PORTLAND - State officials have voted to create new air quality control rules that will focus squarely on chemicals considered most harmful to people's health, such as arsenic, benzene and chromium.

This is a change from the past, when rules focused more on "ambient air quality standards" set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Those emphasized large industrial sources with less regard to the number of people nearby and likely to breathe the chemicals.

"This is kind of a turning point for us, in really focusing on toxic air pollution," said Andy Ginsburg, head of the Department of Environmental Quality's Air Quality Division. "This is the first program that's like this anywhere in the country."

Commissioners unanimously approved the Oregon Air Toxics Program on Thursday during the first day of a two-day meeting in John Day.

By 2005, the DEQ aims to create a list of pollutants to monitor, and by 2006, agency leaders hope to get a plan to limit these chemicals in the Portland region.

Cities likely to be targeted after Portland include Medford, Salem, La Grande, McMinnville, Baker City, Eugene and Springfield, Albany and Millersburg, and Klamath Falls.

Some people have questioned whether there is evidence that Oregon's air is dirty enough to need this program, which federal officials have encouraged but not required.

Several environmental and business groups favor the new plan, however.

"It took a long time, but we like the finished product," said John Ledger, a policy representative with Associated Oregon Industries who gave the state feedback on the plan.

Ledger said he likes the plan's focus on finding where pollution is affecting people, not just what is being released into the air.

He added that lots of emissions, especially from businesses, are already regulated by the federal government, so the state plan might not cause many industrial changes.

Instead, he said, it is more likely to hit smaller sources that, combined, add more to the overall pollution problem, such as vehicle engines.

A few state residents have voiced worries about the plan.

"It kind of caught me off guard that they were even proposing this," said Grant Darrow, a stove seller and chimney sweep in Elgin. Part of his concern, he said, is a lack of tests showing high levels of chemical pollutants in areas other than Portland.

The Environmental Protection Agency's most recent estimates, in 2002, in part of Oregon showed that 16 pollutants exceed federal goals, including benzene, chromium, diesel particles and formaldehyde.

The three-county Portland area had the worst problem in those tests.