Clean Air and Water Reports
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Executive Summary
While air quality has improved in the U.S. since the inception of the Clean Air Act in 1970, more than 88 million Americans still live in areas with unsafe levels of fine particle pollution. Fine particle pollution is one of the nation’s most pervasive air pollutants and its most deadly, causing tens of thousands of premature deaths every year. This report examines levels of fine particle pollution in cities and towns nationwide in 2004 and finds that fine particles continue to pose a grave health threat to Americans.
Fine particle, or “soot,” pollution can cause serious respiratory and cardiovascular problems, including asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer, and premature death. Moreover, recent scientific studies show that such adverse effects occur at levels below the current national health-based air quality standards, which include an annual standard of 15 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) and a daily standard of 65 µg/m3. Combustion sources such as coal-fired power plants and diesel engines are the largest source of fine particle pollution.
This report is based on a compilation of 2004 data from the nation’s network of fine particle air quality monitors, as detailed by the state environmental agencies we surveyed. Key findings include the following:
• In 2004, fine particle pollution exceeded the annual and/or daily national health standard at air quality monitors in 55 small, mid-sized, and large metropolitan areas located in 21 states and home to 96 million people. States with exceedances of both standards included California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Utah.
• In 2004, fine particle pollution exceeded the annual national health standard in 43 metropolitan areas crossing 21 states’ borders. Riverside- San Bernardino-Ontario, a large metropolitan area in California, had the worst annual fine particle pollution of any metropolitan area, with a maximum average annual level nearly 50 percent higher than the health standard. Among mid-sized and small metropolitan areas, Bakersfield and the Hanford-Corcoran areas in California had the worst annual fine particle pollution.
• In 2004, fine particle pollution exceeded the daily national health standard in 20 metropolitan areas crossing 10 states’ borders. Fine particle pollution in these areas spiked above the standard 92 times on 45 days.
• Among the states, Utah suffered the most spikes in fine particle pollution due to a winter-time temperature inversion, with 47 exceedances of the daily standard on 18 days in January and February of 2004. California experienced spikes in fine particle pollution on 16 days, recording 30 exceedances in cities and towns across the state.
• Of the largest metropolitan areas, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania experienced the most days with spikes in fine particle pollution, recording seven exceedances on seven different days. The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area in California ranked second among the largest metropolitan areas, recording 14 exceedances on six different days.
• Logan, a small metropolitan area on the border of Utah and Idaho, suffered the most spikes in fine particle pollution of any metropolitan area in the country—17 exceedances on 17 days. The Logan metropolitan area also recorded one of the highest exceedances in 2004, a maximum spike of 132.8, more than double the health standard.
Unfortunately, the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review program, which is critical to reducing fine particle pollution from aging power plants, continues to come under attack. A recent analysis found that eliminating the program would cut short the lives of 70,000 Americans in the next two decades, as a result of higher levels of fine particle pollution in the air than current law permits. Policymakers should reject weakening changes to the program and instead enforce the law.
Rather than take additional steps to further limit levels of fine particle pollution in our air, however, the Bush administration recently proposed to maintain the status quo. Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must set air quality standards at levels that protect public health, including the health of sensitive populations, with an adequate margin of safety. EPA also must review the standards every five years to ensure they reflect the latest scientific knowledge and update the standards as needed.
EPA staff scientists and the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, an independent review committee, separately concluded in 2005 that the current standards do not adequately protect public health and recommended substantially strengthening the standards. The Bush administration, however, disregarded the advice of these experts, proposing in December 2005 to maintain the annual health standard of 15 µg/m3 and slightly lower the daily health standard from 65 µg/m3 to 35 µg/m3.
Given the extent of fine particle pollution in the U.S. and the science showing serious adverse health effects below the current fine particle standards, the Bush administration should adopt an annual standard no higher than 12 µg/m3 and a daily standard no higher than 25 µg/m3 when it finalizes the standards in September 2006.
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