impact. This term seems to discount concerns for profoundly hazardous chemicals. There are 187 hazardous air pollutants, that in the US, are controlled by the EPA. I have them listed at the bottom.

These pollutants can cause things such as cancer, birth defects, impaired lung function, and reduced fertility. They can also cause harm to the nervous system, cardiovascular, and brain.

I worry more about mercury and dioxin footprint than carbon footprint. I think the old-fashioned word “pollution” is better than “carbon footprint”. Everyone concerned with the environment should understand the notion of embodied energy, which considers the energy (and pollution) associated with a product, including things we don’t think about, such as mining, transportation, administration, disposal, etc.

Bad products that are expensive and then soon discarded always have a high embodied energy. Recycling has environmental impact, which is why reducing consumption is at the top of the “reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra. Likewise, sequestering carbon artificially is not environmentally neutral – I’m a big fan of living trees for obvious reasons!

Personally, I think fine particulates (e.g., PM2.5) are the biggest immediate pollution concern. It is very sad to watch children running around outside enjoying the use of their healthy lungs and bodies while breathing all the nasty particulates in which we immerse them.

What level of sophistication is required by people that regulate us?

EPA’s Current List of Air Toxics

Acetaldehyde

Acetamide

Acetonitrile

Acetophenone

2-Acetylaminofluorene

Acrolein

Acrylamide

Acrylic acid

Acrylonitrile

Allyl chloride

4-Aminobiphenyl

Aniline

o-Anisidine

Asbestos

Benzene (including benzene from gasoline)

Benzidine

Benzotrichloride

Benzyl chloride

Biphenyl

Bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP)

Bis(chloromethyl)ether

Bromoform

1,3-Butadiene

Calcium cyanamide

Caprolactam

Captan

Carbaryl

Carbon disulfide

Carbon tetrachloride

Carbonyl sulfide

Catechol

Chloramben

Chlordane

Chlorine

Chloroacetic acid

2-Chloroacetophenone

Chlorobenzene

Chlorobenzilate

Chloroform

Chloromethyl methyl ether

Chloroprene

Cresols/Cresylic acid (isomers and mixture)

o-Cresol

m-Cresol

p-Cresol

Cumene

2,4-D, salts and esters

DDE

Diazomethane

Dibenzofurans

1,2-Dibromo-3-chloropropane

Dibutylphthalate

1,4-Dichlorobenzene(p)

3,3-Dichlorobenzidene

Dichloroethyl ether (Bis(2-chloroethyl)ether)

1,3-Dichloropropene

Dichlorvos

Diethanolamine

N,N-Dimethylaniline

Diethyl sulfate

3,3-Dimethoxybenzidine

Dimethyl aminoazobenzene

3,3'-Dimethyl benzidine

Dimethyl carbamoyl chloride

Dimethyl formamide

1,1-Dimethyl hydrazine

Dimethyl phthalate

Dimethyl sulfate

4,6-Dinitro-o-cresol, and salts

2,4-Dinitrophenol

2,4-Dinitrotoluene

1,4-Dioxane (1,4-Diethyleneoxide)

1,2-Diphenylhydrazine

Epichlorohydrin (l-Chloro-2,3-epoxypropane)

1,2-Epoxybutane

Ethyl acrylate

Ethyl benzene

Ethyl carbamate (Urethane)

Ethyl chloride (Chloroethane)

Ethylene dibromide (Dibromoethane)

Ethylene dichloride (1,2-Dichloroethane)

Ethylene glycol

Ethylene imine (Aziridine)

Ethylene oxide

Ethylene thiourea

Ethylidene dichloride (1,1-Dichloroethane)

Formaldehyde

Heptachlor

Hexachlorobenzene

Hexachlorobutadiene

Hexachlorocyclopentadiene

Hexachloroethane

Hexamethylene-1,6-diisocyanate

Hexamethylphosphoramide

Hexane

Hydrazine

Hydrochloric acid

Hydrogen fluoride (Hydrofluoric acid)

Hydrogen sulfide

Hydroquinone

Isophorone

Lindane (all isomers)

Maleic anhydride

Methanol

Methoxychlor

Methyl bromide (Bromomethane)

Methyl chloride (Chloromethane)

Methyl chloroform (1,1,1-Trichloroethane)

Methyl ethyl ketone (2-Butanone)

Methyl hydrazine

Methyl iodide (Iodomethane)

Methyl isobutyl ketone (Hexone)

Methyl isocyanate

Methyl methacrylate

Methyl tert butyl ether

4,4-Methylene bis(2-chloroaniline)

Methylene chloride (Dichloromethane)

Methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI)

4,4'-Methylenedianiline

Naphthalene

Nitrobenzene

4-Nitrobiphenyl

4-Nitrophenol

2-Nitropropane

N-Nitroso-N-methylurea

N-Nitrosodimethylamine

N-Nitrosomorpholine

Parathion

Pentachloronitrobenzene (Quintobenzene)

Pentachlorophenol

Phenol

p-Phenylenediamine

Phosgene

Phosphine

Phosphorus

Phthalic anhydride

Polychlorinated biphenyls (Aroclors)

1,3-Propane sultone

beta-Propiolactone

Propionaldehyde

Propoxur (Baygon)

Propylene dichloride (1,2-Dichloropropane)

Propylene oxide

1,2-Propylenimine (2-Methyl aziridine)

Quinoline

Quinone

Styrene

Styrene oxide

2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin

1,1,2,2-Tetrachloroethane

Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene)

Titanium tetrachloride

Toluene

2,4-Toluene diamine

2,4-Toluene diisocyanate

o-Toluidine

Toxaphene (chlorinated camphene)

1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene

1,1,2-Trichloroethane

Trichloroethylene

2,4,5-Trichlorophenol

2,4,6-Trichlorophenol

Triethylamine

Trifluralin

2,2,4-Trimethylpentane

Vinyl acetate

Vinyl bromide

Vinyl chloride

Vinylidene chloride (1,1-Dichloroethylene)

Xylenes (isomers and mixture)

o-Xylenes

m-Xylenes

p-Xylenes

Antimony Compounds

Arsenic Compounds (inorganic including arsine)

Beryllium Compounds

Cadmium Compounds

Chromium Compounds

Cobalt Compounds

Coke Oven Emissions

Cyanide Compounds

Glycol ethers

Lead Compounds

Manganese Compounds

Mercury Compounds

Fine mineral fibers

Nickel Compounds

Polycyclic Organic Matter

Radionuclides (including radon)

Selenium Compounds

Source:  https://www.epa.gov/haps/initial-list-hazardous-air-pollutants-modifications